Bronx Educators lead adoption of Computational Thinking in NYC

Every November, the schools of New York City close their doors to students to recognize Chancellor’s Conference Day.

Coinciding with each year’s Election Day, Chancellor’s Day enables the Board of Elections to utilize the city’s schools as Voting Stations – and also gives teachers from the five boroughs the chance to get involved with learning and development opportunities organized by the Department of Education and other partners.

At PS 86, located in the Bronx – Chancellor’s Day saw teachers participate in TECHademy, an immersive professional learning experience offered as part of Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS).

P.S. 86 Kingsbridge Heights, The Bronx

IMFIS is a one-of-a-kind initiative transforming the way students across America learn computational thinking, a foundational skill for 21st century success. Created through the partnership of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Discovery Education, Ignite My Future in School weaves computational thinking into core curriculum subjects like math, sciences, arts and social studies – and empowers students with foundational skills and critical thinking that will be essential for career success in the new digital economy.

Ignite My Future in School was brought to PS 86 a year ago by Cornell Tech, who run an initiative in New York City committed to broadening participation in computing through partnerships with K-12 public schools.

Diane Levitt, Senior Director of K-12 Education at Cornell Tech, spoke of how PS 86 came to embrace the mission and mantra of Ignite My Future in School:

Diane Levitt, Senior Director of K-12 Education at Cornell Tech

“I think part of the reason Ignite My Future in School is such a great fit for PS 86 is because the school has gone all in on computational thinking for over a year. Cornell Tech has a very robust k12 initiative working to make computer science teachable in New York City public schools, and in partnership with Robin Hood’s Leaning + Tech Fund, PS 86 was the first school that we came into explicitly planning to teach computational thinking.”

“We started by building on something that this school already did, which was these cooperative problem-solving tasks in math. They used to dedicate an entire period to these tasks twice a month, with students working in pairs to solve a math problem aligned to where they were in the curriculum.”

“We saw that and thought: You’ve already got this great habit. Let’s make these computational thinking problems instead of simply math, and also leverage this strategy in English Language Arts.”

She continues: “As soon as we did, we were blown away by how kids engaged with computational thinking – how they owned it, and used the language. You could come into the room of students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and see all the kids on task, able to solve the challenges using the CT concepts. The vocabulary of computational thinking gives students a voice for problem solving – and also helps them feel like they’re part of the language of the digital age.”

One of the members of the Discovery Education team, Jenna Rosienski, had her own perspective on the value Ignite My Future in School brings to teachers and their students. A Grade 7 science teacher from Janesville, Wisconsin, Jenna was so impressed by the difference Ignite My Future in School made she jumped at the opportunity to represent Discovery Education at PS 86 for TECHademy. She’s here helping other teachers to hone their skills in using computational computing in the classroom.

“I was in a session just like TECHademy three years ago, when Ignite My Future in School first launched. I remember as I sat there and dove deeper into the practices and strategies and hands-on lessons that Ignite My Future in Schools provided, I really bought into it. Soon, I saw how the lessons were transforming my classroom – and I saw how excited students were by them.”

“Ignite My Future in School transformed my role as a teacher – no longer being in front of kids, but being side-by-side with them, helping them with their lessons and engaging with their learning. I just kept getting hooked more and more into Ignite My Future in School, and I spread word of it throughout my school. As a result, my school now does four weeks of Ignite My Future in School throughout the academic year. The whole school engages with the lessons, and you can feel the energy flowing during those four weeks. Kids are smiling, everybody is laughing – having a good time. You can feel the energy – so, I really bought into that and when I got the opportunity to come to the Bronx, I wanted to be here as a teacher – so I could voice my thoughts on how good Ignite My Future in School could look.”

Jenna Rosienski, Learning Leader, Ignite My Future In School

Ignite My Future in School already looks good to the teachers at PS 86, who have seen first-hand how the introduction of computational thinking has transformed the engagement and performance of their students.

Yesenia Pena, Teacher at PS 86

Yesenia Pena, who teaches vocabulary at PS 86, was one of the most vocal advocates and enthusiastic participants in TECHademy, and she spoke of Ignite My Future In School as a game-changer.

“I’ve been a teacher for 18 years in this school,” she explains, “and today, at TECHademy, we’re innovating ourselves as teachers. We’re igniting our teaching skills and I love it. For me it teaches me different strategies to incorporate into whatever lessons that I have, and integrate that type of learning with my kids in an easy and fun way.”

Yesenia teaches vocabulary is PS 86, and was enthusiastic about how computational learning aligned so seamlessly with the lessons she was trying to teach. With the course materials and training provided by Ignite My Future in School, Yesenia explains:

“I learned I can do a lot of puzzles when I’m teaching vocabulary, incorporate sums like I usually do here. I can make competitions out of learning with the games they’re shown us today – like missing letters.”

Yesenia particularly appreciated how Ignite My Future in School provided course material that incorporated technology into learning – reflecting the real world her students live and study in.

“Everything is technology these days,” she explains, “and because the lessons from Ignite My Future in School are connected to technology, they’re more fun and relevant to students. They have more access

to the modern world. It relates more to kids who are growing up and becoming adults around this technology; where it’s an integrated part of their life.”

Yesenia also believes the course materials make it easier for her to incorporate technology that might not have existed when she was at school into her lessons.

“It makes it easier for me, because I didn’t see these things growing up,” she explains. “Not just the technology aspect, but this style of teaching. Computational thinking shows you how to break down problems, and teaches you the algorithm for learning. It’s an easier way to incorporate learning into a modern and more sophisticated world – as if you’re “coding” the world of the future.”

For teachers like Yesenia, computation thinking has been woven into the mission of the school for the past year – with TECHademy serving to sharpen skills the teachers here have already developed through Ignite My Future in School.

Somebody with an outsider’s perspective was Kevin Honeycutt – the keynote speaker who opened TECHademy that morning, and also got to teach one of the class modules hands-on during the afternoon breakout sessions.

For the past fifteen years, Kevin has traveled the world speaking to and training with teachers – trying to reanimate the educational system with trends, tools and tactics designed for 21st century learning. Ignite My Future in School seems to align strongly with that mission.

“This is the first time I’ve ever taught an IMFIS lesson – so, I’m going to challenge them a little bit, but we’ll still have fun with it.” Keynote Speaker Kevin Honeycutt.

“I was a classroom teacher for 13 years before I moved into speaking and training,” Kevin explains, “and I spent my entire teaching career as an escape artist – trying to break out from the prison of the educational system and have the kids who needed to follow me out. I approached that from a shoot-from-the-hip, feel-in-in-my-gut view that I had to learn through years of working in a system that largely wasn't designed to incorporate minds like mine.”

“When I first saw Ignite My Future in School, I saw people approaching the same aim as I had, but from a more academic point of view. I’m now able to see the other side of the bridge, where organizations like Discovery Ed and Tata Consultancy Services are trying their best to build algorithms to give kids like the ones from PS 86 the tools they need for a successful future.”

One of the other breakout sessions was taught by Sherry Crofut – an independent educational consultant from Rapid City, South Dakota, who joined the Ignite My Future in School team to train teachers from all across the country in this new way of learning.

“It’s super fulfilling to feel like I’m effecting education on a bigger level, and empowering teachers to do a better job with their kids,” Sherry Crofut, Learning Leader, Ignite My Future In School.

“Ignite My Future in School helps to get our kids to think computationally,” she explains. “They get to understand that problems that might seem overwhelming can actually be broken down and decomposed. They analyse the problems to figure out a solution.”

“We also encourage them to work in groups,” she continues, “because collaboration is an important skill to learn and it makes us think about the way we teach, and how we can approach it in a more engaging way that helps the kids break down their thinking.”

Today, Sherry was teaching the educators of PS 86 from the class material made available for free from the Ignite My Future in Schools website.

“We’re doing “Repeating History,” she explains. “We’re mixing history and social media together, so we can make history real for kids. Right now, the teachers behind me are having a Twitter conversation with maybe Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King – and they’re adding in some colorful characters from the modern day, like a hipster from Oregon, or a surfer from California, or a redneck from Alabama.”

“With that, they’re viewing history in a different light – through perspectives and people they can relate to. It makes it all more real for them. History is no longer just something far away they can only read about in a book.”

This TECHademy wraps up a little more than a year of computational thinking being introduced to PS 86 via the resources offered through Ignite My Future in School.

Kelly Powers, who works with Diane Levitt at Cornell Tech, is perhaps the best person to speak on the impact Ignite My Future in School has had on the teachers and students of PS 86 – serving as the school’s Teacher in Residence and Computer Science and Computational Thinking Coach

Kelly Powers, Teacher in Residence and Computer Science and Computational Thinking Coach.

“A little over a year ago, computational thinking was a really strange term here at PS 86,” she explains. “What we’ve been able to achieve over the course of a year and a half is to develop the teachers’ understanding and ability to feel confident in modeling computational thinking concepts and approaches in their classrooms. They’re now teaching kids to approach problems differently, through a computational thinking lens. Teachers are setting up a culture of learning that appreciates using computational thinking strategies to solve complex problems.”

“I think at this school in particular, we’ve been able to demonstrate that computational thinking – all across the curriculum – serves as an “on ramp” towards bringing computer science into the classroom to solve computational problems. Part of that has been building the capacity of teachers – to give them the skills and confidence to apply computational thinking strategies in their classrooms without the use of a computing device.”

“I think we’ve been lucky to have TCS and Discovery Education in our school today to show our teachers even more resources and this day offers our community a different lens to bring computational thinking into each classroom. It’s a great way to build upon what we started about a year ago.”

It’s not just in the Bronx that Ignite My Future in School is making a difference. To date, this transformational program has reached more than 9,000 teachers and almost 550,000 students – 70% of whom come from under-resourced school districts that might not otherwise have access to this type of learning.

Ignite My Future in School prepares students like those of PS 86 to be employable, productive, and resilient in a future in which emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are a seamless part of our daily lives. More than that, it’s a framework that allows teachers to be flexible and take ownership of content – to deliver it as they see fit. The TECHademy at PS 86 was just a snapshot of a revolution in teaching that’s spreading across North America and beyond – changing the landscape of American education to better suit the technology and innovation of tomorrow.