Hi Jen! The Constellations Fellows were onboarded with a 4-part induction into the program: 1) data/mission; 2) cognitive and content-focus coaching; 3) curriculum/pedagoy/research review; 4) collaboration and planning. Initially, teachers attend summer PD with the Fellows where the initial trust and collaboration begins. They've been building these relationships over the last 1-2 years scheduling planning meetings where they deploy coaching strategies to plan and reflect on instruction and facilitation of the curriculum. Currently, Fellows are partnered with 2-3 teachers within Atlanta Public Schools high schools. For scalability, we are looking at features of this implementation that can be adaptable and effective in a virtual environment. Given the current conditions with COVID19, we've already started conducting observations and collecting data via virtual planning meetings with teachers. 

Thanks so much for asking these questions! 

Thanks for your feedback, Joshua! We're glad you enjoyed this video. Our teachers have so far experienced great success with implementing activities learned in our workshops in their classrooms and we hope to continue to improve their outcomes.

Hi Sarah!

The Fellows are former teachers and have gone through an extensive onboarding process to shape their role as an instructional coach with the main purpose being to increase teaching efficacy, especially with teachers new to computing. Prospects were informed they would have the opportunity to work with teachers within the school/classroom setting and conducting off-campus workshops. Before COVID19, Fellows were in designated schools 1-2 times a week and scheduling planning sessions with teachers. Currently, Fellows conduct online planning sessions on a weekly basis with teachers. We think this can be scaled effectively and are thinking about this carefully.

Using coaching strategies while planning an activity or a lesson, Fellows help teachers gain content knowledge and confidence in facilitating the activity.  The fellows do not teach the lesson, but at request, may do some co-teaching. This means teachers take ownership of their own growth and development. This also means that Fellows must be knowledgeable about CS curriculum and resources (or willing to learn it) and be amenable to filling the role of an instructional coach, NOT as an administrator or evaluator. 

Hi Leigh!
We are currently conducting observations and collecting data via virtual planning sessions with teachers. We're looking for key features we've already established that can scale and effectively continue to promote teaching efficacy in a virtual environment. We're looking into leveraging videos that can be used during virtual planning sessions to learn more about unplugged or physical computing activities. The teachers in our project transitioned "easier" into conducting online sessions in large part due to the existing working relationship with the Fellows.  

Hi Jennifer, 

Thanks for your question! We work closely with teachers and administrators to highly encourage best practices for student recruitment with the goal to have CS classrooms with students representative of the school's student population. Each school ultimately implements their own recruitment efforts. Currently the largest hurdle is actually the limited number of teachers with the credentials to teach CS in high schools. Currently, about 160 out of 500 HS across GA offer an APCS course. This greatly affects student participation in the exam. 

Hi Carol,

We were as thoughtful and careful as we could be in recruiting Constellations Fellows. Accepting that we'd possibly be taking teachers from an existing CS classroom was really tough. We also looked at candidates with prior teaching experience in combination with experience conducting teacher PD. They need to be willing to develop their content knowledge even further and immerse themselves in striving to be a better coach each and every day. Candidly, a person in a position like the Constellations Fellows or perhaps mentors as you are considering, should have a deep understanding of the current challenges in CS ed and be willing and comfortable to work in and with complex school systems where the majority of students are students of color. Based on Fellows' collective experiences, we are analyzing the key elements of their work and thinking about how to scale leveraging those key elements that have proven to help build teaching efficacy. These range from consistency with scheduling planning sessions with teachers to fidelity of the implementation of curriculum. 

What if we could build a mentorship program that includes existing CS teachers that would keep their teaching positions, help build their mentoring/coaching skills and then they can mentor teachers new to computing?  Would love to connect and discuss further! 

Thanks so much, Renee!

Yes,we have encountered teacher and administration turnover. At one school, the entire administration changed at the end of the academic year last year which negatively impacted support for the teacher we were working with. Unfortunately, we were not able to continue in that school again this year but may be able to begin again next year. We're working on that. On the positive, we made inroads with three additional high schools in the district (Atlanta Public Schools) so while we had to drop one school we gained three. We anticipate we will remain with all the same schools next academic year. In terms of curriculum, we are focused on AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A. Grade level for these courses are typically 10 and 11. We are implementing CodeHS across all the schools supplementing with unplugged and physical computing activities. 

Hi Meltem! 
Yes, the Fellows meet with principals, assistant principals, and curriculum coordinators on a regular basis. We also request to meet with administrators during their district meetings which usually occur prior to the beginning of the school year. This really helps with sharing information across the district and maintain their trust with the progress updates on our project. 

Hi Tamra,

In terms scale, we are looking at the aspects of the Fellows' relationships with teachers via our coaching model that can be scaled virtually. We are already working on expanding our implementation as we are currently conducting online planning/coaching sessions with teachers. As teachers are increasing their content knowledge and pedagogy we see an increase in confidence and enthusiasm. We think we will be able to identify teachers that can become mentors and apply a similar method for other teachers who are new to computing. The idea is to build a cohort of these mentors to support teachers across the state, or nationwide, in a virtual setting. What do you think?   

Hi Lien, These seem like good approaches to me. In some of our projects, we have found that in-person time is critical in the beginning, but once people know each other, less in-person time is needed. It sounds like your online planning and coaching sessions will be very natural because personal relationships already exist. Also, building "communities" of teachers, with more experienced teachers helping those new to CS, seems like a nice model. I enjoyed learning more about your project!

Hi Maureen,

Of course, we'd be willing to share! I think you'll find that much of our implementation is rooted in research-based approaches that have been used widely such as content-focused coaching, cognitive coaching approaches, and cooperative learning structures. These are strategies that have been used in math and science ed and basically we've adapted these to use for CS ed. Additionally, integrating unplugged and physical computing activities in the curriculum lend themselves to be more inclusive and increases awareness for equitable engagement, especially with female students. 

We spend significant time discussing the coaching strategies and how that should look like with teachers who are new to computing. It takes time to build trust and rapport with teachers and to help them feel comfortable with participating actively in planning/coaching sessions. As a team, we practice conducting coaching sessions among ourselves, e.g., taking turns being the coach and the instructor, and I conduct coaching sessions when Fellows plan PD workshops. I often do cooperative learning activities with Fellows to start/end our team meetings. This helps Fellows be super reflective with their practices that I believe carry over in their work with teachers. 

Hi Perrin,

The Fellows complete a weekly report where they provide updates on planning/coaching sessions with teachers. They also report on progress with the curriculum implementation and any challenges or lessons learned for the week. We use that data to determine what's working and fix what is not working, and consider the successful elements of their for scalability purposes. With the COVID19 policies in place, Fellows are still meeting with teachers 1-2 times a week virtually. They are conducting planning sessions and assisting teachers with supporting students online. It's this approach that we are paying close attention to and already attempting to implement some of our lessons learned to support teachers virtually. One vital lesson learned is to allow for acknowledgement of their current state of mind and convey a mutual understanding of that state of mind. We've learned this before COVID19 and it's even more important now to ensure to deploy that strategy. It has helped strengthen the work that the Fellows do with teachers. Even in the midst of this global pandemic, they have continued to make the time to meet with the Fellows on a weekly basis. To boot, the principals of each school have also been supportive and appreciative of our continued work with their teachers in a virtual environment. And actually, we believe we will continue our implementation in a virtual model moving forward.  

Thanks for watching our video! 

Hi Lien, 

I really appreciate the work you're doing in this project and am following this discussion and often "nodding my head" as I read.  The two biggest take-aways for me are: 1) The the power of rich partnerships between the fellows and teachers - the consistent one to one meetings   2) Regular communication with site admins. I could see this being so crucial to ensuring a better support system for teachers as they take risks in their classrooms. 

My questions are, how did you go about forging this partnership with the district and with each site?   Were you able to get buy-in at sites fairly easily? Did you have challenges? 

Thank you!

Hi Ann,

We've used the resources from the available open-source unplugged activities and the Fellows have created a few of their own. We are also in the process of developing content videos to show quick recommendations on how to introduce specific topics in the CS courses we support, such as, variables, conditionals, and arrays. Some of them feature the implementation of unplugged activities.

We think a combination of the unplugged and physical computing activities along with these videos that teachers will have a quick reference of resources to rely on as they begin teaching the courses fully independently. That is our goal! 

Hi Deb,

We are considering conducting a pilot in GA pending approval and funding. And yes, we'd welcome the opportunity to expand across state lines! :) 

Best of luck, Jill! I hope we can continue learning from each other's projects. Please stay in touch! 

We have worked with industry volunteers which require MOUs or some form of agreement to adhere to district requirements. We are interested in working with college students who may be considering a career in education. It has proven to be difficult at Georgia Tech but we are exploring potential opportunities with schools of ed in GA.  

Hi Marianne,

Funding is absolutely a shared concern. We are studying different models and are looking into integrating collective impact strategies that can help sustain these types of efforts to support school systems as they build their own program. We think this approach allows districts the autonomy they need as they learn the structures needed to sustain a successful CS program. It helps to have a policy advocate (i.e., person to secure or safegaurd funds for teachers) included in the discussions. This and going virtual are the next components we are working to strengthen in our project's sustainability. 

Hi Michael,

The Fellows complete weekly reports including outcomes of planning/coaching sessions. With the recent pivot to virtual implementation, Fellows have provided insight into challenges and success for scaling our approach via online support. Additionally, we administer post workshop surveys to determine effectiveness and usefulness for teachers in terms of content development, and pre/post attitudinal surveys which provide data on teachers' perception of the project and how they see themselves as effective CS teachers. Of course, we capture student demographic data as well. A significant finding so far (in a nut shell) is that the teachers, all new to teaching  CS and especially advanced CS (APCSP and APCSA) rely on first-hand information from the Fellows. As you can imagine, this didn't happen overnight and there are always things to overcome. That said, the trust and rapport between the Fellows and the teachers is key to advancing progress (i.e., increasing teaching efficacy) and this is evidenced in the pre/post attitudinal and workshop data.