Humphries, Usher-Collier Heights, and E.L. Connally are three of the APS elementary schools that recently participated in the Hour of Code. Computer Science Education Week describes Hour of Code as an opportunity for every student to try computer science for one hour. During Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 9-15), over 10 million students and computer science enthusiasts participated in the Hour of Code.
Hour of Code served as a valuable time for students to learn and engage in computer science, opening their eyes to careers and emerging opportunities in the field. Statistics compiled by the Conference Board, National Science Foundation, and Code.org show that computer programming jobs are growing at two times the national average, and by 2020 there will be 1,000,000 more computing jobs than people qualified to fill them. Georgia currently has 19,866 open jobs in the computer related fields.
Dominique Harbour, a computer teacher at E.L. Connally and member of the Atlanta Public Schools Innovative Leaders Program, learned about the Hour of Code, and decided to register her school.
“I thought it would be a great and innovative way to introduce students to basic computer programming skills,” said Dominique Harbor. “I hoped that my students would be able to understand the connection between the coding activities and computer programming, and I wanted them to understand the complexity behind what it takes to create all the technology we have access to.”
As members of the APS IT department went out to observe students throughout the district participating in the Hour of Code they observed computer science education at its finest. Students were actively engaged in challenges that required them to utilize high level problem solving and critical thinking skills. Students identified and found ways to correct their mistakes until they were successful in completing the activity.
Lavant Burgess, a fifth grader at E.L. Connally Elementary, stated, “I like how it made me think. I had to keep using different strategies to figure out how to get the robot to the right squares.”
The Slater Elementary Youth Bank opens on Wednesdays of every week and the lines go out of the bank branch door. Students from all grade levels at Slater come to the bank to deposit their dollars, quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. The students can create and open accounts and SunTrust donates incremental matches up to $25 based on the student’s balance. The students come with monies earned from babysitting, chores, good grades, parental allowances and monetary gifts from relatives. Slater students also work at the bank in the roles of tellers, customer service representatives, runners and data entry personnel. SunTrust employees from a range of divisions come to Slater to help the students in each of the banking duty roles. For the most part, the SunTrust employees take a back seat while the Slater students run the calculators, deposit slips and banking envelopes that are deployed as they learn about finance, compounding interest, economics, real-time mathematics and good stewardship of money and customers.
“It’s important that our children learn how to save and this bank helps them do that. Most of the children make deposits on a regular basis. The incremental matches on their money that SunTrust provides lets them see the return on their money and that provides them incentive to save. This bank also provides students with the opportunity to learn work ethics and responsibilities. Every job function that is in a regular bank branch is replicated here. Another benefit is that this bank teaches students about careers and whether or not banking is a career path they will want to choose and how to handle their money responsibly when they become full-grown citizens in their towns, cities, communities and their country,” says Mrs. Debra Mitchell, Instructional Coach at Slater Elementary. When asked if he could take a moment to talk about his job as the data entry specialist at the Slater Elementary Youth Bank, 4th grader Anthony Johnson paused from his computer monitor and keyboard, took a confident and reassuring breath and said “After I’m done entering these data slips, I’ll be right with you, Sir.” Anthony is already a budding and focused banking professional, with a flair for providing good customer service at the right time.
