How This Florida Middle School Teacher Uses enCode/Create Curriculum and Resources in His Classroom
Teacher’s Name: David Sankey
School: Westwood Middle School
City and State: Gainesville, FL
1. What courses and grade levels do you teach?
I teach robotics and a computer course. All my classes are mixed 6-8th grade.
2. How long have you been teaching?
I have been teaching since 2001.
3. What is your background in coding and computer science? Did you have any experience in this field before you became a teacher?
I taught math for most of my career. When I moved to Gainesville the county started a robotics initiative I was able to take advantage of to start teaching tech-related courses. I love working with middle school students because it allows me to teach a wide variety of tech topics.
4. How did you start teaching STEM or computer science courses? What do you most like about teaching coding and what do you find most challenging?
The robotics initiative found one teacher to teach robotics in each school. I was able to take advantage of that opportunity as the resident tech person at my school. From there I was able to expand into other fields. The most challenging thing is finding great lessons to teach my students. Software options like Kahn Academy have some lessons but aren’t comprehensive enough. Courses like Encode/Create help me fill that gap with engaging activities.
5. What do your students like best about enCode Create’s computer science curriculum?
A lot of middle school students are really into Scratch and have a lot of trouble jumping from graphical coding to text. Encode/Create makes it easy to bridge the gap between graphical and text programming.
6. As a teacher, what do you find most helpful about enCode Create’s curriculum?
The best part about the curriculum is that it is built for students who have no experience. Most students are able to work through the modules with little to no assistance making it easy for me to give extra attention to the students who need it.
7. Why would you recommend enCode Create’s curriculum to other teachers?
I would definitely recommend enCode Create to other teachers. The students are learning text coding and having fun doing it. My students will be able to make their own games by the time they are done with our current unit.