It's a long story.
2 years ago I attended ISTE in San Antonio. I was with my good friend, Chris Lofgren, when we happened upon a WeDo Lego session. We were hooked. We talked about bringing this to Forest Trail. We did.
Historically, robotics was only taught to children who were part of the Gifted and Talented program. In the closet at the end of the second grade hallway I found boxes of WeDo Lego and Mindstorms. It was a start.
Chris and I decided to start an afterschool robotics club that would focus on the EARLY Robotics. We asked the Booster Club to fund the kits (which are also used in the school day therefore accessible to all), and we got started.
We had 12 students. A lot of Legos, and a mission.
It was a year of learning, laughing, learning.
Then Chris changed position to become a Technology teacher at Hill Country Middle School.
I had a choice. Give up or get up and keep going. I chose the latter.
During the summer of 2014, I hosted a week long camp focusing on Creative Computing. With the help of Paula McKinney, AP Computer Science teacher at Westlake High School, we had a class of 8 students working on Scratch, Tynker and iPad apps such as Cargo-Bot.
During this week a fire was lit in my belly.
I knew I had a passion for this.
I knew there was a target audience with a lot of untapped potentials.
I knew that it had to be girls. It's all about the girls.
2 years ago I attended ISTE in San Antonio. I was with my good friend, Chris Lofgren, when we happened upon a WeDo Lego session. We were hooked. We talked about bringing this to Forest Trail. We did.
Historically, robotics was only taught to children who were part of the Gifted and Talented program. In the closet at the end of the second grade hallway I found boxes of WeDo Lego and Mindstorms. It was a start.
Chris and I decided to start an afterschool robotics club that would focus on the EARLY Robotics. We asked the Booster Club to fund the kits (which are also used in the school day therefore accessible to all), and we got started.
We had 12 students. A lot of Legos, and a mission.
It was a year of learning, laughing, learning.
Then Chris changed position to become a Technology teacher at Hill Country Middle School.
I had a choice. Give up or get up and keep going. I chose the latter.
During the summer of 2014, I hosted a week long camp focusing on Creative Computing. With the help of Paula McKinney, AP Computer Science teacher at Westlake High School, we had a class of 8 students working on Scratch, Tynker and iPad apps such as Cargo-Bot.
During this week a fire was lit in my belly.
I knew I had a passion for this.
I knew there was a target audience with a lot of untapped potentials.
I knew that it had to be girls. It's all about the girls.