When I retired from teaching programming in 2016 I really didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do. Then a friend suggested Teachers Pay Teachers. I’d never heard of it! What a novel idea! Help teachers teach programming!
I’d taught computer programming to high school students for almost 30 years so I know just how important computer education is to our future.
So, I started developing my own handouts and assignments almost from the beginning.
Now I had a major disadvantage – I wasn’t a trained programmer! My degree was in music. But that turned out to be my biggest asset! You see, I didn’t approach teaching programming as a trained programmer with a programming degree – I approached it as a student would.
I know that I, personally, need to understand all the essential elements of a new concept/skill/idea before I can apply it. When I have a solid foundation I can put the pieces together and create something unique and original on my own.
All kids love computers and they want to learn how to program. Being able to code your games – wow! This is the dream job for a lot of kids. But most teachers run away from coding. Let’s face it, having a textbook to deliver content and assignments is SO MUCH EASIER than creating materials from scratch.
So, why not repackage my curriculum materials to help teachers teach?
It took me months to make my worksheets presentable for others – answer keys, PowerPoint lessons, lesson notes – not to mention all the business and marketing essentials necessary to sell my resources. I’ve had to learn so many new programs: Adobe InDesign, Muse, Photoshop, Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Excel, as well as HTML.
And then I found Kayse Morris in 2018. I decided I needed to invest in myself and my business so I signed up for Transform Your Resources, a seven-week online course to teach teachers how to market their resources.
Kayse doesn’t only teach her students, she motivates them! I ended up going back to everything I’d already posted and started revising my materials. New thumbnails, cover pages, lessons, answer keys, editable components – basically everything needed to be redesigned. I also joined Instagram and created a Pinterest business account because of Kayse.
Updating my blog and marketing my resources are my next tasks. I’m not completely there yet but thanks to Kayse I now have a path. I know what I have to do.
Kayse has also helped me clarify my ultimate goal: helping teachers everywhere teach programming to kids. Doesn’t matter what subject they teach or what grade. It IS possible to learn how to code at any age.
Now, I’m not saying everyone has the ability to program like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg but almost everything we use today has a coded computer chip which makes understanding how technology works extremely important.
So I signed up for her second course:
This course is much more intensive than the first. So much information. But Kayse motivates all of us as she gives us a solid foundation for marketing our materials and ourselves as teacherprenuers.
So, if I can learn a whole new bag of tricks at my age … so can any teacher! 🙂
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