Robert Ruff and Shandrica Williams: CS experiences at SBCUSD

Welcome Robert Ruff, elementary educator, and Shandrica Williams, program specialists, both from San Bernardino City Unified School District, they will be speaking to us today about their experience with micro bit, which is a physical computing device that can be used in all academic areas, in alignment with our state's newly adopted computer science standards.

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Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay - Wataboi Flavour

Transcript

 SUMMARY KEYWORDS

micro, students, teachers, educators, computer science, bit, kids, robert, pln, code, bits, goals, engaging, project, piece, learning, figured, fact, question, classroom

SPEAKERS

Robert, Sharisa, Shandrica, Sonal

Sonal  00:03

Welcome to the SBCSS Digital Learning Bits and Bytes Podcast inspired by our dedication for equitable and inclusive educational technology and computer science. Today's digital learning team hosts are Sonal Patel and Dr. Sharisa Chan.

Sharisa  00:20

Hello, everyone. I'm Sharisa Chan. 

Sonal  00:21

And hi everyone, I'm Sonal Patel.

Sharisa  00:23

We'd like to begin by introducing our special guests, Robert Ruff, elementary educator, and Shandrica Williams, program specialists, both from San Bernardino City Unified School District, they will be speaking to us today about their experience with micro bit, which is a physical computing device that can be used in all academic areas, in alignment with our state's newly adopted computer science standards. We're so excited to have you both here. Welcome to our first podcast. 

Shandrica  00:50

Thank you.

Robert  00:50

Thanks for having us.

00:51

Yes, thank you.

Sharisa  00:52

So just starting off with a little bit of fun here going along with our bits and bytes theme. What is one bit of your summer plans that you would like to share with us today?

Shandrica  01:03

I'll go first. I was joking, before that I was just going to be working. But then something popped in my head that actually, I am moving. So by September, I'm moving into a new house. So I guess that's a plan that I've got to pack in, get everything ready, so...

Sharisa  01:20

That's amazing.

Robert  01:22

For me, I'll be working for part of our summer school as the administrator on campus. And then after that, I'm going to Mexico for a week.

Sharisa  01:29

Oh, that's lovely.

Sonal  01:32

How fun, where about in Mexico,

Robert  01:34

in I think Riviera Maya around that area.

Sonal  01:38

Nice. Fun. That's exciting. So we're gonna start with our first question about your micro bit journey. could you begin by sharing how you got started with micro bit? And we'll start with you first, Robert, if that's okay,

Robert  01:50

Sure. Well, I was an educator, a music educator for 18 years. And I got a job as the support teacher in elementary school and basically as the facilitator of a makerspace, or we call it the I steam lab. And as I was going through all of the things that were left, for me, I found a drawer full of these little envelopes. With these little boards in them, I had no idea what they were. And I had asked the previous teacher about them. And she was like, Oh, they're micro bits are really awesome. I'm like, okay, so I pulled them out. And I went on make code, Microsoft make code and started going through tutorials and seeing all the things that they could do. And I found them to be easily accessible. And I thought they'd be great for the kids. And right away, I put them in front of some second graders and had them coding hearts, and little messages on the LED matrix, and they loved it. And ever since then I've loved using them.

Sonal  02:39

That is so exciting. It's exciting that you you're the one who started out with this computer science journey for your for your students. And with that at the elementary level, which a lot of educators are still uncomfortable with introducing micro bits and computer science into elementary education. So appreciate you sharing that. Thank you, Robert. And the fact that you started off as a music teacher, and you're able to bring in those elements

Robert  03:02

Yeah, that was actually kind of my beginning in computer science as well.

Sonal  03:05

Wow, fantastic. What about you Shindrica

Shandrica  03:08

See Robert is really brave because my journey was nowhere near like that. We, in my department, we bought those hummingbird bits from BirdBrain technology. And so we had this PDE where all these teachers came and coded a robot. And it was a disconnect for me. I was just sort of like, how would you do this in a classroom? Like, why are they building robots, so I didn't really care for it. And this is about four years ago. And then right before the pandemic, and we knew that we weren't coming back for a while I took one of those kits home. And I was like, let me just see how to code a robot because everybody's talking about this. And as I started learning about that, I was like this, there's got to be more to this. So I just started researching and seeing all the different things you can I came across make code like Robert, but then I was thinking to like, oh, how can you put this in Math Science, like everything. And so that was kind of my journey with it and learning for myself how to use it, and how beneficial it is. Because I think that's kind of like the connection for me. Because I was afraid to use them with the kids. Until I understood what they were

Sonal  04:12

Absolutely and Shandrica, from what I remember, you were mostly involved with the educational technology side of things. So you know, computer science can be a little different, you know, but more and more, it seems that the ed tech, the people that are responsible for the educational technology, PD's are responsible for the computer science elements. So I really commend you on that the fact that you went and you you went to seek out your own educational journey with it and found it to be interested in you found the connections with different content areas because you know, that's what our elementary education educators want to see most of the time, right. 

Shandrica  04:47

Because I knew was beyond robots and had to be more than that. But that's all it was presented to us that it was something to create robots.

Sonal  04:53

Absolutely. And you in our conversations, you've talked a lot about, you know, the fact that you're also meeting those important skills of creativity, critical thinking, and design thinking, yeah, it's wonderful, thank you,

Robert  05:06

If I can just kind of go off of what she was saying, because it just kind of reminded me of how I got into it as well, where you took it home and worked on it, I took several home. And I had my own problem that I was trying to solve, it was around Halloween time, and I decorate and I had some props that are set off by sound sensors, and motion sensors, and they're never really accurate, you can't, they don't really go off the way I wanted to. And so I, I learned that the ones in the store that have the timing buttons, you can cut that button off and connect those two wires to a micro bit. And then code the micro bit to receive a radio signal from another micro bit. And you can push a button or B button or shake or whatever and trigger remotely through the air. These Halloween props. And so that's led that led me to like a real world use of just these, you know, computer boards for a classroom into my life. And then I brought that in and had my students, you know, Hakka, Hakka Halloween prop, so they could they can see those real world. I mean, it's a fun real world situation.

Sonal  06:05

 But yeah, that actually ties in really nicely with the next question it does.

Sharisa  06:09

But before I ask, I just have to say this makes my heart so happy, both of you that SEL connections that you're making with your students. And the fact that you're able to pull in across disciplines, across academic disciplines, and show the relevance to the teachers and the students is so amazing. Because I think a lot of teachers, like you said, We'll see, oh, it's just a robot, or, you know, they think of computer science as oh, i'm just programming, you know, it's too hard, I can't do that. So knowing that you've had a break down those barriers yourself, and even for me, as a teacher in the past, I had to go through the same thing of let me just try this, like, I can't do this, this isn't for me. But I really commend both of you and appreciate all of the work, you're doing it just my heart's overfilled with joy. Really, I can I can be so passionate about. Okay, so moving on to the next question we have, what are the benefits that you have seen with students using microbeads and shandrica, we'll start with you this time. 

Shandrica  07:07

While I, once I figured out how to use them, I was brave enough to then start in a third grade classroom and try to do the, a little project tricks with them and see how that went. And what it was the benefit for the students is I had these lesson plans already set out where I was going to teach them all these different things to do following those lessons. And what I learned during those lessons is the kids were bringing connections to me, which was great, because I didn't want to bring it to them, I wanted them to see the benefit of it. So for an example, one of the ones where they were coding on a counter, and then one of the kids was just like, oh, I can use this to code math facts for myself to practice my multiplication. And then he just went right over to the computer and started programming his multiplication facts, so that he and then he even put a timer in there like a pause block, so that it would show him the math fact. And then he would think about it and then yell it out. And then it would confirm it for him. And he just did that, like right after I easily showed them how to just create a counter. And that was the connection for me that hey, this goes a little bit beyond with this. And when these kids come up with these, these connections that they're forming in real world situations, run with it, don't stop and say, Hey, let's wait until next time to do that even because I have this lesson plan, you know that I've got to get to it's like that is we stopped right there and you have that discussion about that. What other things can we do with this and I, I started to show that teacher that I was working with, this is how we use these micro bits in here. You know, this is how you connect to all those different disciplines and everything. And you ask the students what how else can we use these. So now I'm like looking into novel studies. The kids are helping me now figure out how they're going to use it with their science, how they're going to use it with art and things like that. So it's pretty awesome.

Sharisa  08:55

Oh, I love that. It's like that student leadership, right? 

Shandrica  08:58

Yes. 

Sharisa  08:58

They're taking the lead in their own learning that agency and voice and choice. Yes, I absolutely love that. Thank you. 

Shandrica  09:04

And then one other thing I wanted to say for the students too. So I'm working with a fifth grade class right now. And they're creating, they're coding a pet. And I had this epiphany last week where I already programmed the microbiome, and I put all the parts and everything together. But I didn't create the pet. And I just took the whole contraption to the classroom. And I said, Oh, wow, now I gotta put a pet together with this. But you know, I don't know what I should do. So I just left it at the back table. These kids swarm to it, and they just started collaborating. I think we can use the rotation servo here and let's do the position servo to to make the wings flap on a bird.

Sonal  09:40

Which, wow,

Shandrica  09:41

that's how the kids are used. Yes, they're using the language. And that's what's pretty awesome too. Because, you know, you're just casually saying these things and the kids are picking up on it. And we always go to a lot of the Oh, it's too difficult, but the conversations they're having around this and the problem solved me is just awesome.

Sonal  09:58

And they get so excited. As long as it sounds like they were happy to start on that project, you gave them something to something exciting to work on, you gave them the project idea, and they just wanted to fly with it. They wanted to fly with it. So my next question actually was about Innovation Day Robert, this one's to you. What was your experience like with participating in Innovation Day, which, as many of you know, it was a partnership with Micro Bit Education Foundation that led us to this idea through a Micro Bit PLN, which will go on about in a little bit. But can you just tell us a little bit more about some of the student projects and their goals during that day?

Robert  10:40

For sure it first of all, I'd like to say that it was very well planned out. And it made it easy for me as an instructor, to guide the students through the goals and the process. So I appreciated that. And I think other teachers would appreciate that as well. But as as Shandricka, was saying, once once the kids get a little bit of knowledge about the micro bit, it's just a springboard and they take off with it. That's because it's such an accessible, you know, piece of equipment. Basically, you teach them how to download it from the computer to their, and you show them a couple different things, and then they're off. And so in terms of the Innovation Day, and we talked about engagement, and that was another thing to follow up on the last question, what you know, some of the benefits is, it's engaging, it's got lights, it's got buttons, it's exciting for the kids. So right away, it's a tangible piece of computing that they can take from the screen, to something they make where a lot of computer science, it's on the screen, and you don't really see the outcome come to fruition right in front of you. So that was part of the Innovation Day, that was exciting for the kids, and the fact that they were able to choose a goal that was inspiring to them. That student choice really made it even more engaging. So you have an engaging piece of computing equipment, you have an engaging question or a problem. And just working with the other students brought in, you know, the SEL components of of responsibility, communication relationships. So you just see all these things coming together in one project, you know, you talk about project based learning, but this has got SEL, it's got a project has got computer science, it's got hardware, all these different things. And so they started off right away with communicating on what goals they wanted to focus on, you know, and there was some conversation about this or that, and they were able to agree upon it. And if a group of four was not agreed upon it, and they split into a group of two, and another group of two, and I didn't have to do anything, which I like, I like the stand back and let them do all the work. And so they came up with some some good ideas a lot, were centered around trash and recycling. And two of the projects created counters for recycling and picking up trash and almost made it kind of gamified it they wanted the micro bit to every time they push the button count a piece of trash they picked up so they could walk around campus picking up a piece of trash, push a button. And when they get to their goal, whatever that was set, I think they set it at 15 pieces, it would play a melody. So they know that they got their 15 pieces into something very simple. But you give that to a smaller kid and say, Hey, take this and pick up 15 pieces and, you know, show something on the display and plays a melody, it's exciting. And then another group did something similar. And then I found a recycle bin for bottles. And I gave that to them on an A day after our first day. And I said can you make something that physically will count a bottle when you put it in. And so right away, they got tape and popsicle sticks and alligator clips and copper tape and tried to manufacture a prototype of switch that would trigger when a bottle went in. So just and it's more than just the micro bit that that's what is exciting. It's a small piece, but it expands into basically anything.

Sonal  13:59

So what I love about that is you already bought in some, you know, element of some other subject areas such as math being integrated into the microbial world. But what I love the most, and I know Dr. Chen and I have talked about this a lot is the application to real world problems, right? Like they started out with the United Nation goals, the sustainable goals. And I know that you had them choose a goal. Is that right? Like, how did that whole process begin? Like, did you have them decide what they were most passionate about? 

Robert  14:28

We went we went through and I introduced the goals, you know, presentation wise, and then they each had a sheet at their table. And after that was discussed what the goals entailed, you know, what are you guys passionate about? What do you guys see in your community? What have you seen on TV, what problems are there to solve? And you know, in our community, there's a lot of litter around so that was inspiring to two of the groups and then one of the other groups created a basically a timer or a calendar to remind them to take their medication. So I think that was someone in their family He was taking medication, they thought, hey, this is something that would be good to remind them. And they timed in there where it would tell them at a certain time, this is time to take this pill.

Sonal  15:08

I loved it. And and the other thing that was really great to see is, I'm just going to give you a little visual to those of you that are listening of what you know what it looked like in his classroom in the eye steam lab. We had students that were working collaboratively in groups, they were wearing their white little, what do you want the lab coats, they look so amazing. But they were really, you know, having these engaging conversations with one another as we're trying to come up with solutions to these problems, and they were able to articulate themselves. So well, you know, one of them, I just remember seeing what yeah, we're about solve a world problem. I mean, that was the that was the most amazing part of it. So it was a fantastic day. And you really, your students really took it to that next level and really appreciated seeing that, Robert, thank you.

Sharisa  15:52

Okay, so our next question is for you, Shandricka. What does supporting educators and students with Micro Bit look like in your respective role?

Shandrica  16:00

What my whole goal is to try to get it where the teacher is familiar with using this device, and sees the benefit of integrating it in all subject areas. And so I think the way to do that is to kind of show how it's happening. And I kind of did that at one of the sites that I was working with that project with the third graders, I actually we were coding radio, how to create us to microbead. So through a radio wave. And so then I got the idea, like, let's play red light green light, outside, in the quad, during recess, in front of the whole school with these micro bits, and I stood up there, and when I would press the button, it would code on their micro bit for them to move, or to stop. And so all the other kids and the teachers outside saw it. And then the next thing, you know, everyone's like, I want to do these things with my class, I want to be next can you come to me next. And so my whole idea then is to, we have site tech coaches, at least one at every site. And so the idea is to create a microbead PLC, and then have these conversations with teachers in our district and get that going with through the, through the site tech coaches, who also might bring a partner from their sites, and then just get this movement going. But not only that, I've been having discussions with my director of my department on just like in the UK, where they gave a micro bid to certain grade level for every single kid, I'm telling her, we need to do this. I don't know what grade level that is yet. But we have so much so much money in our district that we can afford to do things like this to get the kids excited that they take these micro bits home and their their personal micro bits and they use them encode them and and share the things that they're doing. So my role, I think, is to get the word out there and to get the teachers on board. So that's my goal for next year is what I'm going to do.

Sharisa  17:57

Absolutely wonderful. I love that. And I love how you took it outside at recess. Yes. So everybody could see that. Yeah, I mean, because when you're in the classroom, you know what the teacher they may hear about it, but then actually getting to see it and the other kids. So now the students are gonna pressure their teacher, we really want to do that. Right.

Shandrica  18:15

Right. Right. And yeah, there's so many teachers at that site that I want to do it, but I'm not going to be the one that shares that the site tech coaches at the site will be running the PD for that, right.

Sharisa  18:25

Oh, I love how you're building their capacity. Yes, that is great.

Robert  18:29

And look, you've already incorporated another discipline of physical education into computer science. Yeah.

Sonal  18:37

Oh, my goodness. So I think that's fantastic. And the fact that you're modeling how to use it, and you're building capacity, that's just going to make it easy to scale, scale the workout and we're not calling your work, we're calling something engaging for our students to participate in that can help with multiple different schools. So with that said, I know you talked you talked a little bit Shandrica about the fact that you have a Micro Bit PLC. So at the county, we also have a Micro Bit Professional Learning Network. And that got me really excited the fact that other districts are doing these similar models that you know, that are providing educators with an avenue to network with one another for Robbert I just wanted to ask you about, you know, what, what was the most beneficial part of being Bennett beneficial part of being part of the microbit PLN?

Robert  19:30

Well, I would say just just coming together with like minded people, and have all the different levels of Micro Bit expertise. You know, I like sharing my ideas and seeing the excitement in other adults that that were like, Oh, I didn't think of that. And then hearing from them the same thing, where I mean, just what what Chandrika was saying about the red light green light. I never would have occurred to me, and I'm gonna go back to school and try that as soon as I can. And just getting getting those ideas and being able to give feedback, get feedback and network with people I think is beneficial. And that's just the start. Because already I've built some relationships where maybe I can even go out and visit or they can come visit and go from there.

Shandrica  20:13

And I think what's important too, is I think, when I was trying to figure out how to use these things, I was surprised that there isn't as much out there with using these micro bids, that I was expecting to see all kinds of lessons for this, but there really isn't very much out there. And then when I hear things that I know that Robert is doing, it's just like, we need to all come together and put something together for teachers, because otherwise we won't know this. These things are all in our heads. And like I came up with that you I know Robert does a lot of stuff with a music and he's Microbus that I think is like astounding, but I don't know how to do that. So this PLN will help us share ideas and get the word out there that it's more than like I was saying more than the robot. It there's it's so much more and the kids are so engaged with it. The problem solving is just it's stupendous. The kids are doing it's it's just I'm just in awe at their thinking process critical thinking on it.

Sonal  21:08

And recently Shandricka you'll be excited to know we've we've partnered we've got an official partnership at the county with microbit Educational Foundation. And they have just been so wonderful. This is a little shout out to Katie Henry, Katie Henry and team have been so wonderful about providing us with resources and support as well as listening to educator feedback. So I think they're going to be really interested to know, you know, your insights, you just gave a little insight as to like, you know, where are the additional lessons that I'm looking for? What can we do that might make it a little bit more robust and rigorous and tied into the things that you will already do in our school setting yourself? Yes, if that's exciting for you to do that work within our microbot PLN. And I've got to give a lot of kudos to Dr. Chang, he really led the work around the microbit PLN. And grown that cohort immensely. I do want to say a few words about that.

Sharisa  22:01

Yes, it's so I would like to start with it's still a baby PLN. And by the way, I mean, it's only like six months old. So I thank you both for being a part of it. The things that I hear within the network are just amazing. I wish I would have had that support when I first started with micro bit. And I actually because of the pandemic never got to use it with students until recently. So hearing you, you all are experts to me, I'm like, wow, they're just so amazing. They know what they're doing. But we're just as Sonal was mentioning, you know, it's something that's growing, we're expanding it. So you know, if you have any individuals who would like to be a part of the PLN, we invite them to come for the next year for the next year. Yes, it's just, it's something that I feel is great. And I would like to keep working with all of the teachers and you know, support staff and Project Specialists, as well as with microbead. On, you know, getting the word out about computer science and making it so I think earlier, we're talking about those barriers so that those barriers aren't as, as prevalent as they are right now for teachers like that fear and anxiety that comes around it that it doesn't have to be there, you know, yes. Yeah,

Sonal  23:13

I remember the idea formed because of that you were like we need to get we need to remove these barriers for educators. And, and with that, we need to form a PLN a support network, something that we can support them with, you know, as they encounter their challenges, and share. I mean, you said it yourself, Robert, the sharing part of that part of being part of part of the professional learning network is really central to this. 

Sharisa  23:36

And one other great thing is being able to come out and see you guys in action with the classes you're working with. I mean, for us, as far as the PLN goes, now we have our connections, and we can see what's happening and all of the great work. I know the project you're talking about with the animals. I think I was there when you're just starting that off. And they were the students were just like, can I do this, can I and they were trying to get ahead of the steps. And they just wanted to learn and some of them were actually figuring out on their own before Chandrika even told them the next step. She's like, Wait, hold on.

Sonal  24:08

I was so envious. Not being there. I had so many wonderful things. 

Shandrica  24:13

Well, it was so funny because one day I couldn't make it because I there was an impromptu meeting that happened. And I told the teacher, I'm so sorry, I can't come that day. And she goes, that's okay. You know, we'll wait to come back next week. And I came back the next week. And she goes, You know what these kids knew what you were getting ready to do next. And they went and they looked on the website and they figured it out on their own. So you don't have to teach them how to do a rotation servo they already know. And I said they know how to make it roll like on the ground. They know that they have to you know, do the reverse on what they were like, yes, they figured all of that out. You can go straight to sensors. And I was like wow. And even when I went to sensor, oh teacher, I know how to do that. Teach it. Let me show you and I was like, okay, so I let the kid show the rest of the class how to do it. Yeah. And it's that it's that that I love you know that I get to take a step back. I feel like oh my work is done. done here, you know, so it excites me. So

Sharisa  25:03

Yes, thank you. And same with you, Robert going in and seeing that, and I've noticed that like you both can take a step back. And it's like you said, it's just, it's amazing when the students take it and make it their own. It's meaningful to them. Even like Robert was mentioning about the students tying the goals into something that was meaningful to them in their community or just at home. That's exactly what they need to be doing. You know, those they're going to be the the people who solve their problems for us one day.

Sonal  25:30

Yeah, these are the skills that they're practicing now that are going to be necessary for our future workforce. absolutely instrumental.

Sharisa  25:37

Yes, yes. Okay. So, a question for both of you. And, Robert, we'll go ahead and have you start for this one. If you could give any one piece of advice to other educators and PD providers out there using microbeads? What would that be?

Robert  25:50

I think, I think someone mentioned it, but just don't be scared. I mean, it's a $30 piece of hardware, it's not going to break, you're not going to break it, you're not going to mess anything up. The kids aren't, it's just don't be scared. And don't, don't not start because you don't know how to do it. Because I didn't know how to do it. And you don't know how to do anything before you know how to do it. So otherwise, we wouldn't do anything. So for me, I just just it's exciting, just jump in, the kids will teach you to stay one step ahead, half a step ahead. And then you might be behind what the kids are doing. But as long as you can, you know, just facilitate their problem solving and just guide them where to solve their problems. That's all you need to know, you don't need to know the everything about computer science or coding or block coding. And that's what my main advice would be to them. And it's okay to fail. And that's one of the things that is good about this. It's easy at first, but it can get hard really quickly. And that is good, because it builds the student's self efficacy and and their, their idea that failing is part of the process. Yes,

Sharisa  26:52

I think that's wonderful. Definitely that whole concept of the growth mindset and having grit. And I really liked that you say stay at half a step ahead of them at least or at least try to. I know, within my experience, my students always were surpassing me. I was like, wait a minute, wait. But that goes with that. That fear as a teacher to have, I'm not sure if I can do this. But as you watch them learn, and you learn from them. It's just so amazing what you'll learn to do. And I love that you said that. That's great advice.

Robert  27:22

And just Just to follow up really quickly, I think some people might be scared of letting the kids go on their own losing a little bit of control. And what I think is is really important to understand is when you give them something engaging like that, you don't have to worry about classroom management, as much as you would think you would.

Sharisa  27:41

Perfect. Thank you all you're speaking to my teacher heart. Shandrica, would you like to share some advice. 

Shandrica  27:48

Um, one of the advice piece of advice I gave to the teachers that I was working with is it for for them, it's a little bit beyond the micro bit to I wanted them to actually think about design thinking I went through that certification with SDN, that was one of the things we talked about. Because for me with working with that project, I wanted the kids to have a plan on how they were going to use this and discuss it before they actually get to the tinkering, and the making and all that stuff. So we really worked really hard on that design thinking process, that five step process of empathizing with your audience and all of that stuff. So and I approach the project as a real world, you're an engineer, your client needs this, how are you going to attack this problem step by step. So I'm trying to incorporate things like that with the teachers to have them thinking about the kids designing first, because I think the first time I tried to do with a class and I was just like, create this thing. It felt like chaos to me. But once I started thinking about it as a process, it was less daunting. And it made more sense. And it made more sense to the kids, also. So planning and make sure that kids learn how to plan and think through the process. Also.

Sharisa  28:55

I love that as well. And that'll teach them skills for other subjects as well. Because you can use that design thinking in just about every Yes, I love that.

Sonal  29:02

Yeah, the one thing I just wanted to kind of add to that to those that are listening is that you don't actually have to have the physical microbot in hand, you can use make code, you can use the simulator, right? Well, there's going to talk a little bit about that.

Robert  29:14

 And in a few situations, when either I didn't have a class set, or I was somewhere where I didn't have my set. I just had them code and simulate on the actual simulator, and it was still engaging, and it gave them something to work towards and make sure their code was functional before they got a micro bit and sometimes I'll do that. Well I have the micro bits will say I need to see your code work on the simulator. And then once you do that, I'll give you the micro bit you can download it. So as part of the process of of debugging.

Sonal  29:42

Excellent. And, you know, we were doing our best to get those micro bits in their hand. You know, don't get me wrong. We are making every effort to do that with my equipment as our partners and we've got several events that will help us to be able to achieve that. Some are professional developments that involve micro bits and another A way to get an aggregate is to participate in the cyber IE event that we put on every year. So we will have more details about that coming soon. 

Shandrica  30:07

Yeah, also, the teachers need to know too, that not every student had to have one like could have four in a classroom have groups share it, and then each can take turns putting it on the microphone to see how it works, you know, so that was the aha moment for me this year, also, because I was scrambling to try to get one for every kid. And then once I started doing the work, I was like, wait a minute, you know, in learning how to use this. I didn't need one for every student. So that was awesome.

Robert  30:34

Yeah, a lot of the barriers are not the actual equipment is just the knowing what you can do. Right, the information.

Sonal  30:43

Yeah. So as we conclude today, I want to thank you both for being with us today on our first podcast for SBCSS Digital Learning Services. Thank you, Shandrica and, Robert, it's been a pleasure having this conversation with you today. Honestly, the work that you're both doing is inspirational. And we're so thankful to have you, you know, as part of our PLN, where we get to continue to work alongside you and continue to learn from you as well. So thank you so much. 

Sharisa  31:08

Yes, thank you. I agree with Sonal. And I look forward to collaborating more with both of you and just learning from you and growing and watching all the great things that you're doing. Thank you.

Shandrica  31:17

This was fun. Yeah.

Sonal  31:20

So now for some DLS bits and bytes updates.

Sharisa  31:24

Okay, so as mentioned earlier, we are really thrilled to announce that we are currently in the process process of expanding are Micro Bit PLN cohort with the new partnership that we SPC, sorry SBCSS has with microbead Educational Foundation, we look forward to the continued collaboration with microbit.edu.

Sonal  31:43

And also there's the summer of CES, which is happening really soon from June 13 through 17 CS for CA, which is a large nonprofit organization, they've been doing a lot of work around expanding computer science access. They're actually inviting K 12 teachers, counselors and administrators from across California to apply for computer science professional development in the summer of CS. Now, the application is not that long. And it's just, you know, getting some information about you so that we can give you those opportunities. So please do take advantage of the one day the multi day and week long virtual and hybrid workshops to learn CS content and teaching practices, as well as inclusive guidance techniques and equitable implementation strategies. As a matter of fact, Sherry's and I are actually doing a workshop here for high school educators about equity minded instruction in computer science. So all six workshops are offered at no cost and offer follow up workshops during the 2022 to 23 school year and many many you know across the state we've got educators participating so if you are interested, please go to www dot summer of CES slash workshops and if anybody has any more questions about any of the events or any of the wonderful things shared today, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at sonal.patel@sbcss.net and sharisa.chan@sbcss.net. Thank you so much. 

Sharisa  33:07

Thank you