Teacher Liasion

The role of a Teacher Liaison is unique to Bold Idea's Coding Clubs located at schools in Dallas ISD. Teacher liaisons are critical to Bold Idea's relationship with our school sites and ability to communicate with students while adhering to district protocols and rules.

Who is a Teacher Liaison?

The teacher liaison acts as the representative for Bold Idea at a school site and as our communication arm to the students and parents through official district channels. Teacher liaisons can be any staff member at the school site, but a teacher that works directly with students that the coding club serves is ideal. They will need to be able to stay after school once a week for the coding club and have access to the computers and any other technology that students will need for the coding club each week.

Teacher Liaison Responsibilities Include:

• Being present and engaged at the full session each week or finding a replacement that is also a DISD employee if you cannot (required by DISD)
• If a virtual program for mentors, setting up and Hosting the Zoom call for each session (required by DISD)
• Communication with students and parents for registration and access to the student portal (students under 13 cannot sign themselves up for the program)
• Aiding program coordinator in marketing ideaSpark at the school - putting up posters, confirming classroom visits, etc.
• Communicating with the Team Captains and Coordinator about any school closures or scheduling issues throughout the duration of the club
• Discipline and classroom management during club each week in collaboration with team captains

Resources

The main role of teacher liaisons is to act as the authority for the school during the coding club. This means that teacher liaisons work closely with team captains. While not mentoring the students or utilizing Bold Idea platforms on a regular basis, we like to ensure that Teacher Liaisons have access to all the same items as team captains.

Zoom Reference Guide

Zoom can sometimes be difficult to navigate or have issues with bandwidth speeds. We recommend that Team Captains familiarize themselves with zoom and its different functions before the start of their club or camp. If you are leading a virtual session and run into issues with Zoom. Utilize our Zoom Reference Guide

IDE Troubleshooting

Sometimes students will run into bugs with the IDE platform, or there will be a system-wide error that occurs during a session. Check this page to see if you can resolve the issue quickly. If these troubleshooting methods do not fix the issue, contact Bold Idea staff.

Brain Breaks

Brain Breaks are very important to Bold Idea's program structure. Students at any age will need some time each session to take a break from coding. Stepping away from their projects for a quick snack or 5-minute game gives them the chance to refresh and come back to the challenge or project they were working on with fresh minds. We have a list of Brain Breaks used in the past.

First Session Walkthroughs

The first sessions are a little different than all others. During the first session, Team Captains will need to provide students with a quick walkthrough of our student portal . It also might be helpful to do a longer icebreaker on the first day as students may not know each other or the mentors on your team. For your first session, you can utilize the session 1 walkthrough document for your course:

• Web Dev session 1 walkthrough document
• DISD Web Dev session 1 walkthrough document

Demo Day Resources

Demo Day is an event that Bold Idea hosts each year to showcase students who have earned badges or finished projects. Students can choose a project or challenge they have finished to present a demo of at demo day. Mentors are also welcome to plan mini demo days at the end of each semester if students would like to share their progress or finished projects with friends and family.

Volunteer Portal

The Volunteer Portal is where all of your training checklist, course information, student lists, attendance log, coding platforms, and course-specific resources are located. Your log-in information will be what you set up when you signed up as a teacher liaison with Bold Idea.

Bold Idea Volunteer Training Videos

These are the same videos linked to your checklist on the volunteer portal. Please watch all videos for a short overview of your role and what you need to know before your first session of club/camp with Bold Idea.

Courses

All of our curriculum resources that you can find on your volunteer portal are located on the resources tab.

Badges

Badges are awarded to Bold Idea students when they complete a specific coding challenge, guided project, or course curriculum with us. It is the mentors' responsibility to keep tabs on student progress and award a badge when they have met the requirements. These are important for staff, future mentors, parents, and the students to be able to see each individual's progress and what they have and have not learned while with Bold Idea.

Further Computer Science Education Resources

Are you interested in the resources available to educators who teach computer science? A variety of groups provide teachers and educators with resources they can utilize in their classrooms.

Code.org : From Hour of Code activities to curriculum for each grade level, code.org is a useful resource for any computer science teacher.

Computer Science Teachers Association : This official association for computer science teachers provides many free resources to use in classrooms or for professional and personal development as an educator. They also have a yearly conference and membership communities that provide opportunities to collaborate and learn from other educators across the country.

Khanacademy : Khanacademy has resources related to computer science that includes well-made videos and other multimedia resources.

Survival of the Best Fit : If you are looking for a way to teach students about the ways in which AI and other machine learning can be bias and create inequities in our world - this game demonstrates how that can happen when using technology for hiring practices. (Best for high school level learners due to the vocabulary used and concepts discussed)

Fab Fems Women in STEM Resources : This is a great comprehensive list of resources for educators looking for videos and other content about women in STEM both past and present.

CS Unplugged : This website contains lessons and activities that you can use to teach students computer science concepts without using a computer. Many involve physical activity and can be a great way to get students up and moving during the day.

CodeScty : CodeScty is "the schoolhouse rock for computer science". They make rap and other forms of music videos about computer science concepts.