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The two weeks LS computer science teacher Joe Chung was at Tamagawa School flew by. “In that short amount of time, I had the opportunity to teach one of my courses from Harker as well as time to observe some of the Tamagawa teachers teach their classes,” he said.
“My lesson was to teach an application called Stagecast Creator. It is a student-friendly application that helps students to learn pre-programming skills along with the ability to problem-solve. It also reinforces the students to do their best illustrating their characters,” explained Chung. “Speaking of characters, I first had the students open MS Word to write a story. Students had a choice to be creative and develop any type of story they wanted. To help them start, I gave an example of ‘Once upon a time….’ The story helps the students get a sense of ownership, which can foster the enjoyment of learning since it is their own and not given to them by a teacher. Once the story is developed, students begin to program it in Stagecast and see it in action.
“The majority of the students I taught were attentive and interested in doing their best on this project. Students who were motivated and excited by the potential of what can be created from this application worked through break time. It is rewarding for a teacher to observe students who are willing to learn and make the best effort possible. A few students were able to go beyond what I explained in class, and I was able to share more ideas, possibilities and changes that could be made to their work. Since the Stagecast used was the demo version, it had limitations, so students were restricted with design and rules. But once again, the motivated students found ways to manipulate the limitations to go beyond my instructions. Overall, I had a rewarding experience sharing with students what I teach back home.”