All teachers (and actually, all parents as well) know these certain moments when you have to have some alternative activities to do, or else you lose the interest/control of your class/children. For this reason, I have created a repository of ideas that I can easily do with my students, whenever I see this moment destruction approaching ;), and need to get my students interested again in the topic we are doing. My activities are Computer Science (CS) and Technology education activities presented (mostly) in a non-technical way and context. I have never documented them, and as material, use whatever I have in my arms-reach at that moment.

Around the time of Christmas 2019 I started thinking that these activities might be a nice way for a non-Computer Science teacher to introduce Computer Science and Technology concepts to the students. So instead of just doing these activities ‘on the go’, I started documenting them and uploading them online for others interested in teaching fundamental concepts of CS, Technology and Computational Thinking (CT). And that’s how CS with MI was born.

The idea is that these activities could be brought into any classroom without any technology requirements, besides maybe a printer. The other ‘founding’ thought was that the activities could be used as professional development activities for teachers. The activities are easy to execute in the classroom and they have a low threshold to be included into any existing teaching repertoire. First, by reading the instructions to the activity, a teacher would understand the underlying CS and technology concepts. Then, teaching the activity would serve as a learning moment for teachers, and naturally for students as well.

Then started corona measures and our family’s normal routine was gone (like everywhere else). Both of our children stayed home and CS with MI became a weekend project, more important than ever, though. It became an outlet for my creativity and a place to keep me in touch with the professional side of me. It also became a joint collaboration between my son and I, where my son would test the activities in home setting and we would work as a parent-child team. He would provide me with instant feedback and criticism, and naturally images to post to show what the activities are all about.

And from there came the second idea to share these activities with parents as well since I no longer taught them only as a teacher, but also as a parent. The idea remains the same: easy activities to learn the fundamental ideas behind technology together at home. The material always starts by explaining the connection to CS or CT or technology and the rationale for the activity, followed by a short ‘theory’ for the parent. Furthermore, the files include step-by-step instructions on how to do the activity using the prints that come with the material, or basic supplies that can be found in any home.

If you are interested, you can find my activities on both: Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) and Etsy. TpT is for teachers and schools and requires a membership, Etsy is an online shop open to all, however, making purchases needs registration.

All the best,

MI