Online Professional Learning for Educators at the Friday Institute provides a scalable, accessible and flexible approach that is aligned with the principles of effective professional development. Our approach is grounded in authentic, active and collaborative professional learning activities. Participants will engage in discussion forums to exchange ideas with colleagues, as well as share and synthesize new learning in their own pacing guide. This participation is worth 5 professional development hours.

For participants interested in receiving 5 additional professional development hours (for a total of 10 hours), you can choose a deeper learning experience, by completing additional units*.

Regardless of the learning path you choose, however, you will keep a pacing guide to reflect, share and capture your learning. This will be a key learning artifact that you must share with your school unit to be awarded your PD hours for module completion.

UNIT 1: Activating Connections and Engagement: This module allows you to learn along with your colleagues to enhance your knowledge and further develop strategies to integrate computer science and computational thinking. In order to set yourself up for success in this unit, take a moment to review the expectations and goals of this course, complete your pre-reflection, introduce yourself and download your pacing guide.

UNIT 2: Foundational Content: Computational Thinking and Computer Science: In this unit, we will connect your understanding of computational thinking and computer science to your teaching context. We will explore relevant examples and show the use of computer science and computational thinking in action. We will then plan for implementation into your classroom instruction.

UNIT 3: Personalized Exploration Experience: You have explored the importance, impact and enhancement that the incorporation of computational thinking and computer science can lend to your lessons and student learning experiences in the last unit – but what do these lessons look like? This unit focuses on how to prepare the context for strategically planning the integration of computer science and computational thinking concepts into your curriculum and instruction. You will engage with examples and resources while applying your personal experience and professional knowledge to unique learning contexts.

UNIT 4: Personalized Immersion Experience*: This unit is designed for you to go on your own deeper learning journey. You will reflect on your own practice and possible solutions to common problem-centered objectives faced by educators implementing computational thinking and computer science into curriculum and instruction.

UNIT 5: Authentic Implementation Challenge*: This unit is designed for you to go on your own deeper learning journey. It follows UNIT 4 with the goal of fostering the time, space and strategies to design your own lesson plan to implement.

UNIT 6: Purposeful Practice Reflection: This unit is your opportunity to take action concerning your professional goals, building self-efficacy, establishing long-term growth and ultimately promote higher student achievement.

*Optional extended learning synthesis pathway.

Participants can earn a Certificate of Completion for our BASIC learning pathway for 5 hours of professional development and have the option to continue on the EXTENDED learning pathway for an additional 5 hours – totaling 10 hours of professional development. These will be made available at the end of the module for those participants who complete the following:

For 5 hours of professional development:

• Verifying that you have participated in the module discussions and shared at least one artifact of participation to your local agency. This includes:

1. A completed pacing guide spanning each unit*,
2. Participate in at least three discussion forums (Units 1, 3 and 6)

For 10 hours of professional development

• Verifying that you have participated in module discussions and shared at least two artifacts of participation to your local agency. This includes:

1. A completed pacing guide spanning each unit*,
2. Participate in all discussion forums (Units 1, 3-6)
3. Complete and share your own lesson plan

*if you choose not to extend your learning and complete optional units 4 and 5, you will skip this section in your pacing guide.

You can submit the certificate to your local agency with a request for CEUs. Granting of CEUs will be subject to the policies and procedures of your state and local agency.

Jaclyn Stevens

Jaclyn Stevens is the interim director and senior research scholar of the Professional Learning and Leading Collaborative at the Friday Institute. In her work, she supports and coaches educators and leaders in adaptive student-centered approaches to provide concrete, quality, purposeful, reflective, and on-the-ground personalized learning supported through technology to support all learners. Her mantra is to adapt, not adopt. Jaclyn is currently licensed and certified as an instructional specialist, an instructional technology facilitator, a secondary media arts educator, a secondary language arts educator, and holds a special endorsement in computer education. jlbell@ncsu.edu | @jaclynbstevens

Course Developers

• Laura Albrecht
• Emmy Coleman
• Sam Morris
• Jaclyn Stevens

Before you can register, you’ll need an NC State Brickyard account. If you don’t already have one, you can create one in a few steps:

• Go to the REPORTER registration system landing page at go.ncsu.edu/reporter.
• Click the Create New Account button.
• Enter your email and click Send Email Confirmation.
• Note the code that has been emailed to you and enter it in the Confirmation Code field.
• Click Create Brickyard Account at the bottom. Your account will be created and you should be redirected to REPORTER to log in.

Ready to register?

Need help?

For step-by-step instructions for creating your Brickyard account or updating your name or email address, see the Brickyard Account Management Guide.

For help with changing your password, visit https://go.ncsu.edu/brickyard-reset-pw

Have questions or need additional assistance? Contact Friday Institute Online Professional Learning Support and let us know how we can help.