App Studio in the Classroom

Over the summer, a Curriculum Supervisor, Brian King, from Broward County Public Schools reached out to me for help on creating curriculum for a pilot program centered around mobile application development as a result of the Superintendent, Robert Runcie, expressing interest in schools advancing their IT skills.  Brian mentioned that this would be geared towards students with little to no background in computer science or coding, and based on that, I explained what App Studio was and suggested it as a viable option.  Brian loved the idea.

On November 5th, I led the "Train the Trainer" workshop for those teachers who would be implementing the 4 week App Studio curriculum in the classroom.  We had  six teachers present, as well as a couple of representatives from the school district.  Partnering with the Microsoft Store, we were able to provide a Surface for each teacher to use.  The teachers loved being able to use the Surface 3’s, and a couple mentioned the possibility of buying one in the future!  Throughout the workshop, the teachers were obviously excited and inspired about how App Studio would provide new opportunities for their students.  In fact they were so excited that a couple of them mentioned beginning the program in their classes within a week or two.  The App Studio team provided test phones to be used in the classroom as well, another piece of excitement for the teachers.

Lastly, Brian King's boss (Enid Valdez, Director of Career and Tech Ed.) also stopped by the training to express her thanks to Microsoft and the teachers for making the effort to be there and be involved.  She stressed that the teachers were hand-picked by their principals, and that the School System, all the way up to superintendent, Robert Runcie, was extremely excited and fully supported what we were doing.  This pilot program will take place in 4 different high schools in around 5 - 10 classes over the next couple of months.  The hope is that the teachers will incorporate this program before the end of February, when testing and certifications begin.

Interested in App Studio, check it out here!  More to come as this progresses!