ANGELA YAKE: So, my name is Angela Yake.
I welcome you all here this afternoon.
Thank you for sticking around to hear how
I have adapted CS50 into my classroom.
I say adapted, because I saw earlier, a question that somebody asked about--
does anybody do their own lectures or do they just show David's lectures?
And I tend to watch David's lectures, and then
adapt for my classroom versus just showing the lectures.
Occasionally, I will show some of his lectures.
But I know that, especially when we are talking about incorporating students
into the classroom like holding numbers, there's
not the same value of them watching other students hold numbers
as if I give them the numbers.
And I try and have them do those activities, like sorting, themselves.
So just a little bit of background about myself.
I do teach at a rural school, for seven years prior to the 2020,
2021 school year I taught at a very rural K-12 school.
And then this past year, I taught at what's
called a Career Technology Center.
But predominantly, it's considered an urban school,
however predominantly all the students that fill that school are actually
from the rural community.
Coming in and filling the spots in my classroom.
And the grades I'm going to focus on for this presentation
are grades 10 through 12.
My actual current class population are grades 11 and 12.
And generally, the students that are taking my courses
are students that do have an interest in computers,
or they have an interest in AP courses in general.
They're driven, for the most part, to--
even if they're not interested in necessarily computers, finding out what
an AP course is all about.
Because of, I have focused using CS50 as the AP course for CSP.
So the curriculum I am using is mostly the CS50 AP, occasionally the CS50x.
I do meet with my students five days a week, last year aside.
Last year was not a normal year.
If you'd like specifics, when we get a chance to talk
about how last year was a little bit different, I'll address that.
However, generally my class is 45 minute periods.
This upcoming year with my new school, I actually
have students every day for a three hour block.
However, it's not my intention to teach the CS50 curriculum for the 3 hours.
It will still be down to a 45 to 60 minute period for the CS50 curriculum
as I have other content I need to cover within the block.
But it is what's called a Cybersecurity and Computer Networking block.
Just so you have some idea about what I do in my classroom.
My personal background is, I have been teaching for 16 years.
I actually started teaching adults.
I taught adults workforce readiness skills as far
as using computers for productivity.
And then taught for six years, a high school computer science course
at that rural school I mentioned, before moving on to the Career Technology
Center that I'm at now.
I did find CS50 on edX.
I was actually preparing to take my Computer Science licensing
tests to be licensed to teach computer science in the state of Ohio.
And was searching for some of the key terms that was supposedly on the test.
I wanted to brush up on some of my skills
and found CS50 was able to help me do that.
Previously before CS50, and learning from CS50,
I did have some CS experience.
I was a programmer in Visual Basic for Applications, predominantly
helping organizations customize their databases for their small businesses.
I had some HTML background, and I was a software test analyst.
So I wasn't actually a programmer per se myself,
I did a lot of technical writing before being a teacher.
And so, I went through programs and told the programming team
where there might be flaws that they might need to fix.
So what I'm going to highlight today throughout my presentation is something
that you've heard a lot about already today,
is, I'm going to highlight the CS fair.
T-shirt designs.
Waffle day, that's something new.
The duck adoption, my spin on the rubber ducky.
A puzzle table, puzzle day, and the hackathon.
So I like to start my conversation, we've
heard already from both David and Douglas
about how the CS fair at the end of the year
is this culminating event where students can share their project.
And if you have not already been using some Share fair or CS
fair in your schools, if after today you're
not encouraged to look into what that might look
like in your school or your community, then I
think that today will encourage you to do that.
Because what I do is, I actually start the year
off talking about that CS fair.
I talk about it to begin the year with anticipation.
So although this is the culminating event at the end,
I talk about it from the beginning.
I highlight to students that they are going to use this course to create.
That this course isn't just about learning all of the things
that I can teach them about computer science,
but that they are going to be empowered to create their own thing
at the end of the course.
And I feel like that's a really important part of the community aspect.
As you can see from this picture, this is an image, actually,
I think it was taken by one of the CS50 staff members
that came and visited our fair.
And this is one of our first CS fairs, and you can see that at the tables
with balloons, that is where different presentations are being shared.
And then you see a lot of students around those tables,
and those are actually guests.
You'll see different adults in the pictures.
And many of those are teachers at our school.
But some of them are also guests from the community.
And that's what we do at the CS fair, we invite the community.
Whether it be the community of other students,
but other stakeholders and other classes to the fair.
To really get people excited about what we're doing in our computer science
classrooms.
And one of the things that I found, and one
of the reasons I actually started using the CS50 classroom in my classroom,
wasn't just that I loved the resources and tools as far as the curriculum,
but that I really gravitated towards the sense of community.
As an educator, I felt I really had a community
of other educators supporting me.
And as my students, they really were able to find a lot of different ways
through both the activities we did, and some of the things
that we reached out to others, in order to really
be excited about computer science.
Even if they were a little like unsure or intimidated.
So when I said that my students are normally interested in computers,
they don't really know what computer science is necessarily
when they join the course.
They're interested in computers, and a lot of the times
their parents say, "You need to take this class."
But they're really unsure.
Because they think, well, their interest in computers
is that they like to play a video game.
But they don't really know what goes on behind the scenes.
So this is another image from the computer science fair
that I had at my school.
And I wanted to highlight on this table that one of the things that we do
is, that each student makes a little poster that just briefly describes
their project to anybody that might be walking by.
They name the project, there's their name, a graphic,
and a description of their project.
And as simple as that is, it gets them to thinking before the presentation
about-- what is your project about.
But as we know, in 2020, as I prepared students
to be really excited about the fair, we had to migrate to a virtual fair.
And this is just an image of my students on a Zoom call.
This Zoom call had other teachers from the school that actually
joined our Zoom call, parents joined the Zoom call,
and the students were able to present their projects.
And I felt like it was really important to keep the spirit of the CS fair,
even when we were remote and we weren't able to do it in the same format
that we had done it in the past.
One of the things that I bring to my CS fair are these photos.
And these photos are once again something
that was taken from CS50 events.
If you've ever actually been live at one of the CS50 events, I'm assuming,
I don't know for sure that they're continuing
to do some of these photo booths.
But it was one of my favorite things to do as a participant, is
to have this photo booth.
And what makes the photo booths for my students
so much fun versus just somebody going around and taking photos is they
get to grab their collection of individuals
that they want to be in a photo with.
They get to press the little foot pedal, I set it up
with a foot pedal and a DSLR camera.
They could see their image on a computer screen,
and they got to make their different poses.
And then, they got that keepsake to take with them.
And the way I had it set up is that two photos would always print out,
and then a copy of these prints were saved to my computer.
And I use the program that actually the CS50 team recommended to me,
and that is called DSLR Remote Pro.
And I can give you guys more information.
And this information is in some of my stuff
that will be shared with you later.
So if you didn't get that name.
But what's nice about having these little prints saved to my computer is,
then, I had a record of some of the students that were there.
I could share some of that on social media.
Oftentimes, I'll put up a little sign like, "By entering the fair,
you're agreeing", much like what we had to agree to join this meeting today.
You're agreeing that you may be filmed or videotaped.
Sharing things to the internet with the students at the school,
we did often have to get parent permission.
But that is something that we do at the school at the beginning of the year.
And we just make sure we don't share any photos of students
that we aren't supposed to.
And so, anyway, there is the photo booth option.
And that is part of my computer science fair every year,
is just to give every student that chooses to participate a keepsake.
What I do also, in conjunction with the CS fair,
is I allow the students to create t-shirts.
This is one of our first t-shirts that we created,
this was the back of our t-shirt.
You saw on this slide, the front of the t-shirt.
The students didn't feel like "I took CS50"
was sufficient for what they went through to take the course.
I saw somebody in the comments earlier say that they didn't adopt CS50
because it was hard.
And it is hard.
I mean I think it's a hard course.
But when you think of hard, another word you use for the word
hard is challenging.
And I feel that what I was able to do is constantly challenge myself
and my students with this content.
And so, what I'd like to point out in this t-shirt
is the students generated this t-shirt.
This was back in 2016, this particular t-shirt.
Some of the p-sets have changed since then.
Some of them are similar or have morphed over time, or maybe not even
using necessarily some of the same languages.
But what I'd like to point out is at the top of this shirt,
it talks about the peanut butter jelly.
And I'll talk about that more later.
But we did the peanut butter and jelly activity
within the first couple of days of school that year.
But Skittles and Caesar were some of the projects that we did,
and the students really grabbed on to this sense of community.
As in, at the CS fair, we had Caesar salad.
We had Skittles and a bowl.
And salad, we had salad.
And there was somebody that monitored the table,
and there was this large bowl of Caesar salad.
And most students didn't really get it, that were attending the fair.
But that was something very important to that particular group of students,
was to connect as much as they could in the fair,
to share what they had experienced throughout the year.
And so, this was an example of the t-shirt they made.
I always let students either design a t-shirt, or I design a t-shirt.
And we try and get sponsors to sponsor our t-shirts so that they also
have that sense of community.
And it's also a great opportunity to promote my course for the next year.
So I've talked a lot about the CS fair, and that's at the end of the term.
And you've heard Douglas talk about the CS fair,
and you've heard David and Brian talk about the CS fair so far today.
But what gets us to this end of the year finale?
So unlike some of the other teachers that have shared today,
I've adapted some of the ideas in CS50, and I have Waffle Day.
Waffle Day has come to take place of peanut butter and jelly.
It's come to take place with peanut butter and jelly
for a couple of reasons.
One, some of the English teachers are using peanut butter and jelly now
to teach different concepts in their classes, and so it seemed redundant.
But also, I had several students with peanut allergies
come through my classroom.
And some of the allergies related to waffles have not been as serious,
or the aroma in the air hasn't been as much of an issue.
And so I took the peanut butter out of my beginning of the year activities.
Just because I didn't want to cause any issues for those people with allergies.
So Waffle Day happens to be in the United States.
It's not an official US holiday, but if you look at the national holidays
calendar that's out there for the US national holidays,
Waffle Day is on August 24th.
And that happens to coincide normally with our first couple of days
of school.
This year, it's going to be my fourth day of school with students.
And so, on August 24th or as close as possible, I do Waffle Day.
And Waffle Day is just an opportunity for students to get the sticker.
This actually is an image of a sticker, it's a circle sticker.
students normally put them on their Chromebooks.
And they get a sticker and they get to make waffles.
And all they have is a two ounce cup, and there
is going to be a little packet of how I run Waffle Day, that's
going to be shared with you.
And they get a two ounce snack cup, and a metal spoon, and a bowl,
and the waffle mix, and some water.
And they are asked to make waffles, and a waffle iron,
using the instructions on the box but not necessarily having the right tools.
Like the two ounce snack cup isn't the two cups that the box says to use,
of waffles.
Now I realize that when I talk about 2 cups, that's very specific to the US.
But whatever your waffle box or whatever mix that you might have,
wherever you are, it's going to have their set of instructions.
And I don't give them necessarily all the tools they need.
They've got to problem solve how they're going to change two ounces into two
cups, for example, in my case.
And so, it's just the problem solving day in which they can really
start to talk and work together.
And it's our puzzle day at the beginning of the year.
And it gets a lot of students talking that's not
in my classroom about-- what's that smell?
What are you guys doing in there?
What do you mean you got waffles?
Where did you get that sticker?
How do I get a sticker?
And I've actually had students sign up for my course
before, like sophomores sign up their junior year,
because of Waffle Day that was at the beginning of the year before.
Because they want that sticker that they've seen
on their friends' Chromebook all year long.
And so, it's just part of that community thing.
So we've also heard today about the rubber ducky debugging.
And I also use rubber ducks in my classroom.
I have opted to step away from the yellow duck,
because I use the rubber ducky as an opportunity for students
to share a little bit about their personality.
It's also a beginning of the year, like icebreaker opportunity,
where they get to adopt their duck.
And so, this is an example where I've shared with them that when
they're stuck, they talk to their duck.
One of the things that was really important for us this year,
is that students really weren't-- we were in class two days a week.
But even when we were in class, they were more than 6 feet apart,
and they were not really allowed to conjugate together.
They weren't able to loiter, they weren't able to work in groups,
we had to stay at our individual workstations when they were in school.
And so, it just was a little bit different
than what I have done in the past.
And so, where I really highlighted the duck
this year was as an opportunity for students.
To be able to have a conversation, not just about their code,
but when they were feeling a little bit lonely
or when they had to go at home the other three days of the week.
And they were wanting to feel that sense of community,
they were able to take that duck with them.
And they were able to feel that sense of community,
and oftentimes they would share or take pictures of their duck
in different environments.
This is actually in the classroom, but I would get pictures sometimes
of ducks sitting on their desk at home, or they
would share with me how they had used their duck to solve
other problems in other classes.
Not just their computer science classroom.
And so, the adopted duck idea is where they really
take responsibility for their duck.
It is an employability thing in my classroom, where they get points.
I'm required at my school to give students, 10% of their grade
is employability.
Whether they're there, whether they're there on time in their uniform--
because we have uniforms at our school.
And so, I added to their employability if they had their duck with them.
Are you prepared for class?
You're not prepared for class if you don't have your rubber ducky.
And so, anyway, by adopting the duck at the beginning of the year,
naming the duck, and really making that duck part of their learning process
really gave students an opportunity to really see it
as a tool, and not just a toy.
So, in the spirit of the idea of what we have heard so far today about Puzzle
Day is, I also have a puzzle table.
And sometimes that puzzle table will morph throughout the year
with different kinds of puzzles.
Sometimes it's just the jigsaw puzzle, maybe
it's one of those Game of 15 puzzles, several of those sitting on the desk.
Sometimes there's just a variety of different puzzles,
maybe it's a Rubik's Cube.
And I have on the puzzle table, this opportunity for students
to solve puzzles.
And it's not necessarily, it's always there.
The puzzle table is always there.
And it's an opportunity for students to get up from their computer workstation,
go to the puzzle table.
And on the years in which they are allowed to be closer than 6 feet apart,
as you can see in this image, they're able to maybe talk, solve
some problems, maybe they'll even talk about the problems
that they're trying to solve.
But maybe it's when they get frustrated.
And I've used this as an opportunity to really create that startup atmosphere
that I feel like comes along with CS50.
That idea where you get up, you can play a game,
but it keeps you engaged in your work experience.
But you're not feeling like you have to sit at your computer,
you get like that little bit of a brain break.
Or you get to relieve your eyes from looking at the computer screen.
And oftentimes what will happen is, students will go over,
they may talk to another student, or they'll
work on the puzzle-- they'll put some pieces together.
And then, all of a sudden, I'll watch a student jump up and say, "Oh my gosh,
I figured it out!"
And they'll run back to their computer.
And they'll continue working on their P-set.
And so, I've really found that the puzzle table
has been an opportunity for students to just build more of that community,
and have a community in my classroom.
Where I have an expectation that you're not just taking a break,
but you are taking a break.
I hope that makes sense, and I can answer more questions about that later.
But that doesn't mean we don't do Puzzle Day.
So, Puzzle Day, I don't generally start the year off with Puzzle Day
as they have talked about throughout the other CS50 individuals.
I normally do Puzzle Day the first week, second week in December.
It normally coordinates with the CS ED week.
Now this is, once again, I think, a US initiative.
But, we do Puzzle Day that week, but I share with students in my classes
some of the previous CS50 puzzles leading up to Puzzle Day.
And then their task is to create their own puzzle.
So Puzzle Day is like a week long thing for us,
where the students in my classroom create their own puzzles based off
of some of the models that I've shared with them.
And then, on the Friday of that week, they shared their own puzzles
that they created with other students.
They make copies and share those other puzzles
with other students in the school, seeing if other students in the school
can solve their puzzles.
And what I will do is, I will tell students throughout the school,
we'll make an announcement-- the first 10 students
that can solve the puzzle packet that was passed out
from all the students puzzles will get a prize from Mrs. Yake
if they come and check their puzzle answers.
And I've had really, fortunately, I've had
really good support from other teachers and other classrooms
where students have been allowed to work on their puzzles.
Or oftentimes, you'll look down at lunch and students are working on puzzles.
And that's creating this camaraderie amongst my students that
got to create the puzzles, and it's engaging
students that aren't in my classroom-- on what's this all about?
And they're going to Mrs. Yake's classroom, they're stepping in,
they're seeing some of the things in my room if they've not been in my room
ever before.
And they're maybe earning themselves a little candy bar, or maybe
a stress ball, or their own rubber ducky, or a different variety of prizes
that I might pass out on that week associated with our puzzle day.
So, once again, another way I've adapted the course.
Now, the hackathon.
I think the hackathon is very, very important to our end of the year
computer science fair.
We started talking about the end of the year computer science fair,
but how do we get there?
And so, much like Douglas said, I do have
a connection with a local university that's not too far.
And their students, their club members, for that university
will help attend our hackathon and help students get started
or launch their final project.
So that's normally the kick off of their final project.
We actually do this about a month before the Create task is due.
So when I've done this CS fair, I actually started the CS fair
the pilot year of AP CSP, and so there was no Create task
that students had to do.
But since then, I've just connected it with the Create tasks
that they have to do for CSP.
What this does for students by having the CS fair and hackathon is,
the students not taking the AP test, because not all of my students
are required to take the test, is it gives them a reason
to care about that final project.
Because they're going to be sharing it with others.
So it's amazing.
We have generally done this hackathon on a Sunday.
So, as we're talking, as David talked earlier, about the 7 to 7
at the college level, or at a high school where they did the 10 AM to two,
we normally do it on a Sunday from about 3 to 7 with the college students.
And they just, how do I get them to come in on a Sunday?
Probably because they want to, but I entice them with all this food.
I bring in a lot of snacks, and they know
that they're going to get some junk food and some pizza,
and some time to connect with some of their friends
outside of the regular school day.
And it's actually been very well attended.
So that brings me back to--
that actually brings me towards the end of my presentation.
Which I knew was not going to be an entire hour,
because I was hoping that we would be able to have some time to share.
I know that's built in later in the afternoon.
But this is a group of students, and I would
like to talk to you just a little bit about this picture.
Once again, you see that students are wearing t-shirts.
These t-shirts were actually, most of these t-shirts were actually--
this particular year, I think this was the 2017 school year,
was actually funded by Microsoft that year.
They sent us some t-shirts, yeah, you can see Microsoft on the t-shirts.
And so, the students that have various t-shirts,
and it may be a little bit hard to see because some of them are hiding.
The ones that say "Code like a Boss" were the students
that were actually in the CS50 course.
And then the ones that were in the "For the Win"
are junior high students that were in the middle school computer fundamentals
course.
And then, you see a couple of students that
say "I Code, What's Your Superpower?"
And they were actually students that were in a Computer Science club.
And so they all had their own community t-shirt, where everybody had t-shirts,
but then students were able to really feel
part of their own individual community within the large computing
community of the computer science fair.
So, one other thing, I don't think it made it into this slideshow
because I had manipulated a little bit of the PowerPoint but not this PDF.
One other thing that I do is, at the computer science fair, I do play music.
I have the balloons, we have tablecloths on the tables, and I play music.
Really creating that atmosphere of a party.
But what I've done also in the classroom is,
I happen to have a Spotify premium account,
and so I have shared that link-- you can do this other ways,
this is how I do it.
I have shared that link with my students.
And then, they can click on that link and add to the playlist.
And so, we play that playlist in the classroom
when we're working individually.
So instead of everybody putting in their headphones and working on their own.
And sometimes they do that.
But if we want to listen to music, and we're
at a point where they're not getting lectured,
and they're working on assignments, we play the class playlist.
And that's another way that I have brought some community
into my classroom.
Because students have been able to feel that
they are part of some of that music.
So even though it's not their own playlist, it's not my playlist.
It's their playlist as a class.
And that's worked very well for my class.
Of course, I tell them that it's school appropriate music,
I put some guidelines.
Sometimes some songs might slip through that maybe shouldn't, and I
have to remove them from the playlist.
But it's just all about really creating this positive community
for the students.