Active Recruiting

You may be one of the fortunate teachers a state where computer science either counts as an elective or is a required part of the curriculum. If so, students have a graduation incentive to take computer science. Even so, the gender and ethnic composition of non-required courses may not reflect your school's general population. As discussed earlier in the course, it's important for many reasons (jobs, better technology, more productive workforce) to have all kinds of students interested in computer science.

Part 1 - Strategies

Learn about some strategies for student recruitment (Jen Rosato, Director of Northern Lights Collaborative)

Part 2 - Strategies in Practice

Putting the Strategies Into Action - Jim Veseskis (Mobile CSP Teacher)

What Steps Can You Take?

NCWIT has a new workbook for high school teachers to recruit girls to computer science classes. Check it out here! The workbook includes information on:

Activity

Practice connecting messages for studying computer science to student interests using MIT Teaching Systems Lab's Swipe Right for CS game.

Counselors for Computing Packets

NCWIT Counselor's for Computing is a great resource for recruiting students to CS. Angela Cleveland, program director, shares more about how to use the resources included in the packets prepared for Mobile CSP. (If you didn't participate in Mobile CSP PD, you can request a C4c packet to share with your counselor at ncwit.org/c4c, though it will include slightly different resources.

Resources

Reflection Activity Facilitator Slides

Discuss the following questions with other teachers in your professional development program.

Activity

Create a student recruitment action plan. Learn more here.