Tech EDGE: CS4NE - Mid-Semester Check In with Special Guest, Jamie Schluter

Tech EDGE Author

04/21/2025 Added

0 Plays

Description

A Mid-Semester Check In with Jamie Schluter, a business teacher from Southern Public Schools, joins Kimberly to discuss her new role teaching computer science. Computer Science for Nebraska (CS4NE) University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Technology (Tech) Education In Digital and Global Environments (EDGE) Innovation in Teacher Education College of Education and Human Sciences | Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.043](bright music)
[00:00:06.240]Hi, my name is Guy Trainin
[00:00:07.740]from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:09.690]And I'm Kimberly Ingraham-Beck from Gretna Public Schools.
[00:00:12.390]And today on CS4NE,
[00:00:15.480]we're checking in with one of our teachers.
[00:00:17.340]We're doing a midyear check.
[00:00:18.690]Mm-hmm. Tell me a little bit more.
[00:00:20.430]Yeah, so we're gonna talk to Jamie from Southern again.
[00:00:23.640]So just a reminder, she's a business teacher
[00:00:26.130]who's teaching a computer science class for the first time,
[00:00:29.460]so we're just gonna check in and see how she's doing.
[00:00:32.160]And I'm guessing not everything is going just as planned,
[00:00:35.820]because this is life, and nothing goes just as planned.
[00:00:39.480]We have snow days, we have students,
[00:00:41.580]we have other things that go on in our personal lives
[00:00:45.000]and school lives,
[00:00:47.070]so I'm guessing we'll hear some new things.
[00:00:49.440]I think you're right.
[00:00:51.000]Hi, Jamie, thanks so much for joining us again.
[00:00:53.790]Hi.
[00:00:55.260]All right, so tell us, or sorry, remind us about yourself,
[00:01:00.030]and about your experience in education.
[00:01:02.940]My name's Jamie Schluter,
[00:01:03.773]and I'm in my 11th year of teaching.
[00:01:05.880]I teach at Southern, which is in Wymore, Nebraska,
[00:01:09.270]and I am just embarking on my first semester
[00:01:14.220]of this new computer science class,
[00:01:15.720]so any background I have from it,
[00:01:18.330]I did a little bit of coding through code.org
[00:01:22.320]with my infotech classes in the last few years.
[00:01:25.200]Other than that, not much.
[00:01:26.910]I got my associate's degree at SEC,
[00:01:29.040]and then I got my bachelor's,
[00:01:31.110]and went back for my master's through Peru State.
[00:01:34.890]Awesome, all right.
[00:01:36.960]So how has your initial experience
[00:01:39.180]teaching computer science gone?
[00:01:43.140]Right now, I feel like I'm just saying,
[00:01:45.607]"I'm making it through."
[00:01:47.640]It's taken off, We're going,
[00:01:49.560]so the fear of the unknown can't be there anymore,
[00:01:53.610]'cause I've started,
[00:01:55.050]and I would actually say, so far, the first couple units,
[00:01:59.040]I have a lot more knowledge than I realized I did
[00:02:02.640]about the first few topics,
[00:02:03.900]so that's making me feel better,
[00:02:06.120]but I'm definitely spending lots of my downtime,
[00:02:09.570]few minutes here, all my planning period,
[00:02:11.490]planning for what's coming,
[00:02:12.900]so it's taking up a lot of that planning time.
[00:02:16.320]I am telling myself,
[00:02:20.070]my coworkers, my family, "It's gonna be a rough semester,
[00:02:24.360]'cause it's all so brand new,
[00:02:25.800]just like getting through any new curriculum,
[00:02:27.450]but we'll make it to the other end."
[00:02:31.080]Awesome, just keep swimming,
[00:02:32.760]just like Dory says. (laughs) Yes.
[00:02:35.610]So what are some of the biggest surprises
[00:02:38.070]or challenges that you've encountered so far?
[00:02:42.645]One of the first surprises, I think,
[00:02:44.850]the first unit module, I'm using the NDEs curriculum
[00:02:49.530]that they set up.
[00:02:50.363]So the first unit is history of computer science
[00:02:53.160]into what the future looks like,
[00:02:56.460]and so as I'm showing the kids some of the videos
[00:02:59.130]that were suggested,
[00:03:00.750]it's a little overwhelming, intimidating,
[00:03:02.940]like, "Holy cow, the world's gonna be taken over by robots,"
[00:03:05.220]is how we all got left feeling, and I'm like, "No, no, no.
[00:03:08.100]Think about these good aspects
[00:03:09.930]of what I didn't have to what you have."
[00:03:13.020]Another thing I really guess I was surprised by,
[00:03:17.100]or maybe I was taking for granted,
[00:03:18.360]or I realized that they take for granted,
[00:03:20.610]I am 34,
[00:03:22.440]and I feel like I have watched all these changes
[00:03:25.470]in technology happen that was being shown in the history,
[00:03:28.530]and the kids know nothing, like they are just like,
[00:03:31.710]they never knew it didn't exist.
[00:03:33.570]So it's really hard to get them to be like,
[00:03:36.870]how cool is that that that changed
[00:03:38.580]from here to here to here,
[00:03:40.410]because they're just over here,
[00:03:41.760]whereas I grew up seeing it all happen?
[00:03:43.920]So.
[00:03:45.510]And some challenges, (Kimberly laughing)
[00:03:47.610]I would say, in that first unit,
[00:03:49.020]I kept having the feeling like,
[00:03:50.767]"This really does not interest me.
[00:03:52.500]This is meant for somebody more
[00:03:54.180]in the science world to teach,"
[00:03:56.070]like, the intricates of the ins and outs
[00:03:57.870]of how to make these pieces work together,
[00:04:00.600]so that was hard for me,
[00:04:02.190]but the second module, much more my cup of tea,
[00:04:05.070]I'm enjoying it.
[00:04:05.903]The digital safety, digital citizenship,
[00:04:07.680]how to think through what you're reading online
[00:04:10.260]and whether it's true or false,
[00:04:11.310]how to check your information,
[00:04:12.480]so I'm enjoying where we're at right now a lot better.
[00:04:16.140]Oh, that's great to hear.
[00:04:18.000]All right, so looking back before you started,
[00:04:21.390]what are some things you wish you would've known
[00:04:23.370]or even prepared for before the class started?
[00:04:28.824]I feel like I was to the point where I'm like,
[00:04:31.156]"I'm not gonna prepare anymore
[00:04:32.850]than I am ready for right now,
[00:04:34.410]like, I just need to get rolling
[00:04:36.120]so I can see what's going on.
[00:04:37.740]I can't plan out a whole semester
[00:04:39.330]and find out it failed the first couple days,
[00:04:41.100]so I'll just work."
[00:04:42.720]I wish I could prepare
[00:04:46.320]how I'm gonna go about grading things sooner than I can,
[00:04:51.240]but until I work through it with them and see how they did,
[00:04:54.930]then I need to go back through and assess now
[00:04:56.430]how many points do I wanna give that,
[00:04:58.110]how much weight do I wanna give that?
[00:05:00.120]And that takes a while, so I'm like,
[00:05:01.777]"Sorry, kids, your pile is backed up,
[00:05:03.510]because I'm just still making decisions about..."
[00:05:06.480]So prepping for the grading was/is tough to get through,
[00:05:11.880]and I mean, obviously, in a perfect world,
[00:05:13.470]I wish I would've been through the whole unit,
[00:05:14.940]all of the semester on my own first,
[00:05:16.830]and I knew everything that was coming,
[00:05:18.210]but realistically, when I prep for seven other classes,
[00:05:21.540]and I have two kids at home,
[00:05:23.190]and I have other things to get done,
[00:05:24.990]I'm trying to just pretty much plan a week ahead.
[00:05:28.650]I am prepped a week ahead, so that way,
[00:05:31.320]I know what's coming before they know what's coming.
[00:05:34.740]Awesome, that's really, yeah,
[00:05:36.300]that's really good advice, too,
[00:05:38.010]and yeah, I didn't even think about the grading aspect.
[00:05:41.010]So even if you're, you know, getting more comfortable
[00:05:43.800]with the content of the course,
[00:05:46.380]that grading is completely different
[00:05:48.360]based on district to district.
[00:05:51.060]Yeah, that is definitely a challenge.
[00:05:56.520]So what are your goals for the remainder
[00:05:58.200]of this first semester?
[00:06:00.840]I think I've realized one of my goals
[00:06:03.090]is I need to make it to and through all of the modules,
[00:06:06.240]'cause right now, I know I'm behind
[00:06:08.730]what the pacing says I should be at,
[00:06:10.740]and when I haven't taught them before,
[00:06:13.410]I have no idea if I'm going to run out of time completely
[00:06:16.440]for module six, and I'm like,
[00:06:17.797]"You're gonna have to chop something somewhere
[00:06:20.430]to make sure you get core pieces covered,"
[00:06:23.100]'cause the ending is where the coding
[00:06:25.620]and the programming comes, and I can't run out of time.
[00:06:27.990]So kind of making sure I squeeze things together
[00:06:32.640]as I'm planning it out so I don't get too hung up
[00:06:35.310]on one situation here at the start.
[00:06:39.300]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:06:41.640]All right, last question.
[00:06:43.410]Are there any specific topics or skills
[00:06:45.390]that you're particularly excited or not so excited to teach?
[00:06:50.190]Right now, like, I am excited that this part,
[00:06:52.260]I feel I enjoy making them think
[00:06:55.260]about what they're doing online
[00:06:57.240]and why they choose to do it.
[00:06:58.920]It's so fun, like, when they Google,
[00:07:01.380]and the first thing that Google says is the answer,
[00:07:03.120]like, "What else do you want me to do?"
[00:07:04.710]I kept getting that this week.
[00:07:05.880]I'm like, "I want you to scroll down the page,
[00:07:08.130]find some more sources that connect to it,"
[00:07:11.190]and they're just clueless about that, it's so surprising.
[00:07:14.850]So that, I've been enjoying,
[00:07:18.180]a topic I'm not so excited about
[00:07:19.770]is obviously the programming part.
[00:07:21.750]I took that class in college 12 years ago,
[00:07:25.680]and haven't really had to touch it since,
[00:07:27.180]so it'll be a lot of refreshing for me, too.
[00:07:33.360]Awesome, all right, well, thank you so much
[00:07:35.550]for taking time to talk with us today.
[00:07:38.070]I really appreciate it.
[00:07:39.450]Of course, thank you for having me again.
[00:07:41.580]All right, so that was great.
[00:07:44.280]I'm really encouraged by the fact
[00:07:46.650]that she feels fairly confident,
[00:07:50.550]and it seems like she's got a sense of where it's going
[00:07:54.060]and what she's doing while it's still being challenging.
[00:07:57.330]It's the first year she's teaching something.
[00:07:59.100]Absolutely, yeah.
[00:08:00.330]So what was your sense?
[00:08:03.030]So I actually am about the same age as her,
[00:08:05.700]so I had a lot of the same experiences,
[00:08:07.440]so her talking about the different devices she had
[00:08:10.200]just reminded me of my childhood as well,
[00:08:12.750]and the different devices that I've gotten
[00:08:14.130]to experience throughout my life so far.
[00:08:16.560]Yeah, and our students are not aware of this,
[00:08:19.170]because they've always had a smartphone
[00:08:22.050]and devices in the classroom,
[00:08:24.720]so they haven't gone through this,
[00:08:26.130]but I feel like they are going a little bit through this
[00:08:30.180]with the changes in software,
[00:08:31.560]especially in the introduction of AI,
[00:08:33.300]so late in high school, they probably will tell
[00:08:37.560]the same stories.
[00:08:38.393]"I remember when we were-" (chuckles) Exactly.
[00:08:39.697]"Still doing ChatGPT 3.5," kind of thing.
[00:08:43.710]Yeah, definitely.
[00:08:44.970]All right, so this is mid-semester check,
[00:08:47.926]Yep. And I think
[00:08:49.320]we're planning to check in one more time,
[00:08:51.480]and kind of get a view Yeah.
[00:08:53.340]Of what has happened through the year,
[00:08:54.840]so I'm excited to hear I think-
[00:08:56.550]From Jamie again.
[00:08:57.480]I would love to hear her reflection back, you know,
[00:09:00.840]what she would do differently again and stuff, so yeah.
[00:09:03.343]All right, so we'll see you next time on CS4NE.
[00:09:07.511](bright music)

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Tech EDGE: CS4NE - Mid-Semester Check In with Special Guest, Jamie Schluter

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments