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Provincial cash to pay for teacher training, resources

Funds announced to cover costs for teaching coding to B.C. school kids
Coding
Maillard middle school students Anysia Andrisoaia (Grade 6) and Corbin Lawrence (Grade 7) hold one of the 140 Sphero SPRK — programmable robots donated by Finger Food Studios in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam to teach students about basic computer coding. The students presented at a board of education meeting last October. Last week, the province announced $6 million in funding for B.C. school districts for resources and teacher training for the new curriculum, including the teaching of computer coding

School District 43 is taking a wait-and-see approach to news that the provincial government will pump $6 million into resources and teacher training province-wide so students in kindergarten to Grade 9 can learn coding.

Without more details, the district's director of instruction for learning and information technologies, Stephen Whiffin, said he couldn't comment on last week's funding announcement by Premier Christy Clark.

But SD43 is uniquely placed to utilize the funding to maximize the dollars as it already has teachers who are teaching coding in schools and technology leaders who are championing the use of high-tech equipment in the classroom.

For example, middle schoolers are learning the building blocks of coding — the language used to write programs — with small, round programmable robots called Sphero SPRK and some SD43 elementary schools participated in Hour of Code, which uses games to teach children basic coding. In the older grades, students are using coding to make apps and games, and to build digital devices.

But without a direct infusion of cash from the province, SD43 would be unable to train all teachers in kindergarten to Grade 9 to implement parts of the new curriculum, which includes coding.

According to a Ministry of Education press release, the funds will be used to train teachers for the coding curriculum and for classroom resources and technology.

The plan is to have every student take a module of basic coding, which will see students analyze a problem, come up with a solution and a series of steps a machine can use to solve it.

"The world is changing and we need to move forward so students have the skills they need to succeed in that changing world," Education Minister Mike Bernier said in a press release last week. "Preparing our kids for their future is our most important job, and getting teachers trained to teach coding and the new curriculum is just one way we are doing that."