Have you checked out Further recently? If not, now is a great time to have a peek because the award-winning computer science lesson platform has gotten a few updates that we think you'll like!
Based on feedback from real teachers who are using pi-top products in their classrooms, we have added some great new features to Further, that will guide even novice computer science teachers step-by-step through each lesson.
Lesson Management
Classroom management in a computer science classroom is key, and good classroom management begins with simplified lesson management. Our lesson library has over 150 hours of standards-aligned computer science lessons. Just imagine the exciting activities you can implement in your class!
But we know you don't have time to dig through all those lessons and figure out which ones are the most relevant to your students. So we've simplified our platform to make it quick and easy to plan each class.
Not only are the lessons separated into Level 1 (beginner), Level 2 (intermediate), and Level 3 (advanced), you can also filter all lessons and activities by:
- Skill level of the students
- Hardware being used (robotics, electronics kits, etc.)
- General subject matter (CS, Math, history and more - because pi-top lessons provide students cross-curricular opportunities, for real-world applications of their computer science knowledge.)
Standards Alignment
But wait, there's more! Once you select a lesson, you can now download and refer to the Standards Alignment document for each lesson, designed to provide clear guidance around effective and equitable CS instruction, in line with CSTA standards.
These Standards Alignment documents will guide you through the defined ‘concepts’ students should know and the ultimate ‘practices’ they should be able to do, while also providing aspirational goals to guide your professional learning as you progress from novice to master CS teacher.
Scope & Sequences
Undoubtedly, a core strength at pi-top is the expertise of our content team. Having prior experience teaching computer science concepts themselves, this team has a keen understanding of the workings of a computer science classroom.
This prompted the recent addition of Scope & Sequence documents to courses on Further, detailing a summary of what you'll be teaching, the sequence in which lessons will be taught, and the expected outcomes of each lesson.
The Scope & Sequence document also lists key ‘Guided Questions’ for teachers to turn to during computer science lessons, along with a clear set of ‘Objectives’ to measure students’ takeaways.
We want to make teaching and learning computer science fun and easy for everyone and we think these new features help do that- but stay tuned as we have even bigger things coming. Take a look at all the new tools and let us know what you think!
