Tanya Blackwell 

How did you get into CS?

In high school, I took a computer coding course and loved it. When I joined the military, there was a hiring freeze at my first stateside duty station, and we had to take on a number of civilian jobs; that’s how I ended up getting into database administration. One thing led to another, and my next job was software engineering. I did part-time jobs working in coding, help desk, sysadmin, and DBA throughout my time in the military. I loved everything about programming and software development - the troubleshooting aspect of it, the need for attention to detail. 

When I came back from Iraq, I felt like I had beaten the statistics by being able to stand on my own two feet despite having gone through a divorce. It wasn’t common for single mothers to be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle without struggling, but I did really well because of the money that I was making in my IT jobs. Once I came back from deployment, I felt like it was important for me to give back by passing these skills on so others would also be able to put themselves in a better situation. That was one of my biggest reasons for coming into teaching kids technology.

I started out teaching computer science and computer applications, which then turned into engineering. What I like to do is teach my engineering students CS, and teach my CS students engineering; I've done that in the classroom for the last 10 years or so. 

Currently, my role is an Instructional Technology Coordinator. I try to teach teachers how to integrate technology into their lessons, how to make their lessons more engaging, and how to include more hands-on activities. I am a huge believer in getting the students up and out of their seats. Kids like getting their hands dirty; they don’t go home and tell their friends and tell their parents about how much they enjoyed doing worksheets.

What are some successes and challenges that you've experienced?

Some of the challenges that I have are finding teachers to teach this curriculum to who really love teaching computer science. The successes are when you can get a teacher who's willing to try bringing CS into their classrooms, even if it’s just one assignment. When I can convince a non-CS teacher to let me show them how to incorporate CS into their subject, that's a big success to me. They’re stepping outside of their comfort zone and thinking for the good of the students. Having the opportunity to CS in their other classes allows kids to see that coding isn’t a scary, unapproachable thing.

What do you find compelling about computer science?

What I find compelling is the need to address the way that computer science, along with engineering and art, are taught in a silo. Art and technology intersect all around students in everyday life; as the people who define education in our school systems, we need to figure out how to bring them together in the classroom as well.

What are you excited about?

I’m looking forward to working with one of our teachers over the summer. We’re hoping to get her department to join us in mapping out what they want to do for next year, including identifying how we can embed CS in other subjects, and setting up the training to prepare their teachers.

Any advice or resources you’d like to share?

I would love to see more resources for teachers who want to learn how to integrate CS into their subjects. Not just art and engineering, but English and social studies; there are ways to tie it in to every subject.

Amazon's Project STEM is a good resource for learning. It lends itself to blended learning for students, and teachers can learn the material alongside their students. MIT’s Scratch is also an excellent hands-on resource for students to use.