Hi there!
My name is Jerome Schmeiser. I am a BEAD student (After degree program) in my second semester at the University of Regina. I’ve never been someone who reads blogs, or had any ambition to start one, but I am excited to give it a try! Here’s a little more about me…
My first degree was in biology (also from the UofR), after which I spent 10 years working in labs as a quality assurance lab technician at a variety of places. The last position I held in that field was with the Saskatchewan Research Council, who unfortunately shut down the lab in Regina I was working at and moved their operations to Saskatoon at the end of 2022.
Looking for something different after that position ended, I applied for a position delivering coding and technology outreach with the Saskatchewan Science Centre. They had received funding from the Federal Government through the CanCode program, and were looking to provide outreach throughout the entire province of Saskatchewan. Myself and a partner were sent around the province to take over class rooms for an hour and get the students interested in tech and coding with fun, free to use programs, or tech we brought and provided. It was a fun job, and I got to see lots of Saskatchewan and a variety of schools/classrooms. But it was also very hard being away from my young family for days at a time. So I eventually decided to return to school to pursue my Ed degree, where you can find me today!
I gained some really great experience through that position with the Science Centre though, and some great resources for making tech fun. Some of the websites we used were really easy to get into, especially for kids since it lets them code using blockcoding!
If you’ve never heard of blockcoding, it is coding that is partly done for the user already, with important pieces of code already typed out and fitted into colour blocks. These blocks can then be fitted together like puzzle pieces for the user to make a functioning program out of! It takes all the hard work of having proper syntax out of coding, and makes it waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy more fun and approachable than traditional Java or Python coding. I would recommend using Makecode Arcade as a great free resource made by Microsoft to teach coding. You can make a variety of GameBoy style games on this site. My partner and I used to run a class through a lesson and have them get a functioning game in under an hour using this site.
Anyways, I am really excite for this course and for the opportunity to learn how to keep using tech in the classroom in a positive, uplifting way!