We don’t have to tell you what you already know – teaching from home is very different than teaching in a classroom. During a normal school day, you can address many learning objectives, assign several projects, and have face-to-face teaching time with students. In a remote environment, however, we understand that you can only support top learning priorities, and the social emotional needs of your students come first. On top of that, you might be thinking about minimizing the equity gap for students when they do return to the classroom.
So, where does our computer science curriculum fit in? At Codelicious, we want to support you where you are, with the resources you already have, so you can teach students where they are. That’s why we pulled together this list of tips about teaching our curriculum from home using popular eLearning platforms. Hopefully, these are suggestions you can implement with the processes that you and your school already have in place.
And, if you’re looking for lessons to teach from home and need some fresh ideas, check out our 6 free eLearning lessons on our Teacher Resources page!
Class Dojo is a communication tool that allows teachers to connect with both students and families in a fun and interactive way. The Class Dojo layout offers a lot of flexibility to teach Codelicious curriculum.
| What Teachers Can Do | What Students Can Do |
| Use Class Story to share photos, videos, files, announcements, and events | Use Portfolio to share their work and have a voice |
| Record and share up to 8 minutes of video lessons (ex. short coding blocks) | Upload videos of their coding lessons (ex. playing the game they made) |
| Share links to websites and platforms; these are provided within our lesson plans | Upload a voice note that describes their reaction to what they learned |
| Share attachments (ex. handouts, formative assessments) | Share photos of completed handouts or formative assessments |
| Share events such as the link and details for a virtual video meeting (ex. Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts) | Join and participate in events posted by the teacher |
| Encourage discussion with family members during our unplugged or digital citizenship activities by posting questions and activity ideas where parents can see them | Send a short video, picture, or write about what they did as family or talked about as a family |
| Comment, give feedback, or “like” student work in Portfolio |
Seesaw is another communication tool that allows teachers to connect with both students and families in an organized way. Seesaw’s Class Journal feature offers some interactive ways to teach the unplugged and digital citizenship discussions in Codelicious curriculum.
| What Teachers Can Do | What Students Can Do |
| Use Class App to post Codelicious projects with specific instructions | Use Class App to post completed projects for teacher review |
| Record and share video for lessons using Class Journal (ex. short coding blocks) | Upload videos of their coding lessons (ex. playing the game they made) |
| Share links to websites and platforms; these are provided within our lesson plans | Upload a voice note or journal entry that describes their reaction to what they learned |
| Share attachments (ex. handouts, formative assessments) | Share photos of completed handouts or formative assessments |
| Moderate student discussions and comments for unplugged activities or digital citizenship discussions | Tag other students on a post to discuss ideas (if this feature is enabled by the teacher) Students can see and comment on all work they are tagged in – a great feature for unplugged activities or digital citizenship discussions. |
| Use the Family App to post questions, internet safety tips, and activity ideas as they relate to the Codelicious lesson plan to involve the whole family | Students can engage their family members in activities and discussions and share with the class |
| Receive students submissions and provide feedback in Class App |
Many of you are probably familiar with Google Classroom: a learning management system (LMS) that streamlines the process of sharing files between teachers and students. Using the G-Suite of products, educators can create classes, distribute assignments, and grade and send feedback using Codelicious curriculum resources.
| What Teachers Can Do | What Students Can Do |
| Keep handouts and materials from Codelicious organized in the Classwork page | Access lessons through the Classwork page |
| Use the comment bank to give feedback | Submit handouts using G Suite products (like Google Docs, Google Slides, or Google Forms) |
| Post, comment, and facilitate classroom discussions – great for digital citizenship lessons | Participate in classroom discussions posted by the teacher and collaborate on documents |
| Eliminate distractions by giving assessments (like our summative assessments) in locked mode, so students can’t browse other websites or open other apps | Take assessments, like Codelicious summative assessments, distraction free |
| Grade coursework and assessments from your Codelicious course | View graded work and feedback |
| Manage and view guardians, students, and co-teachers on the People page |
Schoology is a learning management system (LMS). It is laid out like a social media platform, so there are a lot of fun options to facilitate Codelicious discussions and projects.
| What Teachers Can Do | What Students Can Do |
| Keep materials from Codelicious organized by creating assignments | Access lessons and directly submit them through Schoology |
| Post handouts and formative assessments for student completion | Submit work through screenshots, pdfs, and video clips |
| Connect students in collaborative groups for discussion – great for unplugged activities or digital citizenship lessons | Participate in classroom discussions and threads posted by the teacher – great for unplugged activities or digital citizenship lessons |
| Engage students in digital citizenship discussions in a social-media like forum layout | Share ideas via videos and images in the form – great for unplugged activities or digital citizenship lessons |
| Grade student projects and assessments (easily switch between submissions, provide written and video feedback, and record grades) | Students can access graded work and teacher feedback |
Finally, Canvas is a learning management system (LMS) most often used to distribute Codelicious curriculum to our educators, and you can use it with your students as well! Canvas offers dynamic ways to distribute lessons from your Codelicious courses.
| What Teachers Can Do | What Students Can Do |
| Keep materials from Codelicious organized in the Modules section | Access lessons and directly submit them through Canvas |
| Post handouts and formative assessments for student completion | Submit work through screenshots, pdfs, and video clips – great for unplugged activities or digital citizenship lessons |
| Post discussion questions for students – great for unplugged activities or digital citizenship lessons | Participate in classroom discussions and threads posted by the teacher – great for unplugged activities or digital citizenship lessons |
| Grade student projects and assessments using SpeedGrader | Students can access graded work and teacher feedback |
The remote learning platforms mentioned above have done a great job of compiling training and resources to help you teach from home. If you want more tips specific to each platform, explore the links below:
Schedule a 30-minute call to explore our courses with one of our curriculum experts. You will preview curriculum features such as syllabi, lesson plans, and standards mapping.
