A computer science program supported by C Spire will now take hold in Mississippi classrooms, with some involvement from Mississippi State University.
The Technology Education And Learning in Schools (TEALS) program, which was formulated by Microsoft Philanthropies, will be presented in Mississippi, in conjunction with C Spire. The program is centered on teaching computer science in Mississippi, with efforts aimed at improving teacher skills, professional development and high school computer science instruction in Mississippi.
“Essentially what this is is an agreement, a letter of intent to cooperate, partner together on this initiative in Mississippi,” said C Spire Media Relations Senior Manager Dave Miller.
Miller said TEALS would go into place into five schools already part of Computer Science for Mississippi program (CS4MS). CS4MS was created for the Mississippi Department of Education by the MSU Research and Curriculum Unit and aims to bring computer science into every school in Mississippi by 2024.
“We need to reach students at a young age and help them understand the benefits of computer science education and the opportunities for a varied career path in the information technology industry,” said RCU project manager Shelly Hollis.
C Spire Chief Information Officer Carla Lewis said TEALS’ main contribution would be through training Mississippi teachers in computer science.
“We will be taking C Spire (industry professionals), and we will be reaching out to other businesses as well, and we will be putting industry professionals in the classroom,” Lewis said. “We will take software engineers that do this every day as a job, and we are going to put them into the classroom and pair them with the teachers to teach.”
Lewis said the model had worked in the past, and compared the engineer’s role to a coach on a sports team.
“What Microsoft has found, is that those people can relate very well to the students,” Lewis said.
Lewis also explained how C Spire became involved, and how the company would tie in with TEALS and CS4MS.
“One of the challenges they (CS4MS) faced in their pilot is that they (teachers) did not completely feel comfortable standing in front of the classroom to teach this to their students,” Lewis said. “That’s where we come in with the TEALS program, and that’s exactly what it does.”
TEALS is set up in 29 states, and has the goal of bringing technology into every U.S. high school. The program has been in existence since 2009.
“Those first five schools, I think that will be pretty significant, pretty symbolic that one of the leading programs in the country, in addition to what the CS4MS initiative that the department of education has going and all of that(is now in Mississippi),” Miller said. “It will definitely be a good complement to that, and this is a very highly-regarded program.”