##Guidelines, Procedures and Frequently Asked Questions for ScriptEd Volunteers
#####About ScriptEd
Founded in 2012, ScriptEd is a start-up non-profit organization that aims to increase access to careers in technology by offering computer-programming classes in low-income high schools. ScriptEd’s courses are taught by experienced software developers on a volunteer basis, ensuring that students not only have exposure to the most up-to-date knowledge available, but also role models and potential mentors in the field. In addition, ScriptEd links students to internship opportunities to gain professional experience in which to apply their coding skills.
In its first year, ScriptEd’s program served 27 students in two high schools in Harlem, New York, and placed four of its students in internships at technology firms. Our students learned the fundamentals of Javascript, HTML, and CSS, and participated in field trip and job shadowing opportunities throughout the year. Next year, ScriptEd will expand to three additional high schools in New York City.
ScriptEd won the Dewey Winburne Community Service Award from South by Southwest, the Judges' Choice Award in the Millennial Impact Challenge from IGNITEgood and Huffington Post, the Teach for America Social Innovation Award, and the Emerging Innovator Award from American Express and Ashoka. ScriptEd has been recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change for Tech Inclusion, has been featured in Smithsonian, Time, Huffington Post, CBS and the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and its Co-Founder was a featured speaker at TEDxNYED.
#####Volunteer Commitment
ScriptEd classes are held twice weekly at partner schools throughout the school year. ScriptEd’s class schedule follows the New York City Department of Education’s school year calendar. For more specific information on volunteer dates by school, please review the calendar at this link.
Volunteers should plan to attend both classes each week, however, we understand that job commitments sometimes prevent some volunteers from volunteering twice a week. Please work within your school based teams to make sure that there is sufficient coverage for your class, and please see below for further information on procedures for volunteer absences.
Finally, please arrive to class 10 minutes before the start of class. This will give you time to settle in before students arrive.
#####Procedures for Absences of Volunteers
If you are unable to make a ScriptEd class, please indicate it on this spreadsheet of dates. While we understand that things come up at work and in life, it’s important to let both ScriptEd's Education Manager and your school team know as soon as possible if you’re not able to make a class so that we can ensure sufficient coverage for you.
#####Structure of ScriptEd Github Curriculum Page and Lesson Plans
ScriptEd’s Curriculum is hosted on Github:
https://github.com/ScriptEdcurriculum/curriculum
Nearly all ScriptEd lessons are structured as projects. Most lessons contain the final code for the project, teacher and teachers notes. The lessons are listed in the READMe.md file on the curriculum homepage.
Instructors should use the curriculum as a guide for each lesson, but should also review and plan for the lessons before teaching. There is a teaching strategies guide in the Github repository that volunteers may use to help plan lessons. Volunteers should also do their best to incorporate the strategies taught during the new volunteer training.
There are a few supplemental projects included in the lessons folders for students who are progressing more quickly than the rest of their class.
Finally, ScriptEd’s curriculum is a constant work in progress, and your feedback is tremendously appreciated. Please suggest changes and submit pull requests through Github if you would like to suggest a change in a lesson. Please see below for further information on giving feedback on lessons.
#####How to Work within Your School Based Team
Each school team will have at least four volunteers. One volunteer will be designated as a Lead Volunteer for each team. The Lead Volunteer will be responsible for writing class notes and communicating with school staff as necessary (see below for more information on classnotes).
In the beginning of the semester the Lead Volunteer will lead most classes, but as time passes, volunteers should rotate members who lead. This will ease the prepatation burden of each volunteer. You may want to discuss with your school-based team who will lead each project so that the lesson preparation work can be delegated appropriately.
Volunteers who are not leading class will play support roles during class. They will assist with individual questions from students, help remediate students who are falling behind and give supplemental projects to students who are working more quickly than the rest of the class.
You should work within your teams to determine appropriate coverage for each class.
#####Student Procedures
Volunteers should make sure that students follow the following procedures during each class:
• Computer Distribution: For volunteers working with schools with a pushcart of laptops, please check you email over the next few weeks for computer distribution procedures.
• At the beginning of every class, students should log their attendance at http://www.scripted.org/attendance
• All students will either have a network drive or a flash drive to save their work. If you students are using flash drives, please emphasize the importance of bringing the flash drive to each class. During the third lesson of the semester, students will sign up for Github accounts and will learn how to use the Github app. This way, student work will also be saved to Github. If a student loses his / her flash drive, then you should have the student clone his /her repositories onto a new flash drive.
We will share students’ Github pages with our potential internship partners when we begin to place students in internships.
• Please be sure to allow students five minutes at the end of class to save their work. This is especially important at Cristo Rey High School because students must leave ScriptEd class on time to go to their next class.
#####Procedures on Giving Feedback for Lessons
At the end of the second class each week, please have one volunteer from your team write notes on the class in one of the following Google documents:
• Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology
• Richard R Green High School for Teaching
• Brooklyn International High School
Your notes will inform curriculum revisions as well as inform ScriptEd’s Education manager of any significant issues that he/she should help you address.
Your notes should include:
• Which lessons and projects you’ve covered in class; Notes on anything worked that worked particularly well or approaches that you would like to change in the future.
• A general overview of the progress each student is making towards finishing his or her project(s).
• Any significant student issues (i.e., if a student is progressing more quickly than the rest of the class or if a student is falling behind, and the strategies that are being used to accommodate these students, what the volunteer team is doing to address the issue, any student attendance or behavior problems, etc.)
Here’s an example feedback note:
“This week we finished our HTML and CSS lessons. All but two students completed the lesson – Bill and Melissa were absent this week. Someone on our team will work with each of them to catch them up next week. We think there should be a couple of changes made to the lesson in github, and we will submit a pull request with our suggestions. We found that using a live coding strategy worked very well for this lesson.”
#####Tracking Student Progress
Students will qualify for ScriptEd internships with tech firms by showing their commitment to learning to code and mastery of the concepts taught during class. To track student progress, please be sure someone on your team tracks students’ project completion in the student progress chart (please click here to see an example chart)
Fill the excel block with green if the student has successfully mastered the lesson, yellow if the student had any issues completing the lesson, and red if the student has not yet completed the lesson. Please feel free to add notes to the excel blocks if you think it is appropriate to do so. Students can always return to any assignment to receive credit.
We will use this student progress chart to help us to determine which students will be selected to internships. You should reinforce students’ hard work by showing them their progress throughout the year. ScriptEd’s Education Manager will review the chart monthly and help you provide additional support to any students that are falling behind.
#####Homework
We do not have any formal homework assignments planned for students, but please feel free to assign homework to students as you feel is appropriate. For example, if a student has missed classes and needs to complete a project, it is appropriate to assign the remainder of that project for homework. If you want to assign students homework outside of the prescribed curriculum, please feel free to do so, but also make sure to take the time to evaluate the homework and give students credit for the assignment by adding the assignment to the student-tracking chart. If you assign homework and then don’t give students any credit for it, the students will be far less likely to complete homework in the future.
#####Suggested Weekly Itineraries
Here’s a suggested weekly itinerary for a volunteer who is leading a class and tutoring twice a week:
Sunday: Review week’s lesson plan and make notes on how best to teach the lesson with students. Write down a list of questions you would like to address with the students, and plan out your approach to teaching. (30 min – 1 hour)
Tuesday and Thursday: Lead students through new concept and project idea during ScriptEd class.
Thursday afternoon: Write lesson notes and reflections in google doc including any contributions from your school team. Update student progress chart. Email ScriptEd’s Education manager or Maurya with any outstanding concerns. (15-30 minutes)
#####Monthly Meetings with Education Manager
Each month, ScriptEd’s Education Manager will visit partner schools to evaluate the program’s progress. In preparation for this meeting, the Education Manager will review the lesson notes from the school and the student progress chart. The Education Manager will recognize the students’ progress during his/her visit, meet with the school coordinator to address any outstanding issues, and meet with the volunteers for thirty minutes at the end of the class to strategize how to differentiate instruction for each student and to provide general feedback on teaching and class management.
In preparation for these meetings, school-based volunteers should ensure their lesson notes and student progress chart are up to date.
#####Twice Yearly Official Student Evaluations
At the end of each semester, (December and May), we will hold a student hackathon. During the hackathon, students will work in teams to create projects using the concepts they’ve learned over the course of the semester.
Students will be evaluated on their projects at the hackathon using this rubric (generated by ScriptEd volunteers). At the first semester hackathon, we will not evaluate students on any concepts that they have not yet covered in class.
Additionally, students will have the opportunity to compete for prizes at the hackathon. We will arrange student teams by school – so that students from each ScriptEd school will compete against students at other ScriptEd schools. Student’s class attendance and project completion rate will account for 30% of their team’s final hackathon scores, so it’s important to encourage your students to attend ScriptEd classes and work hard as it will impact their final scores at the hackathon.
Our first semester hackathon is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, December 14, 2013 from 11:00am to 6:00pm. Details will follow later this semester.
#####Curriculum Planning Sessions
Interested volunteers can participate in curriculum planning sessions to help us develop and refine our curriculum. Curriculum planning sessions will be held every other week on Tuesdays at the Center for Social Innovation, located at 601 West 26th Street, Suite 325, New York, NY. The first session will be held on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 6:30 pm.
If you are interested in participating in these sessions, please contact Maurya Couvares at maurya@scripted.org.
#####Media / Speaking with the Press
Over the past year, journalists have asked to interview ScriptEd volunteers and students on their learn-to-code experiences. Please do not speak to the press regarding ScriptEd before consulting a ScriptEd staff member. If a member of the media contacts you, please contact Maurya Couvares: Maurya@scripted.org right away.
#####ScriptEd Organizational Values
######COLLABORATION AND SERVICE ScriptEd values collaboration between students, volunteers, and partner organizations. We value the contributions of others and are committed to bettering our field through serving our community. It is the strength of our collaboration that broadens the impact of our service. ######EMPOWERMENT AND DIVERSITY ScriptEd is committed to empowering our students with the experience and expertise to define their futures. This empowerment helps level the playing field for our students that, in turn, promotes diversity and inclusion in the technology industry.
######INNOVATION AND PERSISTENCE We are committed to solving large-scale problems using innovative solutions. We also encourage our volunteers to adopt innovative solutions to teach students complicated material. We persist when faced with obstacles, and we help our students persist as they continue to grow and learn.
######RESPECT AND HUMILITY We value the experiences and perspectives of our students and volunteers. We express this respect through the way we support our students’ learning and talk about their experiences, the way our volunteers work together in the pursuit of our mission, and the way we interact with our partner organizations. We humbly engage in self-reflection in order to ensure that our work continues to deepen the impact we make.
####Frequently Asked Questions
• What should I do if a student hasn’t shown up for two days in a row?
In the first instance, you should reach out to the school coordinator to alert him/her of the student’s absence. School coordinators are responsible for following up with the student if they are absent. If the student has shared his/her email address and the school allows volunteers to directly contact students, volunteers should consider emailing the student to encourage him/her to attend the next class. If the student continues to be absent, please contact ScriptEd’s Education Manager or Maurya Couvares.
• What should I do if a student is misbehaving?
If a student is misbehaving, please first have a volunteer speak to the student privately and individually to try to correct the behavior. It is important to correct small behavior issues as soon as possible so that the behavior does not escalate into a larger issue.
If speaking with the student directly does not work or if the behavior becomes repetitive, please contact the school coordinator immediately and send a follow-up email to the education manager to report the problem. If any issues persist, we will ask the student to not return to ScriptEd classes.
• What should I do if a student has fallen behind or isn’t keeping up with the rest of the class?
Students who are not keeping up with the class should be remediated by a volunteer. Please have a support volunteer work with the student individually to bring him/her up to speed.
• What should I do if a student is far ahead of the rest of the class?
We have a few additional programs on our Github page for students who are ahead of the rest of the class. These projects do not include teacher’s notes, but include sample code for a completed project.
• What should I do if I am having an issue or problem with a fellow volunteer?
We believe that the quality of our volunteers is critical to the success of our program. We expect our volunteers to act professionally and respectfully toward both students and fellow volunteers. If any volunteer acts inappropriately in class or is acting in a manner detrimental to student learning, please immediately contact the Education Manager or Maurya Couvares.