April 13, 2023: Evans County Charter School System (ECCSS) is pleased to announce that two Claxton Middle School (CMS) teachers, Ms. Stephanie Myers and Ms. Kelsey Stephens, have been named recipients of the inaugural Georgia Department of Education Computer Science Opportunity Grant.
Mr. Bryan Cox, the Program Lead for Computer Science at the Georgia Department of Education, shared the purpose of the grant in an email. Mr. Cox stated, “This grant is designed to build community for teachers around computer science education and provide physical computing resources and professional learning on those resources for teachers to support their classroom instruction.” This grant will help provide Myers and Stephens with professional learning through the Computer Science Teachers Association and at a summer conference. Additionally, funds from this grant will be used to purchase a classroom set of computing devices and professional learning for those devices.
Both Myers and Stephens expressed gratitude for being selected for this grant. Ms. Myers stated, “I am excited about the opportunities this grant provides our students. This grant represents a significant step with our faculty’s ability to empower our students with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills required to thrive in today's technology-driven world. This investment is not limited to computer coding but rather an opportunity to develop computational thinking skills across various subjects. Integrating computer science into content classes allows students to explore and apply computational concepts, fostering a deeper understanding of the material and promoting a more interconnected approach to learning.”
Ms. Stephens added, “We are almost one year into our Developing Computer Science Master Teachers program, and we have learned so much about programming, computational thinking, and how to teach these concepts to our students. This grant will allow us the opportunity to teach students important coding skills that will connect with what they learn in their science classrooms. Our world is in the 4th Industrial Revolution, and I'm thrilled to see how my students will eventually transfer these new skills to their future careers."
Ms. Tanita McDowell, principal at CMS, stated, "CMS is so proud of Ms. Myers and Ms. Stephens! We appreciate their commitment to improving computer science instruction and learning! We appreciate being selected for this grant, and we will put this opportunity to good use at CMS."