The British Columbia Institute of Technology [BCIT] has partnered with Microsoft’s Technology Education and Literacy in Schools [TEALS] program to teach foundational computational skills to BC high school students.
Microsoft TEALS exists because many high schools want to offer computer science courses but often don’t have teachers who are trained on the subject. To fill this gap, TEALS volunteers work with classroom teachers to team-teach students, and to equip instructors with the knowledge to teach students on their own.
With support from the BC Ministry of Education and BCIT, the BC branch of TEALS successfully launched in 2018 and has already educated more than 400 students across four BC high schools: Handsworth Secondary School, John Oliver Secondary School, Burnaby South Secondary School, and Killarney Secondary School.
“The support and expertise from BCIT in helping to bring TEALS to BC and adapt the program for Canada as a partner has been invaluable,” said Kevin Wang, founder of TEALS at Microsoft. “We are incredibly thankful for their work with us in the past year.”
BCIT is also offering grants to participating BC schools to ensure all schools have the means to provide computer science training for classroom instructors. As well, program materials for students – from computers to textbooks – are provided. More details are on the BCIT website.