Picture of Kylah taking field notes during “Kids Meet.”
This past April our team facilitated a new iteration of our Family Creative Learning (FCL) workshop series in collaboration with the Hadley Branch Denver Public Library. We were joined by two teacher candidates from the University of Colorado, Boulder as facilitators during the workshops. Below is a brief interview with Kylah reflecting on deciding to participate and on her experience working with families.
What attracted you/why did you decide to participate as a facilitator in FCL?
What attracted me to FCL was the idea of working with both children and their families in an informal education setting. I have a lot of experience working with and teaching children but not so much adults. As a soon-to-be-educator at the time I felt I definitely needed more experience working with families, not just children. I was also attracted to FCL for what was being taught and how it was being taught. I didn’t really have any prior experience with coding going into being a facilitator, but I was always interested in learning more about it. Being a facilitator in FCL was nice because I didn’t need prior experience in coding. I got to learn alongside the families which I thought was really cool. I learned a lot through just watching the families explore.
What was a moment as a facilitator that stood out to you and what was important to you about this moment?
A moment that stood out to me was when a dad was experimenting with coding a strip of lights. His family was working on their light box while the dad sat nearby on a computer with his light strip. He had been working on it for a long time trying to get what he and his family wanted it to do and when he finally achieved it he was so happy and excited. I loved seeing how happy he was over this new thing he learned how to accomplish. I am used to seeing those “aha” moments in kids but never in adults. It was refreshing and a good reminder that adults can still explore new things and be creative. I also just loved seeing how excited he was to show his family. Seeing how much they all cared about their project was so heartwarming.
3. What are you doing next? Are there things that you plan to carry from this experience into your new role?
I think being a facilitator in FCL actually helped me get a job! I am a first year teacher at an elementary school with a new “computer science focus school” label. In my interview I talked about my experiences with FCL and how I could bring some of what I learned to the school. I am now the 4th and 5th grade science, social studies, writing, and computer science teacher! I really look forward to bringing not only the new coding things I’ve learned but also the new family communication skills I’ve learned as well. I’m definitely very glad I got this experience as a facilitator in FCL. I think it has helped me a lot as I go on to be a teacher.
Thanks for reading! You can read more about the workshop series here as well as our new documentation strategy during the workshops here.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1908351