Integrating Computer Science and Math in Classroom for Career Readiness

Our very own Mr. Llewellyn participated in a program that collaborates with local Tech companies to bring career readiness to the classroom.
Check out the Register Guard story below:

By Sherri Buri McDonald
The Register-Guard

The lessons that a dozen high-school educators learned this summer from their Elevate Lane County work experience at local tech firms are starting to show up at local high schools — in ways both big and small.
At a gathering in August, marking the end of their four-week industry immersion, 11 area high school teachers and one school counselor shared how they planned to apply what they had learned at area tech companies.
Becci Buenau, who has taught computer science at Junction City High School for the past three years, said she will continue to teach a survey course to expose all students to computer science, not just those who want to major in computer science in college. But the material she teaches now has moved up a notch.
“This is college-geared,” she said. “It’s really raising the level of complexity.”
Taylor Llewellyn, who teaches 7th- through 12th-grade math in Lowell, said he will teach computer science this fall, partly because of his summer industry experience.
He worked at real estate tech firm IDX, marketing firm Lunar Logic and graphic design studio Revolution Design Group.
He said he won’t just introduce students to programming and other technical skills. He will incorporate what he learned about tech firm culture and how teams manage projects.

It will take Corey Culp, a business and computer teacher at McKenzie High School, a little longer to apply what he learned this summer at software developer Palo Alto Software and Partnered Solutions IT, an information technology support services firm.

But he said he has developed a four-year plan to implement new curriculum at his school, east of Springfield, along the McKenzie River.
“I know that wouldn’t have happened without this experience,” Culp said.
“Now I have the confidence that I can pull this off. I feel I can offer things that students maybe think can only be offered at the bigger schools.”
Cheri Young, a math teacher at Monroe High School in Benton County, north of Junction City, said her summer experience at Lunar Logic and Revolution Design has sparked ideas about how to weave computer science and technology concepts into her math classes, so all students are exposed to them.
Young said it also opened her eyes to new career opportunities that she can share with students.
“Monroe’s economy is still logging and farming,” Young said. “Students don’t know where to turn for connections, and a lot of staff don’t know either. Now I, as an educator, have people to connect students to … so they can see what’s out there beyond our local economy.”
Mary Taylor said she sees new energy and momentum around teaching high-schoolers about computers, a subject she has taught at South Eugene High School for the past 17 years.
“I’ve been spinning my own ideas that suddenly became really important,” she said. “All of a sudden this year we’ve had huge support.”
Taylor said initially she was hesitant to do the summer industry experience because she didn’t need it for approval to teach college-credit Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses at her school. Plus, teachers use the summer break to regroup and recharge, so she was reluctant to fill it with more work.
But Taylor recalled Matt Sayre, Technology Association of Oregon director, saying something that resonated with her. He said teachers can’t effectively help students walk through a door that teachers haven’t been through themselves, she recalled.
Taylor said she has friends and family members who worked in the tech industry, so “I thought I kind of knew what it was like to work at a tech company.
“I did not know,” she said.
Taylor worked this summer at CBT Nuggets, a firm that provides online training for information technology professionals worldwide. She called the experience “phenomenal.”
Now, “I will be able to lead my students through that doorway that I couldn’t have without this experience,” Taylor said.