​Dear Handsworth FoS Community:

Handsworth Secondary School has an exciting opportunity to partner with TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) for the 2018/19 year! Learning computer science empowers young people to compete in the global economy and pursue careers across all sectors because it teaches students computational thinking and problem solving skills applicable in any industry. This partnership will enhance our computer science courses, and we need computer industry volunteers to help make it happen!

TEALS is a program supported by Microsoft Philanthropies that will recruit, mentor, and place passionate technology professionals as volunteer teaching assistants (TAs). These volunteers bring subject matter expertise and will join one of our classroom teachers in a team-teaching model. TEALS provides training for both our teacher and the volunteers. Through our partnership with TEALS, we will offer "Introduction to Computer Science" – an engaging curriculum based on the award-winning UC Berkeley CS10 course adapted specifically for secondary schools – as an offering in the ADST (Applied Design,Skills and Technologies) rotation to all Grade 8 students.

We will schedule the ADST rotation, the course will regularly fall during first period – this scheduling is strategic and will allow our volunteers to get to their regular jobs on time. The volunteer commitment is for the full school year, with the expectation that each volunteer will be in the classroom 1-2 times per week.

If you or someone you know works in the computer science or software engineering field and would be interested in making a difference in our students' future success, please contact me at rsamra@sd44.ca. Please forward this email to your contacts who might be interested or able to help find volunteers.

You can read more about TEALS on their website at http://www.tealsk12.org. We are extremely excited about this opportunity and I look forward to hearing from many of you!

Sincerely,

Rupi Samra-Gynane, Principal