Alien Language

[runningbio]

Hello,
My name is Carla and I am a high school science teacher who changed careers after getting my PhD in molecular biology and doing a postdoc in tissue engineering.  I worked a bit in pharmaceutics research while watching my husband leave engineering and become a middle school teacher. I thought he was nuts at the time, but now here I am 8 years later and could not be happier as a teacher and mom to a 7 year old son.

I am so lucky to be working at a progressive and amazing school with very talented students. The school supports teacher development in the summer through a generous funding program designed to support us in whatever will nourish and motivate us.  Sounds crazy right?! But they mean it. Last year I finished my yoga teacher training.  This year I am being paid for two weeks to attempt this course while my son enjoys our summer camp.  I recently recruited my husband to also come work at this school to teach engineering.

One of my students is the one who recommended the course, which he completed as an independent study in the Fall. He said it will be better for me than a programming language, because I will have a better idea of what a computer is doing. Then, a programming language will have more meaning.

Thank you for offering such a quality course that lowers the barrier for someone like me to gain exposure to this field.  Because I am a die hard life science lover, this feels like an alien language so far.  Here's to hoping I can do it!  I am not off to a strong start but am surely learning a great deal that will, if nothing else, allow me to support our students being challenged by their own introduction to computer science and remind them that this alien language and way of thinking will be helpful!

[cadet1620]

Welcome to the course.

I, too, found the course through a student.  In his case I was looking for online content for him to learn about computer programming and hardware. I quickly became addicted to supporting the course; it's become my "teacher" outlet since I'm no longer teaching or tutoring math.

My "about me" post.

Feel free to email me directly with any questions.

--Mark