Computer Literacy Instructors

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BCAUSEICAN has a mission to provide programs and services to underserved communities. The leading program is the BCAUSEICANCODE curriculum, which provides the instruction of coding concepts, terminology and skills to begin the art of coding for grades K-12. We currently focus on schools in Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia (the DMV as it is known to locals). With the impacts of COVID-19, the need for online teaching has grown tremendously. And the need to teach children how to use computers is more important than ever.

We are recruiting volunteers who have experience in coding, whether it is Python, Scratch, or Java. Scratch experience is preferred, but if you know the other languages, Scratch is easy to learn. Experience teaching is helpful and proficiency with Zoom is a plus, though Zoom is easy to learn if you are comfortable with computers.

We need volunteers to act as teacher assistants in our grade school coding classes. These classes are virtual, once a week, and usually 2 hours. A staff member will teach the class, and the teacher assistants will help by monitoring the students' participation, helping with any unexpected problems, peer reviewing material, and giving feedback to the class. This position is meant to train our teacher assistants how to handle the class and material so that they are able to take on a lead teacher position in the future.

The classes are usually around 15 students and range in age from kindergartners to 5th grade and are about 45 minutes. The classes teach basic computer skills to the youngest students and teach the basics of python, scratch, and raspberry pi to the older students. You'll work closely with the lead teacher to make sure you're comfortable with the online platform and material. We use Zoom for most of our online classes and classes will be recorded. Currently, our classes are from 2:30 to 4pm EST on Tuesdays, though we have many schools that are interested in joining us and we will be adding more classes throughout the rest of the year. The classes are two 45 minutes sessions back to back. It is preferred that you can commit to both, but if you can only commit to one a week, that’s okay. We are hoping to recruit volunteers who can stay at least through the rest of the school year. It is a commitment of between 2 and 3 hours a week. 1 or 2 hours of that is actually teaching the classes using Zoom, and 1 hour is preparation and support for those classes.

Interested? We’d love to hear from you!