Operation Reboot: Transforming Unemployed IT Workers into High School Computing Teachers

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。佐治亚理工学院提出了一项名为操作重新启动的创新计划，该计划既帮助希望转行到高中教学的失业IT工作者，也帮助希望更精通计算机科学内容领域的现有高中教师。IT工作者和现有教师将配对。他们将在一年内共同教授至少两节计算机课。在那一年(可能是下一年)，IT工作者将参加佐治亚州教师替代准备计划(GaTAPP)，该计划为拥有学士学位但没有教师教育学位的个人提供教学认证。GaTAPP为失业工人、退伍军人和其他希望转行的人提供服务。在重启行动中，IT工作者和现有教师将由一名模范计算教师指导，他们将参加佐治亚理工学院的一个成功项目，该项目为计算机科学教师提供暑期研讨会和全年专业发展。重新启动行动的参与者将获得计算机科学的认可。教师的动机、自我效能感、工作满意度和对教学的承诺与他们的职业认同密切相关。通过联合教学、GaTAPP所需的课程、辅导和佐治亚理工学院的教师研讨会，该计划将把IT工作者的身份转变为计算机教师的身份。具体成果包括(1)将30名失业的信息技术专业人员转变为高中计算机教师；(2)改善了至少30名现有高中计算机教师的教学知识和教学内容知识；(3)提高了参与学校提供的计算机课程的数量和质量；(4)改善了数千名学生的计算机教育。除了在佐治亚州的影响，该项目还可以为其他州提供一个榜样，在面临严重缺乏计算机科学知识的教师的情况下，努力提高教育质量。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Georgia Institute of Technology proposes an innovative program - Operation Reboot - that assists both unemployed IT workers who wish to make a career switch into high school teaching and existing high school teachers who wish to become more proficient in the computer science content area. The IT workers and existing teachers will be paired. Together, they will co-teach at least two computing classes over a year. During that year (and possibly the next), the IT worker will participate in the Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program (GaTAPP) which provides teaching certification to individuals who hold a bachelor's degree but not a teacher education degree. GaTAPP serves unemployed workers, returning troops, and anyone else wishing to make a career switch. In Operation Reboot, the IT worker and the existing teacher will be mentored by an exemplary computing teacher, and they will participate in a successful Georgia Tech program that provides summer workshops and year-round professional development for computer science teachers. Operation Reboot participants will earn a computer science endorsement.A teacher's motivation, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and commitment to teaching are closely linked with their professional identity. Through co-teaching, the courses needed for GaTAPP, mentoring, and the teacher workshops at Georgia Tech, this program will transform the IT worker's identity into that of a computing teacher. Specific outcomes include (1) the transformation of 30 unemployed IT professionals into high school computing teachers, (2) improvements to the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of at least an additional 30 existing high school computing teachers, (3) an increase in the number and quality of computing courses offered at the participating schools, and (4) an improvement in the computing education of thousands of students. Beyond its affect in Georgia, this program could provide a model for other states working to improve the quality of education in the face of a severe shortage of teachers with computer science content knowledge.