{"id":21296,"date":"2020-05-27T19:25:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T02:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/?p=21296"},"modified":"2023-08-06T12:56:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T19:56:35","slug":"teaching-remotely-with-tynker-jasmine-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/teaching-remotely-with-tynker-jasmine-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Remotely with Tynker: Jasmine Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Teaching Remotely with Tynker: Jasmine Thomas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before Jasmine Thomas began teaching, she studied engineering and had a career in the tech industry. So, when looking for the right coding platform to engage her students, she was understandably pretty particular. \u201cWhat\u2019s thrilled me about Tynker so much is that there\u2019s so much there we\u2019re still busy learning,\u201d Jasmine tells us. \u201cOur students are tech-savvy, they get the world of coding and blocks. It\u2019s second nature. This means that we can get through content very quickly but, to my delight, we have not hit the end of Tynker! The volume of content that\u2019s here is a sheer thrill for a teacher like me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table alignright\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Connect<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BASISIndFremont\">@BASISIndFremont <\/a> <\/td><\/tr><tr><td> <a href=\"https:\/\/fremont.basisindependent.com\/\">BASIS Independent Fremont<\/a> <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Fremont, CA<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At BASIS Independent Fremont, Jasmine teaches computer science to students as old as ten and as young as four. \u201cI appreciate that there\u2019s content that 4-year-olds can get,\u201d she told us. \u201cThe Tynker Junior app has been a life-saver for me, teaching 4-to-7-year-olds. Tynker has thought it through, they don\u2019t have to deal with the challenges of navigating a mouse or touchpad. There\u2019s a touchscreen interface, drag and drop, it\u2019s very intuitive. They take to it very well. Kudos to Tynker for thinking out the natural psychology of how kids that young learn. You give them a lot of wins first, the design is just pure genius.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We asked Jasmine for some ideas to help teachers looking to better connect with students in a remote learning environment and we\u2019re excited to share some of her tips!<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tip #1: Game the System<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>During our talk, we were pretty impressed with one idea in particular that Jasmine\u2019s school has implemented. Using Tynker lessons and certificates,  <br>BASIS Independent Fremont has set up coding competitions between each grade to encourage students to collaborate and work to excel. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to use this in a huge way,\u201d Jasmine told us. \u201cWe\u2019ve created a leaderboard with all the grades competing against each other. Tynker gives me feedback and I can see the certificates earned per grade. We\u2019ve turned each grade into its own team. They chat and ping each other, and work together.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jasmine referred to this as \u201cgaming the system\u201d in our conversation. Tynker already emphasizes the fun in learning to code, but by turning the completion of Tynker lessons into a fun competition between different classes and grades, Jasmine has found a unique way to game-ify Tynker even more. It\u2019s kept the kids in contact with one another and has helped make what could be a very isolating experience into a more communal one.&nbsp; \u201cI monitor to make sure the competitive spirit doesn\u2019t go too far,\u201d Jasmine noted with a smile. \u201cBut the students are taking care of each other and learning from each other.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tip #2: Identify Leaders<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of the inherent challenges of teaching in a remote environment, one thing that Jasmine has found particularly beneficial is identifying the natural leaders in her classroom, \u201cTeachers are good at that,\u201d Jasmine explained. \u201cTapping into natural leaders in their pack who rise to the occasion. Teachers can partner with them and leverage what they know. We can work through it together because we\u2019re all here to learn together,\u201d Jasmine told us.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trusting the natural leaders in her class also made implementing the competitive leaderboard system that much easier as it incentivizes them to reach out to their fellow students and help them with things they\u2019re not understanding. \u201cIt\u2019s created a welcome exchange between the students,\u201d Jasmine said. \u201cIt\u2019s led to much better dialogue.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an intimidating moment in time for all of us, but ultimately Jasmine pointed out the resilience of children, and how in some ways they may be naturally better equipped to deal with this situation than us grown-ups. \u201cThey\u2019re coming into this with some fear, but one of the blessings of kids that young is they don\u2019t know their limits,\u201d Jasmine says. \u201cThey don\u2019t have preconceived ideas of what they can or can\u2019t do. You can throw all sorts of things at them, and they\u2019ll run with it!\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><em>Enjoyed this blog? Get more great tips from fellow educators in our <\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/?s=%22Teaching+Remotely+with+Tynker%22\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Remote Teaching with Tynker<\/em><\/a><em> blog series. <\/em><br><em>Have a great tip you&#8217;d like to share?&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"mailto:%20kmitra@tynker.com\"><em>Write to us<\/em><\/a><em>, we\u2019d love to share your story with the 300,000 teachers in Tynker\u2019s global community.<\/em> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teaching Remotely with Tynker: Jasmine Thomas Before Jasmine Thomas began teaching, she studied engineering and had a career in the tech industry. So, when looking for the right coding platform to engage her students, she was understandably pretty particular. \u201cWhat\u2019s thrilled me about Tynker so much is that there\u2019s so much there we\u2019re still busy learning,\u201d Jasmine tells us. \u201cOur [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,513,58],"tags":[449],"class_list":["post-21296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas-and-tips","category-school","category-teacher-feature","tag-school"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teaching Remotely with Tynker: Jasmine Thomas - Tynker Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gain insights from Jasmine Thomas on teaching remotely with Tynker. 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