September 22, 2013

In one of the most adventurous and spontaneous decisions of my life thus far, I decided to spend a year living and working in Jerusalem for MEET, teaching computer science for change. (For a laymen’s description of MEET, check out my other post.)

My role at MEET, 2013-2014

From August 2013 to August 2014, I am a full-time staff member (the second ever MEET Fellow) at MEET based in Jerusalem. MEET is an NGO that aims to empower Israeli and Palestinian youth to bring about positive change in their communities and solve complex problems by teaching them computer science and business skills over three years in an after-school high school program.

My responsibilities include (but are not limited to)…

• teaching all yearlong computer science classes (Y1 and Y2, both Jerusalem and Nazareth) and providing feedback, advice, and mentoring to all (~140) students
  • mentoring individual and group projects
  • creating and designing all said projects
  • providing feedback and mentoring to two students studying overseas
• developing the new computer science curriculum for the Y2 yearlong and Y3 summer (collaborating with the business curriculum team leads)
  • creating content, connecting experts, thinking big
• improving the Y1 yearlong curriculum from 2012-2013
• serving as “Head of Curriculum” and think about high-level issues related to the 3-year computer science sequence
  • writing up transition materials for the next yearlong and summer instructors
• serving as “Head of Instructors” as a liaison between the Middle East staff and the MIT instructors that are recruited to teach the summer program
  • thinking about MIT instructor needs
  • thinking about CS curricular needss
• helping with summer instructor recruitment and spring / pre-summer preparation
• managing and coordinating MEET alumni TAs for the yearlong and the summer

The year will be an exciting mix of intensity, teaching, management, and on-the-fly thinking. Of course, all done in conjunction with Talya, the program manager.

Goals

Goals:

• Become a better computer science instructor, both for explaining fundamental concepts and as a project mentor
• Learn basic conversational Hebrew and Arabic (as a consequence of living in Jerusalem)
• Improve my middle-management skills
• Learn a new computer-science-related technology I have never worked with before
• Publish my lecture notes / lesson plans / labs in a coherent way somewhere on the internet
• Figure out the best way to provide feedback to so many students at a time adn in an effective way
• Think about what is really important to teach from CS to empower young students to change the world

I am excited to see the students grow as they continue their computer science studies, and I am excited to help them produce successful individual and group projects throughout the year and the summer.

In all, I took this job knowing that it will be both challenging and rewarding. My education thus far has brought me to a point where I am ready to take on challenges and share my knowledge with the world, empowering both myself and others.