Anyone teach or run clubs?

[Danp]

I'm guessing most users here are techs of different levels, but does anyone here do any teaching or run clubs?

[Syman_a]

I have run code clubs in the past for our KS2 kids.

I also manage an online maths intervention with a few kids to help them catch up.

[mikeprice]

I was a full time teacher (plus doing IT Tech bits) for over 10 years - although I try to keep it quiet on here

 

When I came back to the dark side (the hobnobs are better!) - I still did some teachering (only a few hours and occasionally ran a club after school

 

 

There are several people on here who are proper teachers

 

but clearly not one of 'those teachers' because if they break something they probably have to fix it themselves!

[Ditto]

Did a bit of voluntary IT assistance at my kids primary. Wanted to run code club there, but lack of teacher support and the fact it had to be free was an issue. They were concerned it would compete with chargeable clubs. Bit annoying really.

[titch]

I do few ICT lessons a week with various year groups. I also do games with the same year groups. I really enjoy it and makes it one of the really nice things of working in an education setting.

 

I have to say that also using the IT labs and services with the kids does open you up to seeing some of the pitfalls teachers face and get frustrated with. Had I not been admin and had access to AD etc there would certainly have been times my IT lessons would have either been scuppered or a kid would have been either sat out or sharing becuase something was either wrong or setup incorrectly and I would have needed to then log a call and wait for someone from IT to resolve.

 

It also lets you see the fruits of you labour. Sad as it is I take pleasure in seeing a student seamlessly move from there BYOD device to a school computer and immediately pickup where they left off! Whilst no one else appreciates what went into makeing that happen I know my hours research and config now saves 10 minutes of every lesson that involves a computer and I take pride in that.

[Primus]

Yes I teach as well as manage our infrastructure.

[Andycat]

Dependent on demand, I teach brass (music) and run the Brass Ensemble some years, also Conduct the School Musical etc. Depends how keen/experienced the Music department staff are (They're good at the mo)

[paulkerton]

Used to run coding clubs, and Minecraft clubs for KS2 in my old job. Probably will do some similar things in my new job once the coronavirus wildness has calmed down.

[Scotbynature]

I have run a few clubs over the years including minecraft, Lego and also Archery. I was a member of an archery club and the head asked if I would do it with a select few Y11 pupils. Went really well but I decided the following year didn't really have enough candidates that I thought I could trust completely to take part so we cancelled it.

[ThatBoringBloke]

I'm in charge of our school's CCF.

[Rob446]

I volunteered with a computer club at our local community centre for a few months, but I'm not a programmer. It was advertised as a full range - hardware, programming, video production etc. but in reality was just a bunch of Raspberry Pis and copying Python programmes out of a book.

 

I lived 5 mins walk away, but they asked me to start giving this guy a lift who lived 5 miles away (so, 20 miles of driving for me every Tuesday evening) and when I tried to explain how this wasn't really fair to ask me I got some attitude back, so I just quit.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Rob446

[Danp]

Thanks all, great to hear there are some others. Would be good to share some ideas if others are keen? I've recently joined the Computer at School group which is very useful.

 

At my last school, I was an assistant form tutor and helped in a couple of computing lessons. My new job will include some teaching but also assisting with planning for others to deliver. I had a Y8 lesson last week, I talked about Bletchley Park, coding and set them some Caesar cipher tasks, it went well and I think they enjoyed hearing from someone else! I'm hoping to get a team together for the CyberFirst Girls Competition.

 

I echo what @titch has said, I enjoy being a part of the school, not just the IT person.

[Jawloms]

Minecraft club. I started it at feb half term and it ran until lock down. It was fun while it lasted........ We'll start it back up sometime.

[Sonic007]

Ran a club getting kids to build their own computers.

[Rob_D]

Last couple of years I helped out with an after school gaming club (all started when we joined the Digital Schoolhouse Overwatch tournament and expanded from there). Although it was mostly getting things installed and troubleshooting, it was still something a bit different and interesting. Unfortunately the teacher in charge lost interest and DHS moved to Smash Bros, which for some reason was run as a different after school activity by another teacher (and didn't need any help from us). We still have all the infrastructure, including a steam cache server and a set of gaming PC's that Creative Assembly donated.

[Mako]

Ran a club getting kids to build their own computers.

 

I've done this. I took a bunch of desktops that were due for recycling and our introductory lessons were to strip them completely and reassemble a few times, learning components and procedures along the way.

 

Once I was happy that they could competently do it without breaking anything, I unveiled the brand new kit. They had to go into teams of 4 and build together, but in the end they had budget gaming PCs and we did "software testing" to make sure that Windows and the software was installed correctly...

 

Although it was rewarding for all involved, I did say I'd never do it again. I was limited to lunchtimes and being a full-time tech (at the time) as well, it put a strain on that particular day of the week as I hardly got 5 minutes to myself.

[dhicks]

Although it was rewarding for all involved, I did say I'd never do it again.

 

I've been tempted to say I'll run a robotics club in the past, but I've always been a bit worried about the amount of work involved. We're an independant school, pupils (or their parents) can afford to pay for clubs so we can do some nice stuff - it would be quite reasonable for us to be able to run a build-your-own-robot type club with the aim of each child being able to take a robot home with them at the end of the process. I can see that sucking up a bunch of time, though.

[mikeprice]

I ran a Raspberry Pi club for a term at one point

 

problem was that to connect the things we had to disconnect the monitors and keyboards from the computer room desktops

 

and then put them back again afterwards

 

and it didn't attract the nicest kids - they were ok but needed to be kept an eye on - and the promised help never appeared

 

then they re-arranged the timetable so I was having to see a form out of school (Primary) after the end of school - so the Pi club kids were just left on their own until all the parents had bothered to turn up - and sometimes I had to phone a missing parent after - so it all became a nightmare

 

the actual club was OK once we got the things connected and running - I got on well with the kids mostly - it was just the overheads in terms of organisation that was the problem

[KarlGoddard]

Minecraft club. I started it at feb half term and it ran until lock down. It was fun while it lasted........ We'll start it back up sometime.

 

May I ask how did you set up the MC club?

 

Did you host the MC server in house or how go to external hosting?

 

What activities did you run in the club and what involvement did you mainly have??

 

Apologies for the questions - just interested in doing something similar at my current school!

 

TIA

[mthomas08]

Dabbed in teaching and adult learning and used to run the IT clubs.

 

I do miss some of it but now I just don't have that level of time.

[Danp]

My after school computing club starts tonight. I've not got a huge amount planned so far apart from getting them to create a Google Site for our club and discussing what they want to do going forward. I'll probably do something with some micro:bit