CSTA Greater Houston: What inspired you to work in STEM/CS education?
Bradley Quentin: “When I started teaching at Sinclair, I had spent many years teaching in a departmentalized situation and I was increasingly frustrated by the constraints a rigid rotation schedule put on my planning. I was trying to use more project-based learning but found it tough to do when I only had 90 minutes with a class. At Sinclair I got the chance to return to a self-contained classroom and was free to implement cross-curricular projects. I was still teaching 3rd grade when I heard about Hour of Code (HoC). I looked into it, and it sounded interesting, so I did it with my class that year. The kids really enjoyed the HoC tutorial and asked if we could do more coding. After that year’s Hour of Code, I got an email about a Code.org teacher training in Houston which I attended. There I learned about the Code.org curriculum and, more importantly, about Scratch. Both became part of my class. The combination of CS and project-based learning in my class is part of what led my principal at the time to convert our traditional science lab into a STEM lab.”
CSTA Greater Houston: Do you have a student success story you'd like to share?
Bradley Quentin: “When I first started using Scratch with my 3rd grade students it was a workstation that students rotated through during the math block. Students did not get any direction about what to make. Rather, I let them explore and try things out. This led to a large number of projects filled with rainbow cats meowing and spinning in circles. One day a student called me over to see what she had made. It was an animated scene from the book she was reading. That was the moment when I fully realized the power of computer programming as a tool for students to share their thoughts and ideas and to show what they have learned.”
CSTA Greater Houston: What advice would you give a teacher new to teaching computer science/STEM?
Bradley Quentin: “Do not be afraid to say, ‘I don’t know’ when a student asks a question you cannot answer. As a beginning teacher not knowing something a student might ask was one of my greatest fears. When I started teaching CS and STEM, I began to understand that getting to say that I do not know something is a precious opportunity to guide students through a problem-solving process. Students asking questions I cannot answer means they are pushing themselves and embracing a challenge. Now I look forward to getting to say, ‘I don’t know, let’s figure it out together.’”
CSTA Greater Houston: Why should teachers join the CSTA Greater Houston network?
Bradley Quentin: “The best professional development is teachers talking to other teachers. Through CSTA Greater Houston I have met and had the opportunity to learn from some of the best teachers in our area. Particularly at the elementary level, being the CS/STEM teacher can be a bit isolating because no one else on your campus teaches what you teach. CSTA makes it possible to connect with and be inspired by like-minded teachers within your district and beyond it.”
CSTA Greater Houston: Thank you for your time and contributions to teaching CS and STEM, Mr. Quentin.
