At the Nov. 26 board meeting, the Board of Education approved two new courses to be taught at Rock Island High School for the 2020-2021 school year.
The first course is Education Internship.
The course will provide students an opportunity to learn more about the teaching profession and begin developing skills and knowledge needed to be an educator. The experience aligns with the district’s goal of college and career readiness while giving students a unique, hands-on experience.
The course will be two periods of the day and students will earn 1 credit per semester for the full-year course. The course is open to 11th and 12th graders. Admittance will be based on attendance, academic standing, and teacher recommendation.
Students enrolling in this course should have an interest in working in the education field. Education interns will learn and explore different aspects of education such as its history and role within society, teaching philosophies, educational psychology, assessing learning, educational technology, and multiculturalism through scholarly articles, and weekly discussions. Interns will report to and work directly with the district educators to observe and carry out a variety of classroom tasks and activities, including assisting students with classwork, working with small groups, and leading classroom discussions. They must exhibit good citizenship, regular attendance, and cooperation within their classroom placement. By passing this course, students will receive elective credit towards graduation requirements.
The second course being offered is Computer Operations and Programming.
The course is open to 11th and 12th graders. Prerequisites are Computer Concepts 1 and 2 or Computer Concepts 1 and Web Page Design.
Computer Operations and Programming I is a skill-level course designed to develop computer programming and program design skills through the use of Python. Students will be exposed to the fundamentals of system analysis and design (e.g. flowcharting, diagramming, system design and planning), and the systems development life cycle. Instructions will include basic programming tools that are common to many programming languages. These may include items such as input/output statements, constants, assignments statements, string, and numeric variable types, conditional processing, and branching and looping control structures. Students will learn to create programs and applications that solve real-world business-related problems. Students will create programs to store, locate, and retrieve data.