ESTIME project: proud to code to think

The Rendez-vous Francophone des Écoles en Réseau is an annual event where the sharing of practices and activities carried out in class is in the spotlight. It is under the theme of the school in play that the 2019 edition of the REFER allowed participants to be inspired to develop their practice.

A project that was presented to all participants of the event is VALUED, an initiative of Christine Jost and the staff of the Paul-Jarry school. It is in order to develop pride in creating with technology that coding has been implemented from kindergarten to grade 6 in this school.  

Why ESTIMATE?

Beyond the term ESTIME hides E for Student, STIM for Science - Technology - Computer Science - Mathematics and E for school. The objective was to deconstruct certain beliefs held in the students. While “girls from age 9 feel much less competent than guys” when it comes to the use of technology, coding was the go-to tool because of its playfulness and popularity with students.

The program

The ESTIME program supports “the school team which is willing to prioritize the learning of computer code by all its students” over a period of 2-3 years with the aim of preparing children for the world of tomorrow.

It is by working in cooperation in the fields of French, mathematics as well as the development of autonomy and the resolution of problems that all the actors of the school team are involved in the ESTIME process. The proposed activities take place over a period of one hour and in three distinct phases: discover, test and integrate. They integrate the use of Beebot, Dash'n'dot and Scratch by following the evolution of the level of the pupils.

The impacts

For the teacher

When implemented as a school approach, for a frequency of three hours per week, the program promotes teacher motivation, sharing between colleagues, the sharing community and the use of daily programming as a teaching tool.

Note that it is essential to respect the rhythm of all the teachers involved.

For the student

Student participation in ESTIME activities promotes motivation, critical thinking about the use of technology, intelligent consumption of digital content as well as learning a new language, creating and solving problems.

Following the first years at Paul-Jarry school, the number of children needing special education support dropped drastically, because the act of correcting one's mistake is very important in coding and in school life.

To date, there are 20 ESTIME accredited schools, representing 6,000 students and 300 teachers. The organization's objective is to accredit a total of 200 schools across Quebec by 2024.

To learn more about the program, visit the website ecolesestime.ca or follow @EcolesEstime on Twitter and Facebook.