Agent Jorge Valenzuela (Computational Thinking)

Lesson: Impossible - An Exploration of Educational Innovation

Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to incorporate computational thinking into all content areas. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Jorge Valenzuela, of Lifelong Learning Defined, in Virginia.

In this episode we discuss:

• Jorge’s path to becoming a teacher
• Four elements of computational thinking: decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition, algorithm design
• Work shopping how I could apply computational thinking to French
• Jorge’s perspective on including STEM into all subjects
• His favorite unit or lesson
• How Jorge’s personal pedagogical philosophy has evolved over time
• Why he thinks PBL is the best PD teachers can do
• Jorge’s success in improving his writing and his advice on how to do the same: write about something you’re good at, find a mentor, put in the time
• His struggle with emotional intelligence
• How STEM is becoming more inclusive for students
• Jorge’s hatred of buzzwords
• His ideal school system

Find out more about Jorge:

• Jorge's bio
• Jorge's Blog
• Jorge’s Twitter
• Jorge’s Instagram
• Jorge’s Facebook

Resources mentioned:

• Jorge’s book Rev Up Robotics (You can read the chapter on Computational Thinking for free)
• International Society for Technology Education
• PBL Works
• Park Based Learning with James Fester
• Jorge’s inspiration: Andrew Miller
• Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradbury and Jean Greaves
• Christine Primomo on the gender divide in STEM
• The Every Student Succeeds Act

If you want to find out more about what innovative educators are doing around the world, check out www.lessonimpossible.com. And if you like the podcast, please consider rating, reviewing and subscribing or forwarding it to a colleague. You can also follow Lesson: Impossible on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.