Volunteers needed to teach web dev in NYC and Bay Area | Hacker News Reader

Volunteers needed to teach web dev in NYC and Bay Area

61 pointsewong43 comments

Hi HN! ScriptEd (www.scripted.org) is looking for volunteers to teach twice a week from September until June, to students attending under-resourced high schools. This is a great way to give back, volunteer in your community, and network with like-minded individuals. Volunteers teach as part of a four-person team, with support from ScriptEd staff. Apply at bit.ly/ScriptEdVolunteerNYC or bit.ly/ScriptEdSFBAYvolunteer for San Fransisco and Oakland.

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Seems promising! I've been looking for opportunities like this. More information would be helpful, specifically:

* What does the time commitment look like? My work won't allow me to spend two full school days out of the office every week, but I can probably get away with teaching in the morning and starting late.

* What are your curriculum resources? Teaching scratch/pygame is a different story from trying to ram a CS101-style course into high schoolers' brains.

Haha, I don't think many employers would be too happy about two full school days out of the office every week. We generally have volunteers teach in the morning or in the afternoon. It depends on school sites, but it's a total of 2-3 hours per week in the classroom. Apply at the link and we can tell you what's available and see if something works!

You can check out our curriculum here: https://github.com/ScriptEdcurriculum/curriculum17-18

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

I teach twice a week from 8:15 - 9:15 - I'm not even late to work! Curriculum is pretty intro - basic html and css, jquery, then some beginning javascript.

Had my first volunteering session today and it was amazing to see the look on the students' faces when we showed them what anyone can do with a browser inspector! Anyone who knows how to code should volunteer and help train the future workforce!

Started volunteering with ScriptEd a few weeks ago and really enjoying it. The support from the organization is great, the curriculum is made for you, and the students themselves have been a pleasure to work with

We love to hear this! Hope your school year goes really well!

Let me know when you need volunteers to teach something other than web-development. C, Python, hardware.

Hey - sure thing! If you send us an e-mail at info@scripted.org we can make sure you're on our mailing list. In the meantime, I'd recommend checking out organizations like TEALS ( https://www.tealsk12.org/ ) - I believe they teach python in some of their courses, and they're in many cities.

Mission Bit is an organization doing this on a local scale in SF: https://www.missionbit.com/. It looks like the main difference is that Mission Bit works directly with SF public schools. Personally, it feels like there is plenty more space for non-profits reaching out to underserved communities.

I'm sure there are other organizational differences, but ScriptEd also works directly with public schools.

We agree that Mission Bit does great work too! But yeah, we also work directly with SF and Oakland public schools, just not the same ones. Another thing that makes us different is that we focus on preparing our students for paid internships in high schools. Sounds like we agree that more students should access CS education.

I am attempting to apply for the SF area. I thought that the url did not include "volunteer" at the end b/c the NYC link did not and it took me to a "daily session landing page" ScriptEd google doc that I could edit. Odd. Y'all should fix that.

Thanks for pointing that out - we've changed the editing rights!

we use a lot of bitly links... you found something that we use for our classes!

The NY and SFBay bitly links don't have the same naming convention. This is what you are looking for: bit.ly/ScriptEdSFBAYvolunteer

  we use a lot of bitly links

Why, exactly? This isn't exactly Twitter 2015.

This will be my fifth year volunteering with ScriptEd! There's nothing quite like teaching others to solidify your own understanding, and nothing as rewarding as seeing the light go on when one of my students grasps a concept. I strongly encourage devs to volunteer!

As a fourth-year returning volunteer, I strongly agree with all of this!

Please repost the application links as native links and not shrouded by URL shorteners.

For NYC: http://scripted.force.com/volunteerintake For SF Bay Area: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAsGRHAgDsL0WpuqsO...

Is ScriptEd paid / sponsored, or is the company all volunteers? If the former, it's disingenuous of them to ask for volunteers.

I'm not sure that I fully understand the question, but students participate in the class free of charge. It is offered either as an elective or afterschool club. ScriptEd has staff that helps manage logistics and other operational needs, but the volunteers teach the class with support from ScriptEd staff. Hope that answers what you are asking!

How are you making money?

We're a nonprofit, so our goal isn't really to make money. But we apply for grants and receive donations like most nonprofits!

Do you require finger printing in order to volunteer?

Hi! Yes we do - in compliance with school district policy, we require all volunteers complete a fingerprinting and background check process.

Sent in an application today and will talk to them Friday!

The last thing the Bay Area needs is more web devs flooding the market. Coding bootcamps have already done enough damage.

Care to explain what you mean?

OP is obviously concerned about competing with these web devs.

I'd have more faith in yourself OP!

Obviously? No, don't have so much faith in your ability to read other people on the internet. I am not a web dev. I was in a previous life (years before bootcamps even existed).

Sounds pretty self-evident to me.

If you feel your career is being threatened by high school students, perhaps you should consider "stepping up your game"?

Maybe you read too much into my statement, I am not a web dev. I was in a previous life (years before bootcamps even existed).

While I tend to agree on the bootcamp side I would disagree in context of this post. This is teaching students in high school . I am guessing their aim is to get kids interested in CS where no courses exists in their school system. I don't think there will be a flood of kids hitting the market based on volunteering here.

My impression was that the demand for web devs (especially in the Bay Area) is still outstripping the supply. Maybe that's starting to change.

There is something to be said for exposing these high school students to some of the technology that runs their lives, and giving them the opportunity to learn something they would otherwise not have, regardless of whether they choose to pursue it as a career.

All of the above, AND - I think our community of staff, volunteers, etc. are thinking more along the lines of Toni Morrison..

"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.'"

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