RePublic Hosts Computer Science Workshop for Students & Teachers

RePublic Schools, a Nashville charter school network, has announced a computer science event for students and teachers on May 20th. RePublic currently runs Nashville Academy of Computer Science, and it’s their mission to have more students of color take and pass the AP Computer Science exam. According to RePublic, only 48 students of color took the AP Computer Science exam in all of Tennessee. This year, 120 students of color from RePublic Schools took the AP exam.

In their mission to have more students coding, they periodically put on all day computer science and hacking events. See more information below about their upcoming May 20th event:

On Saturday, May 20th, RePublic will be hosting a full-day Computer Science event! The free CS extravaganza will feature a student hackathon for middle school students (5-8th grade), a teacher coding workshop, CS showcases of drones and robotics, and keynote speakers!

No CS experience is necessary for the student hackathon as we will have mentors from the Nashville tech community floating to support students as they compete for prizes of drones, robots, and hands-on Littlebits sets!

Teachers will build their first website during the free coding workshop, and learn how CS can integrate into classes.

All events are free and require an RSVP:

  • Student hackathon RSVP: here
  • Teacher workshops RSVP: here
  • Event RSVP: here

Please share with your teacher networks! If you would like to post on twitter, feel free to use the following:

Free student hackathon, teacher coding workshop and more! This Saturday @RePublicCharter, register today: http://bit.ly/nashcodes


 

Public School’s Got Talent

Apparently, RePublic Charter Schools is searching for talent among middle Tennessee public schools. Teachers at one school near Nashville received an email this week with the subject “Time to chat re: 2017-18 plans?”

The text of the email follows:

I hope you don’t mind me reaching out– I work with  RePublic Schools, a network of high performing public charter schools based out of Nashville, TN and Jackson, MS with a mission to reimagine public education in the South.

 

We’re #BuildingOurBracket for 2017-18 at RePublic. We’re stacking our roster with A-Players from across the nation to lock arms with our teams in Nashville and Jackson to reimagine public education in the South. I’d love to talk about your plans for next year – and why we think joining our family would be the jumping off point for the next phase of your leadership pathway.

Do you have 20 minutes to jump on the phone re: 2017-18? Shoot me a few times that work and the best number to reach you – and we’ll get it on the books.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a few resources to help you learn a little more about RePublic – you can hear from the #PeopleOfRePublic (our staff members, our kids), check out our results here, and learn more about what’s important to us on our blog.
Can’t wait to hear from you,
Ashley

ADG

 

Ashley Davis Gallimore

Associate Director of Talent

RePublic Schools

3230 Brick Church Pike

Nashville, TN 37207

 

This message is an advertisement. If you do not wish to receive future emails, please let us know.

The disclaimer at the bottom describes the recruiting email as an advertisement. The message was sent to the school emails of many teachers at school near Nashville. It’s not clear whether this is a typical tactic of RePublic’s.

It’s difficult to imagine one public school district sending emails like this to teachers in another district via the school system’s email. Sure, principals and directors maintain contact and reach out to individual teachers, but sending a mass email to nearly every teacher in a single school asking about their teaching plans for the following year?

These emails were unsolicited. None of the teachers who shared an email with me had previously expressed any interest in RePublic.

I’m curious — are other teachers in Tennessee receiving recruiting emails from charter or other school systems? If so, email me at andy@spearsstrategy.com

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport