Comprehensive digital skills curriculum through teacher empowerment

Image: San Jorge School

“Your training and support has made all the difference.”
Ana Soberón , Teachers

Coding is the new lingua franca

San Jorge School is a private international school in  Matamoros, Mexico, that follows the US Common Core State Standards (CCSS) curriculum. Code School Finland and San Jorge have been working together since 2021.

Senior teacher Ana Soberón is tasked with ensuring the on-the-ground educational standards match the school’s reputation and offering. She has been leading the Teachease implementation process since its start and has a lot to share with those considering it for their own school:

‘To begin with, we brought in Teachease modules because of the rising demand for quality digital skills education in our region. Coding is the new lingua franca. I really believe it is an international language that everyone should be able to speak at least to an extent.’

A radically different solution to stay ahead of competitors

Teachease modules are rooted in the Finnish pedagogical model which puts student initiative at the heart of the learning process. In many countries, this approach is almost unknown on the practical level. Not in Mexico, at any rate.

‘Teachease is quite different from our pedagogy and the modules are different from our subjects. The challenge that we almost had was that we feared our teachers would not be sufficiently interested in the whole idea of teaching digital skills,’ Ana stated in an interview,

‘As we progressed with implementation, these fears were not realised. Teachers saw that children were genuinely interested in the new subjects and that was more important than anything. The Teachease materials are innovative and well put–together. What made the immediate difference to other solutions we came across is that Teachease promotes problem-solving skills and logical thinking in addition to the subject knowledge.’

Support for teachers as the key factor

For many teachers, fully-fledged digital subjects are uncharted waters. In some cases, formal training and successful certification are not the only thing teachers need to feel comfortable teaching coding and AI. Code School Finland offers ongoing support to teachers throughout the whole academic year.

‘Your training and support has made all the difference. This year has truly been the best in terms of implementation. We now have more modules and the support sessions with your instructors earlier this year were vital. Teachers are more comfortable with their task than ever,’ Ana stated.

The three best things about Teachease according to Ana

‘Communication with instructors and their ongoing feedback. We have received all the support we needed.‘

‘Problem-solving skills now have meaningful place in our curriculum.’

‘Our students design and create their own projects. Parents were amazed that their children managed such big digital assignments all by themselves. This is not commonplace in our community.‘