is my middle school principal allowed to do this?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
21

If I really wanted to do this, I would do it outside of the school at this point.
I would try to find a local company to help sponsor it (at least send an adult or two). You could have the meetings in a local church…they rent rooms very reasonably,.

Another option is to work through your local library. (this assumes the girls have their own laptops).

Another idea is to work with the local Girl Scout council and work with them to help support their coding program https://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/our_partners/initiatives/madewithcode/

22

@bopper Thank you for your advice. How would I go about finding local companies? It’s a bit intimidating, and I don’t want to go unnoticed with phone calls and emails.

I have already reached out to my local library and they were not able to do it.

I will reach out to Girl Scout. Thanks for all the help :slight_smile:

23

If you reach out to another middle school, you might first want to network with some influential parents first. You could find out who is in charge of the PTA, for example. Having an adult ally will be important.

Regarding the Girl Scouts, it might be a useful project to first look into the requirements for a coding or computer badge and offer troop leaders your assistance in helping the girls get that badge. There are multiple troops out there - you could start with one and then do a few more.

24

While I think this is a noble idea, I would seriously evaluate your abilities and consider getting outside assistance in this as others have suggested. Having taken CS courses and being able to do something yourself doesn’t necessarily make someone a good teacher. Teaching middle school students is not an easy task. Teaching leadership skills is also not an easy task. This is something you really need to be prepared for. Are you prepared how to teach a student who may have some learning difficulties? I would strongly suggest talking to your CS teacher or someone who can help you and co-teach with you. I have personally seen a lot of younger kids get frustrated and turned off to something because it wasn’t taught properly. If this is going to be the first exposure for some of these students to CS, you really need to make sure it is successful.

25

@needtosucceed27
Ask your parents for ideas… also ask if they could ask on a local town FB group or NextDoor for you
Ask the computer teacher at your school

26

"In order to start a Club, you must:

Be over 18 years old
Be employed by a nonprofit host site located within the United States, or have a point of contact that is employed by the host site." There’s more, not hard to find.

Again, founding things isn’t a special tip. And OP doesn’t need to found anything to mentor a gal or two. Her own best bang for her efforts, imo, isn’t running around trying to bring a name brand group to town. She can use that time to enhance her own skills.

Colleges will likely ask the same questions I am. And wonder how much a rising junior did by herself, after detailed research and problem solving…vs an adult making calls for her, pulling strings, filling in the blanks as posters here are.

27

@lookingforward ? What do you mean? High schoolers at my school start clubs all the time, and they’re under 18.

What do you mean by

?

28

In March you said you were only beginning to learn to code and hoped to learn more this summer because you won’t have time next year (as a junior) to learn. How can you run a Girls Who Code Club to teach programming to middle school girls if you don’t know how to code yourself?

29

The quote is from the GWC website.
Of course hs kids start clubs. But you’re talking about establishing a branch of a national activity. And the issue you originally raised is having trouble (so far) getting the backing for this program at a middle school.

The more people suggest finding other locations or support, the more I wonder why it has to be this program. There are other ways to empower younger girls, support them. In fact, on your other thread, you already say you’ll be “volunteering for a STEM and computer science program for elementary school girls at a university.”

And meanwhile, if your own goal is CS, you need your own right experiences.

But on the other thead you have a long list of your detailed plans for summer: it’s mindbogglingly too much. And you admit, " I am only listing things that are relevant to college admissions, self-improvement, STEM, and CS.

It includes: ACT prep, an app course, some unspecified college programming course, plus an entrepreneurship course.

Plus learning web development, online courses, AP physics pre homework, more STEM outreach, coding, start an online business, learning another coding language.

Sometimes, one needs to step back and determine what the first priorities are. Not overload yourself. Be strategic. Think this through, to make it feasible.

Even when posters say, do what you love, you have to have the ability to focus on one or two activities with the most impact for you. Not everything that comes to mind.

I’m well familiar with the fact some kids can manage quite a bit. But imo, you don’t want to heap your plate, without some filtering. And you’ve just taken the APCS course, admit you have issues with math.

It sounds like you need a breath.

30

If you want to help girls learn coding, and the GWC organization will let you do it, teach a group of 6-8 kids around your dining room table or set up some tables in your garage. Contact a girl scout troop in your area and offer to lead the the new (and very cool) coding program. All it will cost you is $10 or so to become a member/leader.

31

@austinmshauri The GWC club is actually designed in a way that people with NO experience in CS can teach. And yes, I do know how to code. I know a little bit of Python and Java and know Javascript.

@lookingforward Thank you for your advice :slight_smile: I really appreciate your feedback.

@twoinanddone Thank you!

32

She must be over-whelmed with her other duties, and this proposal looks great on paper but the logistics could get tricky. You could have said “Kids who code”, just to make her happy :-). Remember, Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day is the successor to Take Our Daughters To Work Day, which was expanded to include boys in 2003. So I would not argue or make that an issue :slight_smile: