Welcome to "Ask the Tech Coach," a podcast for Instructional Coaches and Technology Integration Specialists.

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Jeff welcomes Greenville K-8 Virtual School educator Emily Strickland and Kelli Recher, from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) onto the podcast to discuss Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) program.

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In This Episode ...

Welcome Emily

About Emily’s School
Leadership Council for Discovery Education
Learning Leader for Ignite My Future


Welcome Kelli Recher (RECKER)

About Tata Consultancy Services


Ignite My Future In Schools Program

Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) was created in partnership with Discovery Education to empower educators to teach computational thinking, which are the critical skills that help students solve real-life problems and challenges by expressing them in a way that computers can solve.
Program Goals


What is the Ignite My Future in School Program?

Created in September 2017
Empowering 20,000 teachers and 1 million students
353 school districts
50 States

California, Texas, New York, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey


The Importance of teaching students about computational thinking.

What is it?
Why is it important?

Makes up 67% of all project new STEM jobs
More than 500,000 open computing Jobs in the US
Unfortunately, only 45% of high schools currently teach computer science


What do beginning lessons look like?
What grades should we begin teaching computational thinking?
Examples of computational thinking
What resources are available to educators to support the curriculum?


Once a student is fluent in Computational Thinking … what could their next learning pathway be?
Why should school districts partner with the Ignite My Future In Schools Program?

IMFIS combines the best of digital content, lesson plans, career vignettes, and professional learning to help teachers prepare students for future careers.
The program offers educators instructional resources and year-round curriculum support.


Ignite My Future In Schools Learning Leaders Network

246 Educators
Free Teacher-Driven community of like-minded individuals
Sharing Resources
How did the Learning Leaders Network start?
The importance of having this community as a teacher
The Global Innovations Program


The Pandemic

How to teach Computational Thinking while hybrid learning
Creating a community during a pandemic
How to keep...