Scratch Educator Meetups​
https://meetups.gse.harvard.edu/
How can professional learning experiences for teachers be as joyful, playful, and creative as we hope learning will be for students? How can educators use these learning experiences to inform their own teaching, particularly in a content area like computer science that may be new to them? In this project, we have been exploring new forms of learning for computing educators—opportunities that emphasize creativity, interest, and fluency.​
Scratch Educator Meetups are participatory professional learning experiences for educators who are interested in teaching with the Scratch programming environment. Over the past 10 years, Scratch Educator Meetups have grown to more than 4,000 members in 44 groups, with educators around the world regularly gathering to learn with and from each other, exploring the power of playful and creative learning together.
On the Scratch Educator Meetups site, you can learn more about this model of professional learning, find a meetup to join, or start your own meetup.
Additional Readings and Resources
  • Brennan, K., & Jimenez, R. (2020). The Scratch Educator Meetup: Useful learning in a playful space. In N. Holbert, M. Berland, & Y. Kafai (Eds.), Designing Constructionist Futures: The Art, Theory, and Practice of Learning Designs. MIT Press.
  • Jimenez, R., & Brennan, K. (2020). Facilitating change: A study of supporting teacher learning. In M. Gresalfi & I.S. Horn (Eds), Proceedings of The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020: Vol. 4 (pp. 1926–1933). PDF
  • Brennan, K. (2015). Beyond technocentrism: Supporting constructionism in the classroom. Constructivist Foundations, 10(3), 289–296. https://constructivist.info/10/3/289.brennan
This work was made possible with support from the Scratch Foundation, Siegel Family Endowment, and NSF DRL-1019396.