For the past 3 years, Samsung Electronics has offered a unique skills-building program for teachers across Poland. The program, Coding Masters, teaches participants how to code and create their own digital content, enhancing their creative problem solving capabilities and building their confidence in the classroom. To date, Coding Masters has helped more than 3,000 Polish teachers improve their digital skills, and in turn, impart what they’ve learned to 100,000 students across the country.
From Coding Masters to the Global Teacher Prize
One teacher, Jolanta Okuniewska, has completely changed her approach to teaching thanks to the Coding Masters program. A participant every year since the pilot edition of Coding Masters, Ms. Okuniewska is passionate about teaching her students to code. By incorporating coding, along with digital puzzles and games, Ms. Okuniewska is now setting new trends with her teaching methods.
“A tablet nowadays is as common as a pencil case,” said Okuniewska. “While maybe not seen as a necessity, tablet education definitely makes learning more interesting and effective by providing a huge range of tools in one place that is accessible at the touch of a finger.”
For her efforts, Ms. Okuniewska was nominated for the Global Teacher Prize. The Global Teacher Prize is a prestigious award acknowledging teachers who have made outstanding contributions to their profession. It’s amazing to have even been nominated, let alone being one of only 50 teachers selected from a pool of 8,000 instructors from 148 countries.
Continuing to Change the Face of Polish Education
New technology can be a wonderful educational tool for kids. They can use it to search for information, communicate with teachers and friends and play interactive games. With the great success of the Coding Masters program, Samsung continues to help change the face of Polish education with other new initiatives, including Samsung Labo (dedicated to students) and the Coding Master Junior (dedicated to preschoolers).
As Blanka Fijolek, a Coding Masters founder, explained: “In Poland, there are ongoing discussions on including coding in a national curriculum for the younger students. It is important to ensure trainings for the teachers and create conditions for them to share their experiences.”
