What is the difference between participating as a Teacher or as an Ambassador?
Ignite offers two levels of participation to educators in Louisiana:
1. To participate at the Teacher Level:
You must be a public school or a public charter school teacher (or student teacher), enrichment coach, etc. who provides direct classroom instruction to K–5 students. Will earn $350 upon completion of the workshop. Trained by an Ignite Ambassador through your district.
2. To become an Ignite Ambassador:
You must be an individual selected by your district or school to re-deliver the Ignite workshop to teachers in your district or school. Able to re-deliver the content training to K–5 teachers in your district or school after completing the workshop. Will earn stipends of at least $1200–$1500 upon completion of re-delivery (depending on the number of teacher level participants trained).
What if I am a teacher and my district doesn't have an Ambassador or if I am an Ambassador and don't have teachers in my district?
The Ignite Project team will work with you to ensure training and delivery goals are met.
What is the cost?
Participation is free.
Do I need my own computer or tablet?
Please bring a personal laptop computer or school-issued laptop to all training sessions. A tablet is also necessary to complete the Scratch, Jr training.
What are the Ambassador workshop training days?
The 40-hour Ignite Ambassador workshops run from December 2023 to March 2024. They include a mix of virtual, in-person, and self-study components, along with preparation and deliverables. Training sessions consist of two 8-hour in-person and two virtual sessions .
- Session 1: in-person - Ignite Kick off and Code.org CSF
- Session 2: virtual January 20, 2024 - Scratch or Scratch, Jr.
- Session 3: virtual February 3, 2024 - Micro:Bit & Physical Computing with Finch Robots
- Session 4: in-person February 24, 2024, or March 2, 2024 - Emerging Tech, Cyber security & Celebration
- Support sessions: 2-hour virtual synchronous sessions
What are the important upcoming dates for Ambassadors and Districts?
- Jan 26: List of Teachers submitted to Ignite team by the district
- Jan 26 - Feb 9: Teacher Registration Open (will close at 11:59pm on Feb 9)
- Feb 9 - Feb 16: Ignite Team begins Reallocation of unused Ignite Teacher stipend funds
- Feb 19: Notification to districts of additional teacher stipends, as available, Teacher registration re-opens
- Feb 23: Last day for Redelivery Form to be submitted by Ambassadors to Ignite project & Second round of teacher registration (will close at 11:59pm Feb 23)
- Mar 2 - May 20: Teacher training by Ambassadors
When was the Agenda & the dates for the first training sessions for Ambassadors?
- Dutchtown, Date: Saturday, December 2, 2023, 8am - 4:30 pm
- Lake Charles, Wednesday, January 3, 2024, 8am - 4:30pm
- Lafayette, Saturday, January 6, 2024, 8am - 4:30pm
- Baton Rouge, Saturday, January 6, 2024, 8am - 4:30pm
- New Orleans, Saturday, January 6, 2024, 8am - 4:30pm
- Ruston, Saturday, January 6, 2024, 8am - 4:30pm
What is the training timeline for teachers?
Timeline for Ambassadors to Train Teachers: March 3 – May 20, 2024, based on the School Districts’ Redelivery plan.
Do the Ambassadors have their training materials?
Each Ambassador was given a bag of materials for the Code.org training redelivery- providing enough materials to retrain around 25 teachers. Each Ambassador will also receive 3 robots, microbits, batteries, and battery holders for redelivering with when they come in.
How long is the first teacher training session?
Sessions are 8 hours each for a total of 4 sessions, plus another 8 hours built in for actually planning and using the materials with students and reflection (40 Hours). The first session is 8 hours long. This is code.org CS Fundamental training (about 6.5 hours plus some time built in for Ignite questions 1.5) However, redelivery can be in smaller segments as well, such as 2 or 3 hours at a time.
What materials will teacher participants need?
To use in their classrooms, the following materials. For the actual redelivery portion- the ambassadors have the materials to redeliver.
Needed in classroom:
- Sticky Easel Pad or posters or a whiteboard - to write on
- Sticky notes
- Pens - to write with
- Painters tape - to stick up posters
- Crayola Broad Point Washable Markers - 1 washable marker per robot (3)
- Ping pong balls - 1 per robot
- Plastic Cups
- 8.5 by 11 Paper - for printing blocks out on
- Finch 2.0 robots by BirdBrain Technologies (can be loaned from company)
- micro:bits
- Battery holders - 1 per microbit
- Batteries - for microbit
Optional (not used in redelivery but could be used in Code.org):
- Envelopes
- Puzzle
- Index Cards
- Markers
