Best Practices for Schools

How to Manage A Successful Treehouse School Account

Creating Should Be the Goal

Giving students access to Treehouse is a great start, but it’s especially crucial to be working towards an end goal that involves building projects. Students will come to the table with different skill sets. Some will be more inclined to explore the technical aspects of web development while others will be more interested in design. As the teacher, you’ll want to pair students with different skill sets together so they can collaborate to build the best projects possible.

Not sure what to build? Think about what could be useful for the school. This could be creating a class website, a hall-pass mobile app, learning aides for test preparation, or a monthly digital newsletter that can be sent to parents. Do you know a local business that needs a website? Even better! See if they’d allow the students to create one for them.

Coding is inherently a creative medium, which is why building projects with code is an essential component of the learning process. Seeing their hard work translate into a polished finished product will help them unlock the endless possibilities available with their new technical knowledge.

Teachers as Active Learners

Students will always take their cue from their teachers. Even if teachers don’t have an extensive knowledge of coding, it’s important to bring them along on the learning journey as well. By giving them seats in your plan, you’ll empower them to gain a new skill and provide the tools needed to best guide the students’ ongoing learning. They can help with code review, facilitate student projects, and keep everyone on track.

By making them Department Admins in your plan, they’ll have access to our reporting features so they can track students’ progress and keep tabs on any roadblocks along the way. Our Custom Tracks service is an especially effective tool for this, as you can view who’s behind, on track, or ahead of their learning progress.  

Teachers will act as an important guide along the way, whether that’s celebrating wins or reassuring students who need some help. Remember, coding is just as much about the journey as the destination. Emphasize that struggling is normal and that they’ll likely experience Imposter Syndrome at some point. Not to worry! By utilizing our Community, and collaborating with other peers and teachers, they’ll always have access to support. We’d also recommend having students watch our How To Learn series, which provides useful tips on sustaining positive momentum.

Points of view to consider:

• Students
• Principal
• School District Leaders
• Teachers

Best Practices and Recommendations:

• Maintain quarterly goals for coding that coincide with regular report cards
• Carve out time during the school day for learning, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day to maintain consistency
• Work with your Customer Success Manager at Treehouse to build a curriculum that best serves your students with Custom Tracks
• Give recognition for the training done, possibly a certificate
• Make sure the above recognition is visible – create leaderboards that show how much work students are putting into their training and who is progressing furthest
• Give students ownership over projects, have teachers act as guides to keep them on track
• Share CSV reports of their progress with the principal and district leaders on a monthly basis