TwilioQuest Educator Spotlight: Sean Tibor

TwilioQuest Educator Spotlight: Sean Tibor

Introducing Sean

After 20+ years working in marketing and technology across an array of businesses, and building his own Marketing agency, in 2018 Sean Tibor decided it was time for a career change. At this cross-road, a friend picked up on his patience with children and his ability to teach them about technology, leading Sean to dive into the world of education.

Two years later, Sean continues to teach as part of a comprehensive computer science curriculum from PreK through 12th grade at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale. He is deeply passionate about making computer science a fun and practical experience for his students. Sean knows that not all of his students will become programmers and his goal is to give them a set of skills that will help them outside the classroom; persistence, resilience, problem solving and general confidence in their abilities.

A glimpse into the classroom

Sean’s course runs for 9 weeks, and is centred around teaching Python to students through a variety of tools (Tynker, Mu Editor, Google Colab to name just a few), which for some will be their first exposure to text-based programming. His approach is all about aligning the tools that are used in the classroom with the student’s interests. Sean’s students use CircuitPython and micro:bits to program hardware, bringing their lessons to life. Sometimes students play Oregon Trail during “Fun Fridays”, which is free, unstructured time for students to explore computer science.

We were thrilled to hear that Sean introduced TwilioQuest to the classroom as a “Fun Friday” activity, using the “Mysteries of the Pythonic Temple” and “Flame of Open Source” missions to teach students about Python and GitHub. He also introduced Twilio’s API by letting students text his phone number, turning “Hello World” into a live experience, and leading into a lesson on digital citizenship and responsible computer usage.

TwilioQuest for Education

We love how creative Sean is when it comes to teaching his students about the magic of programming. To support other educators on the same mission, we launched TwilioQuest for Education which sets out to bring TwilioQuest to life in the classroom at boot camps, universities and schools around the world. If you are interested in bringing fun computer science enrichment content into your school or community, please let us know! We’d love to support you in this important work.

Sean Tibor’s tips for distance learning

• Encourage students to “discover” computer science by letting students learn at their own pace
• Adopting a “flipped classroom” approach, allowing students to learn concepts in their own time, and using the virtual classroom as a vehicle for discussion.
• Keep the classroom engaging through code-along sessions