Viewing profile — krsmith35

Prenda (YC S19) has a full curriculum with support and tools for the parents, k-8. More info here: https://prendaschool.com/prenda-family

Hey everybody, For those of you that don’t know Prenda, we’ve been running software-powered microschools in Arizona. We build full schools, aligned with state standards, just built…

I'm really interested in your high school experience. Did you mostly work solo, or was there a lot of interaction with other kids? Informal tutoring, collaborating on hard problems…

I agree, what if people decide not to learn. My two answers are 1) they wouldn't learn in a compulsory model anyway, not really ( https://medium.com/@prendalearn/teaching-is-imposs…

"maybe makes math practice more palatable which would definitely improve math scores" - I have this thought experiment where you drop off ipads in inner city Detroit. They are load…

Great question, great comments. Consensus seems to be that computers are tools and can be helpful if the learning model is right. Specifically, computers can allow for mastery (see…

Ease of measurement is the best explanation, some people like John Gatto suggest a deliberate attempt to prevent mastery ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017ODVVGM ). Either wa…

This thread is amazing. I started a company with the goal of helping kids learn to code, so I peed a little when I saw that the HN crowd was giving me ideas. Here are the main thin…

just sent. thanks!

just email me at my HN username at gmail and I'll send it

I run a nonprofit in Arizona where we introduce 8-13 year olds to coding at 10 libraries and other locations. We start the young ones with code.org for a "quick win" and most of th…

Haha - I thought you might enjoy the end. Thanks for taking a look!

Did you try it out? I think you will feel differently when you get to the end :)

Preliminary results here (N=43): http://imgur.com/oZKKOYo

That's a good point - an example of narrow thinking on my part (measuring free in terms of dollars). I'm going to do some research - maybe there are pages out there where people ha…

I am testing out paperplane.io right now. Seems promising but I have no idea if it works...

Thanks for the words - certainly helps me feel less overwhelmed by all the tools and options out there. I guess what I am picturing (and can't figure out why it doesn't exist yet) …

Lots of people are learning js, html and css these days, but to make anything useful they have to download a framework and figure out the stack. Why can't they just post their html…

This could be a good time to force the change you want to see.

It's a good point. Time is clearly not the only obstacle for mid-career people who want to make a startup.