It’s Tech Tuesday

Mayoral campaign season might have just kicked into high gear, but don’t tell that to the computer programmers who are descending on the city’s schools this week.

This morning, Chancellor Dennis Walcott is announcing the winners of the city’s “Gap App Challenge,” a contest to get developers to tackle the tricky terrain of middle school math instruction. The winners will demo their apps at an event on Wednesday.

Then, this afternoon — while New Yorkers for Great Public Schools’ education debate is underway — the UFT will kick off a tech project of its own. “Teachers Who Code” will “equip New York City public school teachers with the computer science skills to educate students for high tech jobs of today and tomorrow,” according to a press release from the union. It’s inspired by Girls Who Code, a year-old nonprofit whose founder, Reshma Saujani, is running for public advocate. She’ll join UFT President Michael Mulgrew and the CEO of AppNexus for the kickoff event today; 20 teachers will be selected for a one-week tech training course this summer.

The idea appears similar to one that Eagle Academy Foundation CEO David Banks suggested at a panel discussion in Brooklyn last week. ““Very few [teachers] have spent time in tech companies,” Banks said. “That’s just the reality.”