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Thursday, July 16, 2015

Teaching Young Kids Coding

I know very little about coding. When I was a teenager, computers were just really becoming something people used-mostly for word processing. We had a little TRS-80 where my sister and I would spend hours, a book on our lap, copying directions for the computer to create a game. Hangman took us several hours and one mistake in the typing and the program wouldn't work. Guess what--we were coding! We could have been trendsetters. :)

Last year our district advertised the Hour of Code. I participated because I love trying new things, particularly in the technology realm. I really didn't know what I was doing. So this summer I signed up for a training where I could get a little bit more direction on how to implement activities to encourage coding in the students. 


I was impressed not only by the activities online that the kids can do, but also the "unplugged" activities. You can practice the concept of learning with dancings. There are activties where they can use arrow cards to lead their friends on a scavenger hunt. I'm adding this to my list of resolutions this year! Who knows maybe one of my kiddos will name an app after me one day!






4 comments:

  1. This is totally out of the box for me. My head hardly can wrap itself around what this would look like in the classroom. I know you can pull it off though! :)

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    1. Yes, that's what I thought at first too Tammy. Our school had 2 teachers participate in the Hour of Code last year, the district is hoping to rope a few more into it this year!

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  2. They did a good job, didn't they? Of mixing tech and seemingly not tech to help build kids' analytical skills. AND (very important here) they made it pretty easy for adult brains that didn't think they could think like that (let alone teach it!) to do so! This very weekend my favorite ITS ever (that no longer works for our district and is now at the regional center :( for us, :) for her) has been posting pics of a conference in Chicago becoming a Code.org trainer.

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    1. I agree. I definitely needed it broken down for me-my brain doesn't think like that. They had puzzles where you had to get the Angry BIrd to the Pig and told it north, south, east, west. Well after a few of those they reversed them and I ended up doing it wrong because I just wasn't thinking that way. Luckily it's all about trial and error. The kids are much better at it than I am! :) My trainers where headed to Chicago for that training.

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