Okay, first off, I was super scared to even try this. When Katia was showing us Hour of Code  and Scratch  in class, I was a little lost. Although, deep down I knew I wanted to leave class and try it… but was conflicted because new online things scare me… like adding a video to a blog post.. I swear I am following directions yet… I fail lol! I’m sure like many of you, failing is not my strong suit. I am 37, and coming to terms with failing and not being perfect is still something I work on being okay with. Failure is not the end all be all, and it just means we get to try again. When we are uncomfortable, that is where growth happens. I tell myself this often but even knowing this, and repeating it, failure (even momentarily) feels yucky.

Working through that gross yucky feeling and succeeding though?! Come on!! Best feeling ever!! So, after reading and responding to a few of the blog posts about coding.. I realized that if I had a hard time with it, I was not alone.

 

I started on hour of code with the pre-reading level coding… on my computer that I bought before I started university in 2013…. I quickly realized two things, 1. I needed to promptly move from my dinosaur computer to get my iPad and 2. I was definitely equipped well enough with technology to start in a higher level than pre-reading. So, gaining wins already. I was feeling great. Then I moved to grades 2-5 level and shortly after picking a game from that level also decided I could go farther ahead in levels than that. But! I found a great coding game to introduce to children (even my own!) and my teacher brain went into high gear thinking about all the ways I could use it in the classroom! It talked about different shapes. You started with x amount of x amount of shapes and by coding you would either create more or delete the existing ones to reach the end goal! Super cool!! So, more big wins and with this I even learned that I am in fact smarter than a 5^th grader (haha).

Then, I chose to code a 3D space invader!! This paid some well-deserved homage to my childhood, where I could just plug in my Nintendo NES and play this on the paddle remote. At first I was loving it, fumbled through the coding steps in a minor way to start by not fully reading the instructions (got kinda lazy dealing with the younger years levels previously) but without too much of a struggle I got through and then all of a sudden the screen was empty and I had to remember all of the steps I had just gone through… that took a bit of fine tuning.. starting and stopping.. but in the end I got all of the cool backgrounds and noises such as the background music and sound effects when you hit the alien invaders.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed it! And I didn’t fail too hard, and I would absolutely continue to do these fun coding games. There was a lot of problem solving, reading and comprehension practice and way too much fun!!

I will 100% show this site to my daughter who is always wanting my phone.. “mean mommy” does not always let her use it but if it’s for educational purposes?! Heck ya!