My first attempt at coding was with C++ in high school, I found it very overwhelming and nearly impossible. It would become the only class that I failed in high school. From that first experience, I let it define my abilities on computers for the next 20 years. I always just thought that I sucked at computers. It turns out though that C++ was difficult! Coding programs like the one I used on Code.org were so user-friendly and accessible! I am going to bring this into the classroom with me. I picked designing a basketball game, because the last community school I was in, basketball was a huge thing. The cool thing about Hour of Code is that it would be fairly easy to cater the coding to the student’s interests, which is what I try to do with most of my lessons anyway.
It begins nice and easy, just try and make the hand move left and right.
They give you a lot of positive feedback along the way, which is great for kids and adults alike.
Now it is getting harder, although it does not feel that way because of the natural progression of skill building!
Here is the link to my completed game.
I think the certificate is a nice touch. There are many kids who may have never got a certificate of completion before. So I would print them off, maybe even do frame making in art.
I would like to know your thoughts on coding? How would you bring it into your classroom(s)?
Take good care,
Cody
Hey Cody,
I really enjoyed reading your post and I thought your title of your post this week was very funny. Overall, I think incorporating coding can be beneficial to students. A couple years ago during my internship I used Ozobots in a grade 3 classroom and it was very fun. Incorporating coding can be cross curricular and most students are more engaged in the process as they get to use technology. Although it can be at first, I think it is important to expose students at a younger age as they have a better understanding as they get older. I am curious as technology progresses in our day to day lives do you think that coding or computer science will eventually be incorporated in curriculum?
Hi Cody! Love the title. I enjoyed the coding myself but didn’t have enough drive to complete the entire game. I like your question as it is important to think about how we can incorporate coding into the curriculum in different ways. Though learning these skills isn’t referenced in the curriculum directly, the two ways that I think that coding could be utilized in the classroom could be a middle years PAA unit on coding and computer science. I also like the idea of using coding to support a procedural writing unit instead of the typical PB&J procedural writing project (if you haven’t you should check that out). Thanks for the thoughtful post Cody. Keep up the great work!