Before the beginning

Last week I created a text for the daily announcements. It reads:

Did you know that computer science is the highest paying career for college graduates and that 60% of U.S. employers are having difficulties finding qualified workers to fill vacancies in science, technology, engineering, and math at their companies? Come learn about this field and learn to code with Ms. Sarles in the library every Wednesday from 3:05 - 4:05, starting on February 3rd.

Now I've been teaching coding since last year. Last year I had two sections of 6th graders and starting in the spring, I decided to start teaching them the beginnings of HTML. It was a challenge trying to teach 33 kids how to code. Some kids "got it" right away. They persisted in learning the code, while others had technical difficulties. This required me running around the room trying to check kids' code. The best part was when they saved their HTML files and then opened their files in a browser and got to see the fruits of their labor. They were very excited when everything worked; when they typed all their code correctly and the browser displayed their work without a hitch.