Codecademy Day 2

Student working

604 has library on Wednesdays and today I brought them back into the lab to sign up for Codecademy. Last week I showed them with the laptop and projector and screen how to get into Codecademy and this week we all went into the lab. By the way I have five 6th grade classes, each meeting once a week, so each day is a new adventure with coding.

Today went well. Not as well as yesterday, but still it went well. Every kid, except one, was on the Web site and doing the modules. I was quite pleased. Only one student was not doing the modules and that is because he did not have an email with which to sign up. He is going to go home tonight and see if he can create one with his parents. Incidentally, for some 6th graders, parents do not allow their child to have an email. I don't think that was the case with JM though. He said he forgot what it was. Now, the real trick is getting everyone to remember the username and password they used to sign up with today, next week. I'll find out when I see them again next week.

As usual, I was running, and I mean running, around the room helping all the kids who had their hands up. I was busy the entire class period but of course I expected to be. Plus time moves faster the busier you are and I love being busy. Many of the questions involved, "Am I doing this right?" "What am I doing wrong here?" "How come it says, "Oops! Try again," and of course the "What do I do?" question. For that one I had to break the news to the student that they had to read the instructions on the left hand side of the screen. Of course, I walked them through the instructions as some kids have IEPs and need directions read to them, so that's what I did. When I walked around the room, I saw black screens on everyone's computer. The black screen meant that everyone was in the "sandbox" doing the modules.

At the very end of class, one student I saw, MF, had gotten very far into the program and had done quite a bit of work. He was one of the few students who never raised his hand for help. It was so gratifying to see that. Now what I have to do is get back onto the modules myself because some of the students are going to pass me by and then I'm afraid I won't be able to answer their questions. It is so important to me to be able to answer kids' questions, especially because if a student gets stuck and I am not able to help them, they might become discouraged and I just don't want that to happen. I want every kid to learn to code and to feel good about what they've learned.