Day five in the lab

Today I had 601 and 606 in the lab. That's 36 6th graders - my largest group - and we used up just about every laptop. I gave out all four MacBooks and 15 of the 16 Lenovos. Again, I was so busy running around the room. So many questions! Turns out some kids are really picking it up and others are not. Some kids are not reading the instructions and call me over and ask me what to do or what to do next.

Two boys at the end of class

I feel like I understand what a math teacher must go through. Some kids pick up the concepts easily while others are simply lost. It is something I will push through though as I think coding is fun and I think kids, once they get the hang of it, will enjoy it.

Some kids though had so many computer glitches that they asked me if they could go back to the worksheets I created and if they could use Editra. Yes we can do that. I will do whatever the kids feel like they enjoy more. There are benefits to learning code both ways. Personally, I learned to code the old fashioned way, before there were sites like Codecademy. I used a book to teach myself and typed up code on the computer. With Codecademy, the program does a lot of the work for you. Still, I thought the kids might enjoy the satisfaction they got from the feedback the program provides.