Coding Club: Day 2

Two boys seeming to enjoy themselves

The coding club met for the second time yesterday. This time I took photos. Most kids went on Codecademy and continued where they left off the week before, and some kids went on Scratch. Scratch they learned with Mr. F. in technology class and they love it! I can see where it is a lot more fun than Codecademy because it's like a game and you can program the characters any way you like - make them certain colors, make them run around, make them talk, give them speech bubles, etc. Codecademy is not like that. You do lessons and you have to read the instructions. I can see where kids are having trouble though. It is because they are not reading the instructions. So I help them with their code and I tell them what they are doing wrong, but I don't think that is helpful. I have to model reading the instructions for them and with them. I also have to get farther in the lessons myself.

Three girls coding after school

This week I had just a few fewer kids than last week so I had enough laptops to go around. I had exactly 20 kids for exactly 20 laptops. The four MacBooks that I have are still the favorite. I would have loved to buy more of them but they are almost $500. more expensive than the Windows machines. Still, I hope to buy more of them in the future. They are a big hit and the first to go when the club starts.

At least two kids gave up with coding already and decided to use the time to do their homework.  The whole point of the club though is to turn kids on to coding and to expose them to coding and hopefully spark an interest that might develop into a career for them - a lucrative career.

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.

MacBooks

Among the items I received with the INNOVATION! grant are a laptop cart specifically for the MacBooks. (I have two laptop carts now). I was only able to purchase four MacBooks and so far, these are VERY POPULAR with my 6th graders. To the left is a picture of the cart with two MacBooks open on top. It's my goal to eventually fill up this 16-unit laptop cart with 12 more MacBooks, whether through other grant monies or maybe my school can buy them for the library??? Either way I am grateful to have these four. I also purchased 8 Lenovo laptops with the INNOVATION! grant money and was able to fill up my other 16-unit laptop cart.