I recently wrote an article for my school\u2019s website that focused on a brand new and a slightly intimidating project for me as an educator. As teachers, we are required to be extremely knowledgeable on the material we teach; however, there are some things out there that need to be taught to our students that we may not know much about. I decided to tackle something during a part of our school day called Exploratory. It is a time every few days where the students get to choose an activity not typically offered in classrooms to \u2018explore\u2019 something new. Below is the piece I wrote for my school about a really neat and free online tool I am using to introduce coding and computer programming to children.<\/span><\/p>\nThe next exploratory term at the Middle School is going to be an exciting one and a huge learning experience for me as a teacher. Through my activity on social media sites such as Pinterest, Twitter, and other teaching blogs and teacher resource online communities, I have come to understand the demand for young people who know how to code and program. In our technologically-rich and rapidly changing society, jobs are evolving and this new area has become extremely prominent. I thought I would step outside my comfort zone and try something new with my students.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I do not have experience coding, but I think it is important to provide opportunities for our students that target passions and interests, as well as push them to try something new. I had my first class with my group of 10 students last week and it went extremely well. It is so wonderful to see students being able to continue a passion they are already entrenched in outside of school as well as a bunch of \u2018newbies\u2019 that have never tried it out before. We have a few students already writing in official coding languages such as Python and they are actually creating computer games from scratch! Then we have our new students working through a program called Tynker.<\/p>\n
Tynker is an online program that uses games and puzzles to teach the basic concepts of coding. Once they move their way through this program, they can start to learn a programming language. Individually-paced work allows students to move at a comfortable pace and they can really see what they have accomplished. I have found it to be an extremely accessible way to reach into a complex and often difficult area. I will also be using Tynker to begin my own journey into the coding world.<\/p>\n
Read more…<\/p>\n
(Editor’s Note: Teachalogue is no longer active. All links have been removed)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teachalogue 02\/13\/14 Introducing myself and my students to the exciting world of coding Author: Anna Miller I recently wrote an article for my school\u2019s website that focused on a brand new and a slightly intimidating project for me as an educator. As teachers, we are required to be extremely knowledgeable on the material we teach; however, there are some things out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[487],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-trends","tag-tynker-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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