Thought #1 I am (present tense, not past ... cause I refuse to think about how long ago it actually was!) an English major. This is my identity. Story person, through and through. I don't even really like writing (Slice of Life posts are AWESOME but the stress they would put me through. I still remember some kid's TV writing show we watched like every Monday back in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade? It ended with a story starter and our homework that night would be to finish the story. OH HOW I HATED THAT SO MUCH!). Let me read. That is my favorite.
Thought #2
Any love of tech I might have? Or ability? Really pretty recent.
Thought #3
Code.org makes it very easy.
Thought #4
The puzzles are fun.
Thought #5
Can barely imagine the skills the jobs our kiddos will be holding will turn out to need. Solid reading. Solid math. Solid PROBLEM SOLVING, COLLABORATION, and DESIGN of ALL SORTS skills. Whether it's computer programming or not ... this can only be a good foundation for them.
Thought #6
There has to be a way to make it successful during #makermornings. But when the computers are on all they ever want to do is play Coolmath. Not a fan of Coolmath. Many of them did Hour of Code but how can I get the message across to all of them there is so much more? The drop in model of #makermornings could still work ... if I had like maybe once to see all of them at the same time to introduce the specific idea of using Code Studio. But that would take a good portion of the time that is left this school year. Testing. You are the bane.
If I had to do a Maker SpCe, I would hurt myself. HATE crafts the way you hate writing! And the hour of code was a joke. There was no code. When I asked the woman organizing it what language the students would learn (BASIC, UNIX, HTML, Cobal), she didn't even know what I was taking about! argh! Luckily, I am busy enough wi just BOOKS. whew!
ReplyDeleteHour of Code isn't meant to teach actual code. In the end I don't know that Code Studio necessarily is, either. Just the type of thinking that will be needed ... thinking things through and problem solving when the first answer doesn't turn out the way they thought it would. I believe they call Blockly a client side Java but like I said. For now? For me and the kids? It's just puzzles. Calming down our brains to think through to find an answer. What they do with it later? Up to them! Me? Pretty sure I'll just continue to play with the puzzles and read my books. Who knows? But hey. I'm old school. :P ;)
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