Reflective Blog Post
What are the 1 - 2 most important things you learned in this course? How will these things be part of your future work as a teacher or librarian?
The most important thing that I learned in this course was how to frame coding in a non-threatening and exciting way for students. I learned that the best way to get students interested in coding later in their school career, is to introduce it to them at a young age. By helping to build up their confidence around coding at a young age through exposure, play, and supported practice, students will be more likely to choose coding in their educational careers in the upper grade levels. I hope to one day be able to do this with the K-4 students that are in my building, but in the meantime I plan on introducing my second grade class to different elements of coding.
What are 1 - 2 things you need to learn next to build upon what you learned in this course? How will you learn these things?
One thing that I would like to explore next is Scratch Jr. Now that I am familiar with scratch, I would like to familiarize myself with Scratch Jr. because that is what I would be using with my second graders. I also want to take a look at where in my curriculum I could naturally fit in some coding. I also want to learn more about Python. Having just gotten a brief introduction, I would love to learn how to start something from scratch using Python or even how to create similar types of student lessons in Python like we were given.
What are 1 - 2 programming apps, tools, or resources you learned about in the course? How have you already used these in your educational context or how do you plan to use these in the future?
One resource that I have used in the past that was talked about in an article for this course were the Sphero robots. Last year, I came up with an assignment for my students to integrate coding into our map skills social studies unit. Students coded their Indi Sphero to move around a student created map, and then students recorded their path using cardinal directions. That lesson went really well and I would like to continue that this year. I would also like to start using Scratch/Scratch Jr. with my class. I think that this could integrate well into our reading or writing curriculums by having students code the sprites/characters to act out their stories or summarize a story that they have been reading.
What was something you found surprising in this course? Was there something you wanted to learn about in this course that was not covered?
Something that surprised me was how quickly I was able to pick up on the patterns in coding. I was originally very overwhelmed by looking at python code, but once I learned how to read it, it became easier to see the patterns and repetition of it. I think it would be really cool to see how coding can integrate with robotics as well. I am looking forward to the second class where we do an introduction into robotics because I think that is going to be a great way to gain student interest and excitement about coding!
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