Before last February, I was a little jittery delving into coding with my elementary students. After all, teaching technology, I only see students once per week, at best.
So I find myself asking myself, "Can I still align my classes toISTE Student standards while using Code.org courses to teach computational thinking skills?"
What are computational thinking skills?
Computational thinking is a way of solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science. To flourish in today's world, computational thinking has to be a fundamental part of the way people think and understand the world. - Carnegie Mellon
(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~CompThink/)
How is Code.org going in my classroom so far this year?
The video above provides a pretty good idea of what is going on, in my classroom. So far, I have introduced courses from Code.org to my 2nd grade through 5th grade classes. I am monitoring the student progress and I have "unplugged" lessons, based on where most of the students are and how well they comprehend various concepts, such as "debugging" and "looping" (Code.org makes it easy to identify gaps). The whole class is engaged and the teacher is more excited than ever. I spend most of my time teaching students how to teach students.
How does this relate to blended learning early?
Yesterday while monitoring Code.org progress, I noticed a second grade student had successfully completed three times as many "stages" as her classmates. I called her aside and asked her what her secret to success was. She told me that she remembered the URL and was continuing to work on the course at home. This blew my mind, because I had not yet said anything about accessing the site from anywhere outside the room. She is my new "student teacher". I am sure that I will have to add an extra course from Code.org, just for students like her, who wish to continue their learning beyond our classroom walls. During my Training Classes with Code.org, other professionals were asking if there was a way to keep students from accessing stages beyond the one that the whole class is working on.
In this crazy world of education, we are sometimes inclined to have our students run as a pack. But blended learning and code.org provide ways to let our Eagles Soar.
So I find myself asking myself, "Can I still align my classes toISTE Student standards while using Code.org courses to teach computational thinking skills?"
- Creativity and Innovation - Yep, ..Forecasting trends and identifying possibilities.
- Communication and Collaboration - Yep,..My ground rules for students: When you are stuck, find 2 classmates to discuss it with, Then try for 5 more minutes, then you can raise your hand for my help.
- Research and Information Fluency - Hmmm... I'll focus my "non-coding" lessons in this area. My Moodle will support this.
- Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making - Wow!...Computational Thinking Skills are the foundation.
What are computational thinking skills?
Computational thinking is a way of solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science. To flourish in today's world, computational thinking has to be a fundamental part of the way people think and understand the world. - Carnegie Mellon
(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~CompThink/)
How is Code.org going in my classroom so far this year?
The video above provides a pretty good idea of what is going on, in my classroom. So far, I have introduced courses from Code.org to my 2nd grade through 5th grade classes. I am monitoring the student progress and I have "unplugged" lessons, based on where most of the students are and how well they comprehend various concepts, such as "debugging" and "looping" (Code.org makes it easy to identify gaps). The whole class is engaged and the teacher is more excited than ever. I spend most of my time teaching students how to teach students.
How does this relate to blended learning early?
Yesterday while monitoring Code.org progress, I noticed a second grade student had successfully completed three times as many "stages" as her classmates. I called her aside and asked her what her secret to success was. She told me that she remembered the URL and was continuing to work on the course at home. This blew my mind, because I had not yet said anything about accessing the site from anywhere outside the room. She is my new "student teacher". I am sure that I will have to add an extra course from Code.org, just for students like her, who wish to continue their learning beyond our classroom walls. During my Training Classes with Code.org, other professionals were asking if there was a way to keep students from accessing stages beyond the one that the whole class is working on.
In this crazy world of education, we are sometimes inclined to have our students run as a pack. But blended learning and code.org provide ways to let our Eagles Soar.