Embracing My Beginners Mindset: Avoiding Overthinking

November 5, 2014November 5, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code programming, resources, ruby, ways to learn beginner mindset, coding, computers, discovery, disequilibrium, edtech, Education, education trends, languages, learning theory, learning to code, overthinking

Hello. My name is Lauren and I’m an over-thinker…I’ve been learning to program for 29 days.

I commented this week that it seems like the Ruby tutorials I’ve been working through are getting harder and it’s taking me longer to figure out write the code that’s prompted. I have recently realized that half of the time I’m completely overthinking, which just makes me laugh at myself.

For example, I spent 25 minutes trying to solve one particular prompt, trying all angles of writing the code only to result in error message after error message. I stuck with it, miserable yet determined, and eventually realized that I had simply read the prompt wrong. The prompt was to add some code before the print command, and I was adding the code after. It turned out that I had correctly written the code the first time. Rather than going back and re-reading the instructions, I just spiraled down the rabbit hole…my code getting more and more complex with each try.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. I’ve noticed that the fewer angles I examine, the faster I’m able to complete the prompts. This is interesting to me, because it does not feel natural at all! Continue reading →

A Disequilibrium Reprieve and a History Lesson: Logo

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code early childhood education, languages, learning theory, Logo, programming, teacher education, ways to learn coding, computers, discovery, early childhood education, edtech, Education, education trends, infants and toddlers, Logo, math, Mathematics, Piaget, programming

I have been focusing pretty singularly on learning Ruby, but have noticed that the tutorials are getting harder for me to work through. Of course this is expected, but I find that when my brain gets overloaded, it’s helpful to take breaks. I try to keep my breaks productive by and working on something easier, totally different, but still coding: Logo.

I’ve worked through the Logo lessons on Turtle Academy, and think it’s fun to go back to the Logo play ground and draw pictures. This gives me a chance to give my memory a workout, do something I love (draw), and feel successful.

A friend who knows I’ve been playing with Logo lent me a great book called Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, by Seymour Papert, one of the inventors of the Logo programming language. I started reading it today, and was blown away by the relevance of the ideas, even though the book was written in 1980. Continue reading →

“Rails for Zombies” for Halloween?

October 31, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code background, experiments, programming, ruby, ruby on rails beginner mindset, coding, halloween, interest-based learning, learning to code, learning to program, math, ruby, ruby on rails, zombies

I love Halloween! The whole spirit of the day is so refreshing and whimsical. Everyone has fun, and there are few family or religious obligations attached. (…obligations that can make other holidays more stressful!) Plus, if you happen to be a Halloween grinch, all you have to do is make sure your porch light is off, and Viola! You have the perfect excuse to curl up in your basement with a good book or a movie and ignore the world for a night. Halloween is a win-win.

One of my favorite parts about the holiday is that it gives all of us over-worked, over-tired, over-stressed, and entirely-too-serious adults an excuse to just take a breath and to think like children for a day. We can delight in the excitement of the little ghosts and goblins (and Elsa’s and Spidermen) that haunt our streets for just one night every year We all get to have fun, forget our troubles, and pretend we are someone else. We can adopt a sense of wonder and just PLAY! Continue reading →

“Hello World”, and What the Heck is a Text Editor?

October 29, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code experiments, programming, ruby, ways to learn codecademy, discovery, Hello world!, learning to code, learning to program, limericks, programming, ruby, sublime text, text editor

Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 11.19.16 PM — Codecademy environment, Ruby Tutorial…Left is instructions, center is where you type the code, and right is where you see the program run.

As I’ve been making my way through tutorials, something was starting to bother me. Tutorials let you practice in nice little environments that provide three fields: One for the tutorial’s instructions, a second for you to write code, and a third to show the results of your programs.

The problem is…This all happens on a webpage, and I couldn’t figure out how that translates to writing actual code and having it do something on my real computer. If I don’t know this, I would bet that others as green as me don’t really know either. Thus, I decided to figure it out (with help of course), and spell it out in this post. Maybe this will be helpful to other novices out there, and I know it will be helpful to me in the future if I need a reminder.

I asked my most trusted advisor, the husband, how to program something for real, and he explained the steps you need to go through. The “Hello, world!” program seems to be an initiation ritual of sorts, so I decided to use my little “programming for real” lesson to make my computer say “Hello, world!”

Here’s what I learned: Continue reading →

Should Everyone Learn to Code?

October 28, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code background, learning theory, programming, teacher education, why coding 21st century skills, brain development, edtech, education trends, hour of code, learning to code, learning to program, programming, programming languages, scratch, Should everyone learn to code?, STEM, teacher education, teaching, techonology

Should everyone learn to code? Maybe, maybe not…but that is not exactly what I aim to debate on this blog (although I welcome the debate if it happens!)

I do, however, believe that every child should have a shot at understanding and learning about coding. Because of that, I’ve come to believe that in the not-too-distant future, teachers will need to know something about computer programming. We should know what code is, know how to write some of it, and know about the types of thinking it takes to successfully write code.

Why?

Because it will make us better teachers! As our world becomes more and more computer-driven, there will be more and more conversations about computer programming. More and more children will want to explore and learn coding. Should all those children be encouraged to become professional computer programmers? Not necessarily, but their natural interests and curiosities around coding and computer programming should be encouraged and supported as they figure out whether or not programming is something they’d like to pursue.

Further, How can teachers support the interests and curiosities if they themselves have no idea what coding is or how it can be used? We can sit children in front of computers with Hour of Code, or a Scratch tutorial, but if we ourselves don’t know what they are doing, how can we help and support them? Are we really being good teachers?

I think much of the debate around “should everyone learn to code?” largely misses the point. Continue reading →

Interest-Based Learning: Keeping it Lively!

October 24, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code languages, learning theory, programming, ruby, ways to learn 21st century skills, codecademy, coding, creativity, interest-based learning, learning theory, learning to code, learning to program, ruby, werewolves, Why the lucky stiff

Screen Shot 2014-10-23 at 9.59.08 PM — From “Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby”. Click the image to see the book!

Ruby has quickly become my language of choice. There’s something about it that just draws me. It might be because I’ve started reading “Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby”, and he agrees it’s important to submit to something that draws you.

Not familiar? Here’s a passage:

“This world’s too big for such a a little language, I thought. Poor little thing doesn’t stand a chance. Doesn’t have legs to stand on. Doesn’t have arms to swim.”

…”So, now you’re wondering why I changed my mind about Ruby. The quick answer is: we clicked.

Like when you meet Somebody in college and they look like somebody who used to hit you in the face with paintbrushes when you were a kid. And so, impulsively, you conclude that this new Somebody is likely a non-friend. You wince at their hair. You hang up phones loudly during crucial moments in their anecdotes. You use your pogo stick right there where they are trying to walk!

Continue reading →

Which Language to Learn?

October 14, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code Java Script, programming, ruby, ways to learn beginner mindset, building websites, codecademy, JavaScript, learning to code, learning to program, programming languages, python, ruby

I signed up for Code Academy about a week ago to access tutorials for JavaScript and Ruby, and I like how they email me little messages every once in a while. The funny thing is, I’m not usually a fan of this. I can’t stand arbitrary marketing emails, and with the November election coming up, my political affiliations are trying my patience! Anyway, I actually enjoy the little messages from Zach Simms, CEO of Codecademy.

I have been questioning which language to focus my novice coding energy on, and have concluded that I need to figure out a couple things:

Which language feels easiest to me
Which will help me do the things I want to do

Yesterday, I decided my mission is to figure out something I want to do in order to address the second question. Well, it’s like Zach psychically picked up on my thoughts, (and I know that’s what internet marketers everywhere want me to think), because I awoke to find a very helpful little message in my inbox this morning, and thought I would share!

Via Zach Simms, CEO of Code Academy:

People often ask me what programming language they should learn, and I always say the same thing: “It depends.”

Want to be more web savvy, or build a website? — start with Web Fundamentals. This covers all the basic HTML and CSS you’ll need to know to understand the web.

Want to make a game or app? — give JavaScript a try. This dynamic language will let you create interactive apps that you can use on a smartphone.

Want to process data or explore databases? – Ruby or Python are your best bet.

Psychic energy or internet marketing? Does it really matter?

Ruby or JavaScript?

October 12, 2014November 6, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code background, Java Script, learning to code, programming, ruby, ways to learn codecademy, coding, constructivism, JavaScript, math, ruby, teaching

Which Programming Language to choose to learn first? As I said in this post, I’ve received opposing advice from more knowledgeable peers about which might be easier and why. I need to figure out which language is easier for me, and start there.

I thought it might be helpful to break down what I know about each so far. I can not boast feeling very knowledgeable about either, but I have done some pieces of tutorials for both. So far, it’s not too confusing to do both at the same time. In fact, it’s helpful! Both tutorials contain the same vocabulary, for example Math, Strings, and Functions. Those are some of the things that you can write using JavaScript or Ruby. Learning about those and other basic components of coding in two different languages is actually helping me feel like I can understand them more deeply. Each tutorial explains them differently, so each new explanation provides a little more depth to my thinking.

I can’t yet say which I think will be easier to continue with, but I can simply say that I’m understanding more, making coding in general feel easier.

Here’s a snapshot of some differences, thanks to resources from Github, Codecademy, and TryRuby.org.

Math is probably the most basic thing you can do with programming, so possibly the easiest to understand for complete beginners or non-code types:

Ruby JavaScript