Thanks Barbie, for another reason NOT to want to be you!

November 23, 2014November 24, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code background, Insipration, learning to code, programming, resources 1980s, Barbie, beginner mindset, coding, gender issues, learning to code, learning to program, math, programming

This is the fatal page from the 2010 Barbie book I Can Be a Computer Engineer. Barbie goes on to give her sister Skipper’s computer a virus, get some boys to help her fix it, and finally take individual credit for the whole shebang (including the robot puppy game that the boys programmed). At no point does Barbie do any coding at all. You can read the original blog post that brought this controversy to light here.

2434262975_079aec8640 — Oh the Nostalgia! That peach gown was my favorite. http://goo.gl/XBhYad

I never really identified with Barbie. Sure I played with her, but what little girl in the 80’s didn’t? However, I wasn’t blonde or skinny. I didn’t care to drive a pink corvette, wish to own a “dream house”, or marry my very own Ken doll. I didn’t want to be Barbie, and didn’t care what kinds of new careers she was trying out. I mostly liked to dress her up, which might have had a slight impact on my love of costuming and fanciness, but that is the extent of her influence.

She was fun, but never any real impact on my life (or so I like to think…) Continue reading →

Universal Children’s Day: Do Children Have the Right to Learn How to Code?

November 19, 2014November 19, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code early childhood education, Insipration, learning to code, teacher education, why coding accomodation, childrenhavetherightto, early childhood education, learning to code, learning to program, rights, UNCRC, Universal Children's Day, young children

Tomorrow is Universal Children’s Day, a celebration of the day 25 years ago when the United Nations adopted the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”.

Did you know that the United States is one of only 3 UN countries that has not ratified this?

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Universal Children’s Day, my school created this video. Please feel free to share it with your communities:

https://www.facebook.com/BoulderJourneySchool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOxodRT3Uf0

I’ve argued on this blog that children can all benefit from learning to code, but I wonder at what point this will be considered a right. Should it be?

“It’s Never Too Early to Develop”…Is this Brilliant, or Simply Novel?

November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code early childhood education, HTML, infants and toddlers, learning to code, product review, programming, teacher education, ways to learn babies, brain development, codebabies, coding, cognitive development, culture, early childhood education, HTML, infants, infants and toddlers, language development, learning theory, learning to code, learning to program, literacy development, overthinking, parenting, preschool, STEM, teaching, toddlers

CLAY85941-1024x648 — Photo Source: Codebabies.com

(from website) It’s never too early to be standards compliant! Show your little ones HTML markup code along with letter forms to get them started on the visual patterns and symbols that make up the essential building blocks of the Web. The first in a three-volume set, originally designed by a NYC Web Designer for his baby, this beautiful book is a fun and colorful introduction to the world of web design for babies.

I’m not too sure how I feel about this!

On the one hand:

I mean…I know that giving any book to a baby is better than giving no book to a baby.

Exposure to print is great (and necessary) for babies’ pre-literacy development.

I also know that exposure to simple, clean designs with high contrast is naturally interesting and engaging for them, while also supporting their ocular development.

I also know babies have an incredible capacity for learning language before the age of 3. The more language exposure babies get results in more foundational neurochemistry being established for learning languages later in life.

I also know that part of the barrier to learning to code is just being exposed to it, and NOT thinking that it looks and sounds alien. (I know this from experience…I can say that now!) Thus, this simple exposure could provide some foundations for code being accepted as a cultural reality in one’s world.

I also think this is clever! I mean…”It’s never too early to develop”…that is fantastic! Continue reading →

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 →

“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 →

Inspiration: Dispositional Thinking

October 21, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code Insipration, learning theory, resources, teacher education, ways to learn 21st century skills, dispositional thinking, interest-based learning, learning styles, learning theory, learning to code, STEM, teacher education

Check out “Dispositional Thinking, Changing the Game”: http://teachingonthewind.wordpress.com/

“Dispositional thinking is about changing the focus from learning being something you are good or bad at, to something that is learnable and changeable, something that you can practice and improve; moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. It’s about developing the skills that support learning and are, at the same time, invaluable in 21st century workplaces.”

This empowers me as I bumble through my personal journey to learn to code, and is something I’d like to think more about. However, I think the ideas presented here are relevant in a much broader sense for all teachers, teacher educators, and beyond!

If you have comments, please post them on the original page.

Fighting Back Against “I’m Terrible at Math”

October 18, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code background, Math, teacher education coding, David Hawkins, early childhood education, Frances Hawkins, gender issues, interest-based learning, learning to code, learning to program, math, Mathematics, preschool math, psychology, STEM, teacher education, teaching

Many teachers, and many people in general feel terrible at math. In the article, The Myth of “I’m Bad at Math”, by Miles Campbell and Noah Smith analyzes this phenomenon and makes a very compelling case for why this is so dangerous in our society. They say “We hear it all the time. And we’ve had enough. Because we believe that the idea of “math people” is the most self-destructive idea in America today. The truth is, you probably are a math person, and by thinking otherwise, you are possibly hamstringing your own career.”

I grew up thinking I was bad at math. Many of us did! I believe this phenomenon is part of why I’ve never (until now) considered that computer programming was even worth trying to understand. “I’m terrible at math”, is something that many of us feel completely comfortable and even proud saying to pretty much anyone.

When we think about a teacher proudly proclaiming “I’m terrible at reading!”, it does not seem acceptable. We’d all probably think less of this person. So why is it acceptable with math and not acceptable with reading? This is a question all teachers need to examine. There really shouldn’t be a difference between the two.

Continue reading →