Teacher Learns to Tweet

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code learning to code, resources, ruby, social media, ways to learn digital citizenship, learning to code, learning to program, ruby, ruby on rails, social media, twitter

These are my original goals identified two months ago when I started this project:

Goal #1: Learn to code

Goal #2: Write a blog about my learning in order to process my thinking, share with other people, and gain insights from readers.

I have learned a great deal since I started working toward these goals almost 2 months ago, but have recently identified an unexpected outcome: I’ve begun to consume and process my technological experiences differently. (Clarification: This outcome was unexpected to me…not necessarily anyone else!) 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 →

Try Ruby

October 6, 2014November 6, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code languages, ruby, ways to learn languages, learning to program, rails, ruby, ruby on rails, vygotsky, zombies

Ok, so about a week ago I decided to just start Googling how to learn to program. Ruby is a programming language that everyone says is “really easy” (I have a suspicion that my definition of “really easy” is quite different from those who say this) But, I think I’m going to start my programming adventures by learning Ruby. First, because of the “really easy” comments. I figure that even if it’s super hard, it has to be less hard than other languages that are not often described as “really easy”…SEE? I can think logically! I’m also wanting to learn this one because my husband knows it and likes it, so he will be a good person to ask questions to when I feel stuck.

I found this super cool sounding thing called Rails for Zombies, where you learn to program by creating program like Twitter, but for zombies. Awesome, right? I like Zombies! So I clicked on it, and it told me that if I was unfamiliar with Ruby, I should do an online Ruby tutorial first, and suggested tryruby.org. I’m all for suggestions, so clicked over and started playing with it.

The site page says: “Got 15 minutes? Give Ruby a shot right now! Ruby is a programming language from Japan which is revolutionizing the web. The beauty of Ruby is found in the balance between simplicity and power.”

Continue reading →