Let's Start Coding

The second week in December is Computer Science Education Week (CSEd Week). I get really excited about this because more teachers start talking about coding. The trouble with this event is that it often seems to be a one off event. Teachers give up an hour of their curriculum time to participate and once the hour is done they tend to move on. It's great that they participate but it could easily become part of any teacher's curriculum. I realize that it's "one more thing" to do but it can be very engaging for students and I believe that it really helps develop skills that are useful in many disciplines both in and out of the class.

Why are teachers not extending coding into their regular routines? I think for many of them it's about comfort. The Hour of Code tutorials are great. They are well laid out and could be coordinated by anyone. If you're going to start building coding into your classes, however,  you need to understand the tools a bit and you also have to find a way to weave in some curriculum expectations. No small task.

Brian Aspinall is a teacher who has not only embraced coding in his class but has taken it upon himself to help other teachers see how their students can code and meet curriculum expectations at the same time. He uses Scratch, which is really easy to use. You can find his videos here.

Brian's work had inspired me to play around more with Scratch and to find more ways to work it into the curriculum. I've decided to create videos that introduce some coding ideas but also create a challenge for teachers (or students) to work through. Hopefully, some teachers out there will decide to follow up on the challenges. If not, at the very least I will have thought more about how coding can be woven into my courses.

If you're interested in integrating computer science into your curriculum check out the #CSk8 hashtag.

Here's my first video.