Last week in class we were given the opportunity to try out coding. For most of us this was the first time we had ever tried coding and I was nervous to try it as I thought I was going to be really confused by it. Before we were introduced to the websites we were going to be exploring we discussed what coding was and why we might teach it to our students but we didn’t have many suggestions. As soon as I heard the word coding I imagined someone sitting around a computer typing in a bunch of random numbers and letters which in turn makes random things happen on their screen. In reality I really didn’t know what to think as I had no experience with coding and didn’t really know what I should be expecting.
Katia introduced us to a website called Hour of Code. Hour of Code is organized by Code.org celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. The following information about Code.org is taken from their website:
“Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or algebra. Code.org organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign which has engaged 10% of all students in the world, and provides the leading curriculum for K-12 computer science in the largest school districts in the United States.”
We were given 10 minutes to try out one of the hour of code programs available on the website. I chose to try out the program called Moana: Wayfinding with Code which according to the description is targeted for kids ages 8+ and those trying coding for the first time.
After the first few levels I started to feel confident and was actually enjoying doing it.
There were nineteen levels of the coding and I probably should have reserved judgment until I was past the first few. by the time I was at level 10 I realistic that it was getting harder to figure out what block should come next. There was one level I got stuck on and found myself shouting at my computer screen everytime I got the code wrong. It wasn’t until I took the time to read the messages that appear on screen when you get it wrong that I realized they give you the instructions. 
When I finished the hour of code a felt a sense of accomplishment and now believe that I can do any one of the hour of code programs.
I also tried out Scratch which is another kid friendly coding website and this is the end result of my quick exploration. Like I said above I am now an “expert” in coding!
Katy Franks 