Last year at Lewis Elementary, our Mr. Jamesbarry had his students take part in the Hour of Code activities. From this initial experience he then moved into setting up each of our 4th and 5th grade students with code.org accounts and set them on the path of self paced lessons.
The experience using code.org was pretty empowering for many of our students. Many enjoyed the challenge and commented on how some of it was hard, but hard in a fun way. One student in particular said something that says with me.
Mr. Jamesbarry noted that as he looked over the teacher admin dashboard,(which allows the teacher to keep track of student progress) he noticed that one student, was way ahead of the other students. She was working on code.org on weekends and evenings. He acknowledged the work of the student and she responded that she really enjoyed working on coding. She said,
"When I was little, I wanted to learn how to make robots do things. Now, I think I can."
Her parents also commented on her enthusiasm for coding. Another example of how brining creative outlets, such as code.org, to our schools can have unanticipated and empowering consequences.
This year we have started code.org activities with our 3rd grade students. In addition we are now offering a 3rd grade coding club after school on Wednesdays. A very big thank you to Ms. Elissa, Mr. Hansen, and Ms. Kennedy for their support of our club.