Coding for Kids
Ed Tech 4 Library
12/02/13
Today’s hangout with +Kevin Elgan, Tynker’s Director of School Programs, set the stage for extensions for learning for my 4th/5th Grade KMExplore Seminar students to build upon. Students were highly motivated hearing from an expert directly from Tynker, a leading programming tool they became hooked on at first sight. Getting students engaged and enthusiastic about the problem solving nature of coding was simple: I started a class, had my students join with their school assigned Google accounts and showed them the tools. I added a few optional free lessons for them to solve and started teaming with them to create unique programs to express their charter school foundational habits of mind. I quickly learned students Tynkered at home as well as during our 45 min. seminar time at school. They couldn’t get enough.
During today’s hangout we were able to get a sneak peak into Tynker’s soon to launch programming promotional event “Hour of Code.” Kevin interacted with the 9-10 year olds in solving some of the preset puzzles which allowed my students to rise to the challenge in order to impress him with their coding skills.
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