The Coding for Educators course was very beneficial to me. First off, I think the most important thing I learned was to be open to new ideas and not shy away when things are intimidating. Even the name of this course scared me because I was extremely unfamiliar with coding. However, as I took the course day by day it taught me to not give up and keep giving my best effort towards learning new things. Secondly, this course taught me about the variety of educational opportunities that the online world of technology has available to educators. As an educator, it is easy to get stuck in the ways of how we've done things in years past, but continuing my education and being a part of this course has reminded me of the numerous resources available to enhance learning in my classroom.
I hope that I continue to build upon my abilities as a coder. At the moment, I feel more comfortable with Scratch than Python. I plan on bringing Scratch into many different curriculum areas and having Scratch codes be part of my lessons. I think I could build upon Python by just becoming more comfortable with the program and using resources online such as videos to learn how to do certain aspects of it. I think once I become more comfortable with Python, I will also feel more comfortable about integrating Python into my coding lessons.
The ideas I have for using Scratch in my classroom are in the areas of Math and Reading. I plan on having students create a Scratch board that explains place value. Students will be required to have 4 numbers and an actor on the screen. Each of the numbers will be in a specific place value and when the actor reaches or touches that number, the actor should state the correct place value spot aloud. I will also use Scratch in Reading by having students create a scratch board that lays our and symbolizes a picture of a particular setting. They will then have characters of the story, book, or novel walk around that setting and act out or represent a quick scene from the book.
I was surprised with my abilities to persevere and learn a great deal in this course. Each week I shocked myself by being able to do the projects and code correctly. There were many times I thought I would not figure out the correct code to make the program work, but with determination and time I was able to complete every assignment. This was both the most challenging but also most rewarding part of my time in this course.
