Re^2: Teaching Children How to Program

[Sandy]

I was planning on writing the bits of code, in class. Rather than start with a finished example, where all the bugs are eliminated, I thought it would be useful for them to see me make mistakes, and what methods I use to track down the mistakes and fix them.

At the end of the class, each student can have a copy of what I did, so that they can play with it and expand on it if they want.

I am also setting up a private forum, so the more adventurous kids can post questions etc (just like perl monks).

Sandy

[samizdat]

That is very useful. I found that my best asset was the ability to make fun of myself when I made a bug happen. It was great to see the kids work up the courage to figure out and point out my mistakes. Most of the kids I worked with came from a 2nd-generation hispanic immigrant society where the cultural imperative is to stay off the radar scope, so this was very gratifying to see.

The first two years, when we had a very gifted teacher to work with, this worked well, but the last year, the replacement wasn't as secure in her classroom leadership. I and the other in-class volunteer discovered that she was very unhappy when I demonstrated my imperfection. It sounds like you will not run into this kind of thing in a direct sense, but be alert. The 'management buy-in' may disappear due to circumstances outside your control. The parents loved what we did and supported it vociferously, but support evaporated from the administration for reasons I have already described.