Comments on: teaching kids to code: first lesson

By: Isa

Isa — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:47:59 +0000

I’m so jealous of those kids having a “history of computers” class. Back when I was in 5th grade, my teachers were so new to the languages themselves that when there were glitches, our “mission” was to help them reprogram our own computer. Super fun, but we had to reinstall couple of computers. However, I started making a living programming and setting up “older people’s” machines by 16.
I’m talking about some 15 years ago, though. It was basic basic Internet, office and QBASIC (yeah… believe it).
Good luck! sounds like you can have a blast with those kids.

By: Brian Morearty

Brian Morearty — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:23:32 +0000

Sarah, I’m encouraged by reading your story of teaching 4th-5th graders and your other work teaching Ruby to women. Starting yesterday, I’m teaching my 11-year-old daughter how to program. (I taught her rudimentary HTML in the last year.)

I don’t plan to use the RailsBridge curriculum–I’m using Chris Pine’s “Learn to Program” book instead–but I will incorporate some good ideas you described in this 3-part tale of teaching kids to program. Talking about computer history is a great idea, especially things that were created during the kids’ lifetime. Your flashlight demo sounds great as well.

I’ll document our progress (mine and hers) on my blog, starting with http://ilikestuffblog.com/2011/01/02/teaching-my-11-year-old-daughter-to-program-in-ruby/

Thanks for the ideas.

By: David Lorenz

David Lorenz — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:01:04 +0000

I am a lateral entry school teacher acquiring my teaching certificate for High School mathematics. My prior career was a computer programmer for many years.
At what do you think that students will actually be able to code and understand the concepts behind the computer programming? Would coding a game program be a good way to start off?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:19:46 +0000

The new website is here: http://shoes.heroku.com/

By: TScott

TScott — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:05:07 +0000

Is there something wrong with the link for Shoes? http://shoooes.net/?

That and the variations I tried did not find anything but footwear sites…

By: teaching kids to code: first lesson « Ideas for Teaching Computer Technology to Kids

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:16:48 +0000

[…] teaching kids to code: first lesson /sarahblog/2009/05/teaching-ruby-to-kids-first-lesson/ […]

By: brahim

brahim — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:24:50 +0000

what y retrying is amasing.thanks for sharing.

By: Richard Conroy

Richard Conroy — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:21:29 +0000

Hey great stuff! Been trying to teach my girlfriend ruby, but didn’t get far enough with Shoes. She is a teacher (science/physics) and there are some interesting applications for simple GUI coding in a classroom environment.

By: Bill Davenport

Bill Davenport — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:40:48 +0000

Thank you! I’m teaching my 10 year old Ruby and this will be an added surprise to his learning.

I think my daughter will love this too. :-)

By: ashbb

ashbb — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:00:45 +0000

> Kids loved the name “Shoes”
hahaha. Cool!
Great success. Congrats!
I’m really looking forward to read your next adventure report of this project. :-D