Currently in One Laptop Per Child, we have been preparing to teach 4th grade students at Columbus School for Girls about the world of computer coding through an online programming website called Scratch. Scratch offers simplified overview of computer programming, and was developed and catered toward kids to give them exposure to coding (Example of Scratch project below). Over the past few weeks, we have begun to brainstorm and plan the lessons that we will teach the elementary school students. Before we begin teaching them how to use the program, we plan to play a couple of games and ask a few questions to get the students thinking. In one game, we are planning to have the students instruct us on how to walk in a square, however they will notice that they have to be very specific in their wording to get us to complete the task, just as they will when they are working on the computers. While we plan on teaching some aspects of the actual program, we are also planning on allowing them learn through exploration and discovery on their own, keeping them interested, and giving them a sense of independence.
Over the course of the class so far, it has been such an incredibly rewarding experience. I am excited to share Scratch with the Lower Schoolers, in hopes that it will pique their interest to join a technology class in Upper School. The impact that we have already made, and will make on the lives of others is more than I ever thought possible when I first joined this course. Making technology more accessible one computer time has had so much more impact than I initially realized, in that even just one computer can change the life of a child. Additionally, I have learned so much about myself through this experience, and that I tend to close myself off and confine myself to my community, and forget about what a big world we live in. I have learned that I need to take more time to make differences in others’ lives, because even the smallest acts of kindness, no matter how large the impact, are making the world a better place one step at a time.
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May 2017
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