Classroom Coding & Abra-CODE-Abra!

I'm writing this blog post from ISTE, in San Antonio, the night before my colleague, Sarah, and I present our workshop session entitled Abra-CODE-Abra: The Magic of Computational Thinking. If I'd been looking for a sign of encouragement before presenting at this level, it most certainly came as I just ran into career-hero and innovative inspiration George Couros at Starbucks. He was writing his blog and we chatted for a quick moment about collecting, selecting, and sharing ideas in blogs. So rather than nervously reviewing slides, it seems like a good time to refine these ideas.

When it comes to coding, computer science, or computational thinking, the goal of our session is to encourage every teacher to take steps, whether they are first steps, risky steps, or giant leaps across boundaries they've long perceived. These are my wishes for participants in our session, colleagues on my district, and loyal blog readers!

Connect

Whether it’s the teacher next door, district PD, or online resources like code.org, explore first steps to add coding and computer science to your classroom setting. Ask a colleague to show you or help you get setup in something you've seen working well in his or her classroom.

Promote Collaboration

Coding doesn’t have to be isolating. Tons of opportunities exist for collaboration and communication.  Coding is a language after all, and dialogue generates creativity in problem-solving. There's a reason code.org automatically credits both participants who partner-up!

Embrace Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum

Search for patterns in art, model real research skills, decompose complex math problems, draw conclusions, determine importance and provide evidence in reading, compare and synthesize varied content. As PG online says it best, "Computational thinking is simply working out how to work things out." If you're talking about or modeling computational thinking during "tech-time," then you're missing opportunities all day long.

Don’t Do Their Thinking for Them!

Allow discovery, experimentation, and failure so that students are problem solving, applying strategies toward solutions, and learning! Don't be persuaded to give help too early, model answers over questions, or do their thinking for them!

Let Students Lead the Way

Open the door and let students take off.  If you’ve tried an Hour of Code, then you know how quickly students can surpass your ability to always help them.  Enjoy the adventure and let go of the reins a bit. Maybe even let them select their stations!

Convert Consumers to Creators

Search for apps and learning opportunities that promote creativity.  Let kids tinker, build, and create. Make movies, create greenscreen scenes, or construct cardboard castles. Watch a student spend a half hour to create a 10 second stop-motion clip or simple video game on their own. Students have a deeper learning experience creating a game than just playing one!

Share

Connect with colleagues or parents to share your learning as well as that of your students. Use Twitter to celebrate and showcase student thinking and creativity. There are resources all around to add to your journey, and they may come from unlikely sources. Some may just be waiting to be invited.

Student Voice & Choice

Across blogs and articles that promote innovation and 21st century learning, a common thread is finding ways to provide students with authentic opportunities for choice and to exercise their voice. I couldn't agree more, but are we prepared for the choices and voices? It's an exercise in shared leadership and relinquished control that can be threatening to an environment that is used to a tight schedule or strict routine. 

No one is suggesting that we ditch our plans for the day and wing it with kids in charge from the jump. Rather, we just need to have students meaningfully involved and included. If we are honest about voice and choice, it’s on us to respond to the opportunities we allow our students to create.

This is what I consider a different type of RTI (Response to Invitation). Whether it's determining reading goals, selecting writing prompts or creating digital projects, 

the more choices our students have to share and show what they know, the better. Here's the question: How do we answer the call? Students demonstrating thinking and sharing their learning is an invitation- to respond, to reflect, (and yes) to assess. 

Seesaw is a great example of this invitation process in action.  If Twitter is a glimpse into students’ classrooms, Seesaw is a peek into their desks. It’s a tool with incredible potential, and teachers are pioneering new ways for students to demonstrate and archive their thinking.  As an example, having a screen-captured and narrated recording of a student explaining their math prompt brings practices to life. What might have previously been "correcting" a worksheet (empty transaction) is now an opportunity to see, hear and watch math practices in context and in real-time, while being recorded to revisit and review.  Students are naturally modeling, problem-solving, explaining and justifying, but with purpose and for an audience. We are the audience, along with parents and peers.  We have an open-invite, and we can't take that role for granted.