TRANSCRIPT: 3 Tips for Coding with Young Students (feat. Nicole Green from MacArthur K-8 University Academy)
2:07PM Jan 19, +0000
Speakers:
Nikki
Nicole
Keywords:
students
coding
technology
makey
teacher
puzzles
classroom
scratch
education
teaching
kids
computer
debugging
create
nicole
creative
web pages
problems
game
giving
I had a student who he struggled with reading and math. And when we started doing the coding, he just like, took off with it. He became like a leader in the classroom. And he was telling other, helping other students when they got stuck on different little coding problems. And I was just like, wow, look at what you're doing. This is so awesome. And I remember him just kind of saying, like, wow, I really am smart. And I was just like, ah, oh my goodness.
I’m Nikki Herta, and this is BRIGHT: Stories of Hope & Innovation in Michigan Classrooms, a podcast where we celebrate our state’s educators and explore the future of learning. BRIGHT is brought to you, in part, by Meemic Insurance Company, insuring the educational community for more than 70 years. Teachers and school employees, visit Meemic.com/Quote to see how much you can save.
In today’s episode of BRIGHT, I chat with Nicole Green, a K-8 technology teacher for MacArthur University Academy in Southfield Public Schools.
Nicole shares her own journey in learning to code, why she’s so passionate about bringing these experiences into her classroom, and her top three strategies for coding with young students.
Hello, Nicole, thank you for joining us for the BRIGHT podcast today. It's so great to have you on our show.
Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Happy to meet you. Since we're named twins.
So, we're trying a new thing for season three. I'm asking everybody start to tell me about the most interesting thing that they're doing in their classroom right now. Or just in their current position?
Well, there are a couple of things going on. I run a Girls Who Code Club in my building. And so it's a middle school girls. I started off when I first started, we had like 13 or so. But now we're like up to 20 Girls, and we're doing some physical computing with Makey Makeys. Just like introducing them to the Makey Makey, how to make a circuit, and we're going to get into using it with Scratch and things like that. So they are very, very excited.
What are Makey Makeys? And what is Scratch?
Scratch is a programming language. It was developed by MIT. I don't know how many years ago it was now. And a Makey Makey, it's like a little circuit board basically, so it can be plugged into the computer. When they're making games on Scratch, they can make like a little controller made out of playdough or even draw one with pencil. It's all about just kind of like encouraging kids to invent. They call it invention literacy.
That's so neat. And you you you know, I've heard this before, right? That they're the computing field, at least currently is more male dominated. So it's really neat that you're getting them interested in coding at such a young age.
Exactly.
Making them realize that they can do it, you know that there's a place for them. So that's, that's, that's very neat.
Yeah, they we have a good time. We really do.
I'm curious if you could talk to me about just your journey through education. In particular, wondering, you know, Did you always know that you wanted to be a teacher? And did you always know you wanted to be a technology teacher, or like when did that come into play?
My mom was a teacher. She taught in Detroit for 30 years or so. And my dad worked for IBM, he was in the technology field. And so that had a huge impact on my journey. And so got my degree, my bachelor's education, and started teaching first grade. I taught first grade for several years, probably, about four or five years, and then started thinking about my master's. And I was like, I really love technology, because all through college, the Internet was brand new. So I was on AOL all the time, looking up stuff, and then seeing people create web pages. And I just told this story to my middle school tech classes. I said my journey through technology was through the creative angle. Because I wanted to create web pages. I saw this girl create web pages about Sailor Moon and anime. That's what I was all into when I was in college. And I was like, "Oh, her web page is so cool. I wanna learn how to do this." And she had tutorials, I was like, "This is before YouTube, so I would read her tutorials, and start making my own web pages on GeoCities." So I was spending a lot of time just teaching myself a lot of things with technology. So then when it came time for me to choose for my master's, I was like, I want to be able to marry technology and education, so I went to Walden, one of their first programs in integrating technology into the curriculum. And I learned a whole lot going through that program just fueled my love even more for technology. That was kind of like my journey through education.
Can you tell me about a moment that you vividly remember falling in love with teaching?
One moment that I had, which has to do with coding and technology, is what I was teaching second grade, and I had a student who he struggled with reading and math. And when we started doing the coding, he just like took off with it. He became like a leader in the classroom. And he was helping other students when they got stuck on different little coding problems. And I was just like, wow, look at what you're doing. This is so awesome. And I remember him just kind of saying, like, wow, I really am smart. And I was just like, ah, oh, my goodness. I almost like wanting to start bawling. Like, right, then. When kids just say stuff like that, you're just like, oh, my goodness, whoa, so that's when you're like, I love my job as a teacher.
Oooh, that gave me chills, too. And I think it's just because, I mean, there are many reasons. But you know, that that was an important realization for him if he was a student that struggled before that, to realize that moment of, oh, I am smart.
Exactly.
So today, we're gonna talk about three strategies for coding with young students. But first, I just wanted to ask, you know, like, what is it about coding with with little ones that you are, like so passionate about?
I think it opens up a it kind of opens up their minds to like critical thinking, problem solving. And then also, just because of the world that we live in is so technology dependent, exposing them early to how these things work, it's kind of like opening the box, so to speak. I think is really important for them. And then also the district I'm teaching is, you know, mainly African American. So also just exposing them to this field. And maybe this might be something that they decide to go into in the future. And also tell them to that your age doesn't hold you back, either. There are kids who are like 10 and 12, who are, you know, running little side businesses. Like that can be you, you don't really have to wait right now, if you just want to try something out. Go ahead and just try it and see what happens. That's how you learn. So I really try to encourage that whole thinking for them, but even just for the little ones. The problem solving the perseverance, there's so many big ideas that tie into coding, and the little kids can do it too, and they really enjoy it.
I’m Nikki Herta, and you’re listening to BRIGHT: Stories of Hope & Innovation in Michigan Classrooms. BRIGHT is brought to you, in part, by Meemic Insurance Company, insuring the educational community for more than 70 years. Teachers and school employees, visit Meemic.com/Quote to see how much you can save.
Today, I’m chatting with Nicole Green, a K-8 technology teacher for MacArthur University Academy in Southfield Public Schools.
Up next, we dive into Nicole’s top three tips for coding with young students.
My first tip is what I found has worked for my students is gamification. So when I was looking for different programs, I went through a training for code.org. They have an excellent program for elementary students. But it was kind of hard for my younger students K-2 because it was a lot of text. And so some of them, you know, weren't really ready for all of the text that was there, and it would kind of hold them back on being able to complete the different puzzles. And so I ran across this one app that I've been using for years now. I absolutely love it, and it's called codeSpark. And I think I was just playing around with iPads, I was getting ready to buy an iPad, and it was one of the apps that was loaded on there. And I was like, wait, what is this? And so it's really for like, pre-K up through fifth-grade students. And so it doesn't have a lot of text, but it's more intuitive. As far as showing students different concepts of coding, giving them baby steps to get started, and then really like giving them some deeper puzzles to work on. And so it's really kind of like gamified, once they go through one little puzzle, they earn little stars at the end. And it just like, holds your attention, like they love it. Love it, love it, love it. And I think it's really just that whole gamification piece of it for using that particular app. So I definitely look for things that kind of make coding fun, like a game, and then you can build off of that.
That's awesome. All right. Well, how about number two, what is your second tip for coding with young students?
My second tip is the creative aspect. So giving students room to create, again, with codeSpark, the other thing I really love about the app is not only does it have the puzzles, but it has this whole creative section where students can make stories with the characters. They have to do coding in order to make the characters move around, or they can record their voice. And then they can also create games. And so that's when we use a lot of computational thinking things, like algorithms, using events, conditionals statements. Especially when they're creating a game, it's like, okay, in this part of the game: if a character bumps into this wall, I need the character to use the dynamite or throw something else. So I got to code that into my game, this "if then" statement. And then we talk about events it's just when When something happens, you want this other thing to automatically happen. So just giving them the sandbox to play in, it is really amazing. All of the stuff that they come up with, I love it. It just makes my heart just like light up.
Can you think of any examples off the top of your head of, you know, a project or conversation that you saw students working on where you were just like, whoa. Like, you know, you're so young, and you're having this, like, really thoughtful approach to this big thing?
Yeah, I would say probably with creating the games on codeSpark, because I've seen students add in all these different characters. And it's basically kind of laid out almost like a Super Mario type thing, like a runner type game. And they add in all these different little sections, like, "Yeah, and I'm going to have this character come up here. And then this is the bad guy." And they have this whole little built in story that they have created with this game. So I want to give them that space to do the technology and the creative, merge it together. Let's see what you can come up with.
And that connects so well with, you know, the 21st century skills that we want students to have. You know, to be collaborative, we want them to be creative. We want them to be critical thinkers. Using technology to solve problems. That's really hitting on like all of those things. That is so neat.
And I'm glad you brought up the collaboration piece too because I do tell my students like, "You can ask your neighbor next to you, like how did you solve that? Or, you know, how did you get to that level? I mean, that's not against the rules. I'm not the you know, the end all be all of coding and technology. You guys can help each other out." And to see them do that is awesome. And I tell them, like, that's what you do in the real world. You're not just, you know, working in a bubble. You're talking with other people saying, "Okay, how did you do that? We have to work on this part together." So I really, really try and encourage that and keep that going while they're doing the coding.
Right, cool. All right, you got a third strategy or tip for us?
The third strategy is video, YouTube. I can't remember when I started incorporating it into my lessons, but I just started thinking back on how I learned different things when I was younger. And I was like, I learned a lot with Schoolhouse Rock and Sesame Street and Electric Company. Like video is powerful, so why do we kind of downplay that a little bit in education? If you use it in the right way, it's not just having a whole video for 20 minutes that you're just sitting there. But I normally try and incorporate videos that are about five minutes or less. And I'm looking for specific things in a video that I can expand on with my students. So I'm like, we had a lesson about loops. And especially for the little kids, like you can explain it to them. But then I'll there's a video. It's by Scratch Garden. I love scratch garden. They have all these videos called Coding Camp, they just came out like last year. All these cute little songs, kind of like Schoolhouse Rock or whatever, but about coding. So they had one about loops. And it's showing, like the C Block, and how everything goes inside. I tell them that's what it's called, see what does this block look like, it looks like a C, that's what it's called. And I said in codeSpark, they just turned it down this way. But still, everything goes inside that you want to loop. And you can tell the computer how many times you want to do it. And it has like a cute little rap and beat. And we're just like bopping and dancing along with it. And then it just starts sticking in their in their brains. So just trying to find as many different avenues as I can to make this information stick in their heads. And then it also helps to kind of reinforce the vocabulary words, too. We go over different vocabulary words, like I said, the events, the conditionals, algorithms, debugging. And so I do that kind of like as a review as the beginning of our lessons, but then the video just kind of like drives at home, what that vocabulary word is about. And they start using it, and I make sure I use it, like, "Okay, we're going to use decomposition to break down this puzzle. What does that mean again? Take a big problem, break it down into smaller pieces. So we're going to break it down step by step to go through this." I had one parent tell me, she was like, "Oh, Mrs. Green, you would be so proud. Because Space Jam came out this summer, and one of the bad guys in Space Jam was named Al G. Rhythm, algorithm. And she was like, "Oh, you would be so proud that he, like, totally remember what that word meant." So I just keep trying to drive those words home and make it real for them.
One question that was kind of floating in my mind as you're talking through that last section is so you teach a specific technology class, right? Have you worked with other colleagues who are pulling some of this stuff into their, you know, I guess non-technology-specific classrooms, pulling it into core subjects? You have any thoughts on how somebody might be able to apply it in their classroom?
I was talking with one of the first grade teachers in our building. And even though we didn't have like a specific project that we were working on together, she was like, "I've noticed that the kids don't get as upset when things go wrong with their computer." Because we'd talk about how in codeSpark, one of the little characters is called the Glitch, and he causes problems. And so I would say to them, like, "Oh, you have a glitch. We just got to keep going. That glitche is messing around in your computer. But that's okay. We're just going to do this and keep on going." And so they were just starting to show like this perseverance that just kind of gives them a way to take ownership of their own problems. Instead of just saying, "I give up. This is not working," or "I can't do this." It's like, "Well, yes, you can. And, yes, we do have glitches that may come up, but we can still work through that." So, I think it's just more of like, using similar language and ideas that we kind of have and sharing. Because with the kindergarten and first-grade students that I see, I push into their classroom, so I have a chance to kind of like talk with the teachers a little bit. They hear what I'm saying, and then they're like, "Yeah, we talked about debugging," and, "Yeah, we can use that with math." And, "It's okay, if you if you make a mistake, you just go in and fix it, you know, look for the mistake and see if you can fix it." And "sometimes you may not see it at first, that's when you get somebody else to look at your work."
So you mentioned, obviously, codeSpark and code.org. Any other just tech tools that you want to throw out there that we can link in the show notes as well?
Definitely Scratch. Scratch is an awesome coding language. And it can help bridge kids from like the block-based coding languages to more the text-based. Because I think there's a way you can switch it to go back and forth. And then it also gives them a little bit more creative freedom. With Scratch, they can look at different projects, they can remix things that other people have done, and just kind of look under the hood of the code and say, "Hey, I like that, but I want to change it and do it this way." You may think that you're cheating, but no, you can look at somebody else's code and change it up to make it do what you want it to do. You're still learning, you know, because you're looking at it, and you know where to make the adjustments. Even if you didn't write it all step by step by step. Most people really don't have to do that anymore. When you're like creating a web page, most of you have programs that have like the start of it already in there for you. And then you just go in and tweak it as you need. So yeah, just trying to help kids understand, like, you don't have to, like, you know, start at the ground floor. It's okay if you jump up a little bit to get to where you need to go. Like I said, the Scratch Garden videos are really, really good. And then there's like other videos that I have just found that just help explain different concepts. As far as like the debugging or events or conditional statements. I have like a whole playlist of all of those different videos. There's one video that I showed the kids when we're talking about debugging, and where the term debugging came from, from Grace Hopper, and how she had these early computers that were really, really huge. So you get a little bit of a history lesson, and how there was an actual bug in the computer. And then you can go to the Smithsonian Museum and see her notebook with the bug in there. So they're all like, "Oh, wow, like, yeah, so that's where that came from." And then we can refer back to that, like, "Remember about Grace Hopper and how she didn't give up?" About perseverance, so many things that you can pull out and talk about and keep so it makes like a little touchstone. Keep going back touching to it with the kids, as you go further with their coding lessons.
Can you tell me about a student who touched your heart and changed the way that you teach?
There was one in particular I had when I was teaching second grade. He had some behavior issues, some emotional challenges that he was kind of going through, and he would sometimes just get, like, very upset about different things and want to like throw crayons or pencils, and it was just hard for him to calm down. And so when he would have like, different episodes like that, I had to like, say, like, "What is really driving this? What's causing him to be so upset? How can I give him strategies to, you know, get himself calm, so that he can learn and not disturb other students in the classroom?" So sometimes he would go out and just take like a break, like in the hallway or in the office for a little bit, but I was found it was important, like when he came back in the classroom, just to say, "I'm so glad you're back. Now we can kind of like get down to work. It's okay." And just like kind of move past it. And so after a while, the the incidents became fewer and fewer and fewer to where we just had like a pretty good relationship. And so I could, you know, talk about his writing, like, "I love what you wrote about there. What did you mean here in this story?" And I remember like towards the end of the year, one of his good friends was like leaving early, like this friend wasn't going to be there for the last day of school. And so he kind of was starting to get upset and almost have a little episode again. And I was like, "I see you're upset, because so-and-so is leaving. Is that why you're upset?" And he was just kind of like, "Yeah." And I was like, "Well, you know, if you need to go get a drink of water, if you need to do this, go ahead and take care of that. And then you can just come back, and you know, we'll still have fun, and you'll see him next year. I know, you're a little sad, but you can take a break, if you're starting to, you know, feel like those feelings are starting to get too strong." And he was just kind of like, "Okay," and it just kind of like, stopped it. And he was able to get water and come back. And he just really, like touched my heart. I hope that I was able to touch him in some kind of way. But that was a kid that really just like, you know, touch my heart a little bit.
Alright, what about a teacher that had an impact on you touched your heart change the way you teach?
Um, well, I would say there's probably three. So my first two would have to be my parents. My mom, because she was already in the education field, seeing how we would visit with her a lot. Seeing how she dealt with her students and how she kind of pointed out the disparities with education. Like, you know, look at where I'm teaching, look at where you go to school, you see, it's not all exactly the same. And, you know, there's certain things that, you know, we sacrificed so she could provide things for her students. And then definitely my dad just, you know, the whole technology going to work with him, I think was really powerful. Going into the the IBM building and seeing the computers and the some of the older computers that took like punch cards and things like that. We thought it was like Disney World, but it just kind of like you know, opened my eyes to that whole other field that I try to tell my students exists that's out there and say you can be a part of it, too. And then the third teacher would probably have to be my fifth-grade teacher, Miss Parksy, she was like, one of the first teachers that really I would say saw me. I was always kind of like more of like a quiet kid, good reader. I was always good at reading, loved reading books, things like that. But she encouraged me with my writing. She got all my crazy little jokes, all my little drawings and doodles that I did. And she just built up my confidence in those areas so much, and I just I just loved her for it.
I want to thank Nicole for spending time and energy sharing her stories and experiences with us.
I want to thank her for giving us a glimpse into how coding has shaped the lives of her young students by allowing them to see themselves as intelligent, creative, and capable of manipulating the technology at their fingertips to solve problems.
And of course, I want to thank her for sharing her top three tips for coding with young students: 1) gamifying learning, 2) getting creative, and 3) using short videos to explain and reinforce complicated concepts.
Without a doubt, it’s challenging work to introduce young minds to such concepts within the world of computing and show them how they can create with this technology. But with leaders like Nicole forging our path forward, if there’s one thing we’re certain of: it’s that the future is BRIGHT.
Do you know someone who is an inspiring Michigan educator who should be featured on our show? Send us an email at bright@michiganvirtual.org to let us know who they are and why they should interview them.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of BRIGHT: Stories of Hope & Innovation in Michigan Classrooms. This podcast is produced by Herbie Gaylord, is hosted by me, Nikki Herta, and is shaped by many of our passionate and talented colleagues. Big thanks to Anne Perez, Kristen Debruler, and Brandon Bautista for their contributions to this episode.
BRIGHT is brought to you, in part, by Meemic Insurance Company, insuring the educational community for more than 70 years. Teachers and school employees, visit Meemic.com/Quote to see how much you can save.
The BRIGHT podcast is made possible by Michigan Virtual, a nonprofit organization that’s leading and collaborating to build learning environments for tomorrow. Education IS changing faster than ever. Discover new models and resources to move learning forward at your school at michiganvirtual.org.