As a
kindergarten teacher, I know how important it is to lay the foundation blocks
for reading and writing. A child needs to become fluent and confident with their
letters, sounds, and sight words. I work every day to incorporate activates
that focus on those skills so that reading and writing can be fun! However, as
technology moves along with new inventions and the world becomes more and more
reliant on the digital aspect of things I wonder am I preparing my students for
this new world?
Then I came across a blog post that
encouraged teachers to teach pre-school and kindergarten students to code. This
is what the post stated about coding: "Coding (or computer programming) is
a new type of literacy. Just as writing helps you organize your thinking and
express your ideas, the same is true for coding. In the past, coding was seen
as too difficult for most people. But we think coding should be for everyone,
just like writing…With ScratchJr, children aren’t just learning to code, and
they are coding to learn.”
I never
thought about coding as a new type of literacy!! As mind blowing as that
statement was, it truly made me start thinking. If our world is becoming more
and more technically advanced and people are using computers more and more then
why wouldn't we (teachers) want to begin teaching our children the basics of
computers? The post continues to talk about apps that would make it easy to
introduce coding to students. I think this is something I might want to try
with my students someday. But it is going to be something I need to try on my
own first. I have never coded in my life!! Here is the link:
Teaching Kids to Code
