Teaching Kids to Code

          

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