Teaching day 1

My kids are off at University and all my high school booster responsibilities are done.  I've downsized and I have some extra free time.  For years I've said that I would like to teach and a little opportunity to do just that came up.  I grabbed it.

I've found a company run by a tech guy in his spare time that offers various after school STEM programs.  He's got loads of things he offers to schools / PTAs.  This group selected  an after school enrichment class in software coding.  The curriculum is self paced and drag & drop.  The essentially make programs out of virtual Lego blocks.  Today was the first day of class.  We're got kids from 1st grade to 6th grade.  There's 13 of them.  

Some observations.  Second graders are different than 5th graders.  The little kids' fine motor skills are not as developed as the big kids.  Mouse pad movements was often done with their thumbs.  It's much harder for them to connect blocks correctly.  Once connected they had some difficulty disconnecting them.   They get distracted and frustrated reasonably quickly.

The bigger kids worked rapidly through harder material.  My job is much more coach than traditional teacher.  The teaching is done through videos and exercises.  They advanced from step and turn commands through to pixels and angles and painting in an hour.

At the end of the hour, all the kids were done and ready for something else.

Boys are squirrels.  Six girls sat with their hands in their laps waiting to be told what to do.  Seven boys were jabbering and touching everything on the table. The boys were competitive and raced quickly through the material.  The girls were collaborative.  

I'm certain actual teachers have favorites.  I identified with the kids who were like me in elementary school.  Quiet and respectful.  I wanted to protect them and make sure they didn't get taken advantage of (sharing computers).

It's a 12 week course.  Stay tuned for more.