Unplugged Coding: a reflection in a series of tweets

Ok, so let's start off with this. I've taken 7 (or 8? I've lost count at this point) AQs throughout my teaching career, and my current P/J Math part 2 AQ has been BY FAR my favourite. And no, I'm not writing this because my professors do follow me on twitter and may read this (actually, they will read this - because I'm definitely handing this blog reflection in as my assignment)...BUT. This course has given me the exact way I enjoy learning - hands on learning by doing it in my own classroom! Need to learn about coding? Great. Not only will be we discuss and read about it, but then we will find a coding lesson and teach it in our classrooms. 

So - here is my (unplugged) coding reflection.

First, let's review. I teach a Primary Special Needs class, which means I have students age range 6-9 with exceptionalities. So, when I found a lesson plan already created with lesson information and resources in my school boards' VLE (and it was an opportunity for my students to DANCE, which they love) - I was game!

*For those reading this who work for OCDSB, I did the Grade 1 "dance party" unplugged coding lesson in the VLE coding resources (Thanks Marnie Penney!)

So, I started by acknowledging that my "hour of code" was actually going to be "hours of code". I knew I'd need to plan for at least a week of coding lessons to complete this dance party unplugged coding - so I opted for the last 2 weeks before winter break. My students need extra time to explore, learn, understand and practice concepts, so we spent about 30 minutes a day for 2 weeks completing the full lesson.

We started off with introductions: new dance moves, new vocabulary, new ways of learning in math class! I was surprised with how much engagement occurred in these first few lessons. I know my students love dancing (and the moving gifs on the virtual dance cards definitely helped!) but even students who usually struggle with more than a few minutes of learning at a time were fully engaged and learning!

Time to sequence a dance. My students love being the "leader", so when they each got a chance to sequence a dance to have their peers dance to, they enjoyed it so much! I decided this was a great opportunity to sneak in some patterning learning as well, so once my students showed an understanding of creating the sequences with the dance shapes, we created patterned versions as well! I was surprised how well they remembered our new vocabulary "event/cue"!

Then, it was time to use the unifix cubes to code dance sequences! We spent lots of time reviewing what dance move each colour represented individually first, then we sequenced dance moves (both on the smartboard and using unifix cubes - for the purposes of fine motor and the whole class being able to see the colour sequence with the dance visuals as helpful reminders). Did I sneak in patterning again here? Yep. 

So, what did I learn as an educator?

1. I learned (or better, was reminded) about how capable my students truly are! Coding in special education IS possible. My students are SMART! My students LOVE hands on learning. 

2. I was reminded about how fun math learning can be when it's an activity that is revisited over a period of days. A thought that crossed my mind when planning this was, will they get bored? 2 weeks is a long time. But nope, they had fun everyday!

3. I learned that I (as an educator) am capable of understanding and teaching coding! Honestly, I've got that DLL (digital lead learner) title on my email signature but, ask me about coding and that's probably my weakest "tech" spot. This put me out of my comfort zone and into a zone of learning and trying new things!

4. I learned that I really need to use my school boards VLE more often. This lesson had all the tools prepared (with a few things I added in to specifically accommodate my students) and it linked directly to curriculum expectations (and not just coding! Patterning and dance as well!)

Next time?

Will I try another coding lesson? Absolutely! Next time I may try to involve a "plugged" lesson into our math learning. Some things I would continue next time I teach coding: giving more time to complete the lesson and grasp the concepts, providing multiple ways to show learning (ie, unifix cubes but also on smartboard), providing hands on experiences for learning. Things I may do different: possibly splitting the group into 2 smaller groups, to give students a chance more often to express and show their learning to their peers.