What Worked?
Pretty much everything worked accordingly. The presentation and the demonstration went on without any technical difficulties, although I found the whole process of explaining the program a bit weird considering it's intended purpose was for children. It's hard to explain concepts that are targeted to one age group to 16/17 year olds, because that's a new demographic with a different mindset. However, the class was co-operative and picked up on the concept of Scratch very quickly, so it presenting much easier for myself.
What Did I Start Doing Differently during the Presentations?
As the presentations progressed, I allowed the audience to interact with the script more. At first, I was more "strict" in the sense that I just told the audience to look at my presentation and my example, forgetting about the user completely. Then I realized that the only way for the audience to learn is to actually interact with the programming environment, so I allowed them to create their own Scratch thing. In conclusion, I started breaking away from the actual planned aspect of the presentation and allowed people to see Scratch for themselves instead of me just showing them.
Which 2 Languages Intrigued me?
Two languages which intrigued me are HTML because of the fact that the whole internet relies on it. Millions of websites are created on such a seemingly simple text-based language. The next language I found to be cool was Touch Develop, because the user interface was so welcoming and it did not discourage me from programming. Which
Would I Recommend to Teach Grade 9's next Year? Why?
I would recommend Small Basic to the Grade 9's next year because it combines the technicality of a text-based language with the comfort of a more "graphical" one. Although it is predominantly text based, it actually provides a list of commands for you in its GUI that lets you know your options. Again, it isn't like Scratch or Turtlebits, where its all "blocks". This is pretty close more serious ones like C++, and acts as the perfect bridge between learning programming and actually doing it as a profession.
Pretty much everything worked accordingly. The presentation and the demonstration went on without any technical difficulties, although I found the whole process of explaining the program a bit weird considering it's intended purpose was for children. It's hard to explain concepts that are targeted to one age group to 16/17 year olds, because that's a new demographic with a different mindset. However, the class was co-operative and picked up on the concept of Scratch very quickly, so it presenting much easier for myself.
What Did I Start Doing Differently during the Presentations?
As the presentations progressed, I allowed the audience to interact with the script more. At first, I was more "strict" in the sense that I just told the audience to look at my presentation and my example, forgetting about the user completely. Then I realized that the only way for the audience to learn is to actually interact with the programming environment, so I allowed them to create their own Scratch thing. In conclusion, I started breaking away from the actual planned aspect of the presentation and allowed people to see Scratch for themselves instead of me just showing them.
Which 2 Languages Intrigued me?
Two languages which intrigued me are HTML because of the fact that the whole internet relies on it. Millions of websites are created on such a seemingly simple text-based language. The next language I found to be cool was Touch Develop, because the user interface was so welcoming and it did not discourage me from programming. Which
Would I Recommend to Teach Grade 9's next Year? Why?
I would recommend Small Basic to the Grade 9's next year because it combines the technicality of a text-based language with the comfort of a more "graphical" one. Although it is predominantly text based, it actually provides a list of commands for you in its GUI that lets you know your options. Again, it isn't like Scratch or Turtlebits, where its all "blocks". This is pretty close more serious ones like C++, and acts as the perfect bridge between learning programming and actually doing it as a profession.
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