You may remember from a previous post, that our small sub-group of kids working on Python was picked by finding those that had progressed more than 50% through the Code Club Scratch 2 module. Of those students, a couple opted to stay on Scratch - leaving four that were keen to get started on Python. One student had already done all of Python module 1, which was really great to see.
As I’ve mentioned a few times recently, our students have been recording completed projects - this works both as a way for them to measure their progress, and for us to know how everyone is going. Something I’ve noticed, is that when someone gets a bit bogged down, whether it be due to things not working or making sense, or even just when working on a particularly tough bug, sitting down with them and working through it together seems to have a long-term positive effect on that student.
During our Code Club sessions, a lot of questions come up. It reminds me of when I was at school and trying to figure out how all these pieces of information fitted together. A good analogy might be piano lessons: school kids can often find themselves learning piano and doing exams, without anyone ever stopping to ask them what they wanted to get out of it or how anything they learned would help them achieve anything useful.
