This week I began a new job as a Code Coach at theCoderSchool. It is an extra-curricular school where we teach kids how to code. As a Code Coach, I get to coach the students on developing projects that they are interested in making, such as videogames, or websites!
This week we had a coding boot camp where we worked together with the kids to develop the game Flappy Bird on Snap. During our coding breaks we had different activities that helped the kids learn more about how to code, and I had an activity with the kids where they had to develop a program in pseudocode to teach me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The rule was that I was going to think like a computer, so I did exactly what they told me to do. The kids came up with the program and then we ran the program (with a few errors of course). We revised and debugged until I was able to make the sandwich. I loved the activity because it was a great way to show how the computer thinks, as well as practice debugging a program. After the activity, the kids were able to understand more of how to write a program and they were able to develop their Flappy Bird games more efficiently.
I talked to a student over a game of foosball and we realized that we were both multilingual. We talked about how there are a lot of similarities between languages such as Portuguese and Spanish, and compared that to programming languages. “Como você está?” in Portuguese and “¿Cómo estás?” in Spanish have the same meaning (“How are you?”). Although the words are a little bit different, they are saying the same thing. I talked to the student about how a lot of the programming languages you learn will have the same structure, but the vocabulary will be a little bit different.
I really enjoy being a Code Coach, and I am learning a lot by teaching the students how to code, as well as having the enjoyment that I am beginning to work like a programmer. Click here to see more of what theCoderSchool is all about!