The “Hour of Code” is a global movement to teach kids the importance of developing computer skills. It’s reaching tens of millions of students in more than 180 countries, with some of the program’s most recent participants being the students at Kyrene Traditional Academy in Chandler.
“I credit Kyrene teacher and parent Jen Woolf for bringing this innovative and worthwhile educational program to my attention,” said Marianne Lescher, principal of KTA.
Woolf’s husband is an engineer and the couple is the parents of two KTA students. Both shared their enthusiasm for the coding skills that the program Hour of Code develops and created a “Star Wars” themed activity for the students to complete on the computer.
Worldwide, the Hour of Code can be scheduled by anyone in any country early in December. Although that period has passed, it recurs annually and is said to be appropriate for both children and adults.
The organization’s website says that no experience is needed because they provide one-hour, online tutorials for free in more than 40 languages. To date 198,979 Hour of Code events have been staged all over the globe, since its beginning in 2013.
KTA chose to focus all their efforts on one day, which was Thursday, Dec. 10, because, as Lescher says, she’s “kind of a Go Big or Go Home Girl,” so jumping in feet first seemed appropriate to her.
“When I talked it over with the other KTA teachers, it was evident that they enthusiastically thought we should give the program a try. So, we planned a day where all the grades would have a 45-minute unit on coding.”
To Lescher’s delight, the students displayed great interest in the event and seemed to want more.
“The experience was fantastic—I can honestly say that 100 percent of the kids seemed to be engaged, excited and enthusiastically participating, which is certainly not the case with most activities.”
As a result of the school’s participation in the computer skills program, a new club has formed on campus and the gifted students will have an eight-week unit that focuses on coding for computers.
“The teachers were just as jazzed about the Hour of Code as the students. So the teaching staff continues to come up with ideas to expand the program at KTA and to integrate more computer-oriented educational activities into our curriculum,” said Lescher.
Code.org is a non-profit that was started by Hadi Partovi and his twin brother Ali. He made millions in Silicon Valley and, by following the philanthropic lead of Bill Gates, became dedicated to sharing his knowledge of the computer and coding. His goal is to expand access to computer science technology and to increase participation by women and under-represented students of color in the field.
Locally, Lescher is grateful to have learned about the program, which will be an annual event at KTA.
“We know that more and more of the good paying jobs in the future will require the ability to code and use the computer, so the sooner kids learn these skills the better,” said Lescher.
