I got an opportunity to teach kids of grade 2 to code. This was a boon for me as I love teaching, but it also came up with many challenges. It was a challenge for me as I had experience of organizing Bootcamps for people who understood technical jargon and terminologies, conducted flash talks for people who understood at least the basics of some technology. but, here the scenario was completely different. And, this helped me to polish a few skills of mine.
Why I thought of teaching to code?
"We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.” ― Stephen King, 11/22/63
I live in a country where computers are not available in Government schools and the parents of the kids studying in those schools cannot afford it. The school in which I taught did not have proper restrooms, so expecting computers was out of the question. Thus, I thought of teaching kids to use computers so that if they ever get to use it in the future, they must not face the hesitation. They must feel easy and confident to use computers. so, I thought of teaching the basics of using a computer and lastly teach them to code. Programming will broaden their logical thinking and curiosity and make them ponder more about how computers work.
Biggest challenge?
The size of the class was a big challenge, but their happy faces and eagerness to learn helped me to overcome it.
I got only one week of time to teach kids to use a computer and I had only one laptop as my resource to be used. And there were around 50 kids! So I had to properly utilize time and one laptop to teach all them something about computers.
How did I approach this opportunity?
I started by making a curriculum that I want to cover in a week. I wanted the kids to learn a bit of Microsoft Word, and a bit of Python. In order to keep the kids engaged and entertained, I also thought of teaching them Microsoft Paint.
How was my experience of teaching?
Kids trying to add two number in Python
Oh, coding is fun!! And especially when I was teaching it to kids, the smile on the face which I saw when they executed programs would make me smile. The best part was that I was able to inculcate the habit of teamwork among the kids. It was so lovely to see all of them working in small teams and using the laptop and passing it to the other team with so much patience.
What did I learn in this process?
This helped me in enhancing many skills of mine. Primarily, I learned how to handle kids. Some other skills which I learned are as follows:
Kids told one by one what they think computers can be used for.
First and foremost, a person learns how to break concepts into very simple concepts and explain them to the kids who never ever used computers. This helped me in improving my storytelling skills. In the corporate world, not always we will find customers who will not be well versed with the tech stack we are planning to use. In such scenarios, storytelling helps a lot.
Secondly, it helped me to understand the mentality of the kids and how they interpret and understand things. Not every kid understands the thing in the same way.
Not every day kids are in the mood to learn. Hence, I had to come up with activities that would keep them engaged in such a way that they learn something but also enjoy it. What did I learn from this? I feel the same applies for elder people and people working in companies. If we could gamify the environment, it becomes fun to achieve the targets and also complete the work. I use this in my life too, I reward myself after I complete a piece of code in a component.
I also learned how to inculcate teamwork in kids. If I ever become a leader or an entrepreneur someday, this is one major quality that I need to imbibe in the team.
Finally, I think every person should work for the upcoming generation and the kids in some way or the other. This should be like social responsibility. Education is one gift, which is given to someone stay with the person always.
What are the challenges in Teaching programming in India?
One laptop and 40-50 students in a class was a very challenging situation.
In rural schools and government schools in cities, it is very hard to teach programming as there are no basic necessities like proper chairs, tables. All the unicorn startups, IT companies, and the government, of course, must look into this matter and take serious action for this. Our kids make our future and programming is a wonderful skill to learn. You never know one among them might come up with a new programming language, or do some significant contribution to some open source project. After joining the corporate world, even I don't get enough time to go and teach these kids. There are many other kids like them in my nation who need support and guidance.
Conclusion
I got to see their happy faces!