When someone says "computer programmer" to you, what do you immediately think of? If you're like many people, it's something like this: A nerdy white guy, right? Girls Who Code is here to shake up that stereotype. Their mission statement, from their website, states: Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Our programs educate, equip, and inspire girls with the computing skills they’ll need to pursue 21st century opportunities. Fantastic, right?? I am proud to be the first school in WCPS to host a Girls Who Code Club. We met 2x a week, 24 girls participating. As a secondary GWC Club, my girls had access to their iPads to work. They learned how to write "real code" - not just block coding in a drag-and-drop interface, but by actually writing code in Apple's Swift Playgrounds, shown here: With the Learn to Code I, Learn to Code II, and the Answers playground, my girls learned how to write lines of code in Apple's Swift language. They found and fixed bugs, learned about variables, and so much more. The final project was to work on coding a personal assistant, much like Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa. More importantly, these girls discovered that they COULD code... that they could break down the stereotype of the nerdy white guy and that THEY, this amazing, talented, diverse group of brilliant young women, could be the future faces of programming: To quote Beyonce... "Who runs the world? GIRLS!"
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About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
September 2020
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