Nearly every time I walk into Ponderosa Elementary I see Bill Ruiter, a truly dedicated volunteer at the school who teaches the kids to program every week. Bill’s passion for writing code is contagious, and his students are always excited to share what they have created. I know that Bill would volunteer to write code with students from every school in the district if he could. The fact is, kids from many of our digital conversion schools are finding tools to help themselves learn this valuable skill everyday. They make simulations, models, and even games using programs like Scratch, Tinkerbox, and Hopscotch. However, they may not see the connection to code writing just by “tinkering” in these apps at home on their iPads. Help promote fundamental programing skills to the students in your classroom by taking them to CODE.ORG . At the very least watch the video together. Consider signing up for accounts as a class and getting them started with their first lesson. My Pilot Butte Middle School students from 4 years ago stop me in the halls at Bend High now to tell me of their progress on the site. They speak with the same passion as Bill when he shares the work of his young programmers at Ponderosa.
