| 09/14/2022
This summer, KidCoders 365 was ecstatic to host five new hybrid workshops at the Rockville Memorial Library's second floor computer lab. The summer sessions were a result of months of administrative planning, practicing lessons, and creating class materials.
Many instructors debuted their teaching skills during the duration of these workshops, including myself. We all learned a great deal about teaching and public speaking and had a ton of fun sharing our knowledge of coding with others.
There were a few difficulties along the way, as is inherent in running anything similar to what we were running. The bluetooth microphone, which we had placed so much faith in, let us down on the first day of class; library computers would stop working arbitrarily; and as tends to occur in Zoom meetings, we sometimes forgot to unmute our mics and spent a few minutes talking to ourselves until an attentive student pointed it out.
Even with these blunders, I’m proud to say that I consider summer workshops to have gone as smoothly as possible. Each day, I would leave my house 40 minutes before the beginning of class, biking to the library in anticipation of the upcoming lesson. After class, I would often stop by the ice cream shop adjacent to the library and treat myself to a snack before I biked home. In this way, the summer workshops genuinely became the highlight of my summer. They forced me to get some exercise, which I sorely needed, and also taught me many valuable skills about teaching.
The experience of being a teacher, especially teaching through Zoom, let me sympathize with my own high school teachers who had to work so hard to make their lessons compatible with a virtual format. We’re still discussing how next summer’s workshops will be held, but I’m excited already!