Coding speaks in all al

I was extremely excited this week as I began reading. I found a quick article and video about using coding and robotics with L2 students in the classroom. Coding has been a passion of mine for a few years and one thing that I have noticed is that girls and minorities are grossly underrepresented in the technology field. As a female and an inclusion teacher for L2 students I knew that I wanted to make sure that all students in my classroom had the opportunity to code and learn about technology. In my small town our migrant population does not always have access to devices and internet. There was a clear digital divide happening in my classroom and I wanted to address it. During small groups I would pull my students who had less experience with technology and the language and give them extra supports. I often taught them little tricky to boost their confidence.

As the weeks rolled on I noticed I was hearing them speak more, take control of the robots, and working with their peers. It was a hands on activity and the coding language spoke to all of them. As a class we really built a great team unit and I feel that it brought us closer together. The robots could be programmed to speak and sometimes they would speak in English and sometimes they would program them to speak in Spanish. It was amazing and heartwarming to see them come together and celebrate their diversity.