[Edu-sig] Teaching python at a Computer Clubhouse

[Carl Cerecke]

The kids are 10-18. Yes, I won't group them by birth-date. I started
teaching myself programming when I was about 10, on a Commodore-64, from
books and magazines. If there's a kid that's as keen as I was at that age,
then hopefully they'll be able to progress rapidly. The group will be
fairly small, I imagine, so they can all be at different levels and rates
without too much problem.

Thanks for the snake wrangling reference. Forgot about that.
Cheers,
Carl.

On 22 May 2012 09:03, Laura Creighton <lac at openend.se> wrote:

> In a message of Tue, 22 May 2012 08:54:47 +1200, Carl Cerecke writes:
>
> >I'm thinking of becoming a mentor at a local Computer Clubhouse
> >http://www.computerclubhouse.org/. In particular, there are some kids the
> >re
> >who are quite keen to learn to make their own games, but none of the
> >current mentors know any programming (one said that he had done some
> >"programming" in HTML).
> >I would be grateful for any recommendations for material to help me and t
> >he
> >kids. I have plenty of programming experience and some teaching experienc
> >e
> >(at the university level, though). I've written some text-only turn-based
> >games in python before (about the level of connect-4), but nothing with
> >graphics. The idea is supposed to be that this is driven by the interests
> >of the children, but I need to balance that with the requirement for a bi
> >t
> >of a programming foundation as well if they're going to be successful in
> >writing the sort of games they're interested in. I also think I need to
> >make sure their expectations are realistic...
> >So, any advice/recommendations?
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Carl.
>
> How old are the members of the clubhouse?
> If at all possible you should let kids group by interest.
> Date of manufacture (birth date) is a rotten way to sort people and your
> kids,
> like everybody else, will be happier if people are sorted by something
> other than 'birth date'.
>
> I steal regularly from
> http://www.briggs.net.nz/snake-wrangling-for-kids.html
>
> and given that the author is in NZ as well, he might have some insights
> that are better shared in person.
>
> best of appreciation for what you are doing,
> Laura Creighton
>
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