Aaron Knight
The King’s Academy West Palm Beach, FL
Tell us about yourself
I teach the Junior High and High School Programming course offered at The King’s Academy. I found CodeHS and knew I had to integrate it into my curriculum here at the school. The level of difficulty matched with critical thinking skills surpassed any exercises I had seen in my search for what I could teach my students.
Tell us about your Students
My Junior High classes have 30 combined students and my High School courses have 40 combined students. The students actually look forward to class and revel in taking on a problem and working it out.
How has CodeHS been an effective teaching tool for you?
The students really enjoy online learning. They get bored too often in classes without the efficiency of technology. CodeHS helps me broaden the scope of my tool set in the classroom.
“CodeHS has helped in developing my students’ cognitive thinking skills, group tasks, and creativity.”
What do your students enjoy about learning with CodeHS?
CodeHS has helped in developing my students’ cognitive thinking skills, group tasks, and creativity.
Biggest Success
Our biggest success story would be the building of the Programming courses at our school. In 4 years, We have gone from having 4 students enrolled in only one programming course to offering multiple courses with over 100 students taking programming!
“We have gone from having 4 students enrolled in only one programming course to offering multiple courses with over 100 students taking programming!”
What is the most creative way you have used CodeHS?
After the Animation section I have two group projects for the High School programming class…Rain Simulation and a Paint Program. We utilize the principles and objectives of the exercises in Animation and expound upon them to create our own programs!
What does a typical day in your classroom look like?
A typical day is a lecture on a new concept of programming, a few examples and matched with a CodeHS lesson with examples for homework.
What’s the funniest thing that’s happened during your CodeHS class?
Everyone loves Karel. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Junior High student or a High School student. People are always asking questions like, “Is Karel a male or female?” “Karel is hungry, can I write a program to feed it?” “Can I write a program so Karel can actually walk through walls?” It has been an overall wonderful experience!
Originally published at codehs.com.
