Teaching Kids to Program using the Intentional Method
TKP Past Events
Teaching Kids Programming is an organization of volunteer teachers and technical people who have developed a framework designed specifically for teaching basic programming to children aged 10 and up. The framework consists of 14 weeks of courseware (“recipes”) that are taught in small, practical steps and give rapid visual reward as the student’s skill progresses. The associated teaching methods follow the philosophy that kids learn best through self-discovery and collaboration.
TKP materials have been used at many types of events. These include dedicated TKP events, Microsoft DigiGirlz events, after-school classes, in-school lessons, private events, Developer Code Camps (kid’s tracks) and more. To our knowledge, TKP materials are being used in 15 US States and 10 foreign countries. Over the past 18 months, co-founders Llewellyn Falco and Lynn Langit have also personally introduced over 1,000 children to programming by teaching TKP materials at some kind of kid’s event.
We rely on and improve by taking a careful look at feedback after each event that we, or some other TKP teacher, leads. We have updated our extensions to SmallBasic (called SmallBasicFun on Microsoft’s CodePlex [Open Source] site) over 32 times in 2 years based on feedback. But, of course, the ‘proof’ in on the faces of our students. Take a look at a recent event in Orange County, CA (shown in the short video below).
Videos
Another event that we are particularly proud of is a TKP event for girls in Washington DC, taught by (then) 17-year old teacher Genevieve L’esperance. Here’s the link to video 17 Year Old SuperStar Gen Teaching in D.C.- also embedded below.
Photos
Teaching Kids Programming on Facebook
Blog Posts
New York Times Article About Barbie
What we learned from teaching our First After School Program
Volunteering – lessons learned (overall recap)
Teaching Programming Tools – Virtual Proctor
Teacher-for-a-Week at Girls Middle School
Ultimate Geek RoadTrip and Dare2BDigital Trip Report
PodCasts
Slide Shows
