Today was a workshop day in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Let me start off by saying Yazoo City is another world. I was luck to get the chance to visit Woolfolk Middle School, and run a workshop with almost forty students there.
I got there early and started to install Google Chrome on all of the computers, which were running Windows XP. Not a problem, just something I noticed. I also brought in the big box of Google Chromebooks, and luckily was able to get those on the school wifi network. We set up the headphones, got the site and register page all set up, and started right after lunch.
After an initial survey, none of the students had ever programmed before or really knew what programming was. After the workshop, the students had a great time, and even the principal, vice principal and teachers got to get involved. Students throw up their hands and fists and shout “Yes!” when they write their first or second Karel program.
Time was up after an hour or so, but we kept going a little bit longer since everyone was having a good time.
Had dinner at a restaurant downtown in Yazoo City–a quiet town. Staying with a friend and a few TFA teachers. Extremely interesting to hear about the program and its challenges.