What I have learned in learning to code.

Alex Procenko
Dec 5, 2016
2 min read

Learning to code was scary.

Everybody knows that computer coding is important. Everybody knows that apart from being a really cool thing to know, knowing how to code is becoming increasingly important every day.

I have always been a very academic person and student, and I feel a little snobby when I say that I don't remember the last time learning something was hard for me.

Well, last year, this assumption that learning was easy was turned on it's head and slapped me in the face.

In my "Computational Thinking" class last year we were taught the very basics of coding.

And oh man was it HARD.

These introductory lessons consisted of creating programs in Scratch whereby your sprite would draw a geometric shape. I think it took about half an hour to figure out how to make my sprite draw a square. Fast forward about 6 months and I can now confidently say that now only can I write a program that draws a square, but also a beautiful multicoloured spiral. I am still learning, but some things that I have decided to explain some of the things I have learned during my journey in learning how to code:

-Developing a growth mindset. Being an academic student all my life, I rarely was faced with learning something that I really had to "work at" learning. It was really hard to not just give up and accept defeat. But, the feeling of success and pride I get each time I complete a new challenge is AWESOME. Some other words that are related to developing a growth mindset include:

-Perseverance. When something is hard, it's hard to not give up.

Determination. When you decide to not give up, you just want to get to the finish line!

-Excitement. Each time I create something new I can't wait to share it with somebody else.

-Problem Solving and Critical Thinking. Learning how to code, and especially "debugging" your code really requires you to think. In this day and age where we are just absorbing facts, it is a challenge when you actually need to use your brain and not just your memory! While I still consider myself a very beginner coder, I am quite proud of my most recent endeavor of creating an educational video game. I am still using Scratch, but am hoping to venture out into other coding languages soon (I have been advised that Python is the next "step"). If you want to see some of my projects, visit my Scratch profile!