How to find good teachers to teach coding to kids?
Finding good teachers to teach your kids is not as easy a job as it sounds. A teacher plays a very important role in a student’s life. He or she is someone a child looks up to. As a mentor, the teacher conditions and programs young students’ minds to head straight on tracks leading to success. While being their role model, the teacher should conduct himself/herself in a manner that remains forever with him throughout his life. Teaching something to kids is always a difficult task. Even though formal education has come to a halt for many families, kids still need to be stimulated. They are growing encourages a kid to respect their teacher. The impression a student builds about his/her teacher every minute, and as they grow, they need to develop both personally and academically!
Following would be the traits parents must look in a good teacher before hiring for their kids:
- The teacher should have good oral and written communication skills and must be able to break the ice/build rapport with the kid.
- He/She must be able to engage well with you(parents) and clearly advise on the child’s progress.
- The teacher should be able to pay attention to every student.
- He/She should be able to track the progress, improvement, learning level of a kid besides being able to set performance goals for kids
- A good teacher should be able to convey his/her message empathetically.
- The teacher should display perseverance and patience with children.
- Failure in running code should not be frowned upon, instead, the teacher can provide constructive feedback, keeping negativity at bay.
- He/She must use creative ways, and teach kids via interesting stories and examples, to keep kids interested in a topic.
- A good coding teacher should be able to inspire kids to learn anything! Coding basics, preferably or watch a short video.
- He/She should introduce the kids slowly and playfully to coding vocabulary.
- Should be able to get kids motivated to a point where they can tell a friend or a family member about coding in a couple of sentences.
- Encourage kids to talk to a friend about how the video game they’re playing couldn’t be possible without coding. It helps something new stick in your brain if you are able to talk to someone else about it.
- He/She should encourage kids to ask questions! They can ask a robotics teacher from school about how programming powers bots.
- The teacher must be able to draw real-life connections. He/She must be trained/ equipped to connect coding to things kids already enjoy – such as coding cricket stats and eSport Management so as to get the kids interested in learning to code. It’s one of the countless examples. By sticking to areas of familiarity, kids will be able to more easily see how different pieces fit together and are brought to life through programming. The teacher can help them create a simple iPhone app or Facebook game.
- He/ She should be able to ease kids into coding by introducing kids to simpler enjoyable coding platforms such as blockly/scratch.
- A good teacher should be able to find out different learning styles, mind blocks, and needs of children. As an example, while some can absorb all that’s presented in a book or written on-screen, some are simply better at learning from listening or watching a video or even better, even more, the others are just better at grasping concepts when they can physically put their hands on something. For this type of learner, certain “toys” and objects might be good options to introduce different coding concepts.
Other than the above qualities, parents must look for a teacher who:
- Has been trained in computational thinking and/or computer science.
- Has a minimum of at least three years experience with at least one coding language: HTML, C++, Python, PHP or similar.
- Has formal training in teaching kids.
- Are a certified trainer with a Bachelor’s Degree or higher and mastery of core subject(and should be able to produce the certificates when needed).
- Exceptional analytical and quantitative skills with strong attention to detail.
- Can curate the best curriculum for the kids
- Loves working with kids and is not there for the money
- Considers your students like your own children.
- Is on guard all the time with respect to the safety of kids in the classroom, and outside the classroom
- Has critical thinking and troubleshooting skills.
- Values independent thinking, personal initiative, creativity and doesn’t mind initiating or implementing a better way of delivering a concept across to kids, if possible.
- Makes learning fun.
- Has high expectations from himself/herself as well from students.
- Is respectful, true towards their students.
- Is flexible, friendly and approachable
- Is willing to dedicate extra time in preparation of the lessons before teaching them.
- Presents material in such a manner that could be easily grabbed and understood by the students.
- Constructs meaningful assignments and projects that are both fun and educational.
- Can manage the classroom effectively with discipline and time management,
- Has a clean police record.
Finally, while that covers all,
If looking at a teacher in online classes parents must ensure that that faculty is excellent and has gone through rigorous selection process. You can check Multibhashi’s online coding classes for kids where you can find some good number of qualified and experienced coding tutors.