LLI Southwest

In this fishbowl session attendees will learn about the hidden benefits of habits of mind while teaching programming. They will also learn how other subject area teachers can incorporate programming related vocabulary and concepts into many lessons. Computational thinking concepts contain a vocabulary that is transferrable to every discipline we teach in school. That terminology should be integrated into lesson plans beginning with emerging readers so as to allow for better student understanding of the concept and universal application of the principles. Examples include programming in PE, programming incorporating math vocabulary and listening and reading closely.  Many proponents of computational thinking (a phrase first used by Seymour Papert in 1996) claim this is a new way to learn. What if, instead, it is the same way we have always learned, but conceptually aligned across disciplines and framed in an engaging way that challenges students to flex their higher order thinking muscles?  No matter what our students decide to do in life, it will involve some aspect of technology, something that is probably not around yet. What a better way to teach flexibility and trouble shooting than through programming.