The Hour of Code is an annual, global event organized by Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to the field of computer science, especially by women and minorities.

My daughter’s fifth grade teacher Batesville Intermediate School was looking for speakers who work in IT. They were especially interested in people with experience in coding and a broad background in IT to take part in their ‘Hour of Code’ event. So I volunteered to teach the class using some examples of coding I have done with Blockly, a client-side JavaScript library for programming that uses blocks that link together to make coding easier.

The Hour of Code’s goal is for every student to be able to learn computer science just as they do biology or chemistry. The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science featuring various coding activities and speakers that aim to demystify code and show that anyone can learn how to code.

A Rewarding Day

I presented eight 20-minute sessions with each fifth grade class. It was a pleasure to work with the students! And it was especially cool to actually teach my own child and her classmates about IT and my daily life as a Senior Consultant. Most of the children had a lot of questions about Microsoft and Minecraft, since they only associate Microsoft with Minecraft!

I described how my job works with people’s digital identities and the attributes that make someone identifiable. Because most fifth graders understand email and how it works, so I showed them how email access is associated to a user’s logon and password. I showed examples of secure logons with biometrics, using Microsoft Windows Hello. These were practical concepts which the students could understand in the real world and how it affects them.

I received great feedback from the students:

“I loved the code day. I learned about cybersecurity.”

“If you learn about coding, you could be a coder for your job! Coding makes learning fun.”

“I would love to do code day again.”

“I got to learn about real-life coding. I also got to learn how I can code my own game!”

I had a wonderful experience and loved all of the bright, inquisitive questions from the students. I can’t wait to take part in the Hour of Code at the school next year!