We sat down with Veronica, a Hatch Coding coach, who talked about her experience coding and her approach to teaching kids how to code.

How did you first get introduced to coding?

When I was playing Neopets around 13 years old and used html to make my Neopet page look really cool.

Tell us a little bit about your professional and educational experiences.

I took a Computer Science course in grade 11 and we learned Visual Basics C++. I have been teaching for a little over 3 years at Hatch. Since October 2017.

What is your teaching philosophy?

Practice, practice, practice. Just like any skill, to get better at it, you got to put in the time and practice whenever you can. This is like taking piano lessons. Every week for an hour you practice and every week you will get better at playing the piano each time.

A Boolean is like turning on the lights. The lights are off and you turn on the lights when you want to. Else if statements are like pages in a mini booklet. It will start from the first page which is the if statement, and then go onto the next page which is the else if statement. You need the first page to move onto the second page of the booklet.

From Hatch Coding’s five lifelong skills (Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, Teamwork, Creativity, Language Fluency), which two can you speak to where these skills were put into action and the student had an “ah-ha” moment?

A student had an “ah-ha” moment when there was a problem with when the user enters their name in a prompt it did not show up on the canvas. The user’s name would only show up when they click on the buttons to change the font of the text. He had used his problem-solving and critical thinking skills to box out a specific area for the user to click on for user input using an if statement, mouseX and mouseY.

Can you share a student success story where your mentorship helped a student have a breakthrough with their code?

Ethan’s game froze when I tried to start the game. I helped him on the booleans and where to place the keyCode. That way he can start and pause the game. This is what he needed to finish in order to submit it for the Game Jam.

What do you hope your students will achieve with Hatch Studio’s program?

I hope after using Hatch Studio’s program that they know the basic concepts of Javascript such as variables, functions, if statements and for loops. They also know how to create shapes, text and images.

When not teaching, what do you like to do for fun?

I like to watch youtube for entertainment and learning. I like to doodle or draw when I get inspired. When I’m in my room alone I sing and dance.

Do you have any of your own projects that you’ve built that are now up on Hatch Studio?

Yes. I made the project Camera Phone. It is like a camera where you can capture an image and it will show that image.

Are you currently taking any professional development courses?

I am not taking any professional development courses but I am researching unit testing and building my portfolio on Github so that I can progress to be Hatch Certified Coach Level 4.

Did you have experience teaching kids prior to joining Hatch Coding?

Yes, I was doing Co-op as a teacher’s assistant at Christ The King elementary school from September 2009 to June 2010.

Hatch Coding educates the well-rounded programmer, teaching the ability to read, write and modify real-world computer code - which are transferable lifelong skills. Beyond a coding program - it’s an online community where your kids can learn more about themselves and the opportunities for their future.

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