Coding Classes that actually code

Coding Classes. I live in the Tech Capital of Texas and you see signs everywhere of places offering after school coding classes, or classes for your homeschool, or coding classes to hook your kids on coding. I’ve looked into a few of them, and most of them left me saying, “Meh. That’s okay.” I’ve even bought a few of them, and was left saying, “Meh, that was a waste of money.” I’ve now found the coding classes I would recommend, MYTEK LAB.

(this post is sponsored by MYTEK LAB, all opinions are my own)

My experience with former coding classes

Most of the previous coding classes we’ve looked at were plug and play coding. You take their pre-built code and plug it into a formula and that makes your program.

While this is a good starting place for young kids, at this point I want my son to be learning actual coding. That’s what he wants to do for a living.

Coding.

MYTEK LAB promised to have my son writing code, the type of code I see my husband the programmer writing when I look over his shoulder as he works.

Learning how to computer animate

Superman is interested in video game design, so I checked out their class schedule and signed him up for TEKnology lab: level 1. His class is live on Mondays, but is recorded so you can watch it later in the week.

Question for other moms, do your kids prefer to watch classes live or watch the recordings?

All three of my kids prefer to watch the recordings at their own leisure later on. They find attending the live classes stressful. Superman attended one class live, but he much prefers to watch it later on, and then ask any questions during the help sessions later in the week.

About once a week last semester I was called over to see the new projects he had animated. I may have mistakenly compared his project to Minecraft.

“Mom, these use cylinders for the base. Minecraft uses blocks.”

You’re right son, and I was wrong.

His project looked a bit like his friend’s project from college, just a different program.

I was impressed.

 

This semester he’s creating 3-D animation

My son created a classic Nintendo controller.

Wait, that’s not correct. He animated it, so you could scroll all around it, and see it from every angle, his teacher pointed out some areas to improve, and when I was asking him about the class that’s what he was doing.

Fixing his mistakes.

That’s a sign of a good teacher when they don’t just give you a grade and move on, they have you correct your mistakes so you can learn how to do it right.

His assignment this week is to design a laptop. I watched for about five minutes as he worked through how to animate different parts and he explained to me the problems he solved to create the keyboard.

Quick Break to say they have a Coding Class for Girl Scouts

If you’ve got a daughter who is working to get her Coding badge, then you should check this out. I need to look and see if this will meet the requirements for the American Heritage Girl badge, because if so I need to let the other moms in our troop about this.

Coding Classes with real-world experiences

Our kids need to know how to use computers in a way that is intuitive. Almost every job now expects some level of computer experience. MYTEK LAB classes give your kids’ coding experience and at the end of their class, they’ll have created a portfolio they can show off.

I’ve already talked it over with Superman, and we’re looking at registering for MYTEK LAB level 2 next year.

If you’re looking at the classes and thinking, “But Ticia, it’s only offering semester 2 right now, won’t I be behind?”

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! If you register for semester 2, you can get all of semester 1 for $145. Contact Jacky at jsouders@myteklab.com to get it all set up.

That’s a great deal for y’all. Take advantage of it.

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