Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

Coding and robotics are some of the most popular lessons in the elementary STEM space. But with so many different tools out there, how do you manage them all in the classroom? Likewise, what types of behavior management and routines need to be put into place to ensure that kids are being successful? And along with that, what are some great lessons to get started with? We'll be answering all these questions and more in today's episode. Even when kids are so excited about lessons and tools like coding and robotics, you still need to keep in mind and don't assume that kids already know how to use this technology. Yes.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:19]:

Kids are pretty comfortable using technology, but I have learned over the years working with kids when it comes to academic technology, it still isn't automatic in terms of how to do all the intricate things with coding and robotics. They will grasp the coding pretty easily, but it is all of the ways to access the platform and some of the problem-solving that really trips kids up. So I'm gonna be sharing with you some systems and behavior management techniques that are really gonna help you. And then the lesson ideas, there are so many and actually a lot of resources I've put together over the course of the years to point you in that direction. When I was planning this episode, I was definitely going back and forth. Should I do just a coding episode and just a robotics episode? And when I was mapping out the episodes and the outlines, there were so many similarities between the 2, and you might even be doing both at the same time. I decided to put them in the same episode. So, there's a lot of overlap between these resources and how you would use them in your classroom.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:40]:

When I did coding, I did specific computer coding during the hour of code, and that was in the month of December. So, all of December, I would do hour of code. You do not have to do this, but a big thing with this too, think about the time of year, December, you're tired. You really have no energy to plan a super intense lesson, the weather is a little dreary, and you could have snow days, delayed starts, or whatever if you live in a snowy place. And this was a great time. It was midyear. The kids were excited to code, and then this is something that I could refer back to in other lessons. And it also set us up for success in robotics that we would do coming back from winter break.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:28]:

So that is just my preference in terms of using coding and robotics as big units but fit these in, whatever makes sense. Also, really think about it, are you only just doing coding and robotics? Coding and robotics are so important in STEM, but I have seen a lot of times where classrooms that's all they do. And just so you know, not every kid likes it. Not every kid likes 3D printing. Not every kid likes Makerspace. But you really need to try to balance everything out. And if you're saying, oh, well, we only do coding and robotics, then your class is a coding and robotics class. It's not fully STEM.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:11]:

So, just keep that in mind. It is a component of STEM, but it's not the only way to teach STEM. So let's get into those systems that you should have in place. So there are specific things for each of these units you wanna do. For robots, if you're able to have a designated charging station. You might need to take some time, like 30 minutes after school, to create a little station where you plug in all the devices and have them ready to go. My favorite way to plug in multiple devices like robots is I invested in these plugs that have multiple USB ports in them, and then you can put all the chargers into that port. It depends on the robot.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:01]:

Some come with charging bricks to plug them in, but we know in classrooms unless you have a brand new classroom that's super remodeled, and even still, plugs are hard to come by. So, if you just invest in one of those USB charging bricks, that actually helps a ton. And then as you're cleaning up your robot station, you can keep the plugs plugged into that brick, and then you just pull it out when you're ready. I actually wouldn't keep up my robots plugged in all year because I didn't do robotics year round. This was also to preserve the battery life of my robots. I also didn't want my robots out in the open all the time. I know kids would mess with them because they were so cute, especially Dash, the robot. The kids would always turn their heads, even as many times as I would tell them to not, they still would.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:53]:

So I actually would put them away when we were I knew for sure we were done with the unit. Also, depending on the robot, some robots need to be named physically, so you need to write on the robot their actual name. If it's a fun name, great. If it's a number, great. And then also in the app that it's connecting to. Like I said, it depends on the robot, so just check out your robot if that's something you need to do. If it is something that you name in the app, it typically will keep its name, and then that should also be an expectation with kids. We do not change the names of the robots.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:30]:

Here and there, kids will do it, so you would need to say explicitly, do not change the names. When it comes to coding, I didn't have any laptops in my classroom or Chromebooks. When my room was remodeled, it was a computer lab, but then it got remodeled where they took the computers away, and then the school was 1:1 with devices. And so I made it a habit where in STEM, my 2nd through 5th graders would bring devices to STEM anyway, and that was just a great digital citizenship routine that we always had all year. And then when we got into coding, I had students bring in their headphones. And if they didn't have headphones, they could borrow some of mine in the classroom. I would hang up my headphones year round in those clear shoe pocket holders, and it was really nice because of depending on where you hang it on your wall, your oldest kids can grab it from the taller sections, and then your youngest students can access the ones lower. So those were really helpful just to have year round.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:37]:

And, also in my role, I was the school wide tech person, so people knew that's where my headphones were. If they were in a bind and needed to grab headphones, they could grab headphones and bring them back. There were some times when we did testing, we would just take the whole pocket organizer off the wall and put it in an area of the building where testing was going on. So that's just a nice organizing hack. Also, I really recommend having headphone splitters. They're extremely helpful. I had some older ones in my room that I knew were so old but worked great. And they only split into 2, so 2 people could be listening on the same device at the same time.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:21]:

You can definitely order different ones off of Amazon where they have multiple ports to split. Like, you could do a listening station. Really, you only need up to 2 or 3, in my opinion, but they're really helpful when you get into coding, and we'll talk about why you would want kids to share a device. Also, think about in your classroom, do you have an area that focuses on key coding vocabulary? Again, you could keep this up year round or just hang it up as needed. I had very limited wall space, so I would only hang up specific vocabulary when we were using it for that unit. So when we were doing coding and robotics, everybody at that time was doing coding and robotics, so then it was really easy just to keep that up, and for coding for the first unit, robotics the next, and just adding in a couple of things. You might also wanna think about some posters that show the different robots that you're using, and then those robot posters could also show, oh, on this part of the robot is a sensor, or this part is the power button. That can be really, really helpful.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:31]:

I do have some robot posters in my TPT shop for a lot of the common robots in the elementary stem space. If there are some you want to see, write a message on there or just send me a message on Instagram. Like the last episode in episode 155 where I talked about your robot recommendations, there are robots that I haven't heard of, so I can definitely do some research and possibly make some posters for those. Also, something that's really helpful is if there is a robot that's connecting to a platform, having those steps to log in and how to connect to the robot, having those readily available and hanging up is a great resource to have. Even if you print out some and you hand them to students, that's really helpful, too so that they can be independent and go through those steps. Also, if there are any class codes that are needed, write those up, whether it's class specific or just for your whole entire grade level. That's really great too. Most of the coding platforms have a very specific vocabulary that relates to their type of code, whether it's just a coding website or even coding with robots.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:44]:

So check out the websites for the platforms that they're using. A lot of times, they have resources already. For example, when I did Bitsbox, which is a coding platform that uses a form of JavaScript where the kids are typing their code, There are specific codes that create different images on their screen, and I had some posters I would hang up during this time that would show them that vocabulary and the codes and how to write it. So that was really, really helpful. I also know that Wonder Workshop has the codes from their platform Blockly, where they are print and go. So you can use them for a vocabulary wall and talk about what each of the different colors mean in that platform. And then you can also add it in with some coding unplugged. I didn't know where to put this part, but when you have robots that move forward in a specific length so let's say your b bot moves 30 centimeters in one forward move, consider creating a grid for these types of robots.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:51]:

This will help students visually see where their robot is going and where they need to code their robot. I do have quite a few of those grids in my TpT shop as well, and you can actually add in images, on top of that, which is really helpful. Those are really, really popular in there. So it's print and go. You can create whatever size grid you want. But creating a grid, I know you can purchase them too. That can be helpful. But if you're on a budget, you can definitely create your own.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:20]:

Also, with your systems, think about how you are going to share the coding platform, whether it's coding only or coding with robotics. Are you going to share with students a coding choice board that they need to access? Are you gonna leave the website in their learning management system? This is also really great for days you are gone. So think about your system of how you're gonna share the website they need to log in to. Okay. So, let's get into that behavior management. So, with robots in general, for the most part, pretty much the same. I always have their code on the floor. The only robot I would let them code on the table is Ozobots because they are super tiny, and they fit inside the palm of your hand.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:09]:

So those ones don't go fast enough where it matters that they need to be on the floor. But for every other robot, I have students code on the floor. I also would remind them to code their robot like a robot. Don't drive it like a car, meaning you can't touch your robot and push it back and forth, back and forth. That really messes up the motors. So make sure to remind students of that when they're carrying their robot to a new place, holding their robot with 2 hands, and then you also might have specific rules for each robot, again, that are in those posters that'll be really helpful for you. For coding, not as many rules, but there are some to help with behavior management. I would make students with their devices leave it flat on the table.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:56]:

I wouldn't let students move and code around the room because I wanted to make sure they were staying on task and staying on the website that I assigned them to. So it might seem kind of strict. It has to stay on the table. However, that way, I could see their screens are up, and they are doing what they're supposed to do. Same thing with iPads. If I had my younger students coding with an app on iPads, those had to stay at the table. They were not allowed to wander around the room with the iPad. Also, they need to make sure that they only have the tab or the app open for what they are working on.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:32]:

This is good habits to teach your kids that if you're finished with a task, close out the tab. You might see kids with 50 tabs open. They're like, why is my computer slow? Well, your cool math games in the background is making your computer slow. It's still running. It's still open. Your computer is still thinking about it. So that's just a really good habit to teach your kids, and, that way, they aren't flipping back and forth and doing other things. You know how it is.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:05]:

For my coding and robotics, I actually have very, very similar rules. And I talked about this in one of the LEGO episodes, but, I will have the roles of a driver and navigator and then robot wrangler, which is for robots. But you have a driver and a navigator, and this is called paired programming. This is a real thing that computer programmers use, And the driver is the one who is controlling the device, so they are the one clicking the mouse. They are the one touching the keys. It doesn't mean that they're actually thoughtfully thinking about all the work. Everybody else can pay attention and contribute to the code. And then the navigator is like that wingman.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:50]:

It's like checking things over, is helping out, and talking through it. So one person is literally controlling the device, the other is helping with that brain power, maybe of 2 navigators. And then once you get into that robotic side, you have those 2 roles, and then you have a robot wrangler. And that person is in charge of the robot, where they're not coding the robot. They need to make sure the robot is set up where it needs to be. It's in its starting position. Is it facing forward? Then when they run the code, they have to go get the robot and then bring it back to where it needs to go. This sounds like a silly task, but trust me, this will help so much, so kids aren't fighting over it.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:35]:

For this type of role, I might have kids switch about halfway through. So setting a timer on your screen is going to help with this because the kids can't always gauge, and then I would lose track of time myself. And so setting a timer that when the timer goes off, you are going to switch up your roles. Some groups wanted to do it day by day. And, again, just like when I mentioned with Allego, as long as the groups are agreeing and they think it's fair, then let them figure that out. But most kids will need that specific, you will switch at this time because you're teaching them how to collaborate well and being able to perform these different roles. Even if it isn't their favorite, they get a chance. Also, when it comes to your behavior management, make sure you show kids how to clean up at the end.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:26]:

Where do you want them to put their devices? Do you want them to plug in their devices? How do they save their work and close out their tabs so that their computer is running as efficiently as possible? Where do they line up at the end to make sure that everything is cleaned up and where it should be? So, that's really gonna help with that behavior management and making sure they stay on task. One big thing, this is what those little Ozobots I was mentioning. I would make sure that you count how many robots you start class with and how many you end with. I have had instances where students would try to take them, and they didn't know I was counting. And their class tried to leave, and I said no. We can't leave. We are missing a robot. And I ended up finding it, and, actually, the student tried to take the robot twice.

Naomi Meredith [00:18:22]:

That's a whole other thing. And I knew exactly who it was, and, you know, we had some we had some consequences. Mean Miss Meredith had to come out, but definitely count those smaller robots. It might seem silly, but trust me from experience, I sadly had to deal with that. Alright. Now on to the lesson ideas and materials. Coming up soon, if you're listening to this episode close to when it's being released, the Spring International STEAM Summit hosted by Wonder Workshop is going to take place in May, and they just announced that it is live to register. It's a free virtual Steam summit, and I'm actually going to have a session all about Wonder Workshop themed STEM stations that you can do in your classroom.

Naomi Meredith [00:19:18]:

So these stations actually are gonna be mixing in coding with the robots and also doing some digital work as well. So it is really along with this theme and works out perfectly. When I was map mapping this out, actually, I didn't think about how this would all align. So make sure you find me over there. Super fun. I love, doing their summit. I actually did their keynote last year, which I believe is episode 100, if you wanna go back and listen to that. For the lesson ideas and materials, this is gonna be a little bit different than the other episodes in this series because I've talked about robotics and coding a lot in different ways and just really wanted to focus on those systems and behavior management.

Naomi Meredith [00:20:03]:

This is all gonna be linked in the show notes for you. So, if you're worried, where can I find this? I can't remember. This is gonna help you out in time. In the last episode, episode 155, I talked about the robots that you have used in your classroom. So, thank you so much for messaging me and responding to me on Instagram. So you tell me about the robots you use and then how it's going. From there, in episode 43, I actually talk about my robot recommendations and the experience of different robots that I've used in my classroom what has worked well, and then some other improvements. In episode 99, I talk about cross-curricular lesson ideas that you can do with robotics.

Naomi Meredith [00:20:48]:

So just different ways where you're not just coding some random tasks, you're really integrating this content together. For coding only specific lesson ideas, I talk about Hour of Code, which, again, this can just be how you use coding platforms, I talk about coding specific lessons that you can do in episodes 38 and 136. So there are a ton of different ways that you can use coding and robotics. I talk about them in a lot of different avenues, so make sure to check that out. And, also, a little trick on my website, it might be easier if you're on a computer. On my website, naomimeredith.com, there's a little search bar, and you can search for any keywords on my website. And I actually search up my own website all the time. So, when I was writing out this outline, I was searching up robots.

Naomi Meredith [00:21:45]:

So if you just type in robots in my own search on my website, you can find every podcast episode and every blog post that I have done about robots. And, yes, there are blog posts on there. Same thing with coding. You can find all of that in all the other topics that I talk about. So this is extremely helpful. So, definitely check out that feature. I think that's a nice little hack how to navigate all of my resources, and make sure that I have something about it. And if I don't, let me know because that gives me inspiration for even more episodes.

Naomi Meredith [00:22:22]:

So as a recap in this episode about coding and robotics, we first talked about the systems to set up in your classroom. Next, we talked about different ways to handle behavior, and then I gave you a list of ways to navigate those lesson ideas. Again, definitely use that search on my website, and then I do have those episodes that are specific to coding and robotics grouped together in my free podcast playlist. So if you go to namiberedith.com/ podcast playlist, I categorize all my episodes. So if you just want episodes to play in order just about coding and robotics, those will all be there for you completely free, the same exact podcast as this one. It's just organized in a nice way so that you can get the content that you are looking for. Thank you so much again. I appreciate all of you.

Naomi Meredith [00:23:19]:

Thank you so much for reaching out and letting me know what you need and what you're searching for. I am never at a loss for podcast ideas. You guys are so awesome. Keep up the great work, and I will see you in the next episode.