Programming Accidentally Became my Favorite Hobby

I want my students to love learning, but that is definitely no easy feat. I also want to utilise technology in an effective and engaging way in the classroom, but that also is not so easy.

You can get some pretty great resources out their in that wonderfully wide, world wide web. When it comes to teaching English, I have become a master at finding useful things to use in my classes. With a bit of seraching you can find just about anything you might need.

Except when you don`t.

Many times I could find for example a worksheet, that pretty adequately accomplished what I needed for a given lesson. Other times it would just need to be reworked slightly to fit into my planned lesson. Sometimes, if I was running low on prep time, I might have to down right shoehorn it in. Usually though, the old adage rings true, and when you want something done right, you just need to do it yourself. It is often that the best classes are ones where I use resources made specifically for it.

That is why I started to learn to code. I could not find a game that worked just like I needed. Or with the grammar or progression or engagement that I required. So I began the long adventure of trying to make one myself.

At first, I just wanted the quickest way to get from nothing, to working game. So I began Googling. This can be a mistake for an amatuer googler. I mean I thought that I was pretty good, but I have since learned otherwise. Interesting things pop up when you Google 'how to make a game'. You do not however get far without a bit more precision. Adding words like "quickly" and "easily" did not help.

The more I read the more I realised that if I wanted to do this right, I needed to take my time.

So I stopped with the urgency and instead ressigned myself to starting with the basics, just like I would encourage my students to do! Hooray for taking my own advice! And here is the wonderful thing. The more I learned, the more I enjoyed myself. I accidently fell in love with programming, and I was pretty surprised by this. I had thought that this was going to simply be a means to an end. In the past, when I had looked into trying to learn to code, I had been met with people insisting that being a maths genius was a prerequisite. I hated math in school, so obviously it was just never going to be for me. Obviously that was bad advice. Here I was now, spending any free time I had trying to learn more. It was great!

I started to learn a little Python. Uncle Google had informed me that it was generally considered a programming language on the easier side. Honestly once I heard the origin story of it's name I was sold. It is a great language. I spent a few months diving into how it worked and writing those basic "hello world" introduction programs. It is safe to say that Python was the language that introduced me to programmatic thinking and really got me excited about all the possibilities. I never lost track of my original goal though and soon it dawned on me that I needed a way to get whatever I made onto students computers. Having gotten some inspiration from fellow language teachers doing similar things, I soon switched it up to HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I could see that having what I made available on a website was going to be the easiest way for students to access it in my classes.

So hear I am, months and months later. Slugging through The Odin Project (cannot recomend it enough) trying to learn everything I can about how to make a website, that one day will contain a game, that I will also one day learn how to make. On the one hand it may seem like I have made no progress. To me though it feels like I have learned so much and am leaps and bounds closer to my goal. Gone is the urge to make something quickly and half heartedly for my students. Instead I am clear in my determination to make the best little language game I can. At an appropriate speed that a full time English teacher with a family can manage in his spare time.

I will leave any weary reader that has made it this far into my rambling post with a few points that have helped me on my journey.

• Do not feel the need to compare yourself to other learners. This is your journey!

• Do not get distracted (hard one for me) there are many great resources and programs out there, try to pick one and stick with it!

• Enjoy yourself, otherwise what is the point

• Take your time; I know there is a lot to learn, but do it thoughtfully and at a pace that is right for you!

I will one day write here how my project goes, but for now I am happy to say that I am taking my time. Taking my time to learn this wonderful, complex and deep world of programming. Taking my time to enjoy the journey. And most of all taking my time to do it right!