Creating Collaborative Environments

Creating Collaborative Environments

Engagement is a big part of learning and retention. A coder who is engaged in code club is going to progress through the learning process and keep coming back. So the question is, how do we create engagement?

We believe a big part of engagement comes from making connections and forming relationships with others in the room. And we believe that those connections and relationships happen best when the facilitator is intentional about fostering those kind of collaborative environments.

Here’s a video where Luke gives a couple super-practical ideas for how to create those kind of collaborative environments:


Ice Breakers

Every once and a while begin code club with a short ice breaker. Let the coders say their name and something interesting about them. Simple, right?

Not only do Ice breakers remove any tension in the room, but they allow coders to learn other coder’s names. And that’s a great start to forming meaningful connections and relationships.

Share Projects

When kids have the opportunity to share projects they have an incentive. Getting to show off what you’ve been working on is probably the most intrinsic motivation out there. Provide a platform for this to happen! Leave 20 minutes at the end of code club for kids to share a project.

Buddy System

When a coder come up to you with a question, do not answer it. Instead, ask the whole room, “Does anyone in here know how to solve this particular problem?” And when several hands go up, point the coder to someone who can help.

This gives coders an extra opportunity to interact and solve a problem with a peer. Again, the relationships and connections happen through these kinds of interactions.

Background Music

It’s so simple, but a little background music can go a long way. It can be a real environment changer. I’d recommend putting something light, but with a beat on. Nothing too crazy and intense, and nothing that’s going to lull everyone to sleep (try to stay away from Tupac on the one end and Mozart on the other).

If your code club is quiet and motionless, it’s time to start trying some of these methods. A little bit of chaos is good.

    • Related Articles

    • Keep Coders Interested and Engaged

      A facilitator’s job isn’t to teach coding. Good thing, because most of our facilitators don’t know how to code! Instead, we place these people in our programs to facilitate incredible learning environments. That means a lot of encouragement, ...

    • How to Answer Questions in Code Club

      Kids are trained to raise their hands when they get stuck. And for the most part, we’re trained to help them at that point. Resist the urge! Fiero Code is built on a self-learning model. The kids are encouraging to try to solve problems with the help ...

    • Fiero Code Setup Guide

      We have put together an amazing guide to help you implement Fiero Code in your school or library. This guide goes over everything you need, but if you need help at any point, don't hesitate to reach out!  View Setup Guide >

    • The Volunteer Recruitment Guide

      Building a successful community is a team effort. And we know that the most successful code clubs use volunteers. But volunteers can be hard to find. So we want to show you how to get your first (or fifth!) volunteer for code club! We do this  in 3 ...

    • Hardware Buying Guide

      Fiero Code includes curriculum for robots and maker hardware. This is an exciting development in the code club world because kids will now have the option to write a line of code and see it happen in the real world. How cool is that? Here’s the ...