Mentoring at CoderDojo Scotland 17th March, 2014 Our mentors are the key to running successful Dojos. At a CoderDojo the learning is led by the young people – there is no set curriculum. We also encourage our mentors to share their knowledge in areas they are passionate about. Stirling CoderDojo mentor John talks about his experience of mentoring: Mentoring at Stirling CoderDojo A few months back, I stumbled upon the CoderDojo website. ‘Coder what?’ I thought. Having fairly recently started an after-school coding club at the school at which I teach, I was searching the internet for what else was going on to teach young people to develop software. (For a short time I thought I was the only one doing it. There. I’ve admitted it.) ‘Learn everything you need to become a great programmer in a fun and sociable environment’ I read. Being a fun and sociable person I liked the sound of this, so read on avidly! I got in touch with the relatively newly-formed CoderDojo Stirling to offer my help, made arrangements to attend a session, and before I knew it the day had come for my first session as a mentor. This was today. Am I glad I got in touch? You betcha. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and was slightly worried that my technical abilities would be below par (I was a programmer in a previous life, many moons ago, when computers were the size of houses and you sent off your programme on ticker-tape via the newly-founded Royal Mail) but I needn’t have been. Dan and the other mentors were very friendly and welcoming, my technical rustiness wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, and the atmosphere was very chilled-out and encouraging. It was a full-house today, and building apps for Android phones using MIT’s App Inventor was on the menu. Some of you reading this may be considering mentoring but slightly unsure if it’s for you. As a newbie, here’s my take on it. Do mentors need to: be a technical expert? Nope. (I’m no expert, but that doesn’t stop me helping.) be excited about the creative power of technology? Yep. enjoy being with like-minded people in a ‘fun and sociable environment’? Yep. enjoy watching the look on young people’s faces when they create something cool (and you helped them to)? Definitely! As Arnie sort-of said, ‘I’ll be back (at CoderDojo Stirling next month)’. John Bell CoderDojo Mentor If you would like to mentor at a CoderDojo please email team@coderdojoscotland.com