Humans of Code Week – Vasiliki Psaridou, Leading Teacher Greece

Publication date: August 22, 2022

By Vasiliki Psaridou, Leading Teacher Greece

What do you like most about Code Week?

I have been a Leading teacher since 2019. What fascinates me is the fact that in Code Week, participation is very easy. In fact, all teachers, with less or more experience, who do activities in their classes can register them on the Code Week map. In 2021, I urged some colleagues from schools with a lot of minorities to take part in Code Week. They were reluctant at first, as they had little or no knowledge of English. However, as soon as they discovered that Code Week’s webpage is translated into many different languages, they took part. From that moment onwards they became ardent fans. When the students of their schools received gifts for their participation, they contacted me to say that it was the first time they felt adequate and capable as minority students.

So, what I love about Code Week is the fact that everyone can be part of it, contribute to it and feel that their contribution is recognised. Thank you so much for letting me be part of all these.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to learn / teach coding?

I am a Primary school teacher who happens to love coding, but I had no previous knowledge of coding. Everything I have learnt is through observation and search. When I first uploaded an activity on the Code Week Map I realised that coding is not only about computers. Coding is part of our everyday life, you don’t have to be able to handle a computer in order to code. My advice is to visit Code Week’s blog to find out how you can contribute to Code Week and how your students can benefit from all the activities.

Which project/activity related to Code Week are you most proud of, and why?

I am really proud of all the activities that my students and I have done in Scratch. We started from “scratch” and created games and activities that were awarded. We used Greek language to tell stories about COVID-19 We created games in the English language and designed award-winning games about earthquakes which were translated into several languages by TALOS.

However, the best ideas and activities are yet to come…