Helping women and girls learn to code

My daughter, Justina, and I had a chance to speak at a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) conference for high school girls last weekend: TWISTER (Tennessee Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Research) . Our talk was "Crafting with Code - Web Development is for Creatives." We focused on the aspect of creativity as it relates to tech and innovation.

This was our first time teaching young girls and we discovered some things that we hope will help us craft this talk into something better and better over time.

1. Most of the girls will not speak up when they have a problem even if you ask multiple times. We need to figure out ways to help them be much more comfortable quickly so they can get value from the talk.
2. Our "hello world" exercise was too big for 1 hour; we need to practice this a few more times to get a sense of how long it takes.
3. A few explanations need to be simplified even more so we aren't causing confusion by over-explaining.

We are really energized to start helping other women (young and old) become engaged in technology and also debunk the idea that it's only for math/science types. It's for all of us.

If you're interested in helping women or girls learn to code and want to share ideas, please connect with me!