@gwenbeads just checking names, was the Roger you mention Norwegian?

@futurebird I will venture an answer - I haven't read all the replies to your post so I may be saying things that are already said.

I'm a UK-based secondary (aka high school) maths teacher who also teaches CS, including introducing students to programming (usually python).

Here's some thoughts of things to try.

1. Practise finding errors. Give them code with errors and ask them to find them. Set problems to generate particular error messages. eg Can they write code where the mistake is on line 3 but the error message says line 33?

2. Have a list of general prompts that you will say. If the error is on a different line, just say "Take a look at line N" then walk away to the next student. If they've named a variable badly, say "variable names can't have spaces". Make them do some work here.

3. Clearly delimit demonstration time and coding time. "Fingers off keyboards and mice" is a common phrase in my classrooms (and I will stop the entire demo if I hear a clicking).

4. Make them keep notes. I use Google Colab so that they can interweave notes with code snippets (at least in the early days) to encourage this.

5. Partner up. It's often easier to find the error in someone else's code than in your own. Could even have a "walk around time" when all the students go and look at others' screens to both get ideas and see if they can spot errors.

That's what springs to mind on reading your thread. I hope some of it's useful! As with all advice on the internet - keep what helps and ignore what doesn't.