some inspiration and Hour of Code!

[Joshua Westgard]

Hi all,

I wanted to pass along a couple links that our friend Jason Blum recently shared.  The first one is relevant to ongoing discussions we've had about the gender gap in coding:

http://www.theguardian.com/gap-empowering-girls/2015/oct/02/the-12-year-old-developer-inspiring-with-code?channel=us

And the second one is a reminder that it is time once again to start thinking about helping with Hour of Code in your local schools (coming up in December).

http://hourofcode.com/

If anyone on this list has an interest in helping to facilitate something at Eastern Middle or Forest Knolls Elementary in Silver Spring, please get in touch.

All best,

Josh Westgard

jo...@coderdojodc.com

[Mark Kennedy]

Hi, all:

I'm a lurker on this list, waiting until my kids get old enough to participate.

I'm also organizing the Hour of Code at Woodlin elementary this year. It'll be our first year holding an HoC. If anyone on the list has experience with hosting an HoC in the past, I'd love to connect and ask some questions.

Also, if anyone is interested in helping out at Woodlin, I'd love to connect.

Thanks!

MK

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[Joshua Westgard]

Hi Mark, thanks for posting. In spite of good intentions in past years, I haven’t organized any hour of code activities myself, but I know there are some on this list who have. Those of you who have done, would you mind sharing a few tips with the list? My thinking is that it is probably best to connect with the local PTA first and find out what’s been done in the past or being planned. This list would be a great place to share a few ideas. // Josh

[Jason Blum]

Hi Mark, I'm worked with Flora Singer ES right down the road from you for the last two years.  We pretty much just enlisted parents to lead one hour sessions of the basic Scratch step-by-step tutorial https://scratch.mit.edu/help/.  I also printed out the cards for extra activities for kids who finished early.  We rotated every class from 1st to 5th Grade through the computer lab over the course of a week.  I think we might have done the Anna and Elsa tutorial with the younger kids come to think of it.

Not sure what's happening this year.  Overcrowding means we lost our computer lab and now just have a cart of chromebooks.  Maybe something will get organized.  Im more focused on my older kids' school Sligo MS, which I think Woodlin feeds into come to think of it.

Not yet sure what we're doing there either, but possibly just have kids work through http://hello.processing.org/ or get logged in and start working through https://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python#_=_

Agree with Josh best first step is to talk to the PTA and email the listserv early to get volunteers.  Next step is to partner up with one or two teachers to advocate and recruit other teachers, handle the school logistics.  Note the great videos and brochures.

Most of the tutorials really just run themselves: https://hourofcode.com/us/how-to so important to emphasize parent volunteers absolutely do not have to be technical.

One thing I wish I would have done better in the past is make it clearer to parents their kids were learning largely free and open source tools, many of which just run in the browser - so wish we had put together literature or followed up in some way to see which kids had continued working beyond the hour of code.

Oh and of course I plug http://CoderDojoDC.com at every opportunity!

-Jason Blum

[Mark Kennedy]

Jason, Joshua:

Thanks for the info. I'm technically on the PTA, so we already have buy-in, etc. I was/am nervous about the level of effort and coordination required. It sounds like it's not too onerous, mainly just finding machines and scheduling time with the teachers and volunteers.

Jason, one concrete question I have: what adult/kid ratio did you think you needed? I have a list of volunteers and will try to get more, but I want to know what my goal should be.

Woodlin lost their computer lab, too, so I'm thinking we may just try it the first year with just the classes that have Chromebooks assigned to them. Best to start small, I guess.

Thanks!

MK

[Melissa Ford]

I run the whole thing at my school.  By which I mean that I take 3 days off of work and run an hour in every classroom in the school so we can claim 100% participation.  That said, because they rested the entire project on one parent, it's not really sustainable.  Once my kids graduate this year, they will need to reinvent the wheel.  So... I think it's a good thing to present to the school: let's form a committee so this is sustainable year after year.

Our principal organizes the whole thing; not the PTA.  He schedules the classes back-to-back.  I don't know what we're doing this year because our school has also gotten rid of the computer lab, though I believe they have a laptop cart in addition to the Chromebooks.

I run an activity with the LEGO WeDo for Kindergarten and first, a Scratch activity for second and third, and an interactive fiction activity for fourth and fifth.  And then each year we have a theme that runs through all the activities.

Mel