Belts and Consistancy

[Carrie Harris]

Aloha,

I am reading the belt structure on KATA and would like to know if anyone can provide more information regarding belts for Scratch. The link appears to be broken: http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/File:ScratchBeltTests.pdf#filehistory . I would like to maintain high expectations and fairness and am requesting more details and/or samples. 

Thank you,

Karen

CoderDojoHolualoa

[Bill Liao - European Venture Partner]

For me and out dojo the only belts you can earn with scratch are white and blue 

White for a decent program and blue for mentoring

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[James Whelton]

I used to sweat over the standards but my thought process changed a good bit.

I think black belt should around that the kid can/has:
- mentor others
- knows some languages (which and number is relative to the club)
- has completed several projects fully
- can present in front of others
- can self teach. Read the docs and solve their own problems by searching online
- has worked with others successfully
- has made a app/game/website which has aided a cause of charity

I think we not just focus on languages and technical ability but the soft skills and implementation around it so we set them on course to deliver some real impact

Hello World Foundation is a company limited by guarantee not having a share capital with charitable status, CHY 20812. Registered in Dublin, Ireland, No 524255. Registered Office: Dogpatch Labs, 35 Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

[Bill Liao - European Venture Partner]

since those days the kids at Dojo 0 have had a lot of experience with belts and the .pdf file I sent was prepared by them.

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[John R Harrington]

Jasus James you are on form tonight 😃

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From: James Whelton
Sent: ‎05/‎04/‎2014 20:52
To: coderd...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [CoderDojo-Org] Belts and Consistancy

[James Whelton]

It's weird I know!

Must be a full moon or something! :)

[John R Harrington]

Nahhhh its the kickass Munster gave Toulouse today that's gotcha on fire...what a game. 

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From: James Whelton
Sent: ‎05/‎04/‎2014 21:41
To: coderd...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [CoderDojo-Org] Belts and Consistancy

[Carrie Harris]

Thank you James, John and Bill for the feedback. Makes sense. For whatever it's worth, I still was not able to open the .pdf http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/File:ScratchBeltTests.pdf#filehistory. Plenty info posted; yes to the soft skills. ~cheers  

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[Bill Liao - European Venture Partner]

http://kata.coderdojo.com/images/6/69/ScratchBeltTests.pdf works :-)

Drogheda was the first Dojo to award belts and have a lot of experience.

Incidentally I have had feed back that I make coming across as overbearing.

So I unreservedly apologize if anyone else feels that way. 

Please know it's not my intention I am just very passionate about CoderDojo and also as an Australian sometimes too direct for my own good.

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[Madden, Michael]

Hi all;

 

As another point of reference, here are notes from CoderDojo Athenry that we use when awarding belts. I have 3 sets attached, one for the Minecraft group and one for the Scratch Beginners group, and a third overview one. We made our first awards soon after Drogheda and followed their lead. We also award belts in Python and HTML, with similar criteria.

 

Incidentally, we award blue belts in the Scratch Advanced group as the next level of achievement after yellow, though we have switched to green for the Minecraft Modders for high-quality published mods, to be consistent with the Cork criteria that we have only seen recently (but without a requirement for 3000 users, as we prefer to focus in individual achievement rather than external validation).

 

We try to make the process as unintimidating as possible, while avoiding giving out belts without evidence of achievement. So for example, we go through all this a couple of weeks in advance and circulate all the information, including sample questions that will be asked (See Slide 8 of CDA-S3-PrepareForBelts.pptx) and leave this displayed on the belt awarding day also.

 

Michael.

 

 

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[John R Harrington]

Miguel that’s great material. When do you award a certificate v reward a belt?

Regards,

John.

[Madden, Michael]

Good question, John!

 

We only award belts once or twice a year and have a party after to celebrate. Last year, we awarded belts around now and then in June before finishing up for the summer, we awarded belts to a smaller group who had not been able to get them in March/April (either had not been present or were unable to get the belt they were aiming for) and we awarded certs to everyone who had got belts in March/April and had continued to work on projects after. So blue certs were for those who already had blue belts, etc.

 

Regards,

Michael.

[Valerie Freitas]

Does anyone have access to the Scratch belt tests referred to on the KATA that Karen was inquiring about?

The link is still broken, and I'd also be interested in seeing what details were outlined in this document.

Thanks,
Val

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[Peter O'Shea]

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay, I've updated/fixed the link:

http://kata.coderdojo.com/images/6/69/ScratchBeltTests.pdf

ᐧ

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Pete O'Shea

Social Media and Content for Hello World Foundation & CoderDojo

T: @peter0shea @HWF @CoderDojo

[CoderDojo Drogheda]

Hi All,

Just as an update on this we have since loosened our approach to this...  We started off influences by James' first writings on this and I summarised our thoughts on this on Kata: http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/Belts

I still feel that we got a lot of this right and we still do ask peers or mentors to determine of the person who is going for a yellow belt is 'ready'  - I think if they are recognised by their peers they get a rush much bigger than just getting a belt.

But it's hard work so now we do it just for yellow belts and to get a blue belt we took a leaf out of Bill's book and award the to kids that mentor for a period.

Graham

 

[Carrie Harris]

Michael, Thanks again for sharing all your work! This is tremendously helpful. 

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[Pavlo Fesenko]

Hi all,

I'm trying to create an alternative wrist belt system (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UTYTdPyjAEbnL86aAe_6IcthDA-srI6ZvIG2-G-PAvE) that could be used instead of the official CoderDojo wrist belt system (http://kata.coderdojo.com/wiki/Belts). The official system has 8 expensive belts (minimum 6-7 euros for each USB wrist belt) and focuses mostly on coding skills. In the alternative system I propose 5 cheap belts (around 1-2 euros for each silicone wrist belt) that encourage kids to develop soft skills and community spirit. I will be happy to hear your comments/remarks. Also feel free to share your CoderDojo experience using the wrist belts.

Best regards,

Pavlo

[Eugene McDonough]

Hi Pavlo,
There is no official CoderDojo belt system yet most of us are still working it out. As you work on implementing what fits your Dojo please share so the rest of use can learn.  From what I know of the community we have Dojo's that don't do rewards/stages at all, some that issues certs and others that do the USB Wrist Bands. They are all just symbols for the belts that would be rewarded under martial arts and you can use whatever symbol works for you.

The important thing is that each belt/stage while being attainable also gives the youth a sense of achievement (not too easy).

Down the road when you are ready to use the foundation's platform I hope there will be a badge that can be issued for each element of the stage and also a badge for completion of the stage.

Here if the belt system currently for CoderDojo Limerick

http://www.coderdojomidwest.com/belts/

Eugene McDonough

CoderDojo Limerick Co-Founder  / Dojocon Founder / Board Member CoderDojo Ireland

T: @eugenemcd @CoderDojoLim @CoderDojo 
Skype: eugenemcdonough  G+: eugenemcd  m: +353(0)87 653 7694

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