Thank  you to all of the teachers who arranged for the Hour of Code to be held for their students,  Mrs. Selby, Mrs. Gantz, Mr. Osmun, Mrs. Slonaker, Mrs. Foreman all allowed me to come in to excite their students about programing during the Hour of Code week. In addition, Mr. Yingling, Mrs. Jacoby, and Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Foreman all have scheduled students in the coming weeks for the opportunity to learn about program coding in a fun and engaging way.  It was exciting to see such engagement from the students.  It was so great to see the students planning their steps and using trial and error to get the program to move BB-8 just the right amount of steps to complete each task. In the Star Wars activity there were 15 total tasks for the students to each complete. 
The students loved it! Half of the students in Mrs. Slonaker's class gave up recess so they could keep working until lunch and then moaned when lunch came so quickly.  From the moment the Star Wars theme song opened the event they were hooked.  They were introduced to the activity by a lead animation engineer for the latest Star Wars movie.  The students were charged with being engineers who had to make the newest Star Wars robot, BB-8, pick up scrap metal by programing his movement and then running their program.  Students were highly engaged in the planning and problem solving to get just the right amount of movement in BB-8 in order to complete each request they were given.  The activities will be available after the holiday break. So if you are interested, but can't fit it in before the holiday break, we can schedule in January.  There are activities available K-12. Contact Dr. Sipe to schedule.  

This week's showcase comes from Tina Wagner a 5th grade teacher at CVIS.  Tina  is using centers to work with her students in smaller groups as part of her reading lessons.  As part of this small group environment, she is utilizing technology and technology tools to engage her students.  Some of the tools she has incorporated into her lessons are Jilster.  Jilster is a publishing tool that her students are using to create a magazine that provides deeper knowledge that ties back to the books the students are reading.  The students shared that they each are researching a topic of choice.  They pointed out that the topic is something that ties back to the current book they were reading as part of their reading group.  Each student worked on researching their topic and then wrote an article about it.  It was then added to their groups Jilster page. Some students worked in Google Classroom to get their assignments and instructions.  In addition, she is using technology to have the students do some independent work in math. Students worked on Study Island or could also be viewing video tutorials.  Mrs. Wagner also uses Socrative as a tool to assess her students.  The students shared that the use of technology makes math more interesting.  For more information on Mrs. Wagner's pilot, feel free to email or stop by and see her.  

iClick here to see the listing for the March ipads in Education course being offered at IU 12.

Join the the learning and fun with Hour of Code.  I am signing up classes now, contact me if you are interested.
Here is a little about the Hour of Code organization.  Launched in 2013, Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. We believe computer science should be part of core curriculum, alongside other courses such as biology, chemistry or algebra.  

Annually this organization sponsors an hour of code.  This year there are a variety of quick activities to introduce students to coding K-12. I have been scheduling classes across the district to participate in this activity.  I am working out to December 22 so if you would like to give it a try with your classes, just let me know.  You book the lab and I will be there to get the students in and coding.  The great thing is that it teaches students the vocabulary and skills associated with programming in an engaging and fun way. It makes learning a game.  I found it very addicting when I worked through a few of the activities.Below are the various activities available for the Hour of Code.   Hour of Code site click here.  You will notice that when you go to this site there is a tab called Beyond the Hour which has additional activities for students to do at home and/or school.  There is a tab called Code Studio which has coding courses for students to learn more.  This site provides enrichment to students and takes them where schools typically don't go in the K-8 grades.  There are activities all the way to grade 12.  Please let me know if you do an activity with your class so I can stop by and take some pictures for a future blog.   

Kahn Academy is getting into the Hour of Code (click here).  The Academy has developed a number of hour of code activities.  You will see that they have a link on their site for both teachers and for parents.  Kahn Academy has 4 activities under the teacher/parent buttons which includes drawing with code, drawing with code blocks, hour of webpages, and hour of databases.  Check it out both as a teacher and as a parent.  Hour of code activities are great enrichment activities to introduce your students too.  They would come in very handy as a reward activity.  They would be great as activities to do when a student is in a lab and has their work done early.