Hour of Code Staff Information
The Hour of Code 2017
Programming is not just for techie nerds or “smart” people. Skills needed for programming are skills that we begin to teach and developing in our students and children from day 1. These skills include collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking to name a few. The Hour of Code helps to demystify the belief that coding is for rocket scientists by providing an array of opportunities for students to sample a programming language, or test their problem solving skills through exploration, trial and error, and having fun. Below are a few videos that will tell you more about the Hour of Code, HOC, and how to run an event.
We hope you will join us for the Hour of Code 2017 as we celebrate National Computer Science Ed Week from December 4 - 10. With the newly published Digital Literacy & Computer Science standards, I'm more excited than ever to host Hour of Code events at the high school, Florence Roche and across the district. Similar to past years, some high school student ambassadors will travel to the elementary schools in the district to share some coding love gaining skills to boost their confidence while helping younger students learn how to code. We also hope to have some middle school ambassadors this year for the first time too. Student ambassadors always come back inspired from the day and eager to do it again. This isn't a one way street. As you can imagine, the younger students benefit greatly from the day as well. How cool it is to have the "Big Kids" visit showing off what they know!
Details for rolling out the Hour of Code may vary slightly by building as schedules and needs are different. That being said, there are many opportunities for any classroom to participate. code.org/learn2 shares a variety of web based and unplugged activities that address computational thinking, logic, problem solving, and more. These projects are well written and super easy to follow. See the "How to Run and Hour of Code" video above. For most of these activities, a brief, 2-3 minute intro is needed before the students work at their own pace. If they finish early, try a different activity. There really is something for everyone.
Teachers trying this for the first time, you don't have to do it alone. You can if you want to but the student ambassadors are excited to help or lead activities in your classrooms. They can help with running any program. This is a great opportunity for all of us to get a taste of computer science and possibly identify ways to identify new tools for our UDL choice options. Whether you find ways to introduce new material or students have another option for share what they know.
There is a 2-3 step process, depending on your school, for this event. The first step is to identify which classrooms are willing and able to participate. Staff members can help out in a variety of ways. They can opt to present an activity in their own classroom or invite a student in who can either lead or assist with an activity. If other presenters are invited in, the staff member does need to remain in the classroom. At times, other students may sign up to attend your event. You will get an attendance list should you have extra visitors during our event. Of course, this is voluntary so you are not obligated to participate but know that your help is greatly appreciated. To let us know whether or not you can help out, please complete this form by November 9th so that we can complete the activities needed to run our event on Wednesday, December 6, 2017.
Once we have identified room availability and presenters, we will reach out to student participants to build our schedule.
Note: Until the schedule is complete, do not sign out Chromebooks or iPads on Wednesday, December 6 for A or B blocks.
Thank you!
Audra & the Digital Learning Team :-)