Everyone around the world, come on!
1,000,000 more jobs …in computer sciences… than students by 2020 in the US alone.
“Learning to write programs stretches your mind and help you think better…”
Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft Our week is here! With over 72,000 events around the world, it’s time to celebrate #HourofCode and Computer Science Education Week. At my school we’ve been getting ready for our celebration kickoff for over a month. I found out two weeks ago that my Code.org grant was the North Carolina winner, great news and the kickoff got bigger.
Tomorrow morning at E.K. Powe Elementary we’ll host our students, staff and parents and the larger Durham and North Carolina community in a school-wide assembly. To help us we’ll have our school superintendent, school board members, our mayor and city council representative, in addition to representatives from our governor’s office and Department of Public Instruction.
Durham, NC has become a hub for computer programming entrepreneurs and start-ups in addition to our larger computer-science focused businesses. We’ve invited our Durham business and non-profit community to come and join the celebration too. Finally we’ll have a representative from Code.org on hand to present our giant $10,000 award check.From our assembly the real fun begins, kids learning to code! I’ll be teaching 21 hours of code this week with assistance from my Student Code Ambassadors.
Our Code Ambassadors already spent last spring here at E.K. Powe in an afterschool coding club. These Second through Fifth graders helped us get ready and they’ll be on hand to help teach. With the help of our assembly guests, Kindergarten, First, and Second graders will work with LightbotJrhttp://lightbot.com and Kodable https://www.kodable.com on iPads. Our Third, Fourth and Fifth graders will begin learning with LightbotJr and Tynker http://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/ and move to Code.orghttp://code.org/learn on laptops. We’ll be in classrooms, hallways, and in our atrium. As weather permits, visitors will find us coding in our school garden and on our playgrounds.
#CodingEverywhere
Adding to learning for the week, on Tuesday December 9th Third graders will Skype with Lightbot CEO and coding expert Danny Yaroslavski. Mr. Yaroslavski began coding when he was 11 years old and is a great example of the power of coding.“Our goal with Lightbot is to provide the most engaging first point of entry for kids to start learning about Computer Science. If we’re going to get kids, the coders of tomorrow, learning about tech, programming and CS, we want to make sure that their first exposure to these concepts is as enjoyable as possible. What could be more engaging for kids than teaching them through video games?”-Danny Yaroslavski, CEO Lightbot Inc. Students have developed questions for Mr. Yaroslavski as they learn about coding and computer science.
Resources for coding and #HourofCode are abundant this year. As you’re getting ready for your own celebration consider the opportunities from the resource list below. Every student in the US and around the world can and should have an introduction to coding this week—online, offline, web and app based, even coding without devices. Celebrate #HourofCode with the world!
Coding Resources:
Educator Resources for Teaching Hour of Code http://csedweek.org/educate/hoc
Hour of Code Celebrations Continue with Free BrainPOP Movies and More http://www.brainpop.com/educators/community/2013/12/11/hour-code-celebrations-continue-free-brainpop-movies/
Hour Of Code: Get Involved! Top Five Ways to Participate http://littlebits.cc/hour-of-code-get-involved
Join the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education in Celebrating the Hour of Code http://stemeducation.nd.edu/news/53869-join-the-notre-dame-center-for-stem-education-in-participating-in-the-hour-of-code/
Top 10 Coding Apps, Part II: Gifts of STEM http://www.susanswells.com/apps/top-10-coding-apps-part-ii-gifts-of-stem/
From Google- Code a design that will help you light up the nation’s holiday trees IRL https://holidays.madewithcode.com/project/lights
Video review- “top 10 reasons to code” an introduction to computer programming http://www.flocabulary.com/coding/
Apple- December 11 for the Hour of Code, a free one-hourintroduction to the basics of computer programming http://www.apple.com/retail/code/
Hour of Code events around the world