Wednesday 18 December 2013

Hour of Code!

Well, if you've been following our blog posts, I sincerely apologize for the lack of posts lately.  Mrs. Wood and I have been running an after-school art club, and if I don't take the time at the end of the school day to whip up a post, all is lost! 

Things have been exciting in 5/6We the past couple of weeks.  With the encouragement of our divisional technology consultant, David Wall, our classroom community has enrolled itself as a participant in the #hourofcode movement.  As some of you may (or may not) know, December 9-15 was Computer Science Week, and many leaders and innovators in computing science put together an AMAZING educational resource for teachers to use to introduce their students to computer science and coding.

It is no secret that I am something of a techie, but except for a semester of learning "GO-TO" computer commands on the TURTLE LOGO program in a dusty middle-school basement, way back in the (ahem) early 1980s, I have not had any experience with programming.  What an experience it has been learning alongside our students!  We had two different sessions exploring the www.code.org website, learning the blockly programming language.  We have also participated in several "Unplugged" activities where students (and I) learned about computational thinking (designing and programing monsters), programming steps (My Robotic Friend), and binary language.  I am astounded at the willingness of our students to try new ways of thinking, and their dedication to problem solving.  They have demonstrated real perseverance!

Check out some of the photos below:



 



Decoding binary holiday messages written by our class!



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