Bitsbox Presentation Follow Up #ISTE17

On June 26th, I was thrilled to present at the STEM Playground at ISTE17 in San Antonio. It was the 3rd time I had attended ISTE, having been to San Diego in 2012 and Philly in 2015. I had submitted a proposal to share about how I use coding in content areas with my 2nd and 3rd grade classes. One of the programs I use is Bitsbox. It's a subscription based text coding program that my kids love!
For this presentation, I focused on the free resources available to educators. I shared my slide deck in a previous post. In it, I discuss how coding with Bitsbox supports close reading, attention to detail, and can connect to many of the subject content standards in ELA, math, science, art, music and more!

One of the exciting things that happened, was that Bitsbox was at the Start Up booth at ISTE. I was thrilled to meet the people who created this amazing resource. I was able to meet Anastasia, Sadie, and one of the founders, Aidan Chopra. Anastasia, Aidan, and I sat down to discuss the future of Bitsbox and education. They really wanted to know how Bitsbox could support students. We discussed what teachers need, how to share what the code does, how to connect to content standards, and how to package resources to make it easier for us. It's important to them to help those of us teachers who don't have any background in coding so we can give this opportunity to our kids.


I'm thrilled to be able to connect with such a responsive company. The week after ISTE, Anastasia was able to do a Google Hangout with our summer camp program and share how they come up with ideas for apps, how she started coding (hint: she learned using Bitsbox) and answer LOTS of kids questions. This is the second hangout they've done for my kids and it's been so inspiring!

Since our meeting, the folks at Bitsbox have shared a new format for the Classroom Boxes. These are sets of programming cards with support for teachers so we know the coding concepts each box is focused on. Like Box 1 below is all about using coordinates. Definitely put these on your wish list for Back to School! (This is not an affiliate link - I don't get anything from Bitsbox for sharing. I just like the company.)

Camp Innovation - Huge Success!

4 Amazing Teachers + 4 STEAM Playgrounds + 140 kids + 2 weeks = Tons of Fun!

Summer camp sponsored by The San Marcos Promise.
http://thesanmarcospromise.org/leap

STEAM Playground:
Students worked on utilizing their natural curiosity to explore, learn, and create in the STEAM Playground. Students rotated through the 4 STEAM Play Areas that included coding, robotics, Makey Makey, LittleBits, circuitry, design challenges, and more!  After students  explored the different STEAM Play Areas rotations, they got to have flexibility and choice in which area they wanted to dive deeper in their learning.

Summer Camp Resources - Google Site

#ISTE17

I'm off to my 3rd ISTE conference, this time in San Antonio, TX. On Monday, I'll share how I use coding within the content areas in class. Presentation notes here:

• Monday, June 26, 8:00–11:30 am CDT (Central Daylight Time)
• Building/Room: Park View Lobby

Coding for Kids with Bitsbox

We've been using Code.org resources and blockly type coding since the first Hour of Code. Recently, we started looking into text based programs. Our tech class tried Code Academy's tutorial on Javascript. It's great but then we found Bitsbox! (Bitsbox is a subscription service, but there are many free options starting at https://bitsbox.com/hoc2015.html)

Kids type real Javascript in Bitsbox to create apps from the book, then they change it to make it their own. I love that accurate keyboarding, spelling, and punctuation are reinforced to make the apps work. It's a huge motivation for kids to check their work. If it's not right, the app won't work.
Here's fun simple app bitsbox.com/run.html?b18v3

It also has free lesson plans for teachers to use in most content areas. There is a teacher page with great info. https://bitsbox.com/teachers/

Here's an app they can write to practice their math facts bitsbox.com/run.html?xxdr6

Here is the lesson plan from their website  https://bitsbox.com/pdf/hoc2015/BitsboxLessonPlan2015_Math3-5.pdf

Another thing that I've found is that the company is very responsive. They reply to tweets and emails, help with questions about the apps, and go above and beyond in many ways.

One cool thing was when we were doing a Saturday Codeathon. I wanted a short, fun keynote for the kids and contacted Christie at Bitsbox to see if someone there would do a virtual hangout with us. Next thing I knew their CEO, Scott Lininger, said he'd love to do it. (My lame attempt to record the hangout with my phone https://youtu.be/a7OqJwJ-1g ) They also sent us a box full of fun give away items for the kids in attendance. Super fun! Thanks Bitsbox. We are hooked!

If you do decide to try it out, we would appreciate it if you would use our link. We get credit toward  our next subscription for our class and you get one free Bitsbox.  https://bitsbox.cratejoy.com/refer/Lauri-NQGTWKES

We Rocked Hour of Code!

Last month, our elementary school participated in the Hour of Code, a global event to introduce computer science to students around the world.

Every student, Kindergarten through fifth grade, was able to try coding through Code.org in the computer lab guided by Mrs. Rockett, our awesome computer lab teacher. All of the students can and are continuing to learn computer science through activities on the school website.

The coding activities include continuing the computer science course through Code.org, creating games and apps through Scratch, programming a virtual robot through Lightbot, and many more.

On Friday, January 16th, at our Friday Flag Salute assembly, we were able to share how we did with coding through the Hour of Code. Our students wrote 190,043 lines of code! And the ones that did the most were the first graders, with one class rocking it, having written 8811 lines of code! (This counts only the Code.org activities as those are the ones I could find and add up. We also did Made with Code by Google, and some Scratch and other activities.)

Revealing the total for the lines of code. This is just before the 1 joined us to reveal 190,043 lines of code!

We are excited to continue learning about coding and computer science. We have added an after school class and are finding ways to add it into our school day. Coding helps us develop excellent problem solving and critical thinking skills!

The Hour of Code Rocks!

This month, our school participated in the Hour of Code! This is an amazing program envisioned by Hadi Partovi to encourage more kids to try programming and learning computer science. This is our second year trying Hour of Code and it was bigger and better!
Every class had the opportunity to work on one of two courses created by Code.org for students in K-5 classes. These courses are far more than one hour and are more like 20 hours each. Our goal was for each student to learn some basics and to challenge them to go farther. Most did! In addition to the Code.org courses, students had the opportunity to work on Google's Made with Code, Scratch and many other programs.
After all this, I can truly say, WE♥CODE!

Hour of Code is Coming!

So excited to be planning Year 2 of Hour of Code at San Elijo Elementary! Last year was awesome with all of our classes giving it a try. Over 1400 elementary kids getting a taste of computer science and what makes all these fun things we use work.

Since beginning with Hour of Code last year, my second grade classes have made big progress through the 20 hour course with a few of the kids completing the entire course. As a school, we hired a computer lab tech who is helping make sure all kids have the same opportunities in technology. We've also started 3 after school tech classes, of which over 50% of the kids are girls. The older students have become mentors, helping the younger ones and their teachers learn how to use google apps and coding programs.

This year will be bigger and better! Thanks to more resources from Code.org, our Kinder and First graders will begin the Code.org Course 1 and the Second through Fifth graders will start on Course 2. In addition, we will be linking the extra activities that the students can work on through Scratch, creating with Flappy Bird, and Frozen! And our Tech Team of mentor students are ready to help wherever needed!



(When I emailed a couple former students Thursday morning to tell them the announcement about programming with Frozen, one parent replied "She just screamed and ran upstairs to try it!")

We are set to launch at our Friday Flag Assembly on December 5th. I'm thinking of trying the "Move It, Move It" activity with the kids directing our Asst Principal through a course with a couple obstacles. Hopefully, this will make for some great photo opps!

We will also have the classes view one of the Code.org videos right afterwards back in their classrooms. The next idea is to create a physical badge or sticker the kids can receive from a staff member. If we embed the video in a google slide show with info about Hour of Code plans for our school, we could add a secret message. Kids who decode the message and tell a school adult will receive the special badge. I'm so excited to pull it all together and share the excitement!

Anybody Can Learn to Code

In December, our school participated in The Hour of Code, an opportunity for every student try computer programming. This was an amazing experience with even our youngest students giving it a try. 
Since then, my students have continued to learn by going through the K-8 Intro to Computer Science course at http://learn.code.org/.
This is a great opportunity for every student. The tutorials are all there to walk the students through all of the steps.
One of my students completed the course in a couple weeks, another is close to completion and the rest are working on it at their own pace. The two who are farthest along are mentoring a 1st grader who is interested in learning also.