Ju
>Scra
July 2021
Attending Scratch Conference. Besides attending the presentations and workshops I hope to contact other Scratchers in Canada and Ontario to develop a network of people interested in on-line meetups to share ideas. If you have come to this site and would like to be a part of this network please email me:
[email protected]
May 2021
Added Pen Blocks & 2D shapes to Scratch>Lesson Plans>Gr 6
kpscobracoders.weebly.com/pen-blocks--2d-shapes-gr-6.html
Added my slide deck from OAME 2021 conference. Read it like it IS the Yellow Pages - find the help you are looking for!
Spring 2021
Completed the work for OntarioMathSupport with OAME. I am writing lesson plans for students in Grade 6, 7, & 8 that have never Scratched before. I will post the lesson titles here and then include them in the Scratch>Lessons section.
Fall 2020
I have been making lesson plans for coding as part of the OAME writing project for the new curriculum. See all the lesson plans from Grade 1 to 8 at this site.
https://ontariomath.support/?pg=home&lang=EN
https://ontariomath.support/?pg=home&lang=FR
There will also be lesson plans for Fractions, Financial Literacy, and Mathematical Modelling by the Spring of 2021.
August 5th
Added a new section titled How Do I Start to Code? in response to teachers beginning to work on the new Ontario Mathematics Curriculum and the Coding expectations ( https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/fbd574c4-da36-0066-a0c5-849ffb2de96e/08f5a14f-576a-4282-af82-096dc302ed10/Algebra_AODA.pdf ).
We have had information about getting started with specific programs (such as Scratch or Scratch Jr) or robots (DASH or Bluebot) or devices (Makey Makey and MicroBit) within our Weebly all along but we thought we would write up-to-date entries specifically to get our colleagues to understand coding won't be as daunting as they think. See if we are on the right track. If not, email us. More files will be added as the school year approaches. Go to:
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/how-do-i-start-to-code.html
August 1st
Well things are gearing up for the new school year and a new Mathematics Curriculum here in Ontario. Coding has been included for the first time! So happy more and more teachers and their students will be doing something that we have come to enjoy and make part of our teaching (and our time outside of teaching!). Although the emphasis will be coding in Math there are other subject areas that incorporate coding quite easily. Here is one that has coding, geometry - coordinates (x,y), (x, -y), (-x,y), & (-x,-y) and art design. Students create art on grid paper making repeating patterns using geometric shapes and identify the coordinates of the vertices. Then, using the Pen Blocks in Scratch, "draw" the lines on their device. I have included photos of my planning sheets, screen shots of the finished projects and links to the Scratch projects themselves. Go to the Scratch tab > Projects to Try (and scroll down to the bottom) > Repeated Geometric Shape Art http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
July
Just finished two weeks of Scratch coding as part of Getting Unstuck 2020. I participated in a similar program in 2018 but this time I found I was spending just as much time within the Unstuck community as I was coding projects based on the daily prompts. I have "met" and now correspond with people in Italy, Germany, USA, and the Netherlands about Scratch. Each day 100+ people shared their work and looked at other Scratcher's work, complimenting, commenting and offering suggestions in a variety of languages. If you are interested in seeing my projects look for MyDogTasha in each of the studios. Please feel free to add comments below each project page and mention that you linked in from this Weebly please!
https://gettingunstuck.gse.harvard.edu/
May
Here are some Scratch lesson plans for Grade 6 Transformational Geometry (Rotations, Translations, Reflections). They are step-by-step with screen shots of the blocks needed. If used (eventually) in class, I find it best to project the teacher's computer screen and she/he uses the plan as a script while the pages are printed for students to read and follow. The speed that students complete the coding varies greatly and if all they have to follow is what is on the screen (either as actual coding or a PPP PowerPoint Presentation) some will be behind, some will be ahead, and the few remaining be right with the teacher. Moving back and forth between presentation slides or re-coding the same thing can be confusing. If used with students learning out-of-the-building I suggest they have the files ahead of time and are taught to share their screen with the Word files, the teacher's screen and their Scratch accounts. Not easy I admit but it gives students a chance to work at their own pace. There are 7 lessons, each increasingly difficult but still all with step to step instructions. Task #1, #2, #3a, #3b, #4a, #4b, and #5 Find the lessons at Scratch > Projects to Try
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
April
Staying at Home in the time of Covid is a challenge for us all. Scratch has some ideas that teachers can send to their students. I would suggest either the teacher set up a Teacher Account for each student in her/his class or if students set up their own accounts the ID # of the project be sent to the teacher to see the coding project.
Here is the link: https://sip.scratch.mit.edu/scratchathome/
October
I have a small group of girls that meet several times a week at lunch to code. I was inspired by a Makey Makey webinar about a Build a Better Book program. The link to the MM webinar is: https://makeymakey.com/blogs/blog/build-a-better-book-webinar-may-14th-at-12-pm-cst
And information about the BBB program is: https://www.colorado.edu/project/bbb/
We looked up the idea of Universal Design and what that would look like with coding and our Makey Makeys. Inspired by the short poem Five Little Pumpkins we set off to code in Scratch. A trip to the local dollar store and a bag full of items with different textures later and we were in business. They made switches out of big Popsicle sticks, elastics, rolled up sheet foam and electrical tape. There was a website that made 3D printer files for Braille by simply typing in the words you wanted. The orange labels are for 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 as well as the title, Five Little Pumpkins. You can find our projects slide show at the tab Makey Makey just below the Black Out Poems information
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/makey-makey.html
September
Black Out Poems - looking for a way to incorporate coding with language and art? then Black Out Poems are for you! I first saw them in Boston at Scratch2018 with guest speaker Austin Kleon and his presentation "Creative is Not a Noun" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB_y4BhmKRM ) and like so many in the audience started made connections and lessom plans (!) with Scratch and Makey Makey. The activity was spread over several periods. The first step is to introduce the students to Black Out poems and give them a change to explore a variety of texts - books - fiction and non-fiction, posters, advertisements and make their selection. Next, they decide on what parts to keep & what to black out and how to cover it up. Finally, using Scratch or Scratch with Makey Makey the poem becomes interactive and a multi-media artwork. I have added a Word File with photos of Black Out poem examples I found on the Internet and a lesson plan. There is a short slide show of several students' work. Go to the Makey Makey Tab
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/makey-makey.html
Fall
As a new year starts and things settle down in our classrooms we again look to code with our students. I find myself going back the the Getting Unstuck 2018 studios to look at projects based on a series of 21 challenges. It was interesting to be in the role of a "student" working on tasks assigned each day. The time limit of one per day was quite stressful especially if there were other 'regular people' things to do. It is always a challenge as a teacher to set how long to work on a lesson or task with students and if/when to assign it to be completed at home. With Coding it depends on the devices students have access to at home.
April
Although the contest has finished and a winner declared, the Doodle for Google Canada is still a useful lesson plan for you and your students to do. It can be redesigned for any word and I see it as a great idea for art or as a project for literature, science, or social studies/geography topics. The TeachersLearningCode site was involved and produced a YouTube Video. At the Starter Scratch project you can see some of the remixes. You can find it at the Scratch tab > Projects to Try > Doodle for Google Canada http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
March 15th
Once students move past using the Scratch Cards or beginning projects teachers may continue to use prescribed activities with their students. There are many great books published with advanced projects. The difficulty is how to use a book with a room full of students. I have added a file about an on-line resource that would take care of that problem. The PDF could be projected for all to see or an individual student could access the file and follow along at their own rate. It is part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation site and produced by Code Club. I found it as I am learning the connections between coding in Scratch and learning to code in Python, so more about that later. You can find it at the Scratch tab > Projects to Try http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
January 28th
I have been coding with my students during class.
Dance Party from Hour of Code (https://studio.code.org/s/dance/stage/1/puzzle/1) has been a huge hit! I am curious to see how their learning with the coding block choices they made will transfer over to them creating their own dance sequences. The coding lessons drew their attention to measures and beats and patterns within the music and the virtual movements of the sprites. With my lunch hour Grade 6 students there was a smooth transfer over to Scratch 3.0. We had worked with MicroBits and Scratch 3.0 when it was still in Beta mode so that also worked out without a hitch.
A question about Python from one of my coders led me to start to learn about it's format and language. We started with another Hour of Code activity Turtle Graphics (with a nod to Seymour Papert's Logo's turtle!) with Tracy the Turtle (https://codehs.com/hourofcode/tracy). I will be posting some ideas and simple activities for Python soon, so stay tuned!
December 4th
I just sent out to all the GECDSB teachers information about Hour of Code 2018. Last week there were four more coding workshops to finish off our PKE. It has been a wonderful experience these past two years and we will continue posting new information on this site. Next should be information about the Canada Code week as soon as my information packet arrives via snail mail!
November 20th
Getting ready for our last GECDSB coding workshops next week. With the changes to Scratch for the 3.0 version I'm revamping my previous slide shows to include what teachers and coders can expect come January 2nd 2019! But don't worry the 2.0 version will still be active and available. Check out the link on the LH side to see the pre-workshop slide show showing how to set up a Scratch account.
November 9th
Now in Toronto for STAO18. This morning we attended several great workshops and this afternoon we present our coding playground with a focus on science activities. Tomorrow, Saturday, we will attend five workshops for the Science Encounters Certificate Program and take back to our schools a Makerspace Kit to share with our colleagues!
November 8th
It is our last day a BIT18 and we are overwhelmed at the positive feedback we received from all the people who came to our coding playground on Tuesday. On top of that, we had 217!! people visit this Weebly site. At night, as we sit at the window in our hotel room watching (and hearing) the amazing Niagara Falls, we are double checking all our links and files so that the items we showed people who visited us are easily found.
As always, if you can not find what you are looking for, or have more questions for us, please contact us through our school board emails posted on this site.
October 30th
We are getting all our robots and activities lined up for our trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto next month. We will present an all day workshop at BIT18. Our theme is Coding is not an add-on or a fold-in but a part-of your teaching and your students' learning day. We hope the activities we have done with our students will be helpful to other teachers who, like us, want to make coding part of our day. We started with our TLLP two years ago and at that time we found out and attended the BIT16 Conference. It is an honour that two years later we are presenting - we hope to inspire teachers as we have been inspired. Later we travel to the STAO and meet the science teachers at that conference. We will be focusing in on our Primary Science curriculum and how we use coding and unplugged activities.
August 13th
Added the first of many files about MicroBit. They are "tours" using screen shots and text in Word files. The first is of all the sections and the second is just about the section titled Meet MicroBit. Check them out in Scratch18 tab.
August 8th
Added my third file regarding Scratch 3.0. I suggest you read them in this order - 1st, Scratch3 News; 2nd, Changes from 2 to 3; and 3rd, Scratch3 Preview.
I have also added a video showing the information from the three files. I will apologize up front - I couldn't record with my ScreenCast and used a video camera instead. As soon as I can figure it out I will re-record the video. You will see if you watch it, the focus goes in and out - I hope no one gets seasick/see sick (a little word play humour) watching it! You will find these files in the Scratch18 Tab on the left hand side of the screen.
August 2nd
Added my file to introduce Text-to-Speech, Google Speech, and Google Translate from a fantastic workshop last week, although you must wait until January 2019 for them to be available. However, Google Translate is available now for Beta 3.0. The other new file today is a comparison of 2.0 to 3.0 and what is different and/or added with side-by-side screen shots. Find them in Scratch18 Link on left hand side of the page.
August 1st
Starting to add new information from the Scratch18 Conference. First off is a quick one page file about Scratch 3.0. Find it in Scratch18 Boston MA link on left hand side of the page. Next to come is the information about the Speech Extension to Scratch!!!
July 30th
One of the people I talked to at the Conference is Tom Heck of Makey Makey. It is always nice to meet face-to-face with someone you have only corresponded with via email. Today I got an email to vist the re-organized site. I have checked it out and complied some links. You can check out the information at the Makey Makey link.
July 24th
I'm in Boston (very strange not to be doing coding with Cindy and Janet) getting ready to attend the Scratch18 Conference Wednesday night to Saturday afternoon. For the past three weeks I have been coding and sharing as part of Scratch project entitled Unstuck. I will meet some of the participants on Friday afternoon at a workshop. I bought two Micro-Bits (and extensions) for another workshop on Wednesday from Elmwood Electronics in Ontario.
I purchased the new set of ScratchJr cards so I'd be ready for that workshop. Finally I borrowed from the library Justin Kleon's books on creativity - he is the guest speaker at the Conference for Thursday. Lots of work to attend the conference but I will learn so much. For now Click on Scratch18 to see several photos of my pre-conference purchases.
June15th
We found out we will be presenting a whole day session at BIT18 (Bring It Together) in November for the Minds on Media day. We are very excited to be able to work with others in a playground environment. It will be hands-on! Keep watching for more information.
May 22nd
Here we are at the GECDSB Summer Learning Program getting ready to show the Camp Wonder teachers our coding and robotics. Check out the photos of the day.
May 7th 2018
We are back from OAME - check out our slide show of the photos of our workshop. Just getting ready for our 2nd set of workshops at the Civic Centre this Friday.
May 3rd & 4th 2018
We are at the OAME 18 Conference at Humber College surrounded by 2100 teachers - such a great hum here.
Added a link for our Pre-conference slide show so that anyone attending our Friday afternoon workshop can download Bluebot, DASH, and ScratchJr and use their own devices for our Coding Playground.
April 25th, 2018
Slide Show for Teachers with Scratch Experience
- go to April 27th Workshop Tab
April 23rd, 2018:
Slide Show for Beginning to Code with Scratch Workshop
- go to April 27th Workshop Tab
March 9th, 2018:
More Bluebot task cards added.
Videos added to Dash and Scratch Jr.
Check the PKE Primary coding tab for books and ideas.
February 11th, 2018:
Check out PKE Scratch Intermediate for the planning and results of using Scratch Art projects to generate poetry
Check out information and photos of our robot Paths, Grids, and Mazes
January 28th, 2018:
-added 8 Bluebot activities
-added Code a dance activity under Unplugged
-added curriculum document
Nov. 18th:
-added separate pages for French activities for Bluebot and Dash
-added Bluebot activity
Sept. 27th:
-Check the Dash, Bluebot, Lightbot, and Unplugged sections for new lessons added.
June 16th:
-We've added some activities for the Bluebot app under the tab Beebot/Bluebot.
-Pages were updated and streamlined
-Added the Lightbot planning sheets
May 15th: We added a review of a book, Hello Ruby, Adventures in Coding. (http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/hello-ruby.html )
May 4th: We added a Scratch Lesson for a "Birthday Card" in the Grade 5 section of Lessons. Scratch is 10 years old! of course, it would be a great project to remix for Canada's 150! The project is found in our KPSCobraCoders website by following the categories on the left hand side of this page Scratch>Lessons>Grade 5> Birthday Card Lesson (or just click on this link and go directly to the lesson.
Then go to Scratch at https://scratch.mit.edu go to Tips> Step-By-Step, the Tutorial section.
We began sharing our information in April 2017.
Notification of our additional files, photos, and videos that we share after that date will be posted in this section and placed in the correct directory.
Stay tuned as we continue to develop this site.
>Scra
July 2021
Attending Scratch Conference. Besides attending the presentations and workshops I hope to contact other Scratchers in Canada and Ontario to develop a network of people interested in on-line meetups to share ideas. If you have come to this site and would like to be a part of this network please email me:
[email protected]
May 2021
Added Pen Blocks & 2D shapes to Scratch>Lesson Plans>Gr 6
kpscobracoders.weebly.com/pen-blocks--2d-shapes-gr-6.html
Added my slide deck from OAME 2021 conference. Read it like it IS the Yellow Pages - find the help you are looking for!
Spring 2021
Completed the work for OntarioMathSupport with OAME. I am writing lesson plans for students in Grade 6, 7, & 8 that have never Scratched before. I will post the lesson titles here and then include them in the Scratch>Lessons section.
Fall 2020
I have been making lesson plans for coding as part of the OAME writing project for the new curriculum. See all the lesson plans from Grade 1 to 8 at this site.
https://ontariomath.support/?pg=home&lang=EN
https://ontariomath.support/?pg=home&lang=FR
There will also be lesson plans for Fractions, Financial Literacy, and Mathematical Modelling by the Spring of 2021.
August 5th
Added a new section titled How Do I Start to Code? in response to teachers beginning to work on the new Ontario Mathematics Curriculum and the Coding expectations ( https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/fbd574c4-da36-0066-a0c5-849ffb2de96e/08f5a14f-576a-4282-af82-096dc302ed10/Algebra_AODA.pdf ).
We have had information about getting started with specific programs (such as Scratch or Scratch Jr) or robots (DASH or Bluebot) or devices (Makey Makey and MicroBit) within our Weebly all along but we thought we would write up-to-date entries specifically to get our colleagues to understand coding won't be as daunting as they think. See if we are on the right track. If not, email us. More files will be added as the school year approaches. Go to:
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/how-do-i-start-to-code.html
August 1st
Well things are gearing up for the new school year and a new Mathematics Curriculum here in Ontario. Coding has been included for the first time! So happy more and more teachers and their students will be doing something that we have come to enjoy and make part of our teaching (and our time outside of teaching!). Although the emphasis will be coding in Math there are other subject areas that incorporate coding quite easily. Here is one that has coding, geometry - coordinates (x,y), (x, -y), (-x,y), & (-x,-y) and art design. Students create art on grid paper making repeating patterns using geometric shapes and identify the coordinates of the vertices. Then, using the Pen Blocks in Scratch, "draw" the lines on their device. I have included photos of my planning sheets, screen shots of the finished projects and links to the Scratch projects themselves. Go to the Scratch tab > Projects to Try (and scroll down to the bottom) > Repeated Geometric Shape Art http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
July
Just finished two weeks of Scratch coding as part of Getting Unstuck 2020. I participated in a similar program in 2018 but this time I found I was spending just as much time within the Unstuck community as I was coding projects based on the daily prompts. I have "met" and now correspond with people in Italy, Germany, USA, and the Netherlands about Scratch. Each day 100+ people shared their work and looked at other Scratcher's work, complimenting, commenting and offering suggestions in a variety of languages. If you are interested in seeing my projects look for MyDogTasha in each of the studios. Please feel free to add comments below each project page and mention that you linked in from this Weebly please!
https://gettingunstuck.gse.harvard.edu/
May
Here are some Scratch lesson plans for Grade 6 Transformational Geometry (Rotations, Translations, Reflections). They are step-by-step with screen shots of the blocks needed. If used (eventually) in class, I find it best to project the teacher's computer screen and she/he uses the plan as a script while the pages are printed for students to read and follow. The speed that students complete the coding varies greatly and if all they have to follow is what is on the screen (either as actual coding or a PPP PowerPoint Presentation) some will be behind, some will be ahead, and the few remaining be right with the teacher. Moving back and forth between presentation slides or re-coding the same thing can be confusing. If used with students learning out-of-the-building I suggest they have the files ahead of time and are taught to share their screen with the Word files, the teacher's screen and their Scratch accounts. Not easy I admit but it gives students a chance to work at their own pace. There are 7 lessons, each increasingly difficult but still all with step to step instructions. Task #1, #2, #3a, #3b, #4a, #4b, and #5 Find the lessons at Scratch > Projects to Try
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
April
Staying at Home in the time of Covid is a challenge for us all. Scratch has some ideas that teachers can send to their students. I would suggest either the teacher set up a Teacher Account for each student in her/his class or if students set up their own accounts the ID # of the project be sent to the teacher to see the coding project.
Here is the link: https://sip.scratch.mit.edu/scratchathome/
October
I have a small group of girls that meet several times a week at lunch to code. I was inspired by a Makey Makey webinar about a Build a Better Book program. The link to the MM webinar is: https://makeymakey.com/blogs/blog/build-a-better-book-webinar-may-14th-at-12-pm-cst
And information about the BBB program is: https://www.colorado.edu/project/bbb/
We looked up the idea of Universal Design and what that would look like with coding and our Makey Makeys. Inspired by the short poem Five Little Pumpkins we set off to code in Scratch. A trip to the local dollar store and a bag full of items with different textures later and we were in business. They made switches out of big Popsicle sticks, elastics, rolled up sheet foam and electrical tape. There was a website that made 3D printer files for Braille by simply typing in the words you wanted. The orange labels are for 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 as well as the title, Five Little Pumpkins. You can find our projects slide show at the tab Makey Makey just below the Black Out Poems information
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/makey-makey.html
September
Black Out Poems - looking for a way to incorporate coding with language and art? then Black Out Poems are for you! I first saw them in Boston at Scratch2018 with guest speaker Austin Kleon and his presentation "Creative is Not a Noun" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB_y4BhmKRM ) and like so many in the audience started made connections and lessom plans (!) with Scratch and Makey Makey. The activity was spread over several periods. The first step is to introduce the students to Black Out poems and give them a change to explore a variety of texts - books - fiction and non-fiction, posters, advertisements and make their selection. Next, they decide on what parts to keep & what to black out and how to cover it up. Finally, using Scratch or Scratch with Makey Makey the poem becomes interactive and a multi-media artwork. I have added a Word File with photos of Black Out poem examples I found on the Internet and a lesson plan. There is a short slide show of several students' work. Go to the Makey Makey Tab
http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/makey-makey.html
Fall
As a new year starts and things settle down in our classrooms we again look to code with our students. I find myself going back the the Getting Unstuck 2018 studios to look at projects based on a series of 21 challenges. It was interesting to be in the role of a "student" working on tasks assigned each day. The time limit of one per day was quite stressful especially if there were other 'regular people' things to do. It is always a challenge as a teacher to set how long to work on a lesson or task with students and if/when to assign it to be completed at home. With Coding it depends on the devices students have access to at home.
April
Although the contest has finished and a winner declared, the Doodle for Google Canada is still a useful lesson plan for you and your students to do. It can be redesigned for any word and I see it as a great idea for art or as a project for literature, science, or social studies/geography topics. The TeachersLearningCode site was involved and produced a YouTube Video. At the Starter Scratch project you can see some of the remixes. You can find it at the Scratch tab > Projects to Try > Doodle for Google Canada http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
March 15th
Once students move past using the Scratch Cards or beginning projects teachers may continue to use prescribed activities with their students. There are many great books published with advanced projects. The difficulty is how to use a book with a room full of students. I have added a file about an on-line resource that would take care of that problem. The PDF could be projected for all to see or an individual student could access the file and follow along at their own rate. It is part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation site and produced by Code Club. I found it as I am learning the connections between coding in Scratch and learning to code in Python, so more about that later. You can find it at the Scratch tab > Projects to Try http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/projects-to-try.html
January 28th
I have been coding with my students during class.
Dance Party from Hour of Code (https://studio.code.org/s/dance/stage/1/puzzle/1) has been a huge hit! I am curious to see how their learning with the coding block choices they made will transfer over to them creating their own dance sequences. The coding lessons drew their attention to measures and beats and patterns within the music and the virtual movements of the sprites. With my lunch hour Grade 6 students there was a smooth transfer over to Scratch 3.0. We had worked with MicroBits and Scratch 3.0 when it was still in Beta mode so that also worked out without a hitch.
A question about Python from one of my coders led me to start to learn about it's format and language. We started with another Hour of Code activity Turtle Graphics (with a nod to Seymour Papert's Logo's turtle!) with Tracy the Turtle (https://codehs.com/hourofcode/tracy). I will be posting some ideas and simple activities for Python soon, so stay tuned!
December 4th
I just sent out to all the GECDSB teachers information about Hour of Code 2018. Last week there were four more coding workshops to finish off our PKE. It has been a wonderful experience these past two years and we will continue posting new information on this site. Next should be information about the Canada Code week as soon as my information packet arrives via snail mail!
November 20th
Getting ready for our last GECDSB coding workshops next week. With the changes to Scratch for the 3.0 version I'm revamping my previous slide shows to include what teachers and coders can expect come January 2nd 2019! But don't worry the 2.0 version will still be active and available. Check out the link on the LH side to see the pre-workshop slide show showing how to set up a Scratch account.
November 9th
Now in Toronto for STAO18. This morning we attended several great workshops and this afternoon we present our coding playground with a focus on science activities. Tomorrow, Saturday, we will attend five workshops for the Science Encounters Certificate Program and take back to our schools a Makerspace Kit to share with our colleagues!
November 8th
It is our last day a BIT18 and we are overwhelmed at the positive feedback we received from all the people who came to our coding playground on Tuesday. On top of that, we had 217!! people visit this Weebly site. At night, as we sit at the window in our hotel room watching (and hearing) the amazing Niagara Falls, we are double checking all our links and files so that the items we showed people who visited us are easily found.
As always, if you can not find what you are looking for, or have more questions for us, please contact us through our school board emails posted on this site.
October 30th
We are getting all our robots and activities lined up for our trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto next month. We will present an all day workshop at BIT18. Our theme is Coding is not an add-on or a fold-in but a part-of your teaching and your students' learning day. We hope the activities we have done with our students will be helpful to other teachers who, like us, want to make coding part of our day. We started with our TLLP two years ago and at that time we found out and attended the BIT16 Conference. It is an honour that two years later we are presenting - we hope to inspire teachers as we have been inspired. Later we travel to the STAO and meet the science teachers at that conference. We will be focusing in on our Primary Science curriculum and how we use coding and unplugged activities.
August 13th
Added the first of many files about MicroBit. They are "tours" using screen shots and text in Word files. The first is of all the sections and the second is just about the section titled Meet MicroBit. Check them out in Scratch18 tab.
August 8th
Added my third file regarding Scratch 3.0. I suggest you read them in this order - 1st, Scratch3 News; 2nd, Changes from 2 to 3; and 3rd, Scratch3 Preview.
I have also added a video showing the information from the three files. I will apologize up front - I couldn't record with my ScreenCast and used a video camera instead. As soon as I can figure it out I will re-record the video. You will see if you watch it, the focus goes in and out - I hope no one gets seasick/see sick (a little word play humour) watching it! You will find these files in the Scratch18 Tab on the left hand side of the screen.
August 2nd
Added my file to introduce Text-to-Speech, Google Speech, and Google Translate from a fantastic workshop last week, although you must wait until January 2019 for them to be available. However, Google Translate is available now for Beta 3.0. The other new file today is a comparison of 2.0 to 3.0 and what is different and/or added with side-by-side screen shots. Find them in Scratch18 Link on left hand side of the page.
August 1st
Starting to add new information from the Scratch18 Conference. First off is a quick one page file about Scratch 3.0. Find it in Scratch18 Boston MA link on left hand side of the page. Next to come is the information about the Speech Extension to Scratch!!!
July 30th
One of the people I talked to at the Conference is Tom Heck of Makey Makey. It is always nice to meet face-to-face with someone you have only corresponded with via email. Today I got an email to vist the re-organized site. I have checked it out and complied some links. You can check out the information at the Makey Makey link.
July 24th
I'm in Boston (very strange not to be doing coding with Cindy and Janet) getting ready to attend the Scratch18 Conference Wednesday night to Saturday afternoon. For the past three weeks I have been coding and sharing as part of Scratch project entitled Unstuck. I will meet some of the participants on Friday afternoon at a workshop. I bought two Micro-Bits (and extensions) for another workshop on Wednesday from Elmwood Electronics in Ontario.
I purchased the new set of ScratchJr cards so I'd be ready for that workshop. Finally I borrowed from the library Justin Kleon's books on creativity - he is the guest speaker at the Conference for Thursday. Lots of work to attend the conference but I will learn so much. For now Click on Scratch18 to see several photos of my pre-conference purchases.
June15th
We found out we will be presenting a whole day session at BIT18 (Bring It Together) in November for the Minds on Media day. We are very excited to be able to work with others in a playground environment. It will be hands-on! Keep watching for more information.
May 22nd
Here we are at the GECDSB Summer Learning Program getting ready to show the Camp Wonder teachers our coding and robotics. Check out the photos of the day.
May 7th 2018
We are back from OAME - check out our slide show of the photos of our workshop. Just getting ready for our 2nd set of workshops at the Civic Centre this Friday.
May 3rd & 4th 2018
We are at the OAME 18 Conference at Humber College surrounded by 2100 teachers - such a great hum here.
Added a link for our Pre-conference slide show so that anyone attending our Friday afternoon workshop can download Bluebot, DASH, and ScratchJr and use their own devices for our Coding Playground.
April 25th, 2018
Slide Show for Teachers with Scratch Experience
- go to April 27th Workshop Tab
April 23rd, 2018:
Slide Show for Beginning to Code with Scratch Workshop
- go to April 27th Workshop Tab
March 9th, 2018:
More Bluebot task cards added.
Videos added to Dash and Scratch Jr.
Check the PKE Primary coding tab for books and ideas.
February 11th, 2018:
Check out PKE Scratch Intermediate for the planning and results of using Scratch Art projects to generate poetry
Check out information and photos of our robot Paths, Grids, and Mazes
January 28th, 2018:
-added 8 Bluebot activities
-added Code a dance activity under Unplugged
-added curriculum document
Nov. 18th:
-added separate pages for French activities for Bluebot and Dash
-added Bluebot activity
Sept. 27th:
-Check the Dash, Bluebot, Lightbot, and Unplugged sections for new lessons added.
June 16th:
-We've added some activities for the Bluebot app under the tab Beebot/Bluebot.
-Pages were updated and streamlined
-Added the Lightbot planning sheets
May 15th: We added a review of a book, Hello Ruby, Adventures in Coding. (http://kpscobracoders.weebly.com/hello-ruby.html )
May 4th: We added a Scratch Lesson for a "Birthday Card" in the Grade 5 section of Lessons. Scratch is 10 years old! of course, it would be a great project to remix for Canada's 150! The project is found in our KPSCobraCoders website by following the categories on the left hand side of this page Scratch>Lessons>Grade 5> Birthday Card Lesson (or just click on this link and go directly to the lesson.
Then go to Scratch at https://scratch.mit.edu go to Tips> Step-By-Step, the Tutorial section.
We began sharing our information in April 2017.
Notification of our additional files, photos, and videos that we share after that date will be posted in this section and placed in the correct directory.
Stay tuned as we continue to develop this site.