The Challenge:
Recently there have been many blogs, articles and information on educational sites regarding "The Hour of Code" and computer science in the classroom. Computer Science in Education week, which is from December 9-15 is attempting to recruit 10 million to try the Hour of Code. As of right now the numbers of participants are really impressive. According to the site, they have reached over 12 million!
Yesterday I sat down to explore what this was all about. I am not a master of code, nor have I ever felt confident that this is something I could learn with ease. I have played with the program "Scratch" which works much the same way that this tutorial will teach The Hour of Code, but I still did not have confidence. However, I did it! I did the Hour of Code (and it only took about 20 minutes! I even got a certificate of completion! YEA!
I highly recommend you give this experience a try with your students. Go to Hour of Code and click "START". Click "Go" on this tutorial.
Students are guided by tutorials led by famous people like Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook or Bill Gates of Microsoft! Automatically an introductory video shown below will begin and students are off!
As a teacher, the week before break has always posed a challenge. Kids are ready to be home with family, enjoy freshly fallen snow and holiday fun. Keeping them engaged is a challenge. By using the Hour of Code, you could set them off on an adventure that they can come back to over break and learn even more. Additional lessons on this site could keep them entertained and learning great stuff over break. Doesn't this look like fun?
Some additional reading on the importance of learning code, Computer Science and more can be found at the links below. Are you up for the Hour of Code Challenge? Are your Students?
Microsoft's 'Hour of Code' teaches students at Brownell/Holmes Elementary computer programming basics
Millions Participate in the Hour of Code
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