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Scratch is the tool I go back to over and over for teaching my middle school (age 11 - 14) students. And it keeps getting better. The classroom feature they r

by patja 9y ago

Scratch is the tool I go back to over and over for teaching my middle school (age 11 - 14) students. And it keeps getting better. The classroom feature they recently added completely resolved my number 1 issue with Scratch which was the difficulty in getting parents to follow through and approve their student's accounts to share projects with the class and teacher. I do really really wish they would get off of Flash however. Managing the Flash installs on the shared laptops at our school is a headache.

tonydiv 9y ago
What curriculum do you use? I am working on a project in the space, I would love to ask you some questions if you don't mind!
- patja 9y ago
  I've developed my own curriculum over the past 6 years or so of teaching using it. I have a series of assignments I created to get them to build simple games and music videos, leaving a maximum of latitude for individual creativity around the content, while requiring use of specific programming concepts. I also teach how to edit music and images for importing to Scratch, including transparency and layering. Honestly I think that is some of the more broadly useful stuff in my class -- so many of these kids have no idea how to crop and resize a photo or cut out a portion and make a transparent background. We also cover US Fair Use and intellectual property laws. I only get each class for about a dozen 55 minute classes per year which really makes me streamline my approach for a minimum of lecture and maximum hands-on time, which can be a challenge, but on the other hand I get 100% of the student body passing through my course, so I get the chance to teach all learners, those with desire and aptitude and those who come in saying "I'm no good at technology" and leave with a sense of pride in what they've achieved.
  - tonydiv 9y ago
    That is really cool, I really like how you're incorporating their creations into a broader context. It aligns really well with Tom Little's concepts of making school more of a holistic education that is intertwined with social justice, personal responsibility, and so on. What's your email? I would love to get some feedback on a project I'm working on from teachers in the space. I'm a teacher too :) It's a live 1-to-1 or 1-to-2 online coding course for kids: http://block.school http://block.school
frabbit 9y ago
Snap seems like the solution to your woes: http://snap.berkeley.edu/about.html http://snap.berkeley.edu/about.html It's Javascript and extensible.
antod 9y ago
Flash is going away sometime: https://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Scratch_3.0 https://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Scratch_3.0

by patja 9y ago

tonydiv 9y ago

What curriculum do you use? I am working on a project in the space, I would love to ask you some questions if you don't mind!

patja 9y ago
I've developed my own curriculum over the past 6 years or so of teaching using it. I have a series of assignments I created to get them to build simple games and music videos, leaving a maximum of latitude for individual creativity around the content, while requiring use of specific programming concepts. I also teach how to edit music and images for importing to Scratch, including transparency and layering. Honestly I think that is some of the more broadly useful stuff in my class -- so many of these kids have no idea how to crop and resize a photo or cut out a portion and make a transparent background. We also cover US Fair Use and intellectual property laws. I only get each class for about a dozen 55 minute classes per year which really makes me streamline my approach for a minimum of lecture and maximum hands-on time, which can be a challenge, but on the other hand I get 100% of the student body passing through my course, so I get the chance to teach all learners, those with desire and aptitude and those who come in saying "I'm no good at technology" and leave with a sense of pride in what they've achieved.
- tonydiv 9y ago
  That is really cool, I really like how you're incorporating their creations into a broader context. It aligns really well with Tom Little's concepts of making school more of a holistic education that is intertwined with social justice, personal responsibility, and so on. What's your email? I would love to get some feedback on a project I'm working on from teachers in the space. I'm a teacher too :) It's a live 1-to-1 or 1-to-2 online coding course for kids: http://block.school http://block.school

frabbit 9y ago

Snap seems like the solution to your woes: http://snap.berkeley.edu/about.html http://snap.berkeley.edu/about.html It's Javascript and extensible.

antod 9y ago

Flash is going away sometime: https://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Scratch_3.0 https://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Scratch_3.0