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Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Holiday Resources, Hour of Code, and More

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I have a lot of great resources and ideas for you this time, probably more than I normally do. Maybe it’s because it’s the holidays and everyone has the spirit of giving! So enjoy these tips and tricks. And be sure to check out the others in the series.

Holiday Resources

If you have a classroom elf on the shelf, you may want to register at the Teacher Resource Center and receive their emails with elf lesson plans and holiday-themed activity sheets. This site is best for those who teach grades K-5.

Ditch That Textbook is providing four free digital breakout room activities that have a holiday theme. (If you aren’t familiar with digital breakouts, check out what they are and how best to run one here.)

For elementary students who are all about the Gingerbread Man, you can find a fabulous collection in Wakelet of gingerbread-themed books, songs, and games here. And Sarah Kiefer provides another Wakelet collection filled with winter holiday resources.

If you need a great holiday scavenger hunt for your staff, take a look at this creative approach from Fort Sam Houston ISD that uses GooseChase. Tasks include such holiday delights as trivia questions, putting as many candy canes on a teammate’s face as you can, caroling together, wearing matching Christmas pajamas, and more. You have full permission from FSHISD to copy the game and make it your own.

For more ways to celebrate the holidays, check out these 29 different Christmas games to amuse your students, family, and friends. Some of them have a small price and some of them will also work virtually. (My favorite is the Santa Hat Stacking game which is free except for the cost of the red plastic cups needed.)

Create your own holiday bingo games that can be printed our or played virtually at Bingo Baker. Add your own graphics to create your own game or use one of the ones already created. This site is completely free. But if you want even more features, you can purchase a lifetime membership for just $24.95, a bargain, in my opinion.

The fabulous Eric Curts offers a fun activity where you decorate a Christmas tree using Google Slides. All of the information you need is included in his blog, along with the template that you can copy.

Finally, if the stress of the holidays is getting you down, be sure to take a look at these Honest Holiday Cards for Teachers. As they say on their website, “This year the standard Hallmark greeting just isn’t cutting it.” I’ve included one of my favorites below.

Hour of Code Choice Board and More

If you’ll be helping your students take part in the Hour of Code activities this year (or any time), take a look at this choice board of activities for secondary students (grades 6-12). It includes five different categories of activities with several choices for each one. Each choice is linked to the corresponding resource, so you can share this directly with your students or make a copy of it for yourself if you want to add items to it.

The District School Board of Niagara has created a fabulous Hour of Code resource booklet for grades 1-8. It is a “curated collection of computational thinking activities with technology and unplugged resources for each grade.” All of the resources are linked to where you or your students can easily access them.

Finding Alternatives

This one is an oldie goldie, but it’s good be reminded that it’s there. If you are looking for an alternative to a piece of software that you can’t quite afford or to a website or tool that has gone away, use AlternativeTo. This site uses crowd sourcing to find alternatives to all of the most popular resources that we use in our digital lives. Just type in the name of the product that you need to replace and lots of ideas pop up. You can even filter the ideas by device/operating system. This is a powerful way to find free resources for your students to use at school or at home.

Create Your Own Rebus Activities

Solving a rebus puzzle can be a great learning activity for students of any age. Because it uses non-linguistic representation of familiar things, it is one of the high-effect-size strategies. And it can help with spelling and vocabulary skills as well. You can create your own rebus at this free website. The site will let you choose between using their own images or emoji characters. You can also turn on the ability for hints about some of the drawings to be shown. Below is one I created for you to solve.

tips and tricks

Scientific Modeling Simulation

Lost at the Forever Mine is a fabulous, free, online game for students in grades 5-9 to learn about scientific modeling. “Students will set up equations, work with graphs, input data, and use models to make predictions. Along the way, as obstacles keep popping up, students will experience how models are used as a tool to make decisions.” The game takes 25 to 35 minutes to play, so it can be done in one class period. And no registration or log in is required. Since you can play it from any web browser (although they recommend Chrome), it will work fine on any device.

More Free Graphics for Students to Use

Tony Vincent shared Undraw.co, which is another good resource for clip art. The graphics are probably of most value to secondary students and adults, although they are appropriate for any age. You can even change the color of each image to fit whatever theme you have going. As Tony said, “Enter a hex color code at the top, and that color will be used in the image! All images are open source, so you can use them freely.”

Would You Rather…

Dr. Kristen Mattson is graciously sharing her 50 Would You Rather questions for download. Just enter in your email address and you’ll receive the fun prompts as both printed cards and full images. If you haven’t done this activity before, Would You Rather is a great conversation starter and a wonderful way to get to know your students better. I’ve even used the activity with the TCEA staff and they loved it!

Add Sounds to That Virtual Meeting or Class

If you want to help keep your audience involved during your next meeting or class, try using some of the fun sounds on this soundboard. There are 15 to choose from and they include a laugh track, the trumpet call that starts a race, people saying “ohhhhhhh,” and more. The sounds laugh only about three or four seconds.

tips and tricks

News Podcast for Kids

KidNuz is a wonderfully refreshing daily podcast (Monday through Friday) for students whose purpose is to deliver “current events in a kid-friendly package, spark curiosity, and get them asking critical questions.”

Chromebook Extensions

Be sure to check out these extensions to help you better manage your Chromebook. There are 13 of them and they include things like a URL shortener, a floor planner, a video maker, and more.

Virtual Field Trip Passport Template

And finally, if you are encouraging your students to take advantage of the multitude of free virtual field trips that are available now, here is a cool passport template in Google Slides or PowerPoint that they can use to keep track of where they have “visited.” (And if you aren’t aware of some of the amazing trips that are available, check out this blog, this one, and this one.)

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Future

Educational Technology: Trends Coming in 2019

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

A fresh, new year is upon us once again and we’ve caught up with our “chief geek” Martin McKay, our Chief Technology Officer and one of the founders of Texthelp, to see what his predictions are for educational technology in this coming year.

What do you think the year ahead has in store in terms of educational technology?

I think 2019 is going to be another great year for ed tech. One of the things we are continuing to see is IT costs continuing to fall.

Access to technology is getting better. Fifteen years ago, Nicholas Negroponte from MIT was talking about a one laptop per child initiative, and he was trying to get the cost of computing down to about $100 per child. Many thought that it was a completely unachievable goal. If you go onto Amazon today, there are laptops available at that price, and they’re going to continue to drop. Laptops will continue to become more powerful, and that means that it’s going to be more reasonable for every child to have a device in school.

It’s not like two years ago when Chromebooks were inexpensive and Windows computers were typically more expensive. Now Microsoft is releasing Windows Core next year which is going to be a super light and inexpensive version of Windows to run on cheaper laptops.

Will big data/learning analytics have a major impact on education this incoming year? What are you doing to incorporate them into your software?

Learning analytics has been a slow burner for a few years now, but 2019 is going to be the year that they take to the main stage. When we talk about learning analytics, we’re talking about measuring how students learn, not just how they use a piece of technology.  Being able to look at things like how quickly students write, what the error rate of the writing is, what’s the maturity of their writing, how many spelling, punctuation and grammar errors there are, how long did they spend writing per day, all of this information will be invaluable.

Over the last year at Texthelp, we’ve been able to create a set of national norms for writing for the US, and we’re planning to expand that next year to include Canada, Australia, and hopefully the UK, too.  This means that teachers are going to be able to see how their students are writing compared to the national norm.

Another technical trend we’re seeing, particularly in regard to assessment, is using technology and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to make ongoing, regular assessment faster and easier for teachers and also to try to take out some of the subjectivity from assessment. For example, if you give a student a writing task and you have 10 teachers assess that task, you’ll probably get 10 different scores. The technology we’ve been working on will not only create the national norms, but will try to remove some of the subjectivity from writing assessment using AI and statistical approaches. This will allow teachers to quickly and consistently assess writing.

There is a big buzz around machine learning. How big a role will this have in education in the year ahead?

Machine learning is incredible. It’s a hot topic everywhere at the moment and it’s going to be as relevant in education as it is anywhere else. Children learning how to develop machine learning technologies in class and then implement them is something that would have been inconceivable ten years ago – now it’s just the norm!  What they can do in one day or even in an Hour of Code project is truly fantastic. For example, they can build their own machine-learning-based technologies on raspberry PI’s and Play’s at home. Google has also introduced a new thing called AIY – the Artificial Intelligence Yourself version of DIY, which allows the user to use kits and devices to build intelligent systems that see, speak, and understand. Then start tinkering. Take things apart. Make things better. See what problems they can solve. It’s very cool stuff.

If you’re interested in finding out about our cool ed tech stuff, then be sure to stop by Texthelp booth #1545 at the upcoming 2019 TCEA Convention & Exposition.  We hope to see you there.  In the meantime, do you have anything else to add? What are your ed tech trends for 2019? Tell us in the comments below; we’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

This is a sponsored blog provided by Texthelp. 

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Hour of Code
Coding/Computer ScienceDigital Literacy

Plan Now for Hour of Code

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

According to Code.org, 93% of Texas parents want their child’s school to offer computer science, but only 40% of Texas schools teach it. Maybe the reason for their interest is because there are 44,972 computing jobs open in the state of Texas in which the average salary is $93,518. The Hour of Code is a perfect event to help drum up support for computer science in your school, district, and community to help meet the demand of your parents and the job market. 

code

The Basics

The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science to demonstrate that anyone can learn the basics of coding. The effort was designed to demystify computer coding and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. The official Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week. The 2018 Computer Science Education Week will be December 3-9, but for all practical purposes, you can host an Hour of Code all year round.

Organizing an Hour of Code event at your school or in your community is easy. Their website provides step-by-step instructions on how to pull off the event, complete with activities your participants can use to learn to code in an hour.  They also provide ideas to get your community involved and a FAQ page that will answer almost every question you have about hosting an Hour of Code.

Five Easy Steps to Host a Hour of Code

Code.org has made is easy for you to host an hour of code. Here are the things they suggest you need to consider to make your event a success.

1. Logistics

The first thing you need to decide is where are you going to host the event. They have coding activities that you can use for any device, but you need to decide which devices you’ll use and what you’ll need to make sure they have the necessary bandwidth and power. Code.org even has activities to teach computational thinking skills without using a computer so your event can take place anywhere, even a public park! Just make sure you have reviewed what materials you’ll need for these types of “unplugged” activities.

2. Pick a Tutorial

You may be thinking, “This sounds great, but I don’t know how to code, so how could I help teach someone else?” All the codeactivities are self-guided so you don’t have to know how. You can learn to code at the same time as your participants! All you have to do is select a tutorial to use in your Hour of Code. All teachers can participate because Code.org has tutorials that are related to math, science, social studies, language arts, fine arts, and computer science. You can sort by subject area, grade level, and by the coding abilities of your participants.

3. Promote the Event

Now that you are all jazzed about hosting an Hour of Code, you want to make sure others know about it. Hour of Code has all types of promotional materials for you to use. They have handouts, videos, posters, social media, and different tools you can use to reach certain people in your community, including your elected officials.

 

4. Host an Hour of Code

Once you have taken care of all the pre-event details, it is now time to host the event. Have your participants go to code.org/learn and choose the tutorial you picked out. If any of your participants finish early, have them either help someone else or find another tutorial to complete.

5. Celebrate Your Success

When your participants complete the hour, be sure and celebrate. You might want to create a photo booth where they could take selfies and post their photos on their favorite social media site using #HourOfCode as your hashtag. You could also create a certificate to be given out at the end of the hour.

Hour of Code events are full of energy and excitement. It is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that everyone can code. Who knows, you may spark an interest in coding for the next Steve Jobs! What are you waiting for? Get busy planning your event!

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coding applications
Coding/Computer Science

Four Apps for Teaching Students Coding Skills

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Why should we learn coding? All technology that is used in the world has code as the driving force. Students are more engrossed in technology than ever. They’re active on social media or glued to the latest video game. The issue is that our students are simply acting as consumers. How can we transition them to become creators of their own applications? How can we empower students to engage in self-directed learning?

By learning essential programming skills, students will gain significant computational thinking capabilities. They will learn how to analyze problems, break them down into smaller chunks, and create multiple solutions. They will learn to collaborate with peers, communicate their creativity, and gain a broader understanding of the impact coding has on the world.

Recommended Programming Applications

This article shares four coding applications I’ve found to be effective at providing self-guided learning experiences in my classroom. There are a vast number of coding applications out there. One can become easily lost in the forest of options if I were to list them all. I am hopeful that this blog will provide educators enough knowledge to effectively choose which applications they want to implement in their own curriculum.

1. Lightbot: Introduction to Programming Concepts

When I was ready to introduce coding to my students, even those that were not in my programming class, the first activity I had them engage in was Lightbot. Lightbot is an application that is featured as a part of the Hour of Code activities and is designed to serve as a one or two-hour lesson. Lightbot engages students in a game that tests their logic and problem-solving capabilities. It introduces the most basic concepts of coding: iteration, procedures, and loops. At first, my students thought the game was too childish, but they soon realized their own struggle to solve some of the more complex problems. This game is easily accessible on the computer and all major mobile platforms. I have used this program as a recruiting tool to expand my rapidly growing Computer Science program.

2. Scratch: The Block-Based Coding App

After Lightbot, the next logical step is to introduce block-based programming to the students. Scratch is a great program for introducing coding concepts to students. First, Scratch is free. Second, it is known as a block-based program because students literally drag and drop blocks of instructions in the code editor. There is very little typing involved. Scratch is simple, but it can become complex if a student really gets in-depth. During my first year of teaching Computer Science, I had my class complete a project with Scratch to create a visual story or a game. Half of my class chose to create a game while the other half chose a story. The students truly valued the openness of the project, and they enthusiastically created their own applications.

I believe Scratch is one of the easiest applications to implement across the curriculum. Also, Scratch contains a host of freely-accessible, community-built programs that can be used in lessons. As an educator, you can even create your own content or quiz using Scratch. Below are a few examples of projects utilizing the program across the curriculum:

  • ELA – Creating a visual poem; book report
  • Math – Probability (dice rolling); fractions game
  • Science – Formula balancing; report on the brain
  • Fine Arts – Creating music; animated drawings
  • Social Studies – Historical biography; quiz game

Eventually, the students grew weary of Scratch and are ready for the next challenge. This is the point when I introduced CodeCombat that gets students more engaged in typing code.

3. CodeCombat: The Coding Game 

CodeCombat introduces students to typing code instead of dragging and dropping. They first choose from several characters and are then guided in the lesson content through gaming “quests.” CodeCombat offers a fully-planned curriculum and a grade book. Students can work through at their own pace. The programming languages taught are Python, JavaScript, and HTML. If a student struggles through a level, they are automatically assigned additional practice to complete. Meanwhile, those students who prefer to move at a quicker pace can jump ahead to more challenging levels.

The first set of levels is offered in a free version. I have used this free version to introduce coding to my students in both my programming and non-programming classes. The paid version promises many game development activities, ranging from beginners to more experienced coders. CodeCombat was recently endorsed by the College Board for their Computer Science Principles course. I am hopeful to be able to explore their setup for this curriculum one day. Even though CodeCombat is a wonderful resource, I utilized another coding application known as CodeHS as the primary learning tool for my students.

4. CodeHS: The Individualized Learning Platform

CodeHS is the current driving force in my ever-growing Computer Science program. Like CodeCombat, there are free and paid versions of this self-contained platform. Students can learn a variety of coding languages, including JavaScript, Python, HTML, and Java. The CodeHS paid version provides educators with curriculum, professional development, and an abundance of tools and resources to create an engaging and student-empowered classroom. CodeHS is also College Board Certified for their AP Computer Science Principles course. There is also room for growth for both educators and students as the program offers the AP Computer Science Applications course and additional preceding courses. This is the next step in building my Computer Science program to engage my advanced students further.

My students have loved being able to work at their own pace. They have enjoyed building a website, creating pixel art, and learning the basics of cybersecurity. They love that the content is fully open and that they can perform many trial and error tests. My students were recently actively engaged in creating an application for their AP tasks, and I had the privilege of acting as a coach in the classroom where I actively monitored progress and provided aid where needed. I even had one student excel beyond the scope of the course. He gleefully pressed forward into his own personalized learning.

Examining the Results of These Coding Applications

Each of these programming applications has been a great asset as I took charge of the Computer Science content area on my campus. In the 2016-2017 school year, which was my first year of teaching Computer Science, my total number of students was eight. This number doubled during my second year. As for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year, I am already expecting the number of students to nearly triple in size based on current enrollment data.

I warn my students that coding can be their worst nightmare, but also their greatest addiction. There is much to learn with coding, and I am hopeful that my Computer Science program continues to grow. I truly believe that the students who take a programming class will walk away with more than just a good coding skill set. They will walk away with the knowledge and understanding that they are empowered through coding and are capable of tackling their own learning experiences.

This is a guest blog by James D Turnage. James is a Computer Science and IT teacher formerly at Ball High School in Galveston ISD who will begin teaching Computer Science and Video Game Design at Clear Falls High School in Clear Creek ISD in August.

 

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Hour of Code
Coding/Computer Science

Hour of Code at the Texas Capitol

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

On December 4, 2017, students came to the Texas State Capitol for the first Hour of Code held on the floor of the Texas CodeHouse of Representatives. Students from Richardson, San Antonio, Austin, Pflugerville, Spring Branch, Leander, Hays County, and Lufkin came to the Capitol to demonstrate the different ways students gain coding experience in their elementary, middle, and high schools. They also came to teach state legislators and their staff members how to write their first line of code.

 

CodeThe Hour of Code is a national effort to help demystify computer coding and broaden participation in the field of computer science. The official Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week, which is held December 4-10. The Hour of Code at the Capitol was hosted by the University of Texas at Austin’s WeTeach CS project, TCEA, TechNet, and CS4TX to help promote the need for more support for computer science education in Texas schools.

Hands On Coding

The legislators and their staff had great fun learning how to program a robot from Pflugerville ISD middle school codestudents and listened to some San Antonio elementary students read a story they wrote, as their pre-programmed robots acted out the plot line. In fact, there were a variety of different robots roaming about the floor of the chamber, including: Lego, Sphero, Dot and Dash, Makeblock, Mircobits, and Ozobots.  One of the participant’s favorite activities was test driving the code written for a virtual reality experience by the Richardson ISD high school students.

Several teachers who brought students to the event had recently participated in the University of Texas’ We Teach CS program which is aimed at assisting inservice teachers in obtaining a computer science teaching certification. These teachers currently teach science, view computer science as a natural complement to their curriculum, and are looking for ways to help students learn to code as they learn science.

Exploring the Job Market

CodeThe students also got to hear what it takes to work at Facebook, Google, and Uber. Representatives from these companies spoke to the students over pizza and soft drinks. They highlighted the benefits of working in the tech industry and what it takes to land a job at one of these three companies. It won’t be long before these students will be polishing their resumes and knocking on their doors. The likelihood of these students getting jobs is strong since there are currently over 40,000 unfilled high-tech jobs in Texas. And yet, only 3 percent of high school students took a computer science course last school year.

Strategies to Increase Enrollment in CS

CodeThis is why this day was so important. Educating policy makers on the benefits of computer science is critical to enacting policies that can effectively change the dismal statistics. Some of the strategies to increase the opportunities for students to gain computer science skills are:

  • Develop a comprehensive plan to expand K-12 computer science education statewide.
  • Incentivize school districts to offer computer science courses. Computer science and technology applications courses should be placed under the umbrella of Career and Technical Education (CTE) to unlock weighted funding through the CTE allotment.
  • Invest in professional development programs to train a corps of teachers to lead these courses. The key to this effort will be providing additional funding for computer science certification grant programs.

Code

For more information about hosting an Hour of Code at your school or district (or city hall, county court house, etc.), check out this blog post. You can host an Hour of Code anytime. Happy coding!

 

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Hour of Code
Coding/Computer Science

How to Host an Hour of Code

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science to demonstrate that anyone can learn the basics of coding. The effort was also designed to demystify computer coding and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. The official Hour of Code takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week. The 2017 Computer Science Education Week will be December 4-10, but for all practical purposes, you can host an Hour of Code all year round.

Organizing an Hour of Code event at your school or in your community is easy. Their website provides step-by-step instructions on how to pull off the event, complete with activities your participants can use to learn to code in an hour.  They also provide ideas to get your community involved and a FAQ page that will answer almost every question you have about hosting an Hour of Code.

To assist you in your efforts, I reached out to several school districts who have participated in the event in the past to discover the best practices to follow when hosting an Hour of Code. 

Strategies to Increase Participation

Students engaging in Hour of Code

Photo courtesy of K.W. Barrett via Flickr.

Spring Branch ISD sends emails to district and campus leadership, posts planned Hour of Code activities on their website, and encourages community members to be “code buddies” with their students. They also use the #SBHourofCode hashtag to promote their efforts. To create some extra excitement, Karen Justl of SBISD, dresses up during the week as a Storm Trooper and visits several sites handing out stickers. How cool is that?!

Seguin ISD incorporates coding activities into all of their elementary and middle school technology application classes. And while students engage in coding lessons all year, there is a special emphasis during Computer Science Education Week.

Strategies to Involve the Community

Randy Rogers, Director of Digital Learning Services at Seguin ISD, invites numerous district and community leaders to come to campuses and participate in coding activities with their students. To facilitate this, elementary campuses submit a schedule of times that visitors can join students, and the dignitaries are assigned to various schools based upon their availability. In the past two years, SISD has had their state representative, mayor, city council members, county judge, chamber of commerce president, school board members, and more participate in an Hour of Code with one of Seguin’s students. What a great way to educate your elected officials about the need for more computer science! 

How the Hour of Code Highlights Your District

Students engaging in Hour of Code

Photo courtesy of K.W. Barrett via Flickr.

Spring Branch ISD includes pictures and stories about their Hour of Code activities on their district’s blog. Seguin sees the Hour of Code as an opportunity to have community members see and experience what their students are learning and a valuable opportunity to build relationships within the community. Rogers made clear the value he places in the Hour of Code when he said, “Our students are our best advertisement, and the interactions as our kids teach our community leaders how to use Scratch or Code Combat or Code.org is priceless!”

Computer science is foundational. It is changing every industry, which means every student should have the opportunity to learn how to create technology, not just use it. Participating in the Hour of Code will enable your students to experience the fun of creating a simple computer program and possibly encourage them to want to learn more. The sky is the limit!

 

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Laptop with code displayed on screen
Coding/Computer ScienceSTEM/STEAM

Made with Code

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In the near future, there will be 1.4 million programming jobs available. But only about 400,000 people to fill them. Let’s help our students and children get ready for the future. One way to do that is Hour of Code. If you don’t know about the Hour of Code yet, you are missing out on a global experience that prepares students to engage in computational thinking. Tutorials and hands-on activities focus on a visual programming environment, programming language, app programming, and “unplugged” activities. Best of all, there is little work you have to do as a teacher to impact students!

When Will It Take Place?

The Hour of Code is December 5-11, 2016. You can schedule an hour of activities during class time, after school (perhaps as part of a club/organization), or encourage students to use free time at home.

Who Sponsors Hour of Code?

Hour of Code, launched in 2013, is a non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science, as well as increasing participation by women (Watch video and See Made with Code) and under-represented students of color. The vision is that every student in school should have the opportunity to to be exposed to computer science skills. Hour of Code founders also support the idea that that computer science and programming should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other STEM courses.

Why Try an Hour of Code?

This activity helps demystify coding, programming, and computer science, helping each student learn the basics. Watch the Anyone Can Learn (60 seconds) video. Some may not realize that coding is applied mathematics, enabling students to learn new math concepts through programming. Introducing students to programming environments helps them represent math concepts visually and allows them to experiment on the representation. It also enables students to develop problem-solving skills, which translate well into the math classroom.

How Do You Get the Hour of Code Going District-wide?

Be sure to get buy in and help. You can do this by reaching out to campus principals, teachers, and/or organizational leaders. Schedule date(s) and time(s), organize instructors and helpers, as well as provide an agenda for each Hour of Code event. Publicize the event through flyers, blog entries, social media, and more. Record video/audio interviews with coders, young and old, and share them. Check out how NorthEast ISD has organized their Hour of Code event.

Apps and Programs by Grade Level

  • Grades PreK-2
  • Grades 3-8
    • Code.org: Write your first computer program featuring Angry Birds
    • Touch Develop: Combine this with Microsoft’s Creative Coding through Games and Apps (CCGA) curriculum for a rich variety of coding on the go.
    • Scratch: Create a holiday card
    • Tynker: Build your own game.
    • Robomind Academy: Program a virtual robot.
    • Hopscotch: Code on your iPad and explore math concepts like units of measure, degrees, angles, coordinate planes.
  • Grades 6-12

More Resources

Find more resources online at the web sites below:

Remember, you don’t have to be a genius to do math, to read, to write, or code. Get started now and in a year, your students will be coding!

 

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coding
Coding/Computer ScienceMicrosoft Tips and Tricks

Touch the Future with Free Coding Resources

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

By 2020, the Internet of Things will include approximately two billion objects. Each of those devices will need to be told what to do through programming. Who better to do the job than our own Texas students?

The educational focus for the future must be to introduce non-programming teachers to the freely available grade 6-8 curriculum that they can use to support learners who tackle coding for mobile devices. One course is Creative Coding through Games and Apps (CCGA), provided by Microsoft.

Coding, and computational thinking in general, is one of the most in-demand skills in today’s job market. But not so long ago, learning to code was mostly out of reach for late-middle school and secondary students. Coding wasn’t taught in the typical classroom, and educators – unless they had a computer science background – weren’t equipped to teach it. After all, coding can seem difficult to the beginner. But Microsoft has changed all of that.

Rich Curriculum, Free Coding Tool, Device Agnostic

This year, December 5-11, The Hour of Code will take place. To deepen student learning relevant to this event, Microsoft has developed a comprehensive curriculum for grade 6-8 students and their teachers. This rich curriculum relies on Touch Develop, a coding tool that works on all devices, such as Android and iOS phones and tablets, Chromebooks, and Windows, Macintosh, and GNU/Linux desktops/laptop computers. Microsoft Touch Develop is a powerful and engaging coding tool that lets students create fun games and real-world apps easily. Find out more online  here and here.

Sign Up and Touch the Future

Teachers are invited to register for a free professional learning opportunity in teaching introductory programming skills. The free session takes place on December 2, 2016 at TCEA headquarters in Austin, Texas. Teachers can register for Introduction to Creative Coding through Games and Apps (CCGA). Take a day and learn how to easily introduce your students to the world of code and the future it brings.

 

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