With just a couple weeks left in the quarter we just got started with our coding activities. My remote students will continue to explore coding activities on asynchronous days with Code.org, one of my favorite online coding platforms. Thanks Hadi Partovi! Speaking of Hadi, I had the privilege to meet him at the White House as part of the 100 Teachers Meeting in Washington DC. I was one of 8 lucky teachers from Massachusetts nominated to attend this event with other educators from around the United States.
@AudraKaplan @WhiteHouse with @ECS @hadip @jessicaalba #hourofcode kids from NJ & NY teach the President how to code pic.twitter.com/epph0U429t
— AudraKaplan (@AudraKaplan) December 8, 2014
Hybrid fifth grade students have just wrapped up their FAB Comics to show off their avatars and the articles in our FAB Constitution. They are spectacular! I am so proud of the work they have done. You should be too! Go to slide 5 in the presentation below to see some of their amazing work! Remote fifth graders are midway through their comic project so stay tuned to see their work which will appear on slide 6 early next week.
Next up for the fifth grade hybrid students is Scratch. A web-based block coding platform that the kids love! To kick off our Scratch exploration, students will animate the word "PRIDE." We are focusing on PRIDE, to show our school spirit and the promotion of:
Positivity, Respect, Integrity, Determination, Empathy.
Without official Scratch accounts, students will practice uploading, downloading, file naming conventions, and they will learn about a new file type, .sb3 as they upload the "latest version" of their program so that they can download it the next day to continue their work as they complete this projects. Check out the Scratch tutorials to learn more or to try some activities of your own.
My sixth graders, Ms. Dee, & I began to explore robotics last week. After an interactive Pear Deck activity to gauge prior knowledge about robots, coding, and what they wondered about robotics we started exploring coding through a series of music making activities.
Before accessing the Root Simbot simulator, we completed an unplugged Code Break activity to get familiar with the Root Robot interface, https://code.irobot.com/#/. I recreated the activities with Slides in a digital format to allow students to drag and drop responses. Honing our skills while saving some trees.
UDL is built into these activities from a musical and coding perspective, providing an opportunity for students to appropriately challenge themselves. There are 3 levels to choose from with the Root interface so anyone from a novice to an expert can participate. Level 1 is for beginners, early readers, or non-English language learners. Level 2 is a hybrid model with combined visual and text blocks Level 3, the most complex, is completely text based. The beauty of Root's level three option is that like the other levels, it is also drag and drop so syntax errors are not an issue helping students focus on computational thinking and process. This coupled with musical notation and I am expecting a wide variety of final projects.
Root has several sensors and the ability to play musical notes spanning 8 octaves so I was excited to get started with a version of "Name That Tune." This began with guided activities to get students comfortable with the music notation key I created. As not every student plays an instrument or reads music a simple song coupled with the level 1 visual block interface was just what they needed to get started. Like the option to chose a coding level, students later had the option to complete a musical compositions of their choosing. They could reference my Music and Coding Wakelet board for some something simple or try something more complicated if they have the skill sets to do so. I can't wait to hear what they come up with. Some of my musicians are pushing the boundaries. I can't wait to hear "We Will Rock You" by Queen which is on the list.
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