Coding Apps for Hour of Code

Computer Science Education Week
December 4th - 10th

The skills used to learn coding are important to our future learners. Not only is it a booming job market, but is also great for supporting our SAISD Learner Profile: Creator, Critical Thinker, Collaborator, and Communicator. 

Blockly uses visual blocks that users can drag and connect to create codes. Blockly programming is used by many apps to teach coding to all ages. 

Here a few fantastic coding apps and sites to use during Hour of Code next week. 

Blockly Games teaches programming to children who have no experience with computer programming. 

Scratch from MIT is learning to code using visual blocks geared for ages 8-16, but can be used by anyone. It's free to join. Coders are able to create stories, games, and animations. 

ScratchJr from MIT is a free app that teaches younger children (ages 5-7) how to program. With their hands-on activities, children can program their own stories and games. 

Code.org is a wonderful website with curriculum, lessons, and activities for all ages.

Students can learn and practice the basics of coding with robots. 

Have a Dash? Dot? Check out these awesome apps: 

• Blockly - Coding Challenges that teaches fundamental programming concepts
• Wonder - includes 100's of challenges
• Path - Path introduces children to sequences, events, and sensors through its simple draw, drag, and drop interface. Plan, program, and execute an adventure for Dash while learning fundamental concepts of computational thinking. *from WonderWorkshop

  How about OzoBots? Check out these amazing apps and games:

• Ozobot App for BIT - includes a draw program in which students can code with colors.
• OzoGroove App for BIT - Code to create your own choreography for your Ozobot. 
• WebGames
• OzoBlockly - code and control your Ozobot

Want to see if Dash or Ozobot is a fit for your class? Contact EdTech with Howard and Feck and check out our DASH or Ozobots to use in your class for Hour of Code. 

Here's a STEM opportunity for Hour of Code from STEMFUSE

Fill out the form below to receive free Hour of Code Activities. 

https://goo.gl/oQrLqX 

REPOST - Tackk in Education

I originally posted this article on September 23, 2015. I love this website, so I thought I would post it again in case anyone missed it.
I love easy ways to publish content to the web and Tackk for education makes it so simple for teachers and students to create beautiful projects that include photos, videos, text, links and much more. Plus, students can sign in with their edmodo, O365 or Google accounts.

Students can construct products to share with others and get feedback from peers and teachers. If we have our students creating, shouldn't we make sure they can share with people other than the classroom - let's share it with the world!

Tackk for Education

REPOST - Convert a Google Doc to a Webpage

I originally posted this article on September 8, 2015. I think it's a great tip so I thought I would post it again in case anyone missed it.

Did you know you could convert any Google Doc to a Webpage in just a few clicks? Yes you can!

Here are the steps to make it happen - 

1. Open the Google Doc.

2. Click File > Publish to the Web.

3. Click Publish.

4. A link is created that you can copy and paste anywhere - your website, blog, wiki, etc. OR post it to Google+, Facebook or Twitter.

5. Make sure to select Published Content and Setting > Automatically republish when changes are made. If you update the Google Doc, your webpage is automatically updated!

6. If you ever need to unpublish the webpage, just open the doc, click File > Publish to the Web and then click Unpublish - it's that simple!

This would be a great way to publish an online newsletter for parents every month, make announcements to staff members or students, provide a quick list of website resources, post lesson plans, have students post writing assignments, etc.

How would you use this in your classroom? 

Not the Same Old Presentation

We've all been there. Counting the minutes until it's over. Trying to look interested. Yep you guessed it - we are sitting through another boring PowerPoint presentation with way too many slides, fonts and transitions. It doesn't matter if the presentation was made by a third grade student or an admired administrator - no one wants to sit through a bad presentation.

Sometimes PowerPoint gets a bad wrap. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great tool, but there are so many great tools out there - why do we think the only way to create a presentation is by using PowerPoint.

And in walks Thinglink. 

Thinglink is a website that lets you create an interactive image containing images, videos, text, music and more. By creating hot spots, one single image can become your entire presentation. Each hot spot links to an element in your presentation - an online document, a short video or more pictures - that help you tell your story.

Check out a few Thinglinks to get your creative juices flowing - 

Famous Monuments of an Ancient World
Map of Italy
Classical Composers
Percussion Family

There is no limit to what you can do with Thinglink - for students and teachers. I think this would be a great way to put together tutorials for students. Teachers could create one thinglink with all of the links right inside. Students only have to know one link to get everything they need.

Tackk in Education

I love easy ways to publish content to the web and Tackk for education makes it so simple for teachers and students to create beautiful projects that include photos, videos, text, links and much more. Plus, students can sign in with their edmodo, O365 or Google accounts.

Students can construct products to share with others and get feedback from peers and teachers. If we have our students creating, shouldn't we make sure they can share with people other than the classroom - let's share it with the world!

Tackk for Education

Online Newsletters with SMORE

I've been using smore.com to create my online flyers for a little over two years now and it is by far, one of my favorite websites to share content. 

I can use their backgrounds, fonts and elements to easily create a beautiful product, it's also free! They have a paid version that is very reasonable - and I currently subscribe to it so I can use my own backgrounds, change certain settings, view analytics, create mailing lists, etc. 

Not only is this a great resources for creating newsletters to share with parents, it can also be used for students to create their own online content. Creations can be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more! 

Here is a video I created to walk you through the site. 

Convert a Google Doc to a Webpage

Did you know you could convert any Google Doc to a Webpage in just a few clicks? Yes you can!

Here are the steps to make it happen - 

1. Open the Google Doc.

2. Click File > Publish to the Web.

3. Click Publish.

4. A link is created that you can copy and paste anywhere - your website, blog, wiki, etc. OR post it to Google+, Facebook or Twitter.

5. Make sure to select Published Content and Setting > Automatically republish when changes are made. If you update the Google Doc, your webpage is automatically updated!

6. If you ever need to unpublish the webpage, just open the doc, click File > Publish to the Web and then click Unpublish - it's that simple!

This would be a great way to publish an online newsletter for parents every month, make announcements to staff members or students, provide a quick list of website resources, post lesson plans, have students post writing assignments, etc.

How would you use this in your classroom?