Have you heard about the Hour of Code initiative? It's a world-wide movement to attempt to get as many students as possible learning how to code, and it. is. AWESOME!
The idea is that kids spend one hour playing online games provided by Code.org that teach basic coding and computing skills - things like Javascript, commands, etc. These kinds of skills will be absolutely essential in the future, for almost any kind of job in any field. It's important that we give our students a leg-up on the tools they'll need to be successful as 21st century learners.
We have about 21 elementary-age classes across the district signed up to do the Hour of Code, with more being added every day. The great thing is, even though this week is the official Hour of Code Week, the tutorials are up all year round!
Is this something you can try at home? YES!
Head on over to code.org/learn to explore all the different tutorials! For K-2, we recommend starting with Lightbot - it's a very basic game with easy-to-follow instructions. For the older grades, we're working either with the Star Wars or the Frozen games, which teach kids about commands and coding using drag-and-drop boxes (the way freshmen in college learn!).
We'll be attempting to bring more technology to the library program this year, and I hope part of that is that each student in the district has a chance to try a bit of coding for themselves!
