Make Create Educate

Background For those of you new to my blog. I am documenting my latest project "To increase the number of girls coding in my school". This is the second post in the series. I am not sure how long it will go. Here is a link to my first post in the series Exciting news! I have been invited to speak on implementing coding in a primary school at the NSW Association for Independent Schools ICT integrators conference in September, 2014. To be held at Loreto Normanhurst. See you there! First Meeting Last Friday was the first meeting for my new girls code club, I had about 20 students. I invited girls from two year 3 classes and one year 4 class. Each class has about 12 girls, I also mentioned it to some girls who have shown interest in my Tuesday club that is dominated by boys and only attended a few times. Coincidently there were four year 10 girls sitting near us in the library so I invited them to attend also.  So....a fantastic turn out for the initial meeting with...

In July 2013, I began a lunch time KodeKlub for our primary students (aged between 8-12 years). With the increasing popularity of coding in schools I have decided to share my journey. For the first 12 months the club as been by invitation only. I have taken recommendations from teachers and from club members. My reasoning for having an invitation only club was: Existing lunchtime computer clubs, in my school, can attract in excess of 50 students and this was too many for one person. I wanted to maintain a small club to build my skills. The students who attended the club were already interested in technology and some had experience in coding. They were very interested in building websites using HTML. I began by introducing students to codeacademy.com , students used their school issued gmail to signup. The first tutorials they completed were on HTML. In the past 12 months we have progressed beyond tutorials to self organised learning and personal interest projects. ...

Picture Credit Blogging is a great way to encourage writing in all areas of the curriculum. Before teaching it in the classroom, it is important you plan how you will integrate the blog into your curriculum without creating additional workload. This is not as hard as it would seem. There are many blogs written on this exact topic so I will try to link to other resources that will be useful. When beginning a blog with a class there are several factors that need to be considered. Why Blog with my class? What outcomes will be achieved by blogging? What platform will I use? How will I teach blogging? How will I integrate blogs into my curriculum? How will I assess the outcomes? Why Blog? Blogging encourages writing, grammar punctuation. Blogs can be used for  Journalling Responding Reflection Collaboration What outcomes will be achieved? Demonstration of understanding of concepts Writing, grammar, punctuation Co-operation, collaboration Platfor...

CyberSafety for Parents I really like this link. It targets parents and talks about how keep children/teens safe only. It takes 5 mins so make a coffee and sit and enjoy. It has been created by the Australian Government for international followers consider that stats in context. Australia’s population is about 25 million. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHj0gKGYzfY&lr=1&uid=dv8domEzeDFPchhXk56V4w