Last year we had over 100 students participate in after school Hour of Code events and even more got experience during classroom activities. Let's see if we can't get kids coding again this year!

The Hour of Code, as an event, is designed to introduce people to computer science through coding activities. There are plenty of simple ways you can implement coding into your class. You could encourage students to try out one of the coding exercises on Code.org or Made with Code or they could check out many of the different coding apps like ScratchJR and Swift. And, of course, robots like Dash and Dot and Sphero make for some really exciting coding experiences.

This year I'm excited that Scratch has a Beta version available that we will be able to test out on the iPads in different Hour of Code activities like Animations that Can Talk and Animate an Adventure Game! You might also want to check out the coding features available in CospacesEDU.

Encourage your students to research information about Coding. They can find special collections of resources on BrainPop and Epic has a number of books and entire collections about coding.

Be on the lookout in the upcoming months as we get more practice with Scratch 3.0 for information about the CS First curriculum. I've got one box of resources ready to go for this for Digital Storytelling, and I can't wait for kids to try it out!

Email: heidi.neltner@fortthomas.kyschools.us
Website: http://ftisedtech.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @heidinelt