Hour of Code

Shanna Martin 0:19

Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast, where each week we talk about a free, piece or two of technology that you can use in your classroom. I'm your host, Shanna Martin. I'm a middle school teacher Technology and Instructional Coach for my district.

Fuzz Martin 0:33

And I'm her producer and husband, Fuzz Martin. And it takes me just about an hour to code this podcast every week.

Shanna Martin 0:43

Clever, it was okay.

Fuzz Martin 0:46

I've had better. I've had better. Hello,

Shanna Martin 0:51

hello!

Fuzz Martin 0:51

welcome to episode number 129. Did I catch a Niner in there? Are you calling from a walkie talkie. No? Tommy Boy? no, nothing?

Shanna Martin 1:05

I know. That's your thing. Yeah, it's my thing. And this, ya know, doesn't have to be your thing. So, but you know, as both of our things, coding, coding, and computer podcasting, and podcasting. And here we are together, podcasting about coding.

Shanna Martin 1:24

So this week, we are going to be talking a little bit about the Hour of Code, and then a whole bunch of activities that go with it. And when I talked about the Hour of Code, but I've never said, Hey, this is the website, or I've never really put it out there to make it easy to get to. And it's all some you have to sign up for. Right? So you can, okay, you have access to the activities around so I'm going to talk about that. But you can sign up and then have your kids be a part of that. So let's get started. So if you go to it's the website is our have code, H O, U, R, O, F, C O D E, dot com. And it's interesting because like, mine says slash US, but they have slash UK like the works, all over Yeah, it'll world it'll go wherever your geo located. And

Shanna Martin 2:15

Hour of Code is just a really cool way to celebrate coding. And to encourage kids of all ages to try it out to experience it to mess around with it kind of get comfortable with it. Just because coding is such a cool set of skills that help in a lot of different ways. Like they help problem solve. Yeah, it helps you figure out computer stuff. But it also helps math, like figuring out, like repetition and patterns of things. And there's just a lot of skill sets that go along with learning how to code. Sure. And so I've always been a fan of coding, I build it into my enrichment class, I love a girl like a girl stem, girls coding group. And obviously, boys getting involved in all kids getting involved in different types of coding. And so you can sign up so you can sign up for our of code. And you can join them, and then you can help track it, it really does happen December 5 through the 11th. So you can record or sorry, you can sign up at any point to be a part of our of code. Yep. And then you can talk about doing it in your community and all that kind of stuff. And so then with that, what's cool is you don't even have to sign up, but you can. On the Hour of Code site, you click activities. And for all the gloriousness happens, here's where the magic happens. So they have pre ereader. Like you can choose your skill set for your students in your classroom. They're super engaging activities that have been created by all different types of like, coding software groups and other websites and things like that. Sure. So if you've got pre readers, grades two through five, six, or eight, nine plus, and then you can pick and choose So what type of computers or technology you're using in your classroom. Okay, so if you have computers, Android, iPads, iPhones, screen readers, if you have poor or no internet, or no computers at all, you can choose from all of those options and still be able to teach coding, oh, that's cool, which is awesome. They have activities for everything. Then you can choose topics for coding. So if you have kids, if you want to do science, maths, or she's language arts, art, media, music, or computer science, you can pick a topic. Then you can do self-lead tutorials where they have videos or there's lesson plans where you can lead them as a teacher. They have a length, while it's called Hour of Code. You can Hour of Code and then they ones with follow on or a few hours so that way you can like kids can continue at home. And then you can choose your language . So if you want blocks or typing so they need Java or else they have

Fuzz Martin 4:55

let's see HTML CSS. PHP, I don't know

Shanna Martin 5:00

Python

Fuzz Martin 5:02

C + + + +

Shanna Martin 5:03

so you can pick your coding language, which is cool. And so you've always options is sort through to begin with for your kiddos. Yep. And while we were like, while I was prepping for this episode, which I do teach these often in my classroom, our second grader is sitting next to me at home, it was like, I'm gonna do this. And don't worry guys, there is Barbie coding. Oh, yeah, there is Mario coding there.

Fuzz Martin 5:28

I see Miley Cyrus and Barack Obama coding.

Shanna Martin 5:36

There is Minecraft coding. So there's, there's so many options.There is, there's a Harry Potter ish one, there's a cool, and some of them get a little tricky because you get a little bit for free. And then you get to like pay for part of it. But most of them are mostly good an hour for free. Like that's the whole hour of code, okay. Some of them continue on. And you can keep on coding for free forever. Other ones and they like the paid version kicks in. But code adventure with Mickey is pretty cool. I played around with it. It's Java. But it's kind of Harry Potter, Mickey Mouse, okay. And it's where like, you have Mickey do spells out of his spell book, like, and you're coding him. And it's really cool. One that my eighth graders love. And they use often is oh Zarya, and it's Java and Python. And you go through like these realms and travel and you get to read your avatar and like, do all this kind of stuff. And it's really, really cool. And they absolutely love coding, and it was Aria, and our retro class.

Unknown Speaker 6:44

But they also have let's see, Mario's secret adventure, okay, which is Mario, and you get to code and find coins. And it's pretty cool. You get to follow your path. And it's simple. Like it's basic setup, you're coding. It's block was some like, step up, different types of things, is created by hatch kid. So like, a lot of these are created, like I said, like Tinker, patch. Like, there's different companies, I've created them. So Mario's secret adventure is really fun and engaging and walks you through step by step. And what I like about these is because when you're coding, you're so playing or two is that it teaches the kids the coding skills, but it's not overwhelming, where they're, like, frustrated and give up. They get frustrated, which is good, because that means they're learning something. And there's a challenge. Yeah, but it's not to the point where like, they just give up because they know like, okay, there's like little hints, you can click on like, there's different things that you can do. Which one are you playing?

Fuzz Martin 7:47

I'm playing the Harry Potter one. Yeah.

Shanna Martin 7:51

So another one I'm highlighting off of that list. So this is all an hour of code, you click on activities. And again, there's just all these activities. code monkey created, one hour space adventure, and it is playing like, it's like space, monkey adventure, like code. And you can sign up for them. But a lot of them just click, you just click play. And you can just play for an hour, you don't have to actually go in and you don't have to go in and create account for all of these, you can just go and play which is fine. The one thing about that is so as my students, I make them show me what they're doing, because I'm so glad that you are playing online.

Fuzz Martin 8:37

Okay. That's how I learn, Shanna. I learn by doing

Shanna Martin 8:43

Uh huh. What are you experiencing with the Harry Potter thing that

Fuzz Martin 8:45

I'm learning black coding, where I've put some some loops in some different brass loop and a woodwind loop in a strings loop is it says music? Yeah. Okay, coding. The ball, the winter ball.

Shanna Martin 9:02

Okay, so the music then you're coding and yeah, yep. Cool. Yeah. Pretty cool, huh? That is fun. Yeah.

Fuzz Martin 9:08

See, I do fun things.

Shanna Martin 9:09

You do fun things

Fuzz Martin 9:10

when I'm supposed to be doing other things.

Shanna Martin 9:13

They're very distracting. I will say like, I struggle to get what I like Sci Girls, which is like from PBS Kids. And they like cycled code question is characters that our daughter watches all the time. And what is it? What does it call it? Sci Girls CODE class like science like science? Gotcha. Yeah, dance party. She was coding the other day at the kitchen table. And she started dabbing. That's when you were like, hey, oh, yeah, she dabbing. I said, Yeah, she was coding a dance party. So again, and second grade. She's been doing it since first grade. And they have stuff activities all the way through grades nine plus, like high school level. So it's not just fun cutesy stuff you can code screensavers you can work with binary code and how to talk to spacecraft like they get pretty advanced, which is awesome. And there's just so many more options like code, Hour of Code keeps adding really cool, awesome activities. Another thing I want to highlight too, is that on the right hand side, if you scroll down past all of the lists of options, you can click on robotics and the circuits. And if you click on that little box, that then is a whole nother section of ways to code and teach it for robotics specific. So then there's different activities with Hour of Code. Some of them are like lesson plans. And then some of them are activities or like building little things you can in your classroom. And so that's a whole nother section now, where it highlights different robotic kits and things like that. So if you have any robots in your classroom, you can have those activities around some robots, like I have Marty's in my classroom. So there's activities that build on to that. But also, if you have some of those mini robots or even if you don't have robots, or just activities that go around that, too. So then that's beyond just basic coding. But then you have robot activities, tool robots and circuits. So if there's different types of kits, they have more activities that you can do with those kits, I think is pretty awesome. Agreed. And they have a whole set of activities that go with that, too. So Hour of Code, Hour of Code, doesn't matter what grade you teach, is an easy way to build coding into your classroom, math skills, problem solving skills, science skills. And they also are really fun to do if you're stuck in door for recess or got 10 minutes a day. You don't have to code for an hour, over a few minutes. To Yeah,

there you go. Hour of Code. So go do some coding, go play around with it. And if it if you as an adult need a brain break, go take an hour of code activity, because they're kind of fun, learn to code and make magic.

So thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Twitter @smartinwi. If you want to get more information on the links to the second round you discussed this episode, you can visit smartinwi.com or you can actually find me on Facebook too. If you'd like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or to visit buymeacoffee.com/smartinwi or visit smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Here. donations help keep the show going and are much appreciated. New episodes each week. Thanks for listening, go educate and innovate.

You know what keeps me going? Your charm.

The opinions expressed in this podcast and the SMartinWi website are those of the author Shanna Martin, and not of her employer. Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast. Please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, but we hope they do and we'll talk to you next time on the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.

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