January planning

[bskinny129]

Here is what I am thinking (and a little why):

1st Timers - Do the blocks Hour of Code: http://learn.code.org/hoc/1 for the first half of the session. Everyone can work independently, move at their own pace, and learn the fundamentals (stacking blocks together, loops, conditionals). This way they can get going immediately without any lecture! Then the second half of the session go through the Scratch environment and show beginner/intermediate level projects for motivation. Who would like to lead this?

Beginners - Do a simple project together with the focus on keeping lecturing to a minimum and plenty of possible extensions for kids to run with the project. Include a handout so kids can race ahead of the presenter if they want. In the past we have done a racing game (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11445605/), space invaders (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11344023/ - needs doc), and frogger (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10795640/ - needs doc). Led by @alexbbrown

Intermediates - Do a project that isn't too advanced (there may be a few advanced kids, although most are pretty intermediate) but intros a new concept or way of thinking in Scratch. How about an infinite side-scroller like this: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/995459/ (which isn't infinite, but you get the idea). Maybe also give a challenge problem to advanced students in the room (like a computer that plays you in Nim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim or Pig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_%28dice_game%29). Led by @joedean

@marcyDel @cornof @TiffanyO

[jimwhitfield]

I ran "an hour of code" using the code.org puzzles for all 3rd and some 4th grade classes at Landels Elementary. It works well for a large cross-section of kids, and I like the idea for the coderdojo first-timers. (I captured some 'best practices' which I gave to the principal, teachers, and some other parent volunteers (available at http://goo.gl/oAJBHg , and *summarized below ) Note, We might want to encourage kids/parents to bring headsets.

We could switch to Scratch for the 2nd half (and I do have that already prepared). Since we tend to keep presenting Scratch, I think it makes sense to switch at a mid-point**. (BTW- There are a 2nd set of lessons in the code.org series which introduce drawing primitives. If some kids in attendance did the code.org first hour already, we can direct them to the 2nd set while others go thru the first.)

I can lead, though it's fine if someone else wants a crack at it.

Jim

• In short, I think it works well to play (the President Obama clip and..) the video for puzzle one to the room, visibly walk through the first few puzzles (admittedly, my students were of a very broad demographic, and coderdojo kids already have computer access, something I couldn't take for granted) , then play the 2nd video at puzzle 6, then let them all go at their own pace thereafter. (The cacophony of the videos playing on everyone's laptops works better if it's more spread out. Everyone tend to play the first two at about the same time, and it's pretty unpleasant.)

\ Not all kids will have made it through all. I recommend that the handout have, at the top:

I can finish the puzzles at home by pointing my browser to http://learn.code.org/hoc/__ (<== fill in the puzzle you stopped at in the blank)

[marcyDel]

In the past few sessions, we've had a very low incidence of "first timers". There are only 5 signed up this round.

I did not explicitly add an event ticket for "first timers", because in the last two session, parents just took the open spots and we had a lot of kids who were very bored in the first timers room. Until we have a more automated registration/preregistration process - which is coming - there is no way to get only first timers in a designated room without considerable effort on my part.

Also, it didn't look like we had an instructor for the third room, so I thought we were going to make it a hacker/SOLE room?

Right now we have about 17 people on the beginner wait list and 21 on the intermediate.

There is plenty of time to announce a third room. I can poll the beginner wait list and see if there are first timers, or I can poll the intermediate wait list and see if we have more interest in hackers?

Thoughts? Do we have a third instructor/leader?

[joedean]

@marcyDel what is meant by third room? If third_room == intermediate i can lead that for you guys... Just let me know what format you prefer... present scratch topic with game or open hack session.

[bskinny129]

I think we should always welcome first timers. Even if there are only 5, we should meet their needs rather than throwing them into a room that creates a game right away, light on the instruction (the beginner making something like the race car game).

If we have 3 rooms, we will use all of them. Presenters should not be seen as the bottleneck (I can always fill in). Getting the kids into the right room is 80% of the battle for them having a positive experience. If this means hand selecting the 1st timers and having someone at check-in to sticker their badges, I think it's worth the effort. We have parent volunteers we can draw upon for things like this.

So how about this: we do a 1st timer room. Poll the beginner wait list to find out who are 1st timers and give them tickets. If there is space left in the room, we can fill the back with hacker/SOLE. Would this require also polling the intermediate waitlisters? Or can we identify from the people that already have tickets to intermediate and grant more tickets to waitlisters?

@jimwhitfield Thanks for volunteering to run the 1st timers. Your experience running the HOC will certainly be helpful! We want to keep the Scratch stuff as light as possible. No big projects, just going through the environment and showing examples. See what they can come up with in the short amount of time and then a short amount of sharing.

[cornof]

Running a session for a few novices is costly in terms of the support they need. I am talking about administrative support. I spent 1 1/2 hours yesterday just addressing the needs of about 10 novices, not to mention the time Marcy spent identifying them. Supporting Novices also means giving them physical space, mentors and a presenter at the expense of intermediates. The waitlisted intermediates could fill their own session. Kids that have been groomed though the CDSV should have been given more consideration.

I would propose a "filled to capacity" Novice session once every 2 - 3 months. For a novice who wants to start attending CDSV sessions right away, we can point them to the HOC 1st 20 lessons and use that as a prerequisite.

I am teaching Scratch to my son's 5th grade class. HOC made the transition to Scratch a piece of cake compared to jumping right into to Scratch. HOC is appealing to kids with varying amounts of prior experience.

[dhuntley1023]

Hi everyone. David Huntley here. I'm new, but excited to participate!

Dawn: What types of administrative tasks are unique to novices? Trying to get a better understanding of your comment about spending 1.5 hours addressing novice needs.

[jimwhitfield]

I believe the plan-of-record is still for me to run the Beginner track with an hour of "Hour of Code" to start, then transition to Scratch. HOC does great with intro to logic--I think we should provide an intro to scratch's drawing tools and pen/looks blocks, and give a walkthrough of the first activity in last summer's CoderDojo Diva event (paint a shape, use script to morph its color). In my November session, it was my second activity, now it will be the only one.

I think @cornof 's idea of leveraging completing code.org's Hour of Code puzzles as (parent-judged) prerequisite is a very good idea for the future. There's a lot of fun and good intermediate-scratch stuff we don't get to because we keep covering the basics, IMHO

[bskinny129]

We have learned a lot since our early CDSV days. The biggest takeaways are that unless we have the right kids in the right room, no curriculum is possible that will work for all kids. There is too wide a range of age and experience. The other is that if we do manage to get the right kids in the right room, you need them to keep coming to the sessions together, otherwise you can't advance curriculum.

This is why we switched to the model of monthly beginner Scratch sessions and quarterly 6 week tracks. The 6 week tracks allow us to get the same group of kids coming back every week so that they can learn together. This allows the curriculum to build on previous knowledge, something that previous wasn't possible (and kept everything at the beginner level because of it).

The monthly Scratch sessions are intended for "beginners" - kids new to programming, CDSV, or both. It is expected that the same kid might come to several months of monthly Scratch, not just once. But these sessions are not intended to truly build upon one another. That is what the 6 week tracks are for. If we want to take Scratch further (this is what I am gathering), it would be done by proposing a 6 week track where the same kids would come every week. The 6 week tracks don't have to be limited to just typed programming (we were going to try to include the drag-and-drop Google App Inventor this time, but it wasn't going to be ready and I don't think there has been any progress yet to get curriculum ready for the spring).

Now to address Dawn's comments. I'm sorry to hear that identifying/communicating with the novices is so time consuming. We recognize this as a current weakness of our organization. Marcy has been pulling for a pre-registration system for a while because parents will just grab whatever ticket they can get, rather than the one that is the right fit for their kid. Sometimes parents don't know what is the right fit, which better communication would help, but not be perfect.

I believe that the hours of work you and Marcy put in on this is well worth it. Think about how many volunteer-hours go into this Scratch event. Curriculum, presenters, wandering mentors, tickets, check-ins - call it 50 hours. All is for naught if the kids are not in the right rooms. We have seen this time and time again. If the material is over their head they might decide programming isn't for them. If the material is below them, they won't have much fun. If it takes 5 volunteer hours to make sure we get this right, that is time very very well spent. We just need to make adjustments in the future so it will take less time and can be done by someone that isn't already pouring tons of hours into the organization.

[cornof]

It really shouldn't have taken me so long to get it done. But I was really surprised that I spent the whole time during William's swim practice on it.

It's not that it's complicated, it's that EventBrite is slow, awkward and buggy.

Simply the steps are to... Vet the list of registrants. Create a EventBrite Ticket for Novices. Move Students the new ticket type. (There are several steps because EB doesn't retain the original information if you change the ticket.) Add students to the class. Invite students off the waitlist to the new ticket. There is lots of back and forth in EventBrite. Reloading of Eventbrite Webpage because buttons become disabled and you lose the changes you have made.

And pretty soon you've spent and 1 1/2 hour on something that should have taken 15 min. EventBrite is the bottleneck in the registration process. I have spent 2-3 hours with the EventBrite Support team on bugs that have literally disabled the registration process.

One thing I had failed to mention are the special cases that pop up during registration. If there weren't so many of them dealing with 10 novices wouldn't have been such a big issue. But with the events I have helped with 30% of the participants are special cases. Each requiring their records to be touched in EventBrite, and back and forth emails. Special cases are mentors who have not signed up their child, parents who have placed their child in the wrong session, siblings where one has a ticket and the other who does not, vetting mentors, parents who have more than one waitlist spot, parents who have more than one ticket for the same kid and ticket cancellations.

It's really easy to assume registration is about signing up a kid online, but it is rather a hairy mess. Pre-registration has helped. But we didn't have the turnaround time for the Scratch session. Until we have a custom system, EventBrite is what we have to work with. And I believe that its limitations have to be part the design of the sessions.

---

From: dhuntley1023 notifications@github.com To: CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch Monthly-Scratch@noreply.github.com Cc: Dawn M dawn_murakami@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 1:09 PM Subject: Re: [Monthly-Scratch] January planning (#7)

Hi everyone. David Huntley here. I'm new, but excited to participate! Dawn: What types of administrative tasks are unique to novices? Trying to get a better understanding of your comment about spending 1.5 hours addressing novice needs. — Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[alexbbrown]

This thing is tomorrow, and will be my first time. It's still not clear to me who is leading what - is there a beginner and first time, is HOC for first time or beginner, also what might 'leading' the scratch beginners entail? shall I prepare slides or what? I have a fun activity available for novices - I have 3-4 hula hoops made up with degree markers that beginners can play at being a turtle or 'programming' (hey sue, turn right 30º), I'd love to bring but not sure what group best for - first or beginners. What are the typical ages here? I worked with 7yos before.

[marcyDel]

Let's move preregistration and Eventbrite to a new repository. it will be good for those that are invested in the solution to have a place to comment and see what's in the plans.

@Dawn, can you create a new repository called "Event Registration" and move topics to there.

[jimwhitfield]

On Wednesday, in Mountain View, I'll be leading the first-timers group with the material I just put in this repo.

[marcyDel]

@Alex, Event is Wednesday, not tomorrow - whew! However, i am sorry if you were not confirmed to teach the beginners group. i think I assumed that it was all set. I like the tutrlte thing and it seems appropriate for beginners, but I'll let you and Brian discuss, asap. @Brian, please correct me if I have something wrong. There are three tracks, Int, beg, and novice. Joe is leading Int, Alex is leading Beg, and Jim is leading novice.

Each group is booked to 30 kids, novice has a bit less. I will send a break down of the age and experience level soon. For now assume the following:

Novice have never used Scratch before or have no more than a few hours of intro.

Beginners have between 10 and 50 hours of previous experience.

Intermediates should have between 20 - 50 hours, with some of the kids at over 100+ hours.

Average age range is 9-13, but may have a few 7 and 8 year olds.

I think the holiday break made many important things fall through the cracks. Apoligize for any confusion and hope we are all set for Wednesday.

[marcyDel]

@Alex, One of the topics for our mentors meetup should definitely be , new mentor communication. I will take this action item and make sure we discuss options moving forward.

marcy

[alexbbrown]

Can I get an eventbrite code so I can get an invite?

-Alex Brown

On Jan 13, 2014, at 11:56, marcyDel notifications@github.com wrote:

@Alex, Event is Wednesday, not tomorrow - whew! However, i am sorry if you were not confirmed to teach the beginners group. i think I assumed that it was all set. I like the tutrlte thing and it seems appropriate for beginners, but I'll let you and Brian discuss, asap. @Brian, please correct me if I have something wrong. There are three tracks, Int, beg, and novice. Joe is leading Int, Alex is leading Beg, and Jim is leading novice.

Each group is booked to 30 kids, novice has a bit less. I will send a break down of the age and experience level soon. For now assume the following:

Novice have never used Scratch before or have no more than a few hours of intro.

Beginners have between 10 and 50 hours of previous experience.

Intermediates should have between 20 - 50 hours, with some of the kids at over 100+ hours.

Average age range is 9-13, but may have a few 7 and 8 year olds.

I think the holiday break made many important things fall through the cracks. Apoligize for any confusion and hope we are all set for Wednesday.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[marcyDel]

Of course. As a first time mentor/presenter, I truly appreciate your patience and sticking with us here while we grow through our technical difficulties.

Please go to Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unity-3d-mentor-and-volunteers-6-week-mini-series-janfeb-2014-tickets-10047776169

Enter the promo code MVHD011814P

@Jim, please do the same.

[mvaganov]

I think that's the link to the Unity3D event, going on this weekend.

Do you still need mentors for the Wednesday event?

[bskinny129]

@alexbbrown - my apologies, I am the person in charge of working with you to make sure we are all set. You will be the presenter for the beginner room with 25-30 kids. These kids will know the basics of the Scratch environment and may have a little exposure to things like looks and conditionals, but very little.

I think we should do either space invaders (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11344023/) or frogger (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10795640/) for the project. We don't need slides since we want to keep the lecturing to the minimum. What we do need is a handout with the steps involved in the project. Anyone interested in helping out on this? If not, I can come up with something by Wednesday night.

Bring a laptop though and it will be projected at the front of the room - you will slowly work through the project, introducing new concepts and how to do things. The basic structure is 2-3 minutes talking, 10 minutes of them going off and doing thing, repeat. I will be helping out with your room since this is your first time presenting. So I'll help you with the timing and spacing of everything.

[marcyDel]

Thanks Michael. Here is the correct link to Scratch mentors registration:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/programming-with-scratch-20-mentor-and-volunteers-wednesday-january-15th-2014-tickets-10046115201.

I think we are set for this Wednesday. Thanks!

[alexbbrown]

that's the unity track - I'm on the scratch track. Can you post the link for the scratch track?

-Alex

On 13 January 2014 12:13, marcyDel notifications@github.com wrote:

Of course. As a first time mentor/presenter, I truly appreciate your patience and sticking with us here while we grow through our technical difficulties.

Please go to Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unity-3d-mentor-and-volunteers-6-week-mini-series-janfeb-2014-tickets-10047776169

Enter the promo code MVHD011814P

@Jim https://github.com/Jim, please do the same.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/issues/7#issuecomment-32206450 .

[alexbbrown]

ok, thanks for the scratch one.

are we using scratch 1.0 or 2.0?

-Alex

On 13 January 2014 14:57, Alex Brown alexbbrown@gmail.com wrote:

that's the unity track - I'm on the scratch track. Can you post the link for the scratch track?

-Alex

On 13 January 2014 12:13, marcyDel notifications@github.com wrote:

Of course. As a first time mentor/presenter, I truly appreciate your patience and sticking with us here while we grow through our technical difficulties.

Please go to Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unity-3d-mentor-and-volunteers-6-week-mini-series-janfeb-2014-tickets-10047776169

Enter the promo code MVHD011814P

@Jim https://github.com/Jim, please do the same.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/issues/7#issuecomment-32206450 .

[alexbbrown]

I need a promo code, I guess - and there's no presenter item, just Mentor and Junior Mentor.

On 13 January 2014 14:58, Alex Brown alexbbrown@gmail.com wrote:

ok, thanks for the scratch one.

are we using scratch 1.0 or 2.0?

-Alex

On 13 January 2014 14:57, Alex Brown alexbbrown@gmail.com wrote:

that's the unity track - I'm on the scratch track. Can you post the link for the scratch track?

-Alex

On 13 January 2014 12:13, marcyDel notifications@github.com wrote:

Of course. As a first time mentor/presenter, I truly appreciate your patience and sticking with us here while we grow through our technical difficulties.

Please go to Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unity-3d-mentor-and-volunteers-6-week-mini-series-janfeb-2014-tickets-10047776169

Enter the promo code MVHD011814P

@Jim https://github.com/Jim, please do the same.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/issues/7#issuecomment-32206450 .

[marcyDel]

@Alex, I included promo code in last email. Here is ti again MVHD011814P.

The presenter tickets are hidden, so you need to used the program code.

[bskinny129]

We will be using Scratch 2.0

On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 3:18 PM, marcyDel notifications@github.com wrote:

@Alex https://github.com/Alex, I included promo code in last email. Here is ti again MVHD011814P.

The presenter tickets are hidden, so you need to used the program code.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/issues/7#issuecomment-32223083 .

[alexbbrown]

That code was not for the scratch program, I think - at least it didn't work there.

-Alex Brown

On Jan 13, 2014, at 3:18 PM, marcyDel notifications@github.com wrote:

@Alex, I included promo code in last email. Here is ti again MVHD011814P.

The presenter tickets are hidden, so you need to used the program code.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[marcyDel]

Because I gave you the one for Unity: Here ya go MV011514P.

[bskinny129]

Alex, I went ahead and made a first cut of the space invaders doc. You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GirMhyP70aVn3r4WkD5H2G-Z3cniaGki4hbbVh9E88Q/edit?usp=sharing

Take a look and let me know what you think. Basically you will go through the first 4 or 5 sections (not the advanced part) with the rough format: intro/challenge (1 min), let them work (8 min), show solution (2 min).

[bskinny129]

@joedean - what did you decide for tomorrow's intermediates? Did you like the heli-cave game? http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/995459/

[alexbbrown]

looks good - are we going to print it out? the text is a little small for presenting - can it be formatted landscape instead of portrait, and with the tiles in a panel to the right?

thanks for that,

-Alex

On 14 January 2014 13:14, bskinny129 notifications@github.com wrote:

Alex, I went ahead and made a first cut of the space invaders doc. You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GirMhyP70aVn3r4WkD5H2G-Z3cniaGki4hbbVh9E88Q/edit?usp=sharing

Take a look and let me know what you think. Basically you will go through the first 4 or 5 sections (not the advanced part) with the rough format: intro/challenge (1 min), let them work (8 min), show solution (2 min).

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/issues/7#issuecomment-32308032 .

[joedean]

@bskinny129 - Yes I'm all set using the heli-cave game. I will post my handout to the repo.

[joedean]

Intermediate handout posted to repo for tonights session. Can someone print these out? If not, let me know and I will do it at work. See you all tonight!

[TiffanyO]

@joedean I can only print black and white. If that is ok, then can you send me the link to the repo. Tiffany

@jimwhitfield @alexbbrown if you want me print black and white copies for tonight's session, then send me the link by 2pm today. Thanks. Tiffany

[joedean]

@TiffanyO Thankyou! but, I think color will be easier to follow for the scratch programs. I can do it at work today... how many? I'm assuming 20 is sufficient and kids could share at the tables... promoting more collaboration in the intermediate room.

[bskinny129]

The first-timers one is ready - https://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/blob/master/CDIntro-Jan2014-handout.jpg. Jim, I assume black and white is ok?

The beginners one is still a work in progress. I'll let you know when it is done.

On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Joseph Dean notifications@github.comwrote:

@TiffanyO https://github.com/TiffanyO Thankyou! but, I think color will be easier to follow for the scratch programs. I can do it at work today... how many? I'm assuming 20 is sufficient and kids could share at the tables... promoting more collaboration in the intermediate room.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch/issues/7#issuecomment-32390289 .

[TiffanyO]

@joedean Yes, color is always better. 20 copies will be more than enough. The current headcount is: 32 - Intermediates 31 - Beginners 25 - Novice Factor in 10% no shows or last minute cancellations. Tiffany

[cornof]

Make that 26 Novices.

The registration just came in

---

From: Tiffany Overbo notifications@github.com To: CoderDojoSV/Monthly-Scratch Monthly-Scratch@noreply.github.com Cc: Dawn M dawn_murakami@yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 10:09 AM Subject: Re: [Monthly-Scratch] January planning (#7)

@joedean Yes, color is always better. 20 copies will be more than enough. The current headcount is: 32 - Intermediates 31 - Beginners 25 - Novice Factor in 10% no shows or last minute cancellations.

Tiffany — Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[jimwhitfield]

@bskinny129 @TiffanyO Yep, that one is ready for printing. Thanks!!

I had pondered modifying it to put a human-friendly self-referential URL on it (for the printout and for the presentation, something better than my attempt at http://goo.gl/nUZn9L ) but it got me thinking.... Question: in addition to the somewhat cryptic url from github (yep, I know that blob is Binary Large OBject), I think it might be a good idea to put our files (art assets, handouts, presentations) up on coderdojosv.com The site is probably populated by the github 'CoderDojoSV-website' but I don't have permission to sync in files there.
Could we do something like files.coderdojo.com/Jan2014 or coderdojosv.com/files/Jan2014 (Perhaps this belongs over on the mentor discussion board, so I'll cross-post it there.)

[TiffanyO]

@jimwhitfield Is it me, or is the "Hour of Code" section supposed to be upside down at http://goo.gl/nUZn9L ? Tiffany

[jimwhitfield]

Hey @TiffanyO y. That's 'by design' (though I'm getting less convinced it's a good design.) Since there's two separate phases to the novice section tonight, I was looking for a way to make the handout reflect that 'and now for something completely different' reality. There's 'Activity One, Hour of Code', and 'Activity Two, Scratch'. Furthermore, the steps to take in the scratch editor are pretty sequential and they lined up well along the page. I have decided that I do want to interject the scripting at a mid-point through the art portion, so that gives me a chance to rethink the layout of the handout. I'll try a quick change of the handout right now and let you know by 2pm if I'd rather use a new printout. If you already printed out the handout as-is, it's fine and we'll stick with that. Jim

[bskinny129]

@alexbbrown - yes, this will be printed out and given to the kids. I have updated the google doc and will have Tiffany print out black and white copies.