Hour of Code™

Hour of Code

On, December 10, 2015, Hastings Public Schools (or rather Terry Julian from HPS) in conjunction with ESU9 (Lois Hafer from ESU9) and Hastings Public Library (Beth McCracken from HPL) hosted an Hour of Code™event. A great time was had by all!

It all started with Tech Club. Having never before managed a technology club, or any club for that matter, my cohorts and I were unsure how to proceed or what to expect. Since several of us had attended a summer workshop where the program Scratch was used extensively, that is where we began.  While the students enjoyed working with Scratch, I am not sure it gave them the best foundation for understanding coding. As our group considered this we also considered the fact that we needed to develop a scope and sequence of sorts so we could assess growth and, quite frankly, so we could receive buy-in from administrators and possible donors to our cause.

Toward the end of our time with the elementary students, we looked at the curriculum offered on a website called Code.org™. Much to our surprise and excitement, this website offers curriculum for teaching coding.  It is, literally, so easy that anyone could teach it/learn it.

As we explored the Code.org site, we found that there is an event called Hour of Code™.  Every year during Computer Science Education Week, Code.org, a non-profit organization, challenges schools and individuals to log on and spend an hour coding. As we looked into this event, we decide we didn't want to wait until next year so my friend, Lois, and I signed up then got permission to host an Hour of Code™event at Hastings middle school. Though we were short on time for advertising we jumped in anyway, inviting every student and staff member in Hastings Public Schools.  We even opened it up to parents that would like to come with their children. All things considered, we had a great turnout, with 32 students grades kindergarten to 11, and 12 parents. Every person that answered the closing survey said they would attend another Hour of Code™ event.  I hope to plan one at least every other month to foster an interest in coding within our community!