# data[].attributes.headline
Ms. M's Cool Tools for Schools Blog: Thing 11b: DIY -- app building

# data[].attributes.subject
Ms. M's Cool Tools for Schools Blog: Thing 11b: DIY -- app building

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This topic has fascinated me for a long time. We use apps and coding is in my wheelhouse, but app building... so intriguing. After 2 years of straight block coding with my students, I feel like they are ready for something more! Something I have been looking into for the end of school with my fifth graders. recently saw a new subscription box for kids that was all coding. After investigating more I see that they have special things for teachers as well as their own Hour of Code site where kids can actually make apps. They also have great lesson plans connecting to standards at multiple grade levels. Simple though it may be for some, the students will be getting exposure to java script which will come in handy. This is probably one of my best bets for school use.

Through app investigation I came across appinventer through MIT which shows students at varying levels how to make an app. Includes tutorial, learning spot as well as lessons for teachers. There is software to download and I do not have the authority to download and run at school.

There is also a great website:
https://www.codeschool.com/blog/2015/05/13/how-to-get-started-writing-code/ which explains some of the differences and similarities between the languages. Then they have a lace to try things out too: https://www.codeschool.com/learn. Some of which are free courses. I started with the Python course. Lots of good math happening there too. I would need to start a little simpler for my students, but this would be a great site for them to try different things on their own.

I also was able to search the app store to see if there was an "app building app"... well there was, but it was more for business than education. Pretty easy to use and choose formats and edit their one template. But not really what I was looking for.

https://developers.google.com/edu/ Also has on their page lots of good online classes to teach coding and app building. Plus the Google Computer Science page has free resources and lesson plans for teaching code as well.

later... found today that Tynker also has some good places to start.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This topic has fascinated me for a long time. We use apps and coding is in my wheelhouse, but app building... so intriguing. After 2 years of straight block coding with my students, I feel like they are ready for something more! Something I have been looking into for the end of school with my fifth graders.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Coding

Need to Learn a New Language? How about a language in Code. Personally, coding has been a roller-coaster ride for me. I initially began going to college for computer science. I was definitely not prepared for the program and decided to move on to something else. Well, after a few excellent educational opportunities have fallen into my lap I've decided to give it another go. But this time with the kids!

This may appear repetitive because I've covered much of this before but I would just like to reiterate that coding develops so many major skills that people can use to be successful in life. Coding can help develop creative problem-solving skills, systems thinking, logic, decision-making skills, and many others skills that keep our brains functioning as well oiled machines. One thing I read that stuck with me was how learning about coding can help build confidence and help us understand the technological world around us. Many people have fears about technology. Many of them unfounded. I believe so much of it has more to do with a lack of understanding than anything else.

One of the most interesting articles that I read during this activity was the article on choosing to code as a second language rather than the typical Spanish, French, etc. Here's a link to the article: Coding as a second language. I found this to be a very interesting, albeit short, article. But just the fact that the idea is out there is promising. Basic computer programming skills being introduced in elementary or high school could lead students down a career path that they may not have thought about before.

Discoveries

Hour of Code - Scroll way down on my blog and I'll give you more depth on this topic as I've covered it before as well. Hour of Code from code.org is amazing and FREE. You can complete a multitude of coding activities and pretty much a whole course. It's all google account linked so progress will always be saved. I have spent hours on this website with students and I generally get very good feedback. It spans all grades from k-12 and is probably the best place for any teacher or student to get started with writing code.

Raspberry Pi - I just picked one of these up from a friend. I'm in the process of learning what I can do with it. There appear to be a large number of pros and cons with using this device in the classroom. Here is a site I gathered from the cool tools activity page: Life with Pi . Further research will be required before I take the leap and try to get some of these ordered for my school.

It's a very good basic platform for learning and writing code. It comes loaded with many different text editors. It took me all of 15 minutes with a student from my early morning program to create "Rock, Paper, Scissors" using Python script.

Unfortunately, It takes a number of different pieces of hardware to make it functional. I just happen to have many of the items needed to get mine started. The digital shift article that I posted in the link above proclaims how easy it is to get the ball rolling. However, it's just not that simple. Any "Old" monitor will not work. Only HDMI is used with the Pi. I guess some of the fun from school would be problem-solving on how we could get the actual system fired up! I can see it now, "Week one in the syllabus: Gather materials needed to start Pi." With that said, it also requires a lot of patience if the system is overloaded with processes (which doesn't take much). 100% memory used is an all too familiar picture.

Overall, the Pi is a nifty little device with a ton of potential. If you have the patience and time to invest then this may be very useful to an extended day program with a tight-knit group of students.

Other Experiences with this Coding Activity

So, this one was not one of the main links that I saw on the activity page but this is a paid program that we already use at my school:

This is a great online-based program that uses a drag and drop "scratch" like interface to create projects. Here is a project that I created with my third-grade classes during our solar system unit:
Sample Tynker Project

And another one that we are about to create with my 4th graders during our electricity units:

Overall, with the exception of Hour of Code, Tynker may be one of the best places for elementary students to get started with coding. It's easy enough for an adult to learn who has little to no background in computer programming. It also has courses based on grade levels to assign to students who are ready to begin learning the basics.

Gamestar Mechanic

Another amazing site that I have yet to hear much about is Gamestar Mechanic. This is a website/program that I have been using for approximately 4 years. It is a web-based video game design program that teaches children the basics of video game creation through drag and drop coding. It promotes and develops systems thinking, problem-solving skills, art and aesthetics, writing and storytelling, and creates a motivation for learning STEM. The program allows students to create games and post them to a huge database where people from around the world can play them and give feedback on how they can improve their creations.

As I've said, I've been using this program for some time now and here are a few products that students and I have been able to create using this amazing site:

(I apologize for not embedding these. The embed codes were not working correctly when I dropped them in HTML. Not sure what I was doing wrong as I've never had this problem before.)
Castlevania - by Me
Crazy Campers - by Sherlyn
They Live - By Jose A.

Over the past years, my students have made thousands of games and this program repeatedly has a great turn out of students. I'd love to share all of them but I'd rather encourage you to test the program and head over to the game alley to play everyone's games.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Need to Learn a New Language? How about a language in Code. Personally, coding has been a roller-coaster ride for me. I initially began going to college for computer science. I was definitely not prepared for the program and decided to move on to something else.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
June in our library has been designated a maker month. I've forgone some of our more traditional lessons for hands programming. So far we've made origami book marks, completed a few of the google a day challenges, done some short stem challenges I found on Pinterest, and created stories about our favorite summer vacations using Storybird. Coding was on my list of things that I wanted to try to incorporate, but I wasn't sure where to start and I wanted something that I could customize to all ability levels.

I started out by trying code.org. For myself I didn't want anything themed, such as Frozen or Minecraft, so I started with the artist coding challenge. I thought this would be one of the easier applications but it was much harder than I thought. The application of the different angle degrees tripped me up and I'm afraid it might be something that would be too much for them to start. Here's what I ended up with https://studio.code.org/c/34984846.

After playing for a little bit I decided to try one of the course sets that is geared toward the age group of my students. I chose course 2 for grades 2-5, which I felt was much easier to start with. The directional codes are easier to start with and is something I could scaffold as we walk through the process and ideas together. I won't require that they follow the course but would monitor them as students progressed. If students are flying through the first few challenges I'd let them move on to something that might be a little harder for them.

As part of our maker month, I'm going to start using this on Friday with my 5th grade classes. There is a wide enough variety of skill and ability levels that I feel I could tailor my lessons for 4th and 6th grade based on how 5th grade does on Friday. They will definitely be working in groups of two as the "Change the World" video suggests.

After Friday I'll have a better idea of what to expect and would like this to grow into an hour of code or even some kind of coding challenge using a program like Scratch.

One of my reasons for wanting to do this is that I'd like students to enjoy completing a challenging project. While reading A Year of Reading's "Hour of Code: It's All About Literacy" the author talks about how her students are using their skills in other ways or transferring them to other areas. She discusses one pair of students who want to start a video game even though they don't know where to start. With my students I'd like for them to stick with something and not give up. So many times I give them a problem or project to try and I always have a handful of students who don't problem solve to try to figure out the best way to accomplish it. They give up or tell me that the task can't be completed but I know that they are able to complete the task. I just want them to stick with something that challenges them. I want them to understand that problem solving is important and I'd like to build their problem solving confidence. I think that they're so afraid to fail that they won't try, it's usually the high performing perfectionist students. For these students I might separate them as I notice a decline in confidence and work with them one on one or in a small group to help them work through what they need to solve the challenges.

After going through this lesson I am very excited to start this on Friday. I know that it will take us longer than one 30 minute class period but I'm hopeful that it's something they will want to try or use on their own.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
June in our library has been designated a maker month. I've forgone some of our more traditional lessons for hands programming. So far we've made origami book marks, completed a few of the google a day challenges, done some short stem challenges I found on Pinterest, and created stories about our favorite summer vacations using Storybird.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I am so happy to be back and to be participating in this class again! This has been one of my favorite professional development classes that I have taken and I have already learned so much I cannot wait to see what else is in store for me this year!

So this first topic is right up my alley since this year I have started to consider whether or not coding was something I was going to do with my students. I really am no coder and I did not know much about so this was perfect timing for sure! I had considered doing hour of code but decided that if I was going to do it I would do it at a later time maybe more toward the end of the year. I spent time playing around with a few of the examples that were given to us and even though at first I was not sure what I was doing I seemed to get the hang of it fairly quickly. There are many teachers in my district who participate in Hour of Code and have been sharing things with me but it wasn't until I actually sat down and experimented with it myself that I realized how cool it really is!

I knew right away that the Hour of Code Minecraft Game would be something that a large population of my students would love to do. Minecraft is extremely popular in my building and the students cannot get enough of it. As for the girls the Frozen one with Elsa and Ana on the code.org website I already know would be something they would go crazy for! I played around with Flappy Bird for a while and enjoyed that. What I really like about coding is that there are so many options out there and you really are able to cater to all of your students and find something that they would all be interested in. One of my favorite articles was the 17 apps to try and that is something I will be sharing with my colleagues and can maybe even reach some people who are skeptical about coding.

Using any of these tools you can show students that coding can be fun and something that they might be interested in the future to take a better look at. Who knows maybe they will be so inspired they will want to go into a computer science career! I think that including coding in school is a no brainer and that it is something I will be doing with many of my classes not only this year, but for years to come!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I am so happy to be back and to be participating in this class again! This has been one of my favorite professional development classes that I have taken and I have already learned so much I cannot wait to see what else is in store for me this year!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thing 11: Coding
I have to admit that I have put learning about coding off for a long time due to bad memories of having to write programs for high school (which was a long time ago) but after learning more I found it to be very interesting. Obviously I have missed the December Hour of Code but I am thinking of doing some coding with my 3rd grade Makerspace club over the next few meetings. I know many of my students play games online but I would bet that many of them have never explored the coding that goes into designing the games. That being said, next year I will try to be more aware of the time frame for the Hour of Code to use with my students during library even though I only see them for 40 minutes. I think that by providing them with the initial links and lessons they will have the basics so that they can then play with this at home or during their free time in their classrooms. I would also like to promote this with the classroom teachers.

There were so many choices to explore in this lesson - I read the following articles:
- Hour of Code: It's all about literacy
- Tips for Celebrating Hour of Code at Your Library
- Our 3rd Graders Want to Teach You about Coding Apps
- How do you Integrate Coding into your Library, Classroom and Home?
- Hour of Code and Mustang Makerspace
I watched the videos:
- Change the World
- How to run an Hour of Code
- Each of the videos in the activities from Hour of Code project website
I played/created several of the activities on the Hour of Code project website:
- Star Wars
- Artist - this I found to be challenging for some of my 3rd graders
- Play Lab
- Minecraft

As we are all aware, computers are becoming more and more important to education, work and everyday life. As an educator it is our job to introduce students to as much as we possibly can to ensure they are ready for life after school - regardless of what career path they choose. I think the activities introduced in this lesson will help children learn and possibly decide on a career path in computer science. I was especially pleased to see the use of a lot of women in this career being interviewed because I think it will encourage/inspire more girls to choose this as a career path. I look forward to learning more and exploring this in more detail with my students!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thing 11: Coding I have to admit that I have put learning about coding off for a long time due to bad memories of having to write programs for high school (which was a long time ago) but after learning more I found it to be very interesting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thing 11: Coding

by linzeemurph on March 9, 2016

I have been seriously slacking on my cool tools!!! I am so happy to be back blogging and looking at all the great tools available. I choose to jump tracks and move onto coding because I had a lot of prior knowledge on the other topics in track 1. I also have knowledge of coding but was looking to expand my horizons!

I have used hour of code in my middle school technology classes for the last two years. My students loved the flappy bird hour of code last year and I was very excited to share the mindcraft hour of code with them this year. My students play mindcraft often during free time so I knew they would be hooked with this project. It actually helped me to understand the game better by completing the hour of code with the class. I also used Scratch last year in my class. This allowed students to make their own games and play games that others had created. This was a little too advanced for some of the students and I was looking for other opportunities to use coding when exploring Thing 11.

One of the first things I realized when looking through the different programs was that many of them are apps. Unfortunately, I do not have iPads in my room. There are some in the building so I may look to borrow them in the future to use some of the apps including Hopscotch. I plan to download that app on my own iPad to explore at home. I also acquired from the readings that the coding week occurs in December. I plan to focus on this time in the future and maybe look to have pen pals from other classes who are participating in hour of code. A colleague of mine has recently started talking about Raspberry Pi. I am very embarrassed to say I had no idea what he was talking about! It looks like something that students would be interested in. The population I work with enjoys completing hands on activities. I have a circuits kit that we used after doing hour of code this year. The students really enjoyed building their own devices and following along with the directions.

As a female interested in programming and mathematics I am interested in anything that promotes girls to join the field. Unfortunately, I do not have that many female students in my program. The Jewelbots seem like a great project for young girls. They would be able to use technology and still maintain their feminism with the jewelry. Girls have always had heart shaped bff necklaces. These bracelets would be a new and fresh 21st century take on those.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by linzeemurph on March 9, 2016 I have been seriously slacking on my cool tools!!! I am so happy to be back blogging and looking at all the great tools available. I choose to jump tracks and move onto coding because I had a lot of prior knowledge on the other topics in track 1.

# data[].attributes.headline
Thing 11: Coding | Jan Murray Cool Tools

# data[].attributes.subject
Thing 11: Coding | Jan Murray Cool Tools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I am very interested in coding and it has become a big topic of discussion in our BOCES region. Many of the schools have the LMS running the hour of code but my district already has computer apps covering coding. I offered my support, and computers, for the week.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I participated in Hour of Code this year. I did it with our Third, Fourth, and Fifth graders. It was so cool to see the kids get into it. They went from not understanding how to go step by step,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I am hosting a Coding workshop after school for 6 weeks in February and March. This "Thing" is a good way to get the ball rolling with coding. I've dappled in it just a little bit myself, but I've never taught coding to my students. We don't have handheld devices for students so I decided...

# data[].attributes.headline
Coding Workshop Cool Tools - Google Docs

# data[].attributes.subject
Coding Workshop Cool Tools - Google Docs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Time to get started on Track 2! Although I am just beginning now in January, I enjoyed browsing through the ideas and resources for Thing 11: Coding. I DID do the Hour of Code with my 6th grade classes, so I decided to reflect on how that went. I registered as a site coordinator and allowed my students in my 3 classes to work on the Hour of Code tutorials during our class time. They LOVED it! Something new I learned as the week was drawing to a close, was that I can actually have students create accounts and log in to complete much more in-depth tutorials (21 hour programs). I think that next year I will expand my Hour of Code activity to include that component, and possibly offer extra credit to students who choose to complete the extra tutorial outside of class time. I think many would do it just for fun! I initially had no idea that component existed!

I think it is important to include coding in schools, and not just as as elective or club. So many of my students commented on how much they enjoyed coding, but never thought they could do it. Without the exposure to coding (if even just as one unit in a computer course), several students may not realize how much they enjoy the process... or even realize it's something within their realm of possibilities.

I enjoyed browsing through the list of resources in the "50+ Tools to Learn to Code" article, and appreciated that many of them are free! I bookmarked the site and plan to look at some of the suggestions more closely in the future - and will share it with my school's code club advisor.

I also wanted to explore something new, so I completed the tutorial for the Mozilla Thimble. It was confusing at first, but quickly became intuitive and easy to manipulate. I did not sign in and create an account, so I was unable to publish the result of the tutorial, but I did see how easy it is to change color, font, font size, images, upper/lower case letters, and justification of content. I find it very interesting to gain this added understanding of what goes on "behind the scenes" in computer software.

Now on to Thing 12!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Time to get started on Track 2! Although I am just beginning now in January, I enjoyed browsing through the ideas and resources for Thing 11: Coding. I DID do the Hour of Code with my 6th grade classes, so I decided to reflect on how that went.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since last year when I did Hour of Code as a library center, I've been thinking about forming an after-school club for coding. After reading the statistic that out of 3.9 million students taking the AP computer science test, less than 3000 were African American or Hispanic, I decided to form the after school club for...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This has been my favorite Cool Tool Assignment! I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learning with my students. This is the second cool tool that I have done with coding and this time I spent a lot time learning (exploring) the "Hour of Code Minecraft Game."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I hate to admit I had no idea what Hour of Code was all about so this lesson was very useful and informative. I love the idea of introducing students to code/programming. And trying it myself showed me how it can help them in other areas even by just getting them thinking and following directions....

# data[].attributes.headline
Thing 11 - Coding Part 2﻿ - The "What on Earth am I doing?!" Blog

# data[].attributes.subject
Thing 11 - Coding Part 2﻿ - The "What on Earth am I doing?!" Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I've known about the Hour of Code for a few years now and have used it, as well as codecademy, Grok Learning and Khan Academy to learn some coding basics. Until this year, though, I never tried...

# data[].attributes.headline
Thing 11 - Coding Part 1 - The "What on Earth am I doing?!" Blog

# data[].attributes.subject
Thing 11 - Coding Part 1 - The "What on Earth am I doing?!" Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Okay, so we started the Hour of Code this week. At first it was just going to be me nabbing whatever students I could grab in the high school library and saying to them "Do this, you'll love it!"...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This past week, some classes participated in the Hour of Code. Given the choice between Star Wars, Minecraft and Frozen, the students chose Star Wars or Minecraft. This coding journey could have been a flop or success; it proved to be a positive experience for students and myself.