This Saturday, Coder Dojo had a Scratch workshop for children new to Scratch. I really liked the format of their event. It was very structured and they actually developed a curriculum for Scratch newcomers.
In the beginning, they did an icebreaker using a bingo game. I liked this idea as it made things more light and fun. It helped everyone just ease
They gave the Scratch learners an objective- tell a story. Storytelling is a very important part of the human experience and I liked how they used it to teach programming.
Logistics wise, they were on top of things. They showed a demo and gave out fliers explaining how students could set up an account on Scratch. They even handed out laminated cards explaining how to do basic functions in Scratch.
I tried to teach Scratch to one student by using pseudocode although I did not call it that. I told the student to use bullet points and draw blocks around them.
One area for improvement would be outreach. There was a one to one ratio between students and mentors. For this occasion, I think that ratio worked since Coder Dojo is still trying to refine their curriculum. As their organization grows, however, it might be better for them to get more boots on the ground to spread the word.
The other issue was the time period. It is hard for children to stay focused for 4 hours straight. I think it would have been good to have breaks in between or even let them play Scratch games
In the beginning, they did an icebreaker using a bingo game. I liked this idea as it made things more light and fun. It helped everyone just ease
They gave the Scratch learners an objective- tell a story. Storytelling is a very important part of the human experience and I liked how they used it to teach programming.
Logistics wise, they were on top of things. They showed a demo and gave out fliers explaining how students could set up an account on Scratch. They even handed out laminated cards explaining how to do basic functions in Scratch.
I tried to teach Scratch to one student by using pseudocode although I did not call it that. I told the student to use bullet points and draw blocks around them.
One area for improvement would be outreach. There was a one to one ratio between students and mentors. For this occasion, I think that ratio worked since Coder Dojo is still trying to refine their curriculum. As their organization grows, however, it might be better for them to get more boots on the ground to spread the word.
The other issue was the time period. It is hard for children to stay focused for 4 hours straight. I think it would have been good to have breaks in between or even let them play Scratch games