Hour of CODE is here! Brief intro to the site plus a few helpful links.

Hello everyone,

It is that awesome time of year again – Hour of Code. https://code.org/. December 5th  – 9th.

If you are interested in trying this with your class - I have created a guide that I hope will be helpful.

Prior to having the students logging on for Hour of Code – a great resource to use is a Slide that was created to kind of teach students what code really is. The Slide and attached worksheets are available by clicking here. The sheets describe what an algorithm is as well as what programming really is.

I recommend logging on to the site and familiarize yourself with it. Take a look especially at the STATS page – the fact that there are currently 517,393 open computing jobs nationwide and last year, only 42,969 computer science students graduated into the workforce is eye-opening.

While you do not have to Sign-in – I strongly recommend it as you will be able to see students statistics as well as have access to many lesson plans and additional resources.

When you sign-in, scroll down to Teacher Home Page and click on it, select Manage Students, select Add Multiple Students.

** If you used CODE last year you may need to update your list of students.

When you add your students you will then be taken to a page with all of their passwords (you must select Show Secret – to see the password).

At the bottom of the page you will see a link for your class’s CODE page. All the students will need to do is click on their name and type in their password. This simplifies things a lot. Great to put on Google Classroom.

You will also see a link to print out all usernames and passwords.

The site is very similar to last year with characters from Star Wars, Minecraft, Disney Infinity Characters, as well as the ability to code with Anna and Elsa (Frozen), Flappy, as well as with wayfinding with Moana.

Click here to be taken to the site users will be interested in the most (see inserted picture below). Here users can select their interests, filter searches by grade level, educator experience, student experience, as well as what type of classroom technology is available. There is a very nice video tutorial for users to watch (typically around 2 minutes) prior to the start of coding.

Here are two great videos  to introduce or re-introduce your students to CODE:

Video #1 – a little under a 6 minute video – inspiring and informative

Video #2 – about a 2 minute video – with a little introduction and then a quick bit about basic concepts of programming

I hope you and your students enjoy this site. Remember, this site can be used throughout the year – does not just have to be December 5th-9th.

If you have any questions, please let me know. This sheet is available by clicking here.

Thanks so much!

Brad