#csk8 Archive
This chat includes a discussion of topics of interest to K-8 teachers who teach and/or integrate computer science.The Computer Science Teachers Association is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines. CSTA provides opportunities for K–12 teachers and students to better understand the computing disciplines and to more successfully prepare themselves to teach and learn.
Wednesday September 7, 2016
The CSTA K-8 Task Group welcomes you back for a new year of chats. Our moderators tonight are &
Our topic tonight is about using reflection & iteration to improve our teaching of K-8 computer science for the new school year.
Don’t forget to include the hashtag on all tweets during the chat so that everyone participating in the chat sees your posts.
Before the chat starts, we’d love to know who’s joining us tonight. Please take a minute to introduce yourself.
Hello chat I'm Vicky Sedgwick, K-8 Technology Teacher, in the Los Angeles area & one of the moderators tonight. Glad to be back.
Junior from Indiana University studying Elementary Education and Computer Education!
Howdy, how do ! Working on my animatronic Mini-Pearl and glad to be here tonight from Champaign, IL.
Welcome, glad you can join us!
I am Sheena, a CS teacher in California for 5+ years, CSTA K-8 board member and moderator for today's chat
Hi everyone, missed you this summer. Dawn, middle school CS, Colorado, I'll be in and out tonight. :) so good to see you
I wanna see this animatronic Mini-Pearl. :)
Thanks for joining Jane. I'd love to hear more about what you are doing sometime!
Good to "see" you again, Dawn.
Doing lots of CS teaching and curriculum dev at middle school level
Hi, I'm Emma! I'm a junior at Indiana University studying Elementary Ed and Computer Education!
Hey Dawn! Glad to see you :)
thanks for keeping these going!
What does Computer Ed & Elem ed program look like... is it a teaching credential or something else?
Karen North from Houston - retired and helping teachers teach CS as best I can with my new "job"-nanny for my 6 month granddaughter
I would love to speak sometime. Loving what I'm learning about computer science and education!
Yes, I would love to hear about this as well. https://t.co/lgwux4W9NE
What does Computer Ed & Elem ed program look like... is it a teaching credential or something else?
Woah, two Hoosiers here? This chat is going south, I mean east, real quick :) Welcome!
Sounds like a fun new job.
Congrats Karen. That 6 month old is going to have the best CS education ever ! Welcome to
RIght? I need to take a drive to Bloomington and check things out!
The chat is a structured chat which means questions will be numbered Q1 for Question 1, Q2 for Question 2, etc.
Answers should start with A1 for the answer to Q1, A2 to answer Q2, etc. matching the question being answered.
we'd love to have you come and visit our classes!
Our first couple of questions ask you to reflect back. Watch for Q1 coming right up from
Q1: What did you learn, explore, read, discover this summer that will influence your teaching of K-8 CS? Share your PD!
Hi all! Liza from Hopscotch here. Excited to hear about how you all are thinking about coding in your class this year!
Follow back and I will DM you sometime. Really interested in your program!
A1 Reread parts of Mindstorms and thought about always having a next challenge ready for someone learning something new
A1 I learned that readiness for text coding is more affected by previous experience than by age/grade
I always discover something "new" in that book when I re-read it.
I carry Mindstorms on my trips - good one to re-read bits each time, you honored Seymour Papert who we will all miss!
This is interesting. What do you mean? What kind of previous experience?
- re-learning and reading "Brain Rules for Babies" - see computational thinking connections and yes fun! https://t.co/PCtgjjN31M
Sounds like a fun new job.
A1: I learned A.) I am a much better teacher than Ph.D. student (hoping to fix that) B.) Just found the Quorum lang. Investigating
A1: Although it's not CS-related I am reading "The End of Average" by Todd Rose and it's challenging me on individualized education.
Why do you say that - ? Did you have enough of each type of students to test this out? Curious
Ha! Can imagine that the PhD road is lot harder and quieter than being a teacher in the classroom
A1: Learning about Universal Design For Learning and how it can be paired with Cs Ed to reach
A1.5 We're redesigning out onboarding so thinking a lot about what kids should learn, when, and how (w and w/o addtl instruction)
A1: I learned about Adafruit's Circuit Playground board and hope to use it or Arduino w/Middle School this year.
I live at the bottom of a lake now...There are lots of journal articles above me :)
A1: with , really wish I can use it in my Python classes!
Are you going to do more individualized instruction because of it?
I was going to say that too ! Circuit Playground is cool!
A1:Also learner adv Scratch Jr ideas, Hummingbird, MIT App Inv and Codelab - CSTA Conference this July
Did your presentation go well?
Working w many students in grades 3-8 wide range of demographics- but not a formal study.
A1: Got to play with Finch robots this summer at CSTA Conference. Not on my list for this year.
A1: At a Houston workshop, learned that more teachers need to see what the Logo Foundation has to offer - https://t.co/TCm1qan5IW
what experiences were most helpful when starting w text based language? Any difference here with age?
eg previously used Scratch or similar before tackling say Python
Interesting. I use text based sometimes before Scratch and work as an introduction to coding. Harder to go deeper later...
So, did you find that those who had used Scratch were more successful w/text-based language?
Good one Karen! And now even more, we should get the word out about Seymour Papert's contributions to CS education
- yes it went very well. But, more work as two districts asked me to present to administrators and specialists.
Question 2 will be coming right up. Be watching for it.
More work isn't necessarily all bad. ;)
Q2: Reflecting back on last school yr, what worked well that you plan to use again this yr? Please share links, student work, etc.
A1: Just learned about Swift Playgrounds by Apple. Excited to explore more bc I love using iPads in the classroom.
for the most part yes, but recently we have inserted SNAP! in between to built intuition about functions, variabless,
A1: worked with scratch & https://t.co/9bLRC0r2oY to teach coding Ss. Also, learned unplug activities to teach the ideas
I haven't used SNAP! much due to lack of sprites. May need to think about it for 5th/6th though.
If you want coding apps on the iPad, is one you should look at.
Squirrels & space - sounds good to me. :)
Fun.. What grades? What // How much did you do before this project.
Wait, that sounds more like something in my wheelhouse. ;)
A1 read "stuck in the shallow end" by Jane margolis, brushed up on scratch and app inventor
A2: Will use many ideas from my CSElective pilot from last year - use of IDLE/Python3, keeping Ss working offline!
5th grade. We did the https://t.co/KmAfcqlCD8 into courses for 1 hour the week before. Ss had done some on their own also
A2: I had my 4th graders volunteer as class helpers each day at the beginning of class. Went well; definitely doing that again!
A2 pretty inspired by kids' exploration of sine and cosine. Certainly cooler than how I learned trig! https://t.co/Tp52mt1MgK
Loved using Chatterpix on the Ipads to help students learn about different presidents and the 3 branches of government
So you prefer offline then? Can students share their work online at some point?
Talk more outside of the chat sometime if you like. Great framework for including all kids.
talked about in one of my previous classes and liked it a lot - excited to explore it more!!
A2: Use of Khan Academy CS went well w/7th last year. May use again but this year's 7th may not be ready for it.
Yes for this class ,I like offline, having to save files, & transfer to the school server! They can share in class!
better for more advanced byob and 1st class citizen objects,
We used trinket.io last year but didn't go too deep.
A2: Also loved the app IXL because it has work for all ages and for all subjects. Great tool when you want ss to practice work
Awesome! Doing Scratch mazes with students has always been one of my absolute favorite activities!
they were given paper to plan out their ideas, then they chose different presidents and gave a biography of their lives
We all know that iteration is important in CS. Q3, coming up, is about your iterative process in how you teach CS.
A2: Love doing unplugged activities beforehand as well. Ss favorite is "TeacherBot" - must "code" teacher to walk around the room
I really need to get a mega Jenga set.
Q3: Keeping in mind that we should model the iterative process, what will you change/improve this year & why?
Love unplugged. What grade level(s) do/did you work with?
Are you using only this unit from MyCS curriculum, anything else? Is this an elective / required class, how long?
Ah, the MyCS Curriculum. Good stuff there.
for teaching CS, just 5th. Would love to see how it works with younger Ss. Also love https://t.co/11zCJoABHr unplugged
A3 Hugely! We test everything with a small group first, then share with a larger community and see what is/is not working.
What fun... did they spend much time thinking and talking first.?
A3 obviously very different in the classroom. How do your parents respond to the idea of iterative instruction?
5th is a great age but younger Ss can definitely succeed w/CS.
it was constant talking, thinking, testing, debugging the entire time! Cheers for success and failure too.
A3: Definitely need to find ways to make project sharing better - maybe create more time for Ss to share. Also more peer review time
A3: I need to do something w/a project my 4th graders do with California Missions. It's just taking too much time.
Yes, sharing & celebrating is a big thing and often that gets lost. I need to be aware of this, too! https://t.co/NWa6v0V27s
A3: Definitely need to find ways to make project sharing better - maybe create more time for Ss to share. Also more peer review time
I can tell you that my parents made me do work over and over again. Locking them in the closet in old age.
this is awesome, thanks so much! Can't wait to show my instructors.
Took your advice and got Puzzlets. Still waiting on cubetto to arrive, but love the codeybots I got. Ozobots- fussy!
Time ! One thing I wish I could change- more time for our classes! Love my elective classes that meet everyday!
in my field experience, I found that letting ss share their work from their Ipads on the big screen is huge for them!
Vicky is an awesome resource! Pick her brain :)
A3) intentionally integrating unplugged activities and context/history of cs into units.
awesome! If you teach I recommend Codapillars! I LOVE and don't have issues..hmm.
You just met one of the new standards! Congrats ;)
is helping you with your classwork! :) Do you do a certain number of coding classes too in this program?
Speaking of the new standards ....
A3 more bite sized video tutorials - did a lot of 10min "how to make X final project" but doing more skill-based videos this year
A3: build the iterative process into my digital flower mother's day code studio project development, https://t.co/aFWmyj6jQ7
A3: I rarely do the same thing twice. Always finding ways to make curricular connections is crucial.
10 min can be a bit much. I end up w/that length & find it's better if I can break it up.
I always do a lot of tweaking but do some of the same (or similar) curricular connections each year.
Is that a lesson planned for the class, something they do on their own?
we touch on HTML and CSS, and take a course about Python. Other classes more about EdTech + leadership
Q4: The new standards are the best ever written. Comprehensive, thoughtful, inclusive and will make you awesome at mini-golf.
A3: In my future classroom, would love to repeat unplugged activities to review CS concepts throughout the year
A4: new stands can push prof practice further so students can become better at rather than consuming!
A3: in the future, I want to allow for sharing to be a part of my classroom everyday. Love using iPads to do so!
A4: Am looking at them as I do my lessons for the elective, but for other classes, will implement major changes only next year
A4: I am looking at what I have been doing and seeing how it fits in with the standards and checking for new things.
A4: New standards are shaping the degree I am getting now! Use them to help me create lessons and decide what resources to use
A4: absolutely LOVED hearing that CS standards were added to curriculum! everything I'm learning in my classes will help me apply it
Be watching for the final question of the night.
Q5: Anything else new that you plan to try with your K-8 students this year? Lesson plans? Strategies?Robots?Courses/Curriculum?
A4 using to inform how kids learn how to use Hopscotch in new tutorials
A4: Our program at IU makes sure that we are able to address and teach each standard in an effective way before we graduate
Sharing is easy with projects in https://t.co/PLGJpVM6Dv , students can text their parents links to their work https://t.co/6tCfWNvC1N
A3: in the future, I want to allow for sharing to be a part of my classroom everyday. Love using iPads to do so!
A4: CEL program at IU has helped me find various ways to cover all of the standards with great resources
I wasn't aware of that! That's a great way to get parents invovled as well!
A5 do more to facilitate coding across communities, like "how to host a hackathon" guide. Create opps for kids to teach each other
A5: I got some more iPads over the summer so I'm going to do more with them in the younger grades.
A5: pushing my 2-5 Ss to explore physical computing using !
Are you using MaKey MaKey or WeDo or what?
A5 Some stuff that I am testing. hope to get it into one of my classes based on time and budget https://t.co/bO0ZShdYtN
sorry i missed some. A5: Plan to flesh out CS1 (gr 6), CS2 (gr 7), CS3 (gr 8) materials w scratch/snap/python+finch bots
Have you tried Kibo? I loved the day i spent over at Tufts learning more about it.
A5: personal practice: outreach to Title1 schools to provide mentoring to Ss & Ts to integrate
A5: I want to try some coding board games (Code Monkey Island + Robot Turles). Any Ts tried these?
From experience, the kids are the ones asking to share their work because they are excited about what they've made
I want Hummingbird kits but not in my budget.
You are going to be busy! Great to see so much going on, and yes there is so much to try out these days
A5) piloting a mobile app development course with app inventor
That sounds fun. Do you have android devices available? What grade level?
A5: Also looking for resources that can be used for students K-3 since I don't have much CS experience with them.
A5 also piloting RobotMagic w Thymio, Arduino and Javascript
Will definitely like to catch up on how this goes later - a one semester class?
My students love Robot Turtles. I have, but haven't used, Code Monkey Island.
