Midlothian aCODEmy

While attending TCEA 2014, I fell into a coding presentation by Kim Garcia from Georgetown ISD and I was hooked.  Not because I think knowing how to code is going to change everyone's life.  I believe teachers and everyone involved in a student's academic career need to be a platform for many creative and innovative learning opportunities in order to prepare students for a competitive global economy.  The article, "Schools Aren't Teaching Kids to Code; Here's Who is Filling the Gap", written by Selena Larson, (October, 2013) explains this very point.

Each year, U.S. companies need to fill almost 150,000 jobs related to computer science and mathematics, but colleges and universities only graduate about 100,000 students with degrees in those fields.

So, my mission is to initiate code.org, other coding apps and coding web tools within the classrooms of our district.  In working with a couple of classes I asked students what they felt they were learning. One mentioned she is learning to think ahead.  Another said, she kept on trying even though she wanted to give up.  If we want our student to build grit, I believe learning coding basics is one more way we can get our students there.

This Thinglink provides resources for TCEA 2014 Google Academy.  Tap on the touch point on one of the blue blocks to find Google's coding website called, Blockly.

Digital Flashcards on Steriods

I'm loving Flippity.net, a digital flashcard web tool created by Steve Fortna.  Teacher's can create flashcards without having to pay to load pictures on the back.  The sky is the limit to how these cards can be used in the classroom.  You can add simple text, pictures, animated gifs, audio and video.  This Thinglink provides examples of how to add each using embed codes.  Students can also use these cards to create their own cards.  Flippity generates a link to the cards that can be easily accessed.  We could have a lot of fun with this site!