Coding is not just for Hipsters

A student sent me this screenshot of her coding work from tech class yesterday. I adore the sarcasm of 8th graders. In referencing sarcasm, I might sound sarcastic, but I wasn't being sarcastic. Seriously.

The site we've been using in 8th grade tech is www.codecademy.com. The 8th graders have done block-coding with Alice already, and they were excited to use what they've been calling 'real' code. They were excited, that is, until they realized what one misplaced quotation mark can do to their work.

That time I actually was being sarcastic. The students were interested throughout, although concepts of organization of code came more easily to some than they did to others. Being able to track the students as they coded let me know who needed me to jump in and explain concepts and who would probably be able to create an entire Hipster Lyfe website in 48 minutes.

(please note: the cat links to a local coffee shop that sells free-trade, organic coffee)

How do you say, "Creando videos"?

In Señora Bejar-Massey's 8th grade Spanish class, she asks students to record themselves speaking Spanish. Over the course of the year, students collect their videos and are able to reflect on their growth as Spanish speakers. . . awesome.

This year, Señora decided to add a few levels to the technology - students will now upload their videos to a Google Apps for Ed YouTube account (where they can make the video private and share only with Señora). They, they'll hand their assignments in via Google Classroom, and Señora will use Videonot.es to comment directly on the videos.

Because there are so many steps to this process, I'm going to be going to Señora's classes tomorrow to get the students up and running. I made this instruction sheet and posted it to the Moodle, and I thought it might be useful for others, too. I'll update later about any pitfalls I encounter.

Padlet & Google Docs as a Way to Go Public with Writing

I didn't mean to write two posts about ways to use Padlet in a row, but with the first 6th grade writing celebration of the year, Mrs. Dougherty wanted to find a way for students to share their writing with each other, and padlet.com it was.

Mrs. Dougherty's runs her English classes in Writing Workshop style, and there's a lot of research on the impact of audience on students' writing. So, launching an online space for students to share, comment, inspire, and generally cheer each other on made a lot of sense.

Here's how we set it up so that the wall is both public and private:
From Mrs. Dougherty's end, she created a wall on padlet.com. For settings, she selected:

• Password Protected (so the audience is limited).
• People with the password can write comments (which means that students can post, but can't accidentally delete others' posts)

She also selected the Grid layout so that students didn't accidentally cover up other students' work.

Here's how she asked students to post on the wall:

1. Make a copy of your document (that way, you'll have a 'clean' version that no one has commented on).
   
2. Set the sharing parameters so 'anyone with the link can comment' (that way, people can comment, but no one accidentally changes your writing). 
   
3. Share the link on the padlet wall, putting your name in the top of your comment box.
   

What it means is that all of the grade's writing can be collected in one place, but each individual keeps control over his/her writing. They look like this after inserting the link:

As with the cat photos that I mentioned in another post, this is an internetty activity that requires talking to students about community and community values during launch (i.e. what kind of comments do you want on your writing? What kind of comments are appropriate in this forum? What kind are inappropriate?).  

Using Padlet to Frame Discussions

In 8th grade Topics in Media and Technology this rotation, I wanted to show a video called I forgot my iPhone (which, by the way, is great). I wanted to encourage students to think critically about the messages in the video. First, I projected the video and asked for verbal responses. Then, I projected a split screen, and students made notes via Padlet about what specific activities the video said were good based on actions and images they saw:

After watching the video, students read George Couros's critique of the video. They discussed the blog post in small groups, and then posted their group's position statement about cell phones based on his blog post. Using the padlet, we then had a class discussion about cell phones use.

Some of the functions of padlet that are useful: you can create a free account, students do not have to create accounts to post, the owner of the padlet page can set permissions so students don't accidentally delete each other's posts, the owner can set a password so that the padlet isn't public, and the wall updates in real time, so you can see who's posting when. Very useful for directing a class discussion and maintaining a record of students' thoughts.

A word of warning: my first class figured out how to put cat photos in a wall. They did it after an amazing discussion, but if you don't like chaos, you'll want to set ground rules for posting.