First Attempt in Code

Some of my students and I were lucky enough to attend a code club workshop recently.

When I've tried coding activities before, I've never got far before deciding "too hard," or "too boring," so I wasn't particularly optimistic that it would be a great day of learning for me.

I was wrong. I'd heard about Scratch and I knew that students sometimes played about with it. I even knew that it was something to do with putting blocks together to create code. However I'd never seen any really good quality learning presentations produced with it. It wasn't until I started using some of the prescribed learning materials to build a little presentation and then a game myself,  that I began to see the benefits and possibilities.

Scratch is commonly used as an introduction to coding, it uses blocks of code which are snapped together to create an effect. Although the characters, (sprites) backgrounds and effects are all provided, the possibilities are endless.

I think the best way to start is to follow some of the instructions in the 'starter projects'  to make a something and then use the skills learnt to adapt and create on your own. That's what I did to create the little 'Gone Fishing'  game which you can see in the post below.  Please have a go and let me know your high score in the comments. I'd love some feedback.

Code Club provides support for teachers and lots of additional activities for running a code club yourself. No experience necessary just a positive mindset for lots of hands on problem solving and learning. I'm looking forward to getting started.

If you'd like to explore further options for learning how to code, I put together some link on my class google site which you can view here.  Enjoy.