Coding is like meeting Santa?

Learning to code can be a little like meeting Santa.

Coding can be scary! Causing a reaction similar to my daughter meeting Santa. It's not easy to know where to start, how much time to devote and what the end goal is, at least this is my experience in starting. However, much like Santa, it's FUN!



A little of what I am working on this week, from FreeCodeCamp:

Referring to my timeline in my Where It All Began post, since I have successfully started a code camp (18 hours worth of activities on FreeCodeCamp), I now need to get to focus some more time on my Masters research paper. This week, I read a study around the state of assessments in Computer Science Education as it relates to K-12 education, secondary specifically. The study concludes that additional education is needed to be provided to teachers around computer science assessment literacy, as well as develop valid and reliable assessments aligned to standards.

I highlighted this from the study:

“Computational thinking can be broadly viewed as the intellectual and reasoning skills needed to master and apply algorithmic thinking, pattern recognition, abstraction, decomposition, and other computational techniques to problems in a wide range of fields” (E.G., SEE Wing, 2008; NRC, 2010)

As this relates to education, aren't we already teaching these things? I would argue yes, in various depths and courses in a students' path to graduation. Coding can be used to teach these skills in new, exciting ways!

Highlander Corner will be used to highlight things going on with technology and eLearning at Oak Hills.

eLearning Newsletter

This newsletter will be completed quarterly, with this being the first edition of the year. Excited to be a part of this and share the great things Oak Hills is doing! Click here to read this edition.

Chromebooks

We have been neck deep in Chromebook work - specifically developing plans and procedures around our take home pilot in grades 3 and 8. Additional information and resources can be found at ohlsd.us/chromebooks.

*DISCLAIMER - if you see resources you'd like to use in a professional or personal manner, please do! When we create things on the Oak Hills eLearning Team, we do so trying to make it as easy as possible for others to take, repackage and use as their own. Collaboration should occur from district to district, not just within the classroom!

Makey Makey

I had the opportunity to visit an elementary after school club (eKIDs) at one of our elementary buildings yesterday. These kids were working with Makey Makey kits, using Play-doh, carrots and bananas as keyboards and piano keys. One student event played Jingle Bells on his Play-doh piano! I love seeing young students so engaged and excited about technology!

Where It All Began

My hope is that this blog will serve as a road map showing others and myself where I have been. You know how in Google Maps you can see everywhere you've traveled, stops you've made, pictures you've taken, etc.? No? Little creepy?  Not if you love Google (like me) - doesn't bother me a bit! Anyways, my hope is that this blog will show the stops I've made, the struggles I've endured and the progress I make.

I've opened the digital can of worms that is coding and programming. This is a good can of worms - an intriguing, trending and interestingly complex can of worms. Working in a forward-thinking K-12 school district, I've been exposed to the need for coding in education and the opportunities that are available for our students with these skills. I've developed the desire to understand this field and learn to code myself.

My current timeline looks a little like this:

1. Begin a pace-yourself coding camp
   
   
   
   I've started FreeCodeCamp and made some good progress! I started last week and got hooked. I am now trying to find time to devote to working on this camp on a daily basis, with a short term goal of creating a rockin' personal portfolio website, which comes somewhere after around 70 hours of work in the camp.
   
   
   
2. Write Masters research paper
   
   
   
   I have completed 29 hours of my Masters in Secondary Education. The last hour I need for my degree is my research paper, which I must have finished by May, 2016. I've got a decent start, identifying an outline and a good list of resources. I am to the point where I need to specifically dedicate the time and effort to do the research and write the paper. I'm sure I'll include the final piece on here once complete. My problem statement (as it stands - anyone who has written a research paper knows this is a revolving process of fine tuning and refining):
   
   What knowledge and resources do K-12 students need to develop coding skills to become literate in the language of code?
   
   
3. Do all the above while working full time and raising a family
   
   
   
   
   
   I wish there were more hours in the day! The simple math (on average, not an exact science here):
     168: hours in a week
    -  56: hours of sleep (assuming 8 hours a night - this is where I will be able to find some time!)
    -  45: hours working (varies, but let's go with this for arguments sake)
    -  10: hours drive time to/from work (I live about an hour away)
    -    7: hours preparing and eating meals (again, varies, but for arguments sake)
    -    5: hours for gym/basketball/softball/general exercise
    -    4: hours for church on Sunday and volunteering (Upwards Sports ministry, etc.)
       41: hours for everything else
   
   At face value, this seems like a lot. But when you look at what "everything else" includes, such as raising a family and spending quality time with them, the hours disappear quickly! But, that is the game of life, right? Everyone does it! Everyone is busy, everyone either finds time or makes time for the things that are important to them.

Speaking of life and things that are important, here's a little more background on me:

• Personal:

• husband
• father
• part time basketball/softball player (once a week, if I'm lucky)
• have-a-good-time family man
• music man, all genres from piano tunes (including soundtrack hits - Feather is a personal favorite) to Five Finger Death Punch, pending on the day/activity.

• Professional:

• Official title: Administrative Assistant at the Oak Hills Local School District
• I support our Superintendent, Directors and Administrators while being heavily immersed with the district's eLearning Team. While my official title can sometimes be misleading, I work with our Superintendent, District Directors and Building Administrators on projects and tasks, using my skills in technology and efficiency to benefit the district where possible. I do a large portion of work with our Director of eLearning and Technology, playing a big role on that team, including presenting at state-wide conferences (OETC, Ohio Google Apps Summit, etc).

• Google Guru

• We us Google Apps for Education. I drank the Kool-Aid. I'm hooked and could not do life (professional or personal) without Google. I support our staff on our Google journey - it's an awesome ride!
• I am especially proficient with Google Spreadsheets and enjoy using formulas to make them work in ways people don't always think. I've also been known to format spreadsheets in ways so that they act as editable forms, clean and simple for the end user.

• Amateur coder

• Work in progress... stay tuned.

• Aspiring:

• Technology Director
• Rock Star Coder
• Teacher
• Mentor
• Coach
• Life-long Learner
• Greatest dad and husband in the world!

Looking forward to where this journey and the future takes me!