After my last blog piece, I got to work on my Hour of Code activity. I was trying to decide where to hold an Hour of Code activity and who to invite. After much consideration, I decided that the easiest place to hold the event would be at my own campus in the computer lab. There are two computer labs next door to each other, so I felt that I could accommodate at least 60. My plan started to come together. The STEM grant coordinator at the local community college generously offered to print and distribute flyers about the event to the local schools. We finally settled on just the junior high schools because of the number of potential students. Also, one of the professors from the same community college offered to help during the event. I immediately accepted his offer. I have also set up an Event Brite site so I could track the number of participants. The flyers have been distributed and families are beginning to register.
Additionally, I contacted the local newspaper and they agreed to run an article about Hour of Code that I submitted. I used the resources at Code.org to help me write the article. You can read the article at:
http://media.wix.com/ugd/50dca9_c23f1de8f0914fe48aa7d06258cc2ebb.pdf
I also contacted the county newspaper and was interviewed by their education reporter. She said they would send a photographer out to my event.
Another person I reached out to was the executive director of the Computer Using Educators. He decided that I should be one of the moderators for Sunday’s (December 8) twitter chat about Hour of Code. It will take place at 8 p.m. PST and the hashtag is #caedchat. Join in if you can!
Next, I contacted the local Assemblywoman and asked for her help to get the word out. Unfortunately, I never received a response from her. I was disappointed because she is a former teacher and at each of her events states that she is an education advocate.
I have contacted CTA, our state teachers’ association, about advertising Hour of Code. I did not receive a response from the President but I did contact his aide who said that they had sent it to committee. Disappointed with the response, I contacted the editor of the California Educator, CTA’s member magazine. She had recently attended a STEM conference at our state capitol. She had heard about Hour of Code at the conference and agreed to interview me about “Hour of Code” and Computer Science Education Week. I also sent her additional information. She said they would tweet out about Hour of Code and CS Ed Week and also post to Facebook. She also suggested some of the sections of their magazine I could write articles for after Hour of Code.
I am planning on preparing CD-RW’s for the participants by adding Alice and other programs to it. I want the participants to take their creations home with them. I have also purchased silicon bracelets to give out and plan to have Christmas goodies to munch on. My principal has offered to supply bottles of water. I have collected some door prizes to give away. My computer science students have committed to be tutors for the evening. Next week during class, my students will tryout the tutorials and select the ones they feel would be the best. I want them to be a part of this, too!
I am looking forward to Hour of Code and the excitement I hope that it brings to my students and my program. Are you looking forward to Hour of Code?.
Myra Deister
At-Large Representative