Is it scratchy in here?

Did you know that sharing is a really important part of the Learn, Create, Share circle? I know when we first started this journey a number of years ago we didn't really understand that it was to be more than just a blog post of perfectly finished work. What we have discovered and learnt is that we don't just share to finish our learning, we actually share to learn. The brilliant thing about having a blog allows us and our students to share even further than just parents and teachers.

Something that really stood out to me was Dorothy sharing this:

As teachers, we ask our children to write for an audience and there is a compulsory audience who is forced or paid to listen or read this. An authentic audience is someone who chooses to listen/read your work.

This is so true. The students know and expect that we will read there work. In fact, they get frustrated when we don't read it, but they don't always have an expectation that anyone else should care about their work. But seeing the excitement on their faces when someone they don't know or someone they really care about, particularly an adult, writes on their blog helps us understand why it is so important to share with that wider audience. Authenticity is what these students need, in a world where nothing is really that authentic ... and they know that.

Do you agree?

Computational Thinking! 

This is something I've done two PD's in before, however, because I am not using it in my classroom I have forgotten most things. Because I am Learn Create Share leader and using digital technologies in the classroom then this is something I haven't thought much about. But today has been a good reminder that we have to teach this from next year and that you don't need to much stuff to be able to teach it. No need for fancy robots (though that would be fun).

We started by doing an unplugged exercise where we were sorted, just like a computer algorithm. In this exercise, we had to google the distance to where we were born and then 6 at a time got sorted from furthest to closest. It was pretty easy and you can see how that would be quick to do in a classroom with any sort of data.

Getting Sorted:

Kawana came to us from the Pam Fergusson Trust, who are working with teachers to get ready for the new digital technology curriculum. Kawana has a background in computer science and is passionate about helping Maori young people access this area. You can check more out at https://trailblazers.pamfergusson.org.nz/

A key part of today's learning was around exploring the concepts of computational thinking. This involved thinking about ethics and morals, understanding binary and the practical side of using different types of apps. We also spend some time looking at the new Digital Readiness site that the government has put together for teachers before the 2020 launch. 

My biggest learning was around using scratch to make something. This is definitely a learning pit area for me. I have spent a tiny bit of time exploring but it has been a couple of years. It is logical and involves problem-solving (as all math really is) and it wasn't as hard or as complicated as I remember it being. You can check out my process in the slide below. 

There is much that I've learnt that we can use in the classroom. In fact, we have put Computational Thinking into our Tuesday plan for Term 4, a great way to do some creative problem-solving in a different way. I am looking forward to this.

What do you to introduce computational thinking in your classroom?