Polish, Publish, and Coding

I don't know about the rest of you, but I would much rather be having white fluffy precipitation this time of year than the cold pouring rain foretasted for our area.  The weather outlook for this entire week is bleak!  A December nor'easter usually involves snow, not rain.  Check out Wikipedia's explanation of nor'easters

This week is packed full of activity and expectations.  During class one you will receive feedback and comments on your first blog post; the paper version.  You will take a few minutes to digest this information and then go to the Google doc and make corrections or "polish up" your post.  If you received and "INC" from me, please be sure to return your pink rubric when you have completed this assignment so I will know to check and adjust your score.  You have until December 19th, but please don't wait until the last moment.
Once you have polished, you will then copy and paste the words, upload the image, and add the URL as a "caption" in Blogger.  Before you publish, please "Save" and "Preview."  When you feel your post is "practically perfect and ready to post" go ahead and press the "Publish" button. Taadaah!!  Your first official blog post!!!!  You will then want to go in to your template designer and tweak a bit.   **Be sure to look for those orange tabs to save your work.

During class two you will be participating in "Hour of Code,"  a national event.  Please use the "Hour of Code" doc before moving forward.  You will find all of your resources on the Code.org site.  I can't wait to hear what you think of this event.

Have a super week!!  Remember, we still have a full two weeks plus of school before our break.

image link

Preview to Coding

We are taking a break from our blogs during class two this week.  During class you will preview "coding."  In December we will take part in "Hour of Code."  This is a very fun activity and I hope it will encourage some of you to pursue coding as a career.  I found a great resource from our friends at Google.  They have created a site called, "Made With Code."  You will be using this site during class today.  Please follow the procedure below.  Be sure to read all of the directions in this post before you start clicking!  *Notice I have not given you any links to this point.
Step 1:  You will go to the site, Made With Code, and watch the opening video, "Things You Love Are Made With Code," as an activator.

Step 2: You will then select one of the "mentors" to explore.  You will do this by watching the video about  this person.  There are 6 different mentors.  Please scroll through and find one you find to be interesting.

Step 3:  You will then select one of the "Projects" to complete.  There are many projects.  Please       scroll down and read the descriptions and levels before selecting one.**You will not be able to do "Accessorize" as you would need an image for this.  We may try it another day.  Follow the instructions.             You will need to think and may get frustrated, but will feel so great when you complete this project. **While working on a project, if you get stuck or frustrated look for the "?" or "Help" tab somewhere (usually in the top right hand corner.)  Use this information to problem solve!!  If you want to try to save your project, please be sure to save it to your pdrive, not to the desktop of your workstation.

Step 4:  Complete the form, "Made With Code Project."   Be sure to submit this form when done.

Step 5:  If you should finish before the end of class, repeat steps 2 and 3 with a different mentor and project.  Only do Step #4 one time, please.
**If you should somehow manage to complete all of the listed projects, then move on to the "other resources" on the bottom and you will find some other coding projects to explore.

Have fun and do a great job for my substitute.  Absolutely NO games or videos other than the ones on the Made With Code site!!!  I cannot wait to share all of the cool stuff I will learn at the iPad Summit I am attending.