Last week I had the privilege of guest teaching at North Star Academy‘s day of enrichment. Principal Leslie Crane explained that this is one of three all-day events where students in the school self-select based on interest, mixing ages in the process. The section I had the opportunity to work with was a mix of 4th an 5th graders, helping them learn programming and culminating in them making their own Code Jack-o-Lanterns. We had a great class and they produced some amazing work, which you can see below. Continue reading →
We’re excited to announce our new Block Trinkets, which link Scratch-like drag-and-drop blocks with the power of the Python programming language!
At Trinket our mission is to help every teacher bring code to their students. Our Original Python trinkets are helping thousands do just that around the world. But recently we’ve heard from more and more teachers who want a bridge from the excellent Scratch ecosystem into the world of real, text-based languages. If you’re one of these teachers or students, our new Trinket is made just for you. In the spirit of Trinket teachers everywhere, let me show you exactly what I’m talking about. Click Run on this trinket to run the block code:
This Halloween themed trinket is inspired by a very special young programmer named Shakeena. You can read a little more about here here.
Need more space for your blocks? Try our new Fullscreen mode!
Although the blocks may look familiar, these are special. If you click the View Code button, you’ll see that they’re generating real Python code underneath. This lets students start to connect the familiar blocks with real code. Here’s Python code that will do the same thing as the blocks above when you Run it:
Neat! From here, teachers can discuss syntax in terms of block shapes, introduce techniques like refactoring, and excite students with the power of real, text-based code.
The most rewarding part of our work is seeing what teachers and students create with Trinket. You can customize either of the trinkets above and get a link to share it with your friends. If you share it on twitter, include @trinketapp or #TeachWithCode and we’ll retweet you!
13 year old Shakeena is an exceptional person. A founding youth manager in Makeosity, Inc. created by Karen P. Kaun , she’s building robots, designing products in 3-D, and learning to Code using Trinket. But one of the most exceptional things about her is her willingness to teach others.
I had the pleasure of meeting Meg at this year’s PyGotham, a Python conference in NYC. Meg’s talk was “High Technology for High Needs Students: A Year of Programming in the Bronx”. She wasn’t a Computer Science major but is one of thousands of teachers who’ve stepped up, learned to code, and are now helping bridge the digital divide by giving students vital exposure and access to technology. I’m so happy she agreed to share more about her background and how she teaches.
This is another of our series of interviews with educational innovators. You can find past interviews here.
Katie Cunningham is a programmer, author, and one of the minds behind the Young Coders Tutorial, which teaches kids to code a game on the Raspberry Pi computer- and then lets them keep the computer! I’m very excited that she agreed to an interview because the story of just how she came to affect so many kids’ lives in addition to her impressive career is very inspiring.
This is part of a series of interviews we’re doing with educational innovators. You can find past interviews here.
Katie Cunningham
Elliott: I first heard about the Young Coders when it made a splash at Pycon 2013. Could you talk a little about how you came to be in a room teaching kids to code at a programming conference?
Katie: I was initially a volunteer! The original teacher took on a new job, so she asked me to be a co-teacher. After her job ramped up, she had to drop out, so I asked Barbara Shaurette to my co-teacher.
