Reflecting on CS Ed Week and the Hour of Code (for credit!)

Two girls engaged in Scalable Game Design and mobile computing at Mrachek Middle during Computer Science Education Week. Photo by Joe Dillon 

For teachers who engaged students in any kind of coding activity during the week of December 8-14, your reflections on what went well, and what you would do differently are important for you to consider and for the Ed Tech department to know. By sharing your thinking you'll help us be smarter as a system about how we introduce computational thinking skills and strategies to students in order to provide more equitable education in APS. With equity in mind, it is also important that we think together about the equity issues that drive Computer Science Education week and the Hour of Code.
The Hour of Code is an effort to engage all students in coding to address equity gaps globally in exposure to computer science. One statistic touted on the website claims that in 2013, 10 million girls tried computer science, which is more than the number of girls who tried computer science in the previous 70 years (here are still more stats about the equity implications).

To earn credit: Write and share one blog post* of 500 words or more which addresses the prompts below. 

• What did your participation in the Hour of Code look like in 2014 (Include # of students you engaged and the tutorials or tools you used)?
• What was your biggest success?
• What would you do differently if you had a chance to do this over again? 
•  How did your work during Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code reveal the need to increase exposure to computer science with your student population and how did your work with students suggest the potential for computer science instruction in Aurora Public Schools? 

To earn credit, sign up for this opportunity in Generation Ready (formerly Avatar) using course code 3452, then email a link to your blog post to Joe Dillon (jedillon@aps.k12.co.us) 

*If you haven't got a blog or would prefer to keep your post anonymous, please email for support. We can post your writing anonymously on the fledgling Ed Tech blog. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.