Time flies when you are having fun!  Next week is our LAST coding club of the year.  Homework is posted on Edmodo, take a look.  It is a fun one :)  

We had a great first day at Coding Club 2.0!  Students learned about algorithms and wrote their first programs.  

An email just went out with instructions for Edmodo, homework, logging onto your code.org account, and much more.  Please read it, sign up for Edmodo, check the compatibility list, and email me if you have any questions.  

We are looking forward to a great 6 weeks of learning and fun, hope you are too!

Just a reminder that Coding Club starts for Tracks 2 & 3 tomorrow morning
in the Media Center.  Please be on time as we start instruction promptly at
8 am.  You may enter the school through the cafeteria doors.

Can't wait to see all of you tomorrow!

Only 1 more week left, time really flies when you are having fun!

This week our 4th and 5th graders learned binary, ask to see their bracelets, while our 2nd and 3rd graders learned about loops and iterations.  

We are still looking for those stand out students who have worked hard all session, turned in their homework, and really excelled to win our grand prize next week.  Go to Edmodo and take a look at this week's homework, post your art on Edmodo to win a trip to the prize box and stay in the running for our grand prize! 

Shout out to Abbots Creek Elementary School, they are about to start their first coding club next month.  We are so excited for you, can't wait to see what you do! Check them out at http://acescodingclub.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Homework is posted, we were having technical difficulties.  You have until Saturday to complete your assignment to win a trip to the prize box. 

We had a great class this week.  Students worked on their coding lessons the whole time and made some great progress.  Ask them to show you what they have been working on! Go to  Edmodo to see some games the 4th and 5th grades have created.  You can post your own art work or games too, click HERE  and scroll down to the "Posting Artwork" section to find out how.

Homework is posted on Edmodo.  Make sure you electronically submit or print it, then bring it to class for a trip to the prize box.

Toys went home with students on Thursday, please make sure they are back at school Monday morning.  Listen to BTV Friday to see who won!

Log on an have some fun with code.org on your early release day tomorrow :)

Coding fun with BB8 on Saturday!  

Keep up the hard work and you will bring a toy home next weekend just like Brennan!

Week 2 is under our belts!  
We worked on airplane algorithms, yes we really were learning not just throwing things.....

Today we worked with sequences and debugging.  Next week we will be spending more time on the computers, we'll learn about loops and  conditionals.  

If you haven't signed up for Edmodo, make sure you do before next week.  Homework is posted and you'll get a trip to our prize box if you turn yours in!

We will be announcing Sphero winners on BTV Friday morning so be listening.  

Keep working on your lessons at home!

What a great first day!!

We had a lot to fit in but we got it all done!  Today students learned about algorithms and created unplugged programs for a partner to follow.  We signed onto our code.org accounts and got started learning to program via drag and drop commands. 

Parents be on the look out for a LONG email with a list of information to get your student set up for the rest of our session.  Please make sure they create their Edmodo account and remind them to always log onto their code.org account when they play at home.

Homework is posted on Edmodo, remember to finish it and bring it next week to win a trip to our prize box.

Can't wait to see you all next week! 

Tracks 1 & 4 Coding Club starts tomorrow at 8 am.  Students may enter the building through the cafeteria doors.  

I hope you are as excited as we are!!

Acceptance invitations have been sent to
ALL STUDENTS who applied!  

If you applied and DID NOT get an invitation please email brassfieldcodingclub@gmail.com ASAP

GREAT NEWS APPLICANTS!!!  

Thanks to our new and returning volunteers; 

and to our PTA and Principal Covill (who were able to procure additional ChromeBooks for the school); 

we were able to accept all 63 applicants!

We are in the process of sending emails to everyone who applied.  Keep an eye out, you should received your invitation no later than tomorrow evening.  

You must respond to the email accepting or declining your invitation so we are able to prepare appropriately for class.
        Tracks 1 & 4 must respond by Monday August 1st 
        Tracks 2 & 3 must respond by Friday August 5th 

If you accept your invitation we will need your signed forms and check NO LATER than the first day of class (August 3rd for Tracks 1 & 4 and September 14th for Tracks 2 & 3).

Congratulations to all who applied, we are excited you decided to join us!  

Registration is now closed. 

You will be notified via email no later than July 29th if you have been selected.  

Hey Brassy Bears, want to join the Coding Club next year?!? 

Next week we will release info about next year's club.  

Yes more students can join, yes registration will be easier (no waking up at the crack of dawn), and yes just as much fun!  

Stay tuned.....release date is June 1, 2016.

Check out one of our own at Tech Talent South's FREE coding class.  

Loukas is learning to create his own webpage! You can too, stay tuned for info on their next class.

This week we had our last Coding Club meeting of the year.  I hope everyone learned something new and had fun during our time together!  We covered quite a bit over our 8 weeks.... nested loops, algorithms, debugging, conditionals, we even learned binary!  Sign in to your code.org account whenever you want to continue your lessons, make a game, or create some code art.   

Keep following our blog, twitter, and Facebook to find out about coding classes in the area, coding games you can play through out the year, and information on next year's club.  

Congratulation to Loukas, Campbell and Taylor for winning The Most Badges Competition!  Check out the BTV link for March 23rd below to see them receiving their awards! 

We hope you all had a great time, thanks for joining us! 

BTV Link

The last Coding Club meeting is tomorrow!   
Track 1 come join us!  We will play some games, take photos for the yearbook, and find out who got the most badges!  See you tomorrow 8am.

FREE Coding Classes 

Tech Talent South has another round of free coding classes starting 4/12/16. Enroll now, before all spots are filled!  http://techtalentsouth.com/courses/free-kids-code/

Want to know who your kids think is cool? 
Check out these amazing programmers they discovered....

Aubrey K.
I choose Matheus Valadares was the creater and coder of the hit game Agar.io. He is awesome (Aubsome) because Agar.io is one of my favorite games. I still play Agar.io and I get better every time! :]

Kanav P.
sergey brin because he is the cofounder of google. Serge Brin and Larry Brown started their company in a garage when they left Stanford.

Savannah H.
 Tim Berners Lee made the world wide web. I think it is awesome because it must of taken years. Think about how big the web is. It is BIG.

Maxwell C. 
My amazing computer programmer is Shigeru Miyamoto. He was born on November 16, 1952. He is a Japanese video game designer and producer at Nintendo. He made some of the best games of all time like: Donkey Kong, and created the first Mario game ever. He also made the Wii u and the Wii. He is still alive today. He still works at Nintendo.

Carter S.
I know we all love to play with Siri on our parent's phones. Dag Kittlaus helped to create the the first true automated Virtual Personal Assistant for mobile devices - we know as Siri. In Norwegian Siri means “beautiful victorious counselor”. I think it would be cool to create something that helped people on a daily basis.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/10/meet-dag-kittlaus-the-guy-who-made-siri-and-became-a-millionaire-following-a-personal-phone-call-from-steve-jobs/

Taylor M. 
Guido van Rossum is a Dutch computer programmer. He created the well known Python programming language. Python was developed while Rossum was working at Google. He also created Mondrian, a code review system internally used by Google. 

After 7 years of working at Google, he is now working at Dropbox. He is rated number 8 on the top 12 greatest programmers. His wife, Kim Knapp, an him now live in Belmont, California. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum

Clay R.
Dr. Littleton Meeks is a tech expert who helped who helped develop LEXIA Learning Systems. He was asked to develop the computer program by Bob Lemire because his son was autistic and needed help learning. Now all kids can use LEXIA to help them learn. I use LEXIA at home in kindergarten.

Madison R.
Bob Kahn created the tcp/ip protocal. this is the protocal that allows computers to communicate with other computers. When computers communicate they form a network. Tcp/ip is the addressing of a computer network, much like your street address it tells the network where a computer "lives". The Internet is the largest network in the world. Without TCP/IP the Internet would not work. I think that that is really cool.

Keshav P. 
Bill Gates is an American business magnate, philanthropist, inventor/entrepreneur and computer programmer. In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Anderson co-founded Microsoft. Microsoft later became the world's largest PC software company. Bill Gates is awesome because he invented one of my favorite computer companies. On Microsoft computers, you get to do many things. You get to type amazing reports, make power points and get amazing info on Google Chrome. Try going to gatesnotes.com to find amzing info about Bill Gates

This was the last meeting for Track 1 students :( We hope you had fun and learned something new and interesting.  I will be emailing parents a questionnaire about the club for STUDENTS to complete.   Let us know what you thought, what you liked, and what you didn't.  Help us make the Coding Club better for next year! 

Track 1 you are welcome to keep doing homework each week.  Remember each turned in assignment earns you a badge, and the students with the most badges on March 23 will get something special!  You are also welcome to join us while you are tracked out, we don't have enough Chromebooks but there are plenty of IPads for you to use.  

BTV was recorded earlier this week so we were not able to announce who will being talking toys home.  Friday morning teachers will be sent emails and toys will be dropped off in the classrooms of those students who were chosen.  Please remember to return them to Mrs. Hawley Monday morning. 

Homework is posted.  Please challenge yourself with this one, don't take the easy way out and just draw a shape!  You will see what I am taking about when you log onto Edmodo. 

Saturday coding fun at The Iron Yard Durham!
 Follow their Meetup page for information on future classes.
 http://www.meetup.com/The-Iron-Yard-Durham/

Listen to BTV Friday to find out if you are taking a toy home for the weekend! 

Homework is now posted, have fun!

Summer Camp Opportunities! 

Check out these links to find out about summer coding camps in the area:

https://www.idtech.com/locations/north-carolina-summer-camps/raleigh/id-tech-nc-state-university/

Scholarships are available for the NC State IDTech camps, but applications must be received by March 4th, find out more here:

https://www.idtech.com/tuition-assistance/

and one LESS expensive camp:

http://www.youngengineersoftoday.com/raleigh-summer-camps-2016.html

Looking for something more challenging than code.org to do at home?  Try the JavaScript Drawing and Animation course at Khan Academy:

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming

Today we explored conditionals and how they can be useful in programming. 

Listen to BTV tomorrow to find out if you are one of the lucky students taking a toy home this weekend! 

Homework will be posted tomorrow. Track 1 only a couple of weeks left to earn your badges, be sure to get your homework turned in! 

Snow Day...time to CODE! 

Looking for something to do? Try a new Sudoku puzzle: 

                              Easy                                                        Hard
   

Or a new coding activity at https://www.tynker.com/courses/

UPDATED

Today we got our first introduction to the 8 bit binary language computers use.  We made bracelets with our initials in a secret code...not really but boy that sounds cool!  People will think you really know a secret code after you learn more about binary next week.  

Homework will be posted on Edmodo tomorrow.  Sounds like we had a lot of fun with the Sudoku puzzles this week, any guesses what the theme will be for this week's homework?  

Students being awarded toys this week will be announced during this afternoon's announcements.  Since tomorrow is early release please have them pick their toys up Friday morning as soon as they get to school.  

Mrs. Hawley will be hosting a Digital Learning Day on February 17th.  THIS HAS BEEN POSTPONED.  

Listen to BTV tomorrow to find out who gets to take toys home this weekend!  Parents, please send me photos of your student(s) coding with the toys so I can post them.  

Track 4, don't forget to check out the homework on Edmodo.  Turn it in before class next week and win a trip to our prize box!

Read the post below to find out about a FREE Saturday programming class being offered by The Iron Yard. 

We only ate a few....