Coderdojo Gorey back in action

We took a long recess over the summer but our dojo is back in almost full swing. Well done to all 80 children who came today to Coderdojo Gorey to learn HTML or Scratch today. Thanks to all our volunteers mentors and parents.
HTML and Scratch groups are up and running. We have mixed all the age groups together our thinking is it will build collaboration and add to our ninja coders experience, bringing a mix of different ideas and skills in the room. Scratch has two classes, starters and every other level. Unfortunately we have not been able to offer Python at the moment but we hope to see Dave back mentoring again soon. We are looking for more python mentors, if you know someone send them our way.
We started a new four week course 'introduction to dojo' for those on our waiting list. Today we looked at Scratch. It was very busy but everyone seemed to enjoy it. Thanks to our young mentors who came from Scratch and helped out.
There is no dojo next week as its the bank holiday weekend.
But were are back on the 2nd of November with a special dojo and a BIG announcement.

Dojocon 2013

Arriving at Slane Castle

The sun shone on Slane Castle, Co. Meath for Dojocon 2013, the 2nd annual Coder Dojo conference,  on Saturday 13th April. After an early start I arrived unsure what to expect. Fellow mentor Dave, administrator and parent Susie and coordinator Roisín also attended.

James Whelton

From start to finish it was an extremely well organised event. Each session was split into three streams 'education', 'tech' and 'creating a dojo' and there were some very interesting keynote speakers also. Slane castle was a wonderful venue and added to the fun of the day. The most overheard comment was 'oh, i know your face from twitter', or 'Hi, I'm x, I know you from twitter'. There was a very jovial atmosphere and everyone was both helpful and willing to learn from each other. I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of volunteers all together.

I made lots of contacts, so many nice genuine people,  I know who to talk to about how to make our own badges, I got ideas for how to encourage kids and some tips on how to get kids to start showcasing their work and mentoring themselves. I got a lot of ideas from talking to people in between the talks and at lunchtime. If that was all that happened I still would have come away with a wealth of information to improve our own dojo.  Add to that the talks I attended and my brain was spilling over by the time we left around 7pm.

I went to mostly technical stream talks, everything from the future coderdojo rockstars to github to scratching with Leap and Kinect. I went to a talk on child centred learning, very positive and useful in my roles as parent, educator and mentor. I really enjoyed the talk about creating an online learning environment for coderdojo and all the different issues around that. At many of the talks the short 30 minute time frame left me wanting more, the talks were so interesting.

Coderdojo's Future Rockstars

I learnt to solder and to pick locks at lunch time. I was very excited to hear R.E.M. playing at Slane again - 'Stand' was on the music mix playing between talks.

Kimberley Bryant founder of Black Girls Code gave the last talk of the day, and although people were getting tired by this stage her talk was so moving and inspiring that she reawakened everyone. All in all it was a wonderful experience and I look forward to next year's conference.

Laura Kenny 

How to upload Scratch projects to scratch.mit.edu site.

Some wonderful scratch projects were created at the Spring Challenge day on Saturday last. It would be great to see some of these uploaded to scratch.ie and any other of your Scratch projects you'd like to upload. Here are the steps to upload them:

1) Create an account on Scratch here.

2) In Scratch, click on Share button.

3) Fill in your login details and tags. Please add tag 'coderdojo Gorey'. Click OK when done. 

4) Log in to the Scratch website and check out your project!

5) You can also download other projects that you like and view the code. 

New Location & meeting time

Saturday 23rd February sees the dojo in Gorey meeting at our new base in the Gorey Community School.
Our meeting time has changed to 1.30pm.

Opportunities for our kids & teens to code:
Scratch introduction 8-12 years              >> 20 tickets

Scratch 8+ years                                    >> 20 tickets

Introduction to HTML 8-12 years          >> 20 tickets

HTML & Python 12+ years                    >> 15 tickets

We are missing 4 of our regular mentors this weekend as they have other commitments. As you can see we are still managing to offer 75 tickets. Our mentor group is growing with a commitment from some parents to upskill in Scratch and become mentors - you're fab thanks! All our mentors are amazing to volunteer their time.
Our aim is to build a panel of local mentors so not everyone has to be there every week. Are you a potential mentor? Find out more here. Perhaps you know someone who can code & would be willing to mentor occasionally or every week?

We would also like to say a big thank you to the amazing group of volunteer Mums - Susie, +Karen Draper  and +MaryClaire Culliton who are running the behind the scenes and supporting ticketing, queries, FB page, etc.
Thanks to support in the last 2 weeks from Aidan, Susie and +Dave Bolger for phone calls, form filling & meetings to sort out school access and insurance.

Next steps:

• putting the children and teens learning at the centre of the club with dojo badges and achievements
• review 1.30 starting time
• co-ordinating mentors, garda vetting and building our mentor panel
• finding sponsors

So lets get Gorey coding!
+Roisin 

No meeting on the 16th + important information

Thank you to all the kids, teens and parents for being so patient while we sourced our larger venue.  

As I am sure you are aware there is no CoderDojo this weekend (16th February), thereafter it will be held at Gorey Community School.

Due to insurance restrictions from 23rd February we can only take children over 8 years of age.  If you have children younger than 8 and you want them to attend please contact Roisin & volunteer to provide that opportunity.

Our Calendar for the next few weeks is as follows:
February 23rd – CoderDojo
March 2nd – CoderDojo
March 9th – CoderDojo
March 16th – No CoderDojo
March 23rd – CoderDojo Fun Day
March 30th & April 6th – No CoderDojo (Easter)
April 13th – CoderDojo

Again, we are offering Scratch (an easily accessible introduction to programming language and concepts) and HTML (basic programming language used to develop websites) as well as Python (another programming language) broken down as follows:
Introduction to scratch 8+
Scratch 8+
Introduction to HTML 8-12
HTML 12+
Python 13+

As you are aware CoderDojo is run on a free / voluntary basis.  Please contact us if you know anyone / company who would like to sponsor us for items such as achievement badges / certificates / t-shirts for the kids.

Invitations for the next session (23rd February) will be issued at 6pm on Tuesday 19th February.
How do you get an invitation see FAQ's.

Even if your child attended previously you must accept the Eventbrite invitation by;

a) Pressing the green “attend event” button.
b) Choosing quantity of tickets and pressing register
c) Completing all required details and pressing register again

Once you see “order complete” you know you have been issued a ticket by email. This ticket can then be presented in the form of a printout or on the Eventbrite Smartphone app.

If you get an error processing your order, please wait 5 minutes and try again.

If you have not already done so, please complete and print out the attached Parental Consent / Registration form and bring it with you.

If all tickets have been allocated you will have the option to be waitlisted. The waitlist is the only way to qualify for any tickets that may become available.  Consequently, we would appreciate if you would please let us know as soon as possible by email if you have accept a ticket and cannot attend.

We hope you enjoy your mid-term.

Regards,
CoderDojo Gorey Team 

Scratch learning materials

Some parents and children were asking for Scratch learning materials in the Scratch group on Saturday. Here is some online that you can work away with at home.

Scratch.ie - lesson plans

learnscratch.org - Learn Scratch, the graphic programming language for everyone. View the video tutorials; then create and share your own multimedia creations: art, music etc.

Scratch games - video tutorials to make racing cars, asteroids, pong, space invaders etc.

What is being taught at the club?

Coderdojo Gorey currently offers 3 classes:

Introduction to HTML for ages 8 - 12 years

Introduction to HTML for 13+ years

Introduction to Scratch 8+

Laptops are required.

Links to the lessons here: 

Scratch.ie the first three lessons are available and the is a lot of information to get you going.

HTML will add shortly