Thursday, December 19, 2019

Hour of Code with Swift Playgrounds 2019

4th graders reaffirming that kids can do impressive things with just an #HourofCode! #SwiftPlaygrounds #AppleEDUchat @esu8 #futurecoders #EveryoneCanCode
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Sunday, November 24, 2019

Hour of Code 2019: Dance Party!

It seems like “DaNcE pArTy” is the common theme to celebrate this year’s Computer Science Education Week (otherwise known as “Hour of Code”)!

December 9-15, 2019 is the official week that is designated as this year’s Computer Science Education Week, but of course you can host an “Hour of Code” ANY TIME with these free resources:

From Code.org:


Say hello to Dance Party 2019
With the Hour of Code only a few weeks away, we’re excited to unveil the latest additions to one of our most popular activities, Dance Party! You can look forward to new backgrounds, new coding blocks, and new music from artists like Lil Nas X, Nicki Minaj, Panic! At The Disco, Jonas Brothers, Pedro Capó, and Katy Perry. There’s even a brand-new Dance Party character designed by middle schooler Genevieve P from Edison, NJ! Read more on our blog.

From Apple’s Everyone Can Code:

Excerpt from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/11/apple-expands-everyone-can-code-to-bring-more-coding-resources-to-teachers-and-students/  

"New Everyone Can Code Curriculum
The new Everyone Can Code curriculum builds on existing interactive puzzles, guides and activities to make learning to code even more approachable and connected to students’ everyday lives. Everyone Can Code Puzzles is an all-new student guide to Swift Playgrounds where each chapter helps students build on what they already know, experiment with new coding concepts and creatively communicate how coding impacts their lives. A companion teacher guide supports educators in bringing coding into their classrooms with helpful ways to facilitate, deepen and assess student learning.”


This year’s Hour of Code Facilitator Guide features Dance as students program a virtual MeeBot character to dance and then make a video of it. The new Swift Playground activities to accompany this activity are featured in the Swift Playgrounds library. You could even purchase an actual robot that you could build and then program to interact with your code. Even without this purchase, students can have hours of coding fun with dance moves and the virtual robot inside of Swift Playgrounds. 


As always, feel free to contact Katie at ESU 8 if you want any help launching an Hour of Code event or ongoing Coding Club in your school. 
And so, ESU 8 schools, Let’s Dance with Code!
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Monster Character Maker

Mrs. Jenny Alder's 4th grade students at Stuart Elementary were kind enough to help me create some monster characters!

Using the brilliant activity from Laura Wright's WrightStuff Interactive, airdropped via Apple Classroom, students got right to work creating unique monster characters in Keynote. 



What resulted was a diverse conglomeration of mostly-friendly monsters, complete with name and the artist's autograph. 



Now the 4th graders will employ their creative writing skills to bring their monster characters to life in writing!





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Digital Design class getting creative with dSLR camera

Mrs. Kristen Evans's Digital Design class at Neligh-Oakdale High School has been putting industry-standards gear into their classroom practices.


Through an intro to digital photography they have been exploring basics of dSLR cameras as well as general principles integral to mobile photography as well. 


Students use their creative "mind's eye" to MAKE photos and not just TAKE photos.


There are so many great resources available on digital photography, many which are free.
I recommend the following for sure:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/stories-through-the-lens/id1039622883
https://books.apple.com/us/book/basic-photography/id795960902






But the most important element to successful photography is simply to look, notice, wonder, and capture LOTS of shots. 


This class is well on their way to developing their craft and putting it into practice in the community around them. 

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Spooky Science


Mrs. Shirley Rossman and several of her 4th grade students created a Halloween-themed story to share their learning about physical and chemical changes in Science.

The team brought their ideas to life with a green screen, iMovie, and extra touches with Keynote.


The video was shared at West Holt Elementary's October assembly during Jr. Husky Highlights so all could share in the learning!

Congrats, ladies, on a creative, "creepy" project!








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360 degree video at ESU 8


Catch some of the 2019 JH Quiz Bowl highlights in 360 degree video (hint: click to the left and right of your viewing window to change the perspective)



Or take a VR tour of the new ESU 8 building in the Google Expeditions app!
https://poly.google.com/view/4syJy_jz107


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Be creative to help get 'back in the groove'!


Back to School time around ESU 8 was filled with new facilities, new personnel, and new expectations for an amazing school year. Many of the activities incorporated a hands-on activity powered by educator creativity.

The following are some of the examples. Can you think of how each activity could be modified for use in your classroom?

Creative Portraits





Expedition Map


Expedition Team Flags


Expedition Team gifs




Wormhole Challenge


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