Get started teaching JavaScript with CodeHS in this introductory webinar. Discover how to use the CodeHS JavaScript curriculum to teach web programming fundamentals, set up your classroom, and guide students through interactive coding lessons and projects.
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[Music] Hello everyone. Welcome to our summer webinar series. This is the third session in our codes webinar summer series. That was a lot of S's so far this year. And I am so excited to be here with you with our fabulous teacher trainer Paula who's going to be talking to the group today about teaching our JavaScript corgi course. And so we are so excited to have you with us. We're going to wait just a few more seconds to get started while we still have some folks joining the group. And I also need to give you all access to the chat. So, we will have both the chat open and the Q&A. But if we do that, then I'm going to ask us to be very careful about what we're putting into each of those channels. So, in the chat at the bottom of your Zoom screen, go ahead and find the chat. And I'd love for you to introduce yourself while we're gathering and folks are still joining. So please tell us where you're at, where you're coming from today, visiting us here at codes in the chat. And then when we start the Q&A, what I'll ask is that any questions you have about CodeHS, our curriculum, our tools and platform. Any questions you have, please put those in the Q&A. This allows us to not lose your fabulous questions because I hope that our chat is very busy this session. I hope that you are sharing your ideas alongside Paula's stories and advice.
So, please, please, please feel free to interact in the chat, keep the conversation flowing, but if you have questions, use the Q&A because then everybody can see your questions, including Allison and I, and we can answer those or you know, kind of pop them up to Paula to answer live in the session. and we don't want to lose those fantastic questions.
So again, welcome everyone. This is getting started teaching JavaScript. If you would like access to the slide deck, there is a little URL down there at the bottom of Paula's screen, cods.comstarted-js. So if you would like to follow along with Paula on her screen, she's going to be using the slides and showing you some things on the code platform. So you are certainly welcome to just follow along for now. If you would like to reference the slide deck later when you have some time to play around with code HS on your own then you can you know open up the slide deck there. We will be emailing out a recording of today's session and also a link to that slide deck later after the session. So welcome everyone.
I see some folks from Indiana. I love seeing my Indiana folks on calls. I am based in Indianapolis, Indiana. So, welcome to those folks from Indiana and Tennessee and Puerto Rico and Texas and Kentucky and all over the US here.
Generally, we have some international joiners also. So, we'll see who else we get. All right, let's get started.
Paula, if you would click to the next slide, please. My name is Stephanie Bennett. I'm a professional development specialist here at CodeHS, but today you're going to be hearing from Paula Medina who is still teaching JavaScript and still enjoying it. Paula, welcome.
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yes.
And we are also joined, like I said, by Allison Drake, who is a new professional development specialist here at Code HS.
and she and I will be manning the Q&A and answering questions or elevating your questions to Paula as it kind of fits into the flow of her presentation.
So next slide Paula please. Today what we're going to be covering in this hour and a half session is a course overview. What is our JavaScript corgi course? We are going to take a look at a few lessons and see what's included in the curriculum and specifically how lessons are kind of paced and taught and set up for students in the corgi course. We're going to talk about how you can use the codes platform to customize your course to the needs of your students. And then Paula is going to share a bunch of stories and teacher tips and I'm very excited to hear all of those. Next slide please Paula. Thank you. So again, for those of you who are just joining, we have had about five people join in the last minute. We're going to leave the chat for our comments and sharing and conversational kind of items. so if you're just joining, please feel free to introduce yourself in the chat. And we're going to use the Q&A for questions. And so that's the purpose of keeping those separate is again to ensure that nobody's great questions get lost in the flow of the chat. So you can open your Q&A and your chat and put your questions in the Q&A. Put your sharings and your observations and your stories in the chat. Thank you Paula. Next slide. If you do not already have a code account, we would encourage you to make one.
CodeHS middle school and high school curriculum is always free. Teacher accounts are free and our student accounts are also free. And so please, please go ahead and sign up for one of those codes accounts so you can kind of follow along with Paula today. Build some muscle memory as we are exploring this JavaScript Corgi course. Allison, would you mind dropping that sign up link in the chat, please?
And then I'm going to talk a little bit about CodeHS and then I'm going to set Paula free to talk about all the great things in our Corgi course. So if you are not familiar with codes already, we are a comprehensive platform for teaching computer science all the way from K through 12. We do have a elementary curriculum. And I said earlier that our middle and high school curriculum is always free for teachers, but our elementary school curriculum is a paid prolic. So if you would like to learn more, we'll get you a link at the end of this session to learn all about our elementary curriculum. but it's fantastic and as is our middle school and high school curriculum. So, we provide all of these services in a web-based platform that provides for equity of access and ease of use. as your learners are used to interacting with edtech platforms and of course you know that besides curriculum, we also offer professional development. you you are here today so you know that we have PD and all of these all of this curriculum is housed online along with our tools and resources and Paula if you'll click to the next slide I will talk a little bit more about those tools and features that we offer to computer science teachers in the hopes that we can make your teaching as efficient as possible so that you can focus on what's most important in your classroom which is which are your learners right so we're going to provide provide those LMS features that you're familiar with like chatting with students, posting messages to your courses and classes, allowing for some progress monitoring and feedback with students and even with our pro tools allow for grading and also academic integrity features.
lots and lots of tools that we're providing in the hopes again that teachers are finding it a very efficient tool, a very strong tool to enhance their computer science teaching and make it easy. So again, you can concentrate on what's most important, which are your students. All right, Paula, next slide. Then it's off to you.
And please let us know if you have any questions in the Q&A and keep sharing in the chat. Thanks, folks.
Well, thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Paula Medina. I've been teaching 10 years now. I retired from an IT profession for a hundred years and then I decided I wanted to get give back. I now have a certification in math and computer science at Brian McBan High School. I work in Norwalk, Connecticut. It is in an inner urban urban city school. and I started teaching math here and then the person who taught computer science retired and and my boss said, "Hey, I saw your resume. I need you to teach computer science." So I said, "Great. How do we do it?" And they were pretty much old school. Download an ID and paper assignments, maybe one program a week. And I said, "No, I'm not teaching like that. That's that was even outdated for me." So, so what I did was I tr I built a program the first year, you know, and I said I went to a conference and I saw I think it was Jeremy that actually presented codes and I said that is the way to learn and so I brought it back. we had, you know, we use the free version and I said, "Well, I don't know JavaScript. I mean, I didn't use it." So, the secretary in our department and me, we learned it together. We learned Carol, we went through everything and that's what I've been using for the last, I guess, six and a half years. But what was important to me was that everyone had access. It used to be just the kids good in math were taking it. He had maybe 15 students and right now we have over 350 students working on code HS in our school. And my belief is everyone can learn how to think logically and use our this platform to learn how to code. So we've built and the principal is very very supportive and so our belief system is include everyone try to get everyone to take a computer science class build a curriculum that everyone can be successful with and use code HS and for us it's worked. I've only been on the pro version for one year so if your schools aren't supporting you with that I don't worry about it. Code HS is great pro or free. Pro is better, but free is good. So, I've been we have we teach JavaScript. We teach it in one semester and then the second semester is the advanced part. So basically we split it in half and then the kids can either choose APA, they'll go into APA and then they go into AP principles which is the I've changed that course where it's just advanced Java. So the kids can have two years of AP. this year I had two two sections of APA and one section of principles. So I think it's working.
We're attracting kids and we've adopted Carol as our mascot. It's been It's actually quite fun, I think. here's the breakdown.
I use the corgi. How long has that that been out? Two years maybe now. Yeah.
Yeah. And you start with Carol the dog, teaching the dog how to how to do things. The kids love it, but I make sure I switch it up just a little bit so they don't copy off the internet. Carol challenges. You'll see that they have a basic Carol the dog. You learn for loops, while loops. What else do you learn that's important?
for loops, while loops, and then just functions, how to organize your code, so that when they get out of the carol part, they can actually just ease into actual JavaScript programming. the Carol challenges are very are wonderful.
Some are very very complex. So, not all my students will do all the all the challenges. When I get to that unit, I'll say, "Okay, three out of the five." because some of the other kids might have already completed them. So, I try to to scaffold it that way. And then you go into JavaScript basics. They learn variables. And if some of you don't know JavaScript, don't worry about it. You'll do the problems with the kids. And I think that's the most important thing that I learned. I had to get over I don't have to know everything. And I've been teaching it for six and a half years. and they still come up with crazy ways to do it that I find very interesting and enjoyable. So I I hope no we have to get over our fear of being wrong because we will be wrong when it comes to coding. Every day we'll be wrong. And then the great part I like about Corgi Corgi, how do you say that?
Is that right? Corgi is the canvas and graphics. I mean, we make pictures, we add sound, we have animation, and the kids love it. And then again, there's always a challenge.
So, you can keep all levels of students active in your class. And that helps me as a teacher because I can talk to one advanced student and maybe enjoy it because I, you know, how many times can I correct a for loop, right? But once I've corrected maybe her helped on an advanced project, I can go back and I'm refreshed. So I kind of enjoy that because I I really try to make it where we get smiles instead of frowns. But everybody frowns in coding, right?
I think I've covered this a little bit maybe. So they break it up. They have controls. That's your if else. and then they have more advanced like if if if else else and I try to break I'm more of a function person just I try to break it up into modules and I teach them that let's say you're building a module that does I try to keep it one purpose and I try to help them once you test and code this you can forget about it. All you got to do is call it. So, I try to get them in that mind frame so that they're not saying, "Oh, it's too much. It's too much." You know, every little piece is a little piece. And then challenges, animation is great. I find my advanced students, you know, because you'll have some that'll could finish the whole course in two months. Then I say, "Okay, go work on animation." I don't know it.
I said, "Yeah, unit 8, go ahead, try it." And all of a sudden they're doing we had one kid do it and then the other kids were saying oh he's the Michael Jordan of CS1 and I'm like yeah and then he just started working faster and then they'd go talk it was great. let's see the same deal. And then at the end of the unit at the end of the course you have projects and that's what we teach in our CS2 class the second semester. But there's so much in here and just you don't have to use it all. Use what's appropriate for your class. Some some of your classes move slower, some of them move faster. And we have to be able to kind of figure out which kids are in which side or on the spectrum. You know, are they super fast or medium fast or getting to be fast? and just kind of don't get locked in where they all have to do it and they all have to do it right because I've never that doesn't isn't how coding works. we all break through at different times. And then you can make up assignments if you don't like what's there. And I don't mean I do make I do mean make up because sometimes I'll look at the work maybe before the class depending on when your prep is right and I'll say, "Oh, they really didn't get this." And then they walk in and I'll have I'll just have a simple do now. Make Carol do this, this, and this.
or I'll ask a student, you know, we had trouble with four loops. Can you make up a do now? So, I try to do that a lot just to keep it moving. But also, you can add it to your course. I tend not to do that because we use Google classroom, so I need to have my assignments posted. So, it's just easier for me to post the assignment there and have them do it in the sandbox. And the sandbox is just another part of the environment where they can u just have a place to do you know freestyle coding. Okay. So what do I like about code HS? They can hit the ground running. The IDE that is has been created for us is so simple. My day one I just give them the the code. I say, "Go on to code HS. Here's the code for your class. Log in and find the first assignment." I don't tell them how to do it. I don't direct them. And if I if someone asks me because I what I want to do is set up the collaborative class right from day one. I'll say, "Oh, it looks like you know what's your name?
The kid over there. He's got it. Why don't you come over and show?" So, and then within 5 10 minutes, they're all on there to the first on the first assignment. I didn't have to download anything because we work on Chromebooks. I don't know about what the what your students work on and you know, codes works seamlessly. I don't have any problems at all. And then the automated automated grading system is wonderful.
where the kids submit their work. Code HS will give them a green flag if they did it right. There's a position to check your code. It It's I mean I love CodeHS. I do look at CS Awesome and Code.org for my more advanced classes, but codes is the one that just makes my life easy. Can we have easy life teachers? I don't know.
easier. All right. structured lessons. That's the new stuff I got this year because we pay and this has really helped out because I don't know about you, but sometimes they get a little picky, you know, where are your standards with your lessons, cool down, warm up, all this stuff that's in my head mainly. So, I can go to the code HS lessons and just modify instead of creating from scratch, which saves me a lot of time. And then when I read it, I actually hope I become a better teacher.
Oh. Oh, Paula, before you move on to zooming in on lessons, since we're at the course level, we did have a question from an attendee. thinking about certifications for your students. I don't know if you have any experience with certifications, but if you do, I wanted to elevate this question to you.
what are other Well, okay. First, let me back up. We know we have codes certifications. We have a JavaScript level one certification that codes offers and it is recognized in a couple states. and we're working, you know, all the time to get more sort of industry recognition and state level recognition for our certification exams.
but this attendee wanted to know apart from the codes certification what are other highly respected or accepted JavaScript certifications could we make a list of the most authoritative or accepted. Oh I have no idea. Okay we'll pass it off to the chat then knows. But I but I have to thank CodeHS because they actually sponsored us.
They gave us a big code flag because we go to competitions and they gave us 10 free tests that we've been giving out to our students and all of our I think we've used five of them where they're certified with JavaScript now and the kids really enjoyed those. So, but I don't know of any others. We also work with Loheed Martin because they have the national competitions. It's they're actually in Java though and they actually they help us. They'll send people into the classroom and talk about Java. So I know if you reach out to different people in different industries, you can get some help and they might be able to give you that information as well. Is that good?
Okay. So this is the part I like. I think I mean besides code HS is just very comprehensive. If you're stuck as a teacher, you just sometimes it's hard to navigate, but just push the buttons like the kids do, right? And then you'll find things. But the this is the first lesson in JavaScript. And so Carol the dog, they're broken out. This would be unit one, an assignment. It has a video.
It has a little quiz example. And then the pencils are the exercises. So, I'm gonna go Let's see where I'm going. And this is I set this up and I did not I changed the names of the kids. and I did not pick my best kids. So, this is, you know, you're going to see a lot of things that I'll probably not like and I'll, you know, and that's okay, you know. So, the first thing is that you get a a video and I personally like the slides better because I don't know. And then I can go through Carol the dog. We love Carol.
Carol, we put signs out throughout the school. We have one now. It says Carol is watching. And then kids come in and say, "Why? Why is it?" You know, and then we explain and then hopefully they'll take a computer science class.
And then Carol has a world and we teach Carol how to do certain things. So in this case we taught Carol how to move.
So that's all they know. And then Carol likes to grab tennis balls. And so the first couple lessons you're using these commands which are really just calls to functions that somebody else wrote. And I like to stress that with my students.
It's not magic. Somebody wrote the code behind that. just like somebody wrote the code for this IDE. I always try to get them to think bigger and take the ball. And so Carol moves, Carol can turn left, he can put a ball, take a ball. And as you can see, it's comfortable for the students. And then it goes into some of the more details, but this is just an example of one of them. And then they explain the students will not understand what these parentheses are until they get to parameters and that's fine.
And and I'm just a stickler. You got to have the semicolon even though it works without it. and I love the way they present.
I know I'm sounding like I'm getting paid big bucks for this, but I mean it really I don't know. I just love codes.
Okay. So, here Carol's, this is where Carol is. This is where Carol has to end. And I try to get the kids. I go, "What's the difference?" And that'll be a challenge, right? Well, how does Carol get here? Okay, move, move, put, move, move. I said, "Pretty simple, right?" And then I have them walk around the classroom. I'll say, "take this and do this. tell me what you have to do, you know, and so that they understand each step has to be written out. And so that is the video. Now I want to go back. Oh, I'm in my class. Oh, I'm No, I'm not. I gotta go back. Sorry. I gotta go back. Sorry. This is how I teach as well. We can't We can't be perfect. I want to go. Well, I guess I'm in it.
Never mind. the quiz. I don't care if they do that, so I'm not going to show that. But depending on your school, we're an urban school, so I really want to keep them engaged at Alta. And I mean urban meaning we have fights in the hallway.
We have students that may not be able to get here on time. So where whenever I'm in the class, I want to make sure that it's some topic that engages them and keeps them moving. So, I always say look at the examples, you know, move move the dog and then if you get it right, you get a nice job. Actually, it's just Any questions about this? I know I'm jumping all over the place. Oh, we have a great chat going. but no questions right now. Good. Yeah, this is a great demo of the lessons and the components that the students see on their side. So, I definitely appreciate the look into the student view, Paula. Okay, great.
And then I, you know, the showing the exercise, you have to keep reminding them that, you know, they have all of what they need here. They have all the commands, everything they need. So, so I try not to answer specifically. When they ask questions, I'll say, "Well, did you look in Docs?" And docs is just online documentation because they'll always type in turn left with a lowercase L and it's not working. I go, "Oh, I can't remember. Let's look at docs." Because I'm always trying to reinforce that they can find the answer.
And let's look at a harder one. So, and then once they get it, let me let me see if this kid Let's see. Short stack. So I introduced the use of functions immediately because for one thing because we we know all these answers are on the internet and I'm a big stickler. Don't cheat. So if I and I say main has to be at the bottom, function main at the top start and end.
You know, they're always going to mess up the curly brackets, but I always start them early on this so that if they want to copy off the internet, it's going to look different. So that's one thing I do and check code. That's a good one. So code hs will look and if you have something wrong like let's say here if I take that away and I do a check code didn't make it the assignment was wrong. I go to assignment I go oh that's what it's supposed to look like and then I go oh run it run and it didn't look like this. a little more details. So what I really tried to break break the habit early because the kids will go I don't know how to do this and I'm like coding is nobody knows how to do it until you get it right you know you get you get it right you feel like genius until that point you feel like a loser I go but that's coding and so the people who can get past those feelings of not being able to do it are the ones that do a great job and I try to reinforce that. So, let's look at this one. And and look how beautiful that is.
I mean, it makes you it makes you proud to be a teacher. Look at the indentation. This must be the good student. I picked two. They're all good, don't get me wrong, but some are a little better than others in coding. They're all great people. So, and I stress the indentation because they don't understand. And I keep saying it's so much easier to debug. Look, I know the while stop started here and ended here.
It started here and ended here. I know the function ends because they're always losing their curly brackets. And then I, you know, if they don't get it and then I just say no points unless it's indented correctly, no points. And then all of a sudden they're like, "Yeah, it works." And you can slow it down. I don't know if this is too basic.
Let me know. Yell at me. Tell me to speed it up if you want. I love this, you know. and then you can actually Oh, I'm just covered by this. I think if I move the faces away. There we go. If I go, you can you can run it. You can forward fast. Let's reset. You can make it move fast. you can, you know, slow it down, you can go slowly and that way they can walk through their code and find the exact position of where their problem is. So all these tools really make it hard not to learn if you want to. And then all the you know the little cheat sheet over here nothing better in my estimation.
Let's go look at a different student.
I don't know about Susan, how good she was. These are fake names. Oh, didn't do it. Let's see how far did Susan get. And then you see, I'm clicking on the unit and then it opens up to the exercises. Let's see. No, Susan didn't do that. How about here? Oh, I should have known. It's yellow. It told me that. It was yelling at me. Don't open me. She didn't do it. Mario Kill. Let's see what this one is. And so what I would tell her is, and I also teach four loops early. So when they get to this point because so Carol goes up, he grabs the circles. And I allow them to do it differently than what was described in the directions. as long as it turns green sorry blue and you have where is this function main function main on the top function main on the top then you're good and so what I usually do at this point I'll say h look you got three things put in a for loop and then I'll teach them for loops so so I like to do things early so they can do it in a simple way and all you have to do is you go to box. You find a for loop. You go in here, loops, go to a for loop, and there it is. And they say, "Well, we don't know." I said, "I don't know either. Copy it.
Bring this over. Change the count. Put a number." Count. What do you think count is? I go, "A loop is doing things repetitively. You need a number." And then we stumble through and then they're all happy. So I so I try to kind of judge what they need to learn at whatever point. I don't get stuck with code HS says they have to move at this pace. I I don't even listen to code HS on that. sorry code HS. No, this is wonderful. Like you you're meeting the needs of your students, right? And you are pacing your students as they're ready. And I think this is all fantastic advice on how you are using the platform to best affect with your students. So I love this sharing. Okay, good. Yay. And then I love the history button over here. It's more I haven't used the conversation. I'm going to have to try that. I think that's when you talk. You can put a note in the students code. Is that right? This conversation. Yeah. So, it's a feedback tool. So, you could type a message to a student and they could ask you for help using that conversations tab. you do have the ability to like edit student code and then push those changes to the student.
but that would be different than that conversation tab. Oh, okay. So, the way my room is set up, I have a huge room and I have tables where you that you could write on and so I'm always wandering around looking at their code and I think that helps too because I don't know. I think it helps. So, here's the history. So, you can actually see how they built the program. Let's see. I'm going the right way. Yeah. So, and it'll just show me how the code changes. And then if they do copy, these are pretty early, so they're not copying. It'll say pasted code. so that helps, I think, with the cheating. And they will cheat. And then I just I always remind them the more cheating I catch, the more paper tests I'm going to give because after each little unit in in in any section, I'll say, "Okay, tomorrow we're going to have a paper test. You're going to have to make Carol do something and write it on paper." And I think that helps them try to remember what I'm trying to teach. I I think so. I think I'll go back to the slides, but you'll really enjoy the carol part of the of the class and the kids enjoy it as well. And so that was my carol part. And then I have a lot of discussion questions that I I try to you know well how do you think how can we make our code more readable and I try to do some highlevel questions and keep it pretty and then I use teach student examples. I'll say, "Oh, Susan did this." So, let's look at Susan's code. And anybody having any trouble? Let's show that code so that they get used to helping each other out. And I think that works well. So, now I'm going to go to one of Code Jess's lessons that will really save you a lot of time and give you things to think about.
So it's I mean they share objectives with you which are wonderful. they they all the activities and it's all in one place. Sometimes codes has so many different things you can go through that you can actually get confused and lost.
And this is one of the things I really loved when we when I convinced the principal to pay for it because if there's a lesson I'm having trouble with, it's all here. I can see, oh, here are the objectives. Okay, this is what they're going to do. I can actually print out the quizzes. I can print the slides. I can post the slides because we have to have everything in Google Classroom. I can and then all the the solutions. if you're just learning Java script, maybe you stay away from the solutions and let the kids come up with their solutions, you come up with yours. I found that helped me learn the fastest is if I just did it myself and then thought about it. I mean, of course, towards the end of the course, you need to look at the solutions. there isn't enough time to do much else.
But in the early days, try to do it yourself. the problem guides, some people like them. I'm not a big fan, but I'm sure, you know, let's see what this says. So, and this is pretty basic at this point. Again, I I shouldn't say I'm not a big fan. I'm not a fan at the earlier stage. Later stages I am there, that's better. but it does give you just context and I think we're we all get and I still do, especially in my Java classes. We all want to do what's best. We want them to learn as fast as possible. And I sometimes feel that I'm not performing at my best. And so when that happens, I do look at these lessons and I really try just to pick something that will make me will motivate me because you know teaching is hard and the kids can be challenging. So that's kind of what I use it for. Let's look at a and a lot of times like they'll be let's see what this does. So again, this is a very hard program for the kids. This is in unit three where they had to jump from Carol to variables and they really and user input. So all those things are coming at them and they they just want Carol back and so going to the dis the lesson plan helps me reminds me what are they going to get wrong and then my and then they'll give you because the the grader the coder the autograder is great but he is very specific. So in this one I believe you got to remember to build a blank line in and the kids and you got to remember the exclamation point and this is where I discuss with the kid how the autograder is working. I go the autograder is just looking for certain things. If it wants you to have you know a four loop three functions it find it scans do I have three words that say function?
So, so I, so I guess what I'm saying is the harder the code, the more useful these are and they're all here and easy to access. They give you questions. I don't know. Does that look good? Just do the people in the audience think this is great and it's I mean I haven't seen I don't think code.org does this and I know that CS Awesome does not. So, that's one thing that you're you're on the right tool. Yeah. And I will say that the lesson plans including the solution and problem guides are a paid feature. So, I think the first five lesson plans of each course you can access for free. But the yeah, if you would like more lesson plans then that would be a a pro tool.
And like I said, I was on the the free for this is my first year, six years. And so then you if you're on the free tool, the students will com get the right answers. So you don't have to worry. You'll always have a solution for you. But are the solutions you have to buy, right? They're not or does everybody have the solutions? No, the the autograde I mean the the autograder piece is free. So the students will get feedback on their submissions when they're where when there's an autograder available. But the view you're showing of the problem guides are a pro feature because they're in the lesson plan documents. Oh, okay. So they can't go to the toolbox. Can they go here and find lesson plans, assignments? So, we don't have answer key here, right?
Okay. Yeah. So, it does make it harder when you're on the free version, but you'll always have a student come up with the solution and it might not be the optimum solution, but then you'll have another student, an advanced student. So, so don't cry. It's okay.
You'll make it through. and then you'll come up with solution and they're on the internet. But anyway, so I'm going to go back to here and Paulo, while you were talking about the answer keys and everything, we did have a question from one of the attendees who was asking about grading and this came from Cammy.
I'm assuming Cammy is on a free plan because that is where the grading gets a little tricky. So with our pro license, you have access to a grade book and a custo a customizable grade book. You can totally configure it however you want and set it up, but it is a bit different on the free plan. So Paula, how did you grade when you were on the free plan?
for examp I used to assign like a unit and say it was due at a certain day and then I would go through and look at all the code and I like that a lot but I've moved away from that because of the cheating. So now what I do is unit one is due on certain day. I said, "But then I pick a few of those problems and I put them on Google Classroom and I make them do them in class and then they submit it to Google Classroom so that I I'm cherrypicking which programs I'm going to grade basically, but they all have to have I can still see all the greens. So they have to put in the effort and and then I cherrypick a few assignments and switch them up just a little bit and then I have those they do those in sandbox and then every class I generally have a do now. So I kind of have forward do now. So, if we're gonna if we're working with variables, I say I may have a okay, ask your mother what her age is and then print it out. And that'll be my complete do now. So, they'll say, well, graphics, okay, console, and then we don't know how to do that yet. Go to docs. And then I grade them on that because sometimes that's what they need to keep motivated, that grade. And then I give paper tests where pretty much I create assignments that are very similar to the unit what code HS has, but they have to write it out. And that's pretty much what I do.
Okay. And then kind of a second part to Cammy's question, she was asking if you lock lessons and only let them have access to a certain amount at a certain time. And on our pro license, you do have the ability to configure student access to lessons and to what work they see that's available and also what they can click into to actually work in. but that is part of our pro license. So Paula, how did you kind of weigh that access piece and what students could actually click into and and work on when you were a free teacher?
I don't lock anything. Okay. I I want my advanced my enthusiastic students to run as fast as and do whatever they want.
Meaning of course in order.
I just have seen no need to keep the class as a group.
I mean they are as a group for the testing but if somebody wants to do all the work and finish the whole class in a semester please do it. But getting back to your first part of that question another tool I love is the coding activity log. It shows you exactly when they were logged on to codes and how many activities they completed.
Because sometimes kids will say, "I worked on it all weekend." And I'll say, "Okay, just a minute. Let me look." I'll say, "When did you work on it?" "Well, maybe I looked at it Thursday." You know, and then I'll say, and this kind of keeps them a little bit honest. Sometimes I need to do that with my students, but I don't I don't lock down anything. I want them to do more. And I've had kids who say, "Okay, I've done enough. I've gone through unit 8. I want to learn something else." And I'll put them on a different class. I'll say, "Why don't you go look at Python? Why don't you go look at SQL?" Because those are the kids that are going to pick it up without you. So, why limit them? That's kind of what I But I do have a must have this done by this date. So, kind of have Yeah, I I love that approach. And we do have teachers, you know, who use our platform in completely asynchronous environments, virtual environments, and all of their students are in a different spot in the curriculum, all working on different things. And so that's kind of like one end of the codes use spectrum. And the other end is where we have teachers who are all the students are, you know, instruction is very teacherled. All of the students are on the same page at the same time, learning the same things, and teachers are facilitating debates and discussions and all kinds of in-class activity to keep students kind of engaged in the same spot at the same time. And and then we have use cases everywhere in between. And so I love that code is a solution for so many different types of classrooms and teacher personalities and student personalities. So, I appreciate you sharing how you run it, Paula.
Yeah, basically, and I have whiteboard tables, so sometimes I'll just make them work in teams, writing the code on the table, and then I say, "Okay, go to sandbox." Do now's really to help students arrive to class on time. That helps and to get them going. And then we have students will create challenges.
I think this is I think this is a student project that I really love. I hope so. Yes. So, one of the big tell me I can't run this. There we go. Okay. They've added graphics sooner earlier. So you have a little dry period in unit three where they're learning variables and they really get bored and then we go go to graphics and they love.
So one of the projects was I said bring think about a social issue that you want and I want you to create pictures and convince me that it's bad or good. So this student do you vapor smoke? So he did user input. We'll put a yes. And then he created this slideshow.
So basically what he did was he he has all these images and he has the timers which are are pretty tricky and then he has all his different screens and he added music. So, this was something that really they love to do and I don't know I don't know how to download every piece of music because it's different depending on how the music is stored and they all figured it out and I and I think we have to be comfortable with say I don't know how to download music. Figure it out. So, they figure it out. I know how to test it because codes gives I think you guys give us songs. I don't know. But you give us images. So we can test the image part with a code image, but they don't want those images. So then they have to figure out how to translate it. So this is one of my wonderful I love doing these projects. Well, you just set them free. And in this I'm going to run it again. I'm going to say no. And he used the same music for yes and no, which is silly, but I don't care. You know, he did it.
And I I think I'm getting better at saying I don't care in a good way where hey you know and then they started oh my music's better than your music and then the class is happy and then you'll see that he changed I don't know he changed the what he changed because I said well it's got to be different because otherwise you didn't get the ifs and this we hadn't gotten over the animation But there's a beautiful example in codes that shows a ball rolling across. So this kid has mastered taking a piece of code and inserting it into his code. And to me that's a success for after three months in a coding class that they have that experience and that knowledge actually. So, so Paula, we do have a question in the chat that I think is applicable here because you're allowing your students so much freedom. One of our attendees is wondering, do you allow your students or even show them how to use co-pilot or chat GPT for coding? and if you do, when do you introduce that in the CodeHS curriculum? And and do you feel like it increases or decreases student motivation to to learn?
Yeah, for JavaScript I don't think they know enough. My my view is everybody says, "Oh, coding coders are going to go away." I don't think so. But you have to understand what it takes to build a program. And I think that's what this JavaScript class gives them. They have to learn how to decompose, how to organize their thoughts, how to bring in new technology like songs and music and images.
So I don't use it and I can keep them busy enough with the code HS curriculum so they can learn all the things and then when they get to APA after the test what I did this year was I said okay I want you to learn the front end to Java Java swing they said we don't know I said I don't know chat GPT it GPT I get those whatever and they then started building complex programs with chat GBT and I thought I thought that was good. I also like Claude that does a lot of programming in there, but I only use it for my advanced students because I don't know, maybe because I was a coder, I see the value in understanding, being able to look at a piece of code and understand why it works and how it works. I don't know. Maybe I'll change next year. I don't think so, though.
I don't know if that answers it. Oh, I guess we time for lunch.
Course customization. you can add reorder.
I don't do a lot of this. I don't know why, but sometimes I will block assignments that I don't want them to do. especially in my Java class because sometimes they get a little repetitive. So, I know how to block, but it's not hard to do. Takes time and maybe you wouldn't do it your first year as a teacher because you might not have enough time to do it. And so, this is showing you how to remove it. Just the three dots and then it follows through. That makes sense. And then can add come the same way. I don't know if people are interested in this. Is this for both the free and the paid? Yeah. Yeah. You can customize curriculum if you are on a free plan and you can customize it using any of our pre-made codes content which is what you're showing here from our project catalog or from our career center. You can add in any of that content very easily just using the add button there and navigating through the modal that will help you either add content from a different code course or the project catalog or if you're in the career center you can also add career center assignments to your courses.
So yes, customizing courses by adding content, deleting content, or moving content around is all free.
And these were those supplemental materials that Paula showed at the beginning. So, we do have suggested additional content for many of our courses and you can find that at the very bottom of the assignments page for that section that you're looking for additional content for. And Paula, have you ever added in any content of your own? I know you mentioned some other platforms that you enjoy using. And if you have passion projects that have worked really really well in your classroom, if you have projects that students just respond well to and are engaged with, you can bring all kinds of different content, videos, slideshows, I think even like the quizzes and all kinds of different items into the course by building a custom module lesson and activity like you see here. Have you ever done that, Paula? Yes, I have. especially sometimes when the advanced students are looking for more work then I'll bring it in. I added also, you have a whole section for the AP class on testing practice exercises that I would add in to certain units. And you could make it as simple as anything. Like I'm even thinking like I do my do nows with Google classroom but now I'm even thinking of putting it directly into codes just having you know inserting a simple do now into it. just kind of depends on if the administration will allow me to just have that for the class and not Google Classroom.
Oh, teaching tips. All your students aren't going to catch on the at the same speed and that's normal. it just makes our job harder but more interesting. I can't think of any and this is just my style. I can't think of anything that would be more boring to me is if everybody were doing the same thing at the ex same exact time. That's just kind of mine.
We have kind of a we always say just code it if the you know and the kids get used to saying that to each other. It's I don't know how to start well just do something but they come with fears. I just had a a student Friday I had four interns and one of the interns said Mrs. Medina, I've had you three years and I was scared to death, but you always you always made me get not be afraid. And now he's going off to be a computer science ma major.
And and I think that's really important. And then I had to get rid of my own teacher fears. What if they know more than I do? Well, they all end up more knowing more than you do in one little tiny space.
But as we're the teacher, we know what we're doing. May not know everything about the content, but we know how to teach. And that's what I keep reminding myself. And you got to be a coach. Just go. Come on, let's do it. Student student centered. If they want to veer off a little bit, sure. And just remember, some aren't honest. And of course with AI, it's it's it's a problem. These two two of my favorite students they ran so fast they finished the whole curriculum in one for APA for Java in one semester. I sometimes you get you get those types and it's wonderful just wonderful. So that's why I have sprinters and I have distance runners. So and I try to not I try not to you know, some I try not just because you're going fast doesn't mean you're the best. So, when I have a distance runner who does something well, I really make an effort to show the whole class that work and to remind people it's it's not about where you are, it's what you're doing and the quality of your work. And I find that brings I always pick one student who doesn't think they're doing well and I find something that they do really well. Like it's amazing some kids are just good at finding those missing curly brackets and I try to find that one kid and have him go around finding the missing curly brackets or the debugging something something that nobody else can see. And I try to do that just so just so they know what they're doing and can work together. All right. And I cover I do a lot of pre-eaching. I do the function unit one and I I have I call it Medina style and you don't get any points if it's not in Medina style.
for loops while loops graph graphics I try to I set it up with parameters so that they can have one draw circle routine and I know code hs you have that rainbow problem they have a rainbow problem where you have to print seven columns of color they're all different but they want you to do it in seven functions and I say we're not going to do that we're going to have one function you're going to pass the color and the X, the Y. But it's it's just a way for me to I use it as I teach them that and then they'll say, "Oh, it's not passing the greater." I go, "I know because you're ahead of the greater.
You're doing better than code. We're better than what CodeHS thinks we should be at this point." So, I'm always trying to do a lot of that stuff. Oh, I guess I have it here. What do I have here?
I always try to for example so these are the parameters and they have to do some calculations and then they have one function and it basically does exactly what code HS wanted. I I add a little extra let's see well these they pick their own colors. So this is just a way that you can make it your own. Let's see. I don't even know if this will pass. Oh this would pass.
Yeah, but it's completely different than what the the answer key looks like. But that's just one example of how I try to keep, you know, the the ones that are running fast, interested, and still keep everyone happy. And then I do the same with loops. I try to add loops earlier.
I like to sh brag about our program to the school because I get zero money.
This is the first year they paid we have a teacher and a half and they paid $4,000 for codes the first year and we have the largest program. Now I just sound like a complainer. Largest programmer in Connecticut. but I do this like these were early on programs. I said, "Let's just go out and put them up on the wall." And you see we have Carol and then kids will say, "Who's Carol?" And then they're explaining their code. And I think that makes it to be a more approachable class even for the new kids that haven't taken it yet. this was I love this.
I have a student who had to do something in her AP lang class, I think. So, she decided to modify a famous saying. And so Carol got a little recognition in a in an English class. Who knew? So, we try to keep it light. I think that's it for me.
Have I covered all the material? Yes, you have done absolutely fantastic and I do love this student work bridging language arts and coding. This is just a fantastic example. Thank you so much for sharing how passionate your students have gotten about Carol and coding. Yes, Carol is Everybody loves Carol. We have a Carol costume, too, that they wear and we sing Carol.
Carol carols that even we make words to Christmas carols and about carol. I love it. Well, I will do one last call for Q&A questions as I kind of slowly work up work through our wrapup and support slides here. So, if anybody has outstanding questions for Paula, you want to hear about any of the practices she implements in her classroom or if you would like to go back to anything that she's touched on about our corgi course, we have had some wonderful tips and sharing in the chat around the sandbox feature around the question of the day. Paula, do you use either of those in your classroom?
Yes. I required I required it in my AP class, the question of the day. I love it. I think I'm going next year I want to required it in Java JavaScript because I I just love that.
That that was amazing. And do your students get really passionate about keeping their streaks? No. Okay. No, I have to threaten them. No, they did not like it at all. I'm the only one that likes it. Oh, that's so funny. Well, would you mind showing the group since it was a topic of conversation, would you mind pointing out on the like hopping over to the platform and showing folks where they can find the question of the day?
Now, you're gonna you're gonna am I in the right place? Where do I have to go?
Why isn't it? I think if you go to your toolbox.
Aha. See, you will never know everything. Now, where do I go? resources. The teal area.
Teal. Mhm. Okay. And it's here. Question of the day. Yep. Is that it? Yeah, that's it.
There we go.
Yes. So, we do have several different levels and several different languages available there for your students and you can view your students activity and progress and how they're doing on all those.
Yeah, these are very nice.
This these are very nice. And Paula, do you find that I believe the questions of the day work in conjunction with the curriculum so that they're easier at the beginning of the school year and then they get harder as Right.
Right. They were really good for my AP classes. Yeah. I have to do it. Okay.
You've embarrassed me. I'm going to use them next time. What? No. We've embarrassed you. I you if it's working well for one class, spread the wealth is what I say.
Well, thank you so much for sharing.
Let's pop back to the slides and we do have a question about I believe it's about the question of the day. Do you have students do the question of the day answered on CodeHS or do you do it in a Google doc? courageous because they're all multiple choice, aren't they? Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
All right. So, if you come away from this webinar and you find yourself having questions once you're into the platform and you're clicking around and you're trying to remember something Paula talked about, we always have access to the knowledge base available to you 247. And it is a fantastic place to find help and answers to any of these items that Paula has brought up today or you've seen in the Q&A or the chat. you can just search and we have great stepbystep instructions for how to use tool platform tools and can also probably answer some of your questions about curriculum, selecting curriculum, building pathways for your program of computer science at your school and more. So definitely check out the knowledge base. You can also talk with one of our customer support folks by clicking on the little smiley face icon in the bottom right hand corner of the platform. So, please reach out. Paula, have you ever have you ever reached out to our support? Oh, many times. And it's many times, just many times. And every they always get back to you. And and it's even better now that I'm on pro.
They'll actually sometimes it's like, well, if you're on pro, we could help you with that, which is fine. Not complaining, but no, they're great.
Yeah, very knowledgeable folks. very very accessible and and easy to get a hold of. So, appreciate that. All right, let's go on to the next slide.
other resources if you are interested in becoming a power user of code HS. We have our codes certified educator program that the application window actually just closed but we I think accepted 89 I saw 89 educators into our certified educator group this year in this very large cohort. and there are some special perks to being a part of that group, but you do have to have used codes for at least a year in the classroom before you can apply to be in the certified educator group. You can earn micro credentials with us. You can also, if you have social media, join our codes Facebook educators group. We even have specific groups for specific teaching courses like we have a CSA Facebook group, we have an elementary Facebook group and then we just have a general code pro you know tips tips and tricks for using code HS in the computer science classroom and then of course we also have our social media there. So, last that I would like to show, if you will go on to the next slide, we do have some links for you all.
We would request that you please fill out our webinar survey. Let us know how we did today. So, I put a link to that survey in the chat. We love hearing your feedback. We love to know, was this useful to you? Is this topic useful to you? did we focus on the right items? Did we miss anything? If there is something you still have a question about, if you there is something you still want to know about, please put it in the survey and I will try to follow up and see if we can get whatever get you the information you need. We are here to serve and Paula has been so graciously giving of her time today to share her teaching experience with you and we would just love to to hear how you enjoyed it.
We do also like to provide you with evidence that you've been here today in case that could be useful to you in your license renewal or you know u working with your administrators in your building. and so log into codes first. This is very important. You need to be logged into codes and then you can click on the link that I have put in the chat and that will just bring you to a screen that says thank you for attending the webinar and an email will follow with a certificate of completion. So make sure you're signed into CODHS first then click on our certificate of completion link. And finally, we would invite you, of course, to attend additional PD events this summer. We do have three more sessions in our summer webinar series and we would love to see you again to learn more about these other courses available on the code platform. So please if you are teaching APCSA or APCSP definitely join us. especially that CSA group because as you know if you are teaching APCSA the college board made lots of changes to the APCSA course for 2526 school year and we will be sharing a lot about that new course and how codes is supporting educators in teaching CSA with all the changes from the college board. We have a fantastic brand new course for CSA. So, please join us on the 16th if you can. All right, I think we answered all of the questions. and so we will just leave you with a huge thank you.
And if you are interested in seeing what our protools are about, I will put a link in the chat, codest.com/learnmore. And Paula, I can't thank you enough. You did a fantastic job. I loved seeing your pictures and hearing all of your students stories.
Thank you so much for leading us through this JavaScript corgi course today.
Thank you for having me, Stephanie. It was wonderful. All right, so folks, we'll see you soon, I hope. Have a wonderful afternoon.
[Music]
So, please, please, please feel free to interact in the chat, keep the conversation flowing, but if you have questions, use the Q&A because then everybody can see your questions, including Allison and I, and we can answer those or you know, kind of pop them up to Paula to answer live in the session. and we don't want to lose those fantastic questions.
So again, welcome everyone. This is getting started teaching JavaScript. If you would like access to the slide deck, there is a little URL down there at the bottom of Paula's screen, cods.comstarted-js. So if you would like to follow along with Paula on her screen, she's going to be using the slides and showing you some things on the code platform. So you are certainly welcome to just follow along for now. If you would like to reference the slide deck later when you have some time to play around with code HS on your own then you can you know open up the slide deck there. We will be emailing out a recording of today's session and also a link to that slide deck later after the session. So welcome everyone.
I see some folks from Indiana. I love seeing my Indiana folks on calls. I am based in Indianapolis, Indiana. So, welcome to those folks from Indiana and Tennessee and Puerto Rico and Texas and Kentucky and all over the US here.
Generally, we have some international joiners also. So, we'll see who else we get. All right, let's get started.
Paula, if you would click to the next slide, please. My name is Stephanie Bennett. I'm a professional development specialist here at CodeHS, but today you're going to be hearing from Paula Medina who is still teaching JavaScript and still enjoying it. Paula, welcome.
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yes.
And we are also joined, like I said, by Allison Drake, who is a new professional development specialist here at Code HS.
and she and I will be manning the Q&A and answering questions or elevating your questions to Paula as it kind of fits into the flow of her presentation.
So next slide Paula please. Today what we're going to be covering in this hour and a half session is a course overview. What is our JavaScript corgi course? We are going to take a look at a few lessons and see what's included in the curriculum and specifically how lessons are kind of paced and taught and set up for students in the corgi course. We're going to talk about how you can use the codes platform to customize your course to the needs of your students. And then Paula is going to share a bunch of stories and teacher tips and I'm very excited to hear all of those. Next slide please Paula. Thank you. So again, for those of you who are just joining, we have had about five people join in the last minute. We're going to leave the chat for our comments and sharing and conversational kind of items. so if you're just joining, please feel free to introduce yourself in the chat. And we're going to use the Q&A for questions. And so that's the purpose of keeping those separate is again to ensure that nobody's great questions get lost in the flow of the chat. So you can open your Q&A and your chat and put your questions in the Q&A. Put your sharings and your observations and your stories in the chat. Thank you Paula. Next slide. If you do not already have a code account, we would encourage you to make one.
CodeHS middle school and high school curriculum is always free. Teacher accounts are free and our student accounts are also free. And so please, please go ahead and sign up for one of those codes accounts so you can kind of follow along with Paula today. Build some muscle memory as we are exploring this JavaScript Corgi course. Allison, would you mind dropping that sign up link in the chat, please?
And then I'm going to talk a little bit about CodeHS and then I'm going to set Paula free to talk about all the great things in our Corgi course. So if you are not familiar with codes already, we are a comprehensive platform for teaching computer science all the way from K through 12. We do have a elementary curriculum. And I said earlier that our middle and high school curriculum is always free for teachers, but our elementary school curriculum is a paid prolic. So if you would like to learn more, we'll get you a link at the end of this session to learn all about our elementary curriculum. but it's fantastic and as is our middle school and high school curriculum. So, we provide all of these services in a web-based platform that provides for equity of access and ease of use. as your learners are used to interacting with edtech platforms and of course you know that besides curriculum, we also offer professional development. you you are here today so you know that we have PD and all of these all of this curriculum is housed online along with our tools and resources and Paula if you'll click to the next slide I will talk a little bit more about those tools and features that we offer to computer science teachers in the hopes that we can make your teaching as efficient as possible so that you can focus on what's most important in your classroom which is which are your learners right so we're going to provide provide those LMS features that you're familiar with like chatting with students, posting messages to your courses and classes, allowing for some progress monitoring and feedback with students and even with our pro tools allow for grading and also academic integrity features.
lots and lots of tools that we're providing in the hopes again that teachers are finding it a very efficient tool, a very strong tool to enhance their computer science teaching and make it easy. So again, you can concentrate on what's most important, which are your students. All right, Paula, next slide. Then it's off to you.
And please let us know if you have any questions in the Q&A and keep sharing in the chat. Thanks, folks.
Well, thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Paula Medina. I've been teaching 10 years now. I retired from an IT profession for a hundred years and then I decided I wanted to get give back. I now have a certification in math and computer science at Brian McBan High School. I work in Norwalk, Connecticut. It is in an inner urban urban city school. and I started teaching math here and then the person who taught computer science retired and and my boss said, "Hey, I saw your resume. I need you to teach computer science." So I said, "Great. How do we do it?" And they were pretty much old school. Download an ID and paper assignments, maybe one program a week. And I said, "No, I'm not teaching like that. That's that was even outdated for me." So, so what I did was I tr I built a program the first year, you know, and I said I went to a conference and I saw I think it was Jeremy that actually presented codes and I said that is the way to learn and so I brought it back. we had, you know, we use the free version and I said, "Well, I don't know JavaScript. I mean, I didn't use it." So, the secretary in our department and me, we learned it together. We learned Carol, we went through everything and that's what I've been using for the last, I guess, six and a half years. But what was important to me was that everyone had access. It used to be just the kids good in math were taking it. He had maybe 15 students and right now we have over 350 students working on code HS in our school. And my belief is everyone can learn how to think logically and use our this platform to learn how to code. So we've built and the principal is very very supportive and so our belief system is include everyone try to get everyone to take a computer science class build a curriculum that everyone can be successful with and use code HS and for us it's worked. I've only been on the pro version for one year so if your schools aren't supporting you with that I don't worry about it. Code HS is great pro or free. Pro is better, but free is good. So, I've been we have we teach JavaScript. We teach it in one semester and then the second semester is the advanced part. So basically we split it in half and then the kids can either choose APA, they'll go into APA and then they go into AP principles which is the I've changed that course where it's just advanced Java. So the kids can have two years of AP. this year I had two two sections of APA and one section of principles. So I think it's working.
We're attracting kids and we've adopted Carol as our mascot. It's been It's actually quite fun, I think. here's the breakdown.
I use the corgi. How long has that that been out? Two years maybe now. Yeah.
Yeah. And you start with Carol the dog, teaching the dog how to how to do things. The kids love it, but I make sure I switch it up just a little bit so they don't copy off the internet. Carol challenges. You'll see that they have a basic Carol the dog. You learn for loops, while loops. What else do you learn that's important?
for loops, while loops, and then just functions, how to organize your code, so that when they get out of the carol part, they can actually just ease into actual JavaScript programming. the Carol challenges are very are wonderful.
Some are very very complex. So, not all my students will do all the all the challenges. When I get to that unit, I'll say, "Okay, three out of the five." because some of the other kids might have already completed them. So, I try to to scaffold it that way. And then you go into JavaScript basics. They learn variables. And if some of you don't know JavaScript, don't worry about it. You'll do the problems with the kids. And I think that's the most important thing that I learned. I had to get over I don't have to know everything. And I've been teaching it for six and a half years. and they still come up with crazy ways to do it that I find very interesting and enjoyable. So I I hope no we have to get over our fear of being wrong because we will be wrong when it comes to coding. Every day we'll be wrong. And then the great part I like about Corgi Corgi, how do you say that?
Is that right? Corgi is the canvas and graphics. I mean, we make pictures, we add sound, we have animation, and the kids love it. And then again, there's always a challenge.
So, you can keep all levels of students active in your class. And that helps me as a teacher because I can talk to one advanced student and maybe enjoy it because I, you know, how many times can I correct a for loop, right? But once I've corrected maybe her helped on an advanced project, I can go back and I'm refreshed. So I kind of enjoy that because I I really try to make it where we get smiles instead of frowns. But everybody frowns in coding, right?
I think I've covered this a little bit maybe. So they break it up. They have controls. That's your if else. and then they have more advanced like if if if else else and I try to break I'm more of a function person just I try to break it up into modules and I teach them that let's say you're building a module that does I try to keep it one purpose and I try to help them once you test and code this you can forget about it. All you got to do is call it. So, I try to get them in that mind frame so that they're not saying, "Oh, it's too much. It's too much." You know, every little piece is a little piece. And then challenges, animation is great. I find my advanced students, you know, because you'll have some that'll could finish the whole course in two months. Then I say, "Okay, go work on animation." I don't know it.
I said, "Yeah, unit 8, go ahead, try it." And all of a sudden they're doing we had one kid do it and then the other kids were saying oh he's the Michael Jordan of CS1 and I'm like yeah and then he just started working faster and then they'd go talk it was great. let's see the same deal. And then at the end of the unit at the end of the course you have projects and that's what we teach in our CS2 class the second semester. But there's so much in here and just you don't have to use it all. Use what's appropriate for your class. Some some of your classes move slower, some of them move faster. And we have to be able to kind of figure out which kids are in which side or on the spectrum. You know, are they super fast or medium fast or getting to be fast? and just kind of don't get locked in where they all have to do it and they all have to do it right because I've never that doesn't isn't how coding works. we all break through at different times. And then you can make up assignments if you don't like what's there. And I don't mean I do make I do mean make up because sometimes I'll look at the work maybe before the class depending on when your prep is right and I'll say, "Oh, they really didn't get this." And then they walk in and I'll have I'll just have a simple do now. Make Carol do this, this, and this.
or I'll ask a student, you know, we had trouble with four loops. Can you make up a do now? So, I try to do that a lot just to keep it moving. But also, you can add it to your course. I tend not to do that because we use Google classroom, so I need to have my assignments posted. So, it's just easier for me to post the assignment there and have them do it in the sandbox. And the sandbox is just another part of the environment where they can u just have a place to do you know freestyle coding. Okay. So what do I like about code HS? They can hit the ground running. The IDE that is has been created for us is so simple. My day one I just give them the the code. I say, "Go on to code HS. Here's the code for your class. Log in and find the first assignment." I don't tell them how to do it. I don't direct them. And if I if someone asks me because I what I want to do is set up the collaborative class right from day one. I'll say, "Oh, it looks like you know what's your name?
The kid over there. He's got it. Why don't you come over and show?" So, and then within 5 10 minutes, they're all on there to the first on the first assignment. I didn't have to download anything because we work on Chromebooks. I don't know about what the what your students work on and you know, codes works seamlessly. I don't have any problems at all. And then the automated automated grading system is wonderful.
where the kids submit their work. Code HS will give them a green flag if they did it right. There's a position to check your code. It It's I mean I love CodeHS. I do look at CS Awesome and Code.org for my more advanced classes, but codes is the one that just makes my life easy. Can we have easy life teachers? I don't know.
easier. All right. structured lessons. That's the new stuff I got this year because we pay and this has really helped out because I don't know about you, but sometimes they get a little picky, you know, where are your standards with your lessons, cool down, warm up, all this stuff that's in my head mainly. So, I can go to the code HS lessons and just modify instead of creating from scratch, which saves me a lot of time. And then when I read it, I actually hope I become a better teacher.
Oh. Oh, Paula, before you move on to zooming in on lessons, since we're at the course level, we did have a question from an attendee. thinking about certifications for your students. I don't know if you have any experience with certifications, but if you do, I wanted to elevate this question to you.
what are other Well, okay. First, let me back up. We know we have codes certifications. We have a JavaScript level one certification that codes offers and it is recognized in a couple states. and we're working, you know, all the time to get more sort of industry recognition and state level recognition for our certification exams.
but this attendee wanted to know apart from the codes certification what are other highly respected or accepted JavaScript certifications could we make a list of the most authoritative or accepted. Oh I have no idea. Okay we'll pass it off to the chat then knows. But I but I have to thank CodeHS because they actually sponsored us.
They gave us a big code flag because we go to competitions and they gave us 10 free tests that we've been giving out to our students and all of our I think we've used five of them where they're certified with JavaScript now and the kids really enjoyed those. So, but I don't know of any others. We also work with Loheed Martin because they have the national competitions. It's they're actually in Java though and they actually they help us. They'll send people into the classroom and talk about Java. So I know if you reach out to different people in different industries, you can get some help and they might be able to give you that information as well. Is that good?
Okay. So this is the part I like. I think I mean besides code HS is just very comprehensive. If you're stuck as a teacher, you just sometimes it's hard to navigate, but just push the buttons like the kids do, right? And then you'll find things. But the this is the first lesson in JavaScript. And so Carol the dog, they're broken out. This would be unit one, an assignment. It has a video.
It has a little quiz example. And then the pencils are the exercises. So, I'm gonna go Let's see where I'm going. And this is I set this up and I did not I changed the names of the kids. and I did not pick my best kids. So, this is, you know, you're going to see a lot of things that I'll probably not like and I'll, you know, and that's okay, you know. So, the first thing is that you get a a video and I personally like the slides better because I don't know. And then I can go through Carol the dog. We love Carol.
Carol, we put signs out throughout the school. We have one now. It says Carol is watching. And then kids come in and say, "Why? Why is it?" You know, and then we explain and then hopefully they'll take a computer science class.
And then Carol has a world and we teach Carol how to do certain things. So in this case we taught Carol how to move.
So that's all they know. And then Carol likes to grab tennis balls. And so the first couple lessons you're using these commands which are really just calls to functions that somebody else wrote. And I like to stress that with my students.
It's not magic. Somebody wrote the code behind that. just like somebody wrote the code for this IDE. I always try to get them to think bigger and take the ball. And so Carol moves, Carol can turn left, he can put a ball, take a ball. And as you can see, it's comfortable for the students. And then it goes into some of the more details, but this is just an example of one of them. And then they explain the students will not understand what these parentheses are until they get to parameters and that's fine.
And and I'm just a stickler. You got to have the semicolon even though it works without it. and I love the way they present.
I know I'm sounding like I'm getting paid big bucks for this, but I mean it really I don't know. I just love codes.
Okay. So, here Carol's, this is where Carol is. This is where Carol has to end. And I try to get the kids. I go, "What's the difference?" And that'll be a challenge, right? Well, how does Carol get here? Okay, move, move, put, move, move. I said, "Pretty simple, right?" And then I have them walk around the classroom. I'll say, "take this and do this. tell me what you have to do, you know, and so that they understand each step has to be written out. And so that is the video. Now I want to go back. Oh, I'm in my class. Oh, I'm No, I'm not. I gotta go back. Sorry. I gotta go back. Sorry. This is how I teach as well. We can't We can't be perfect. I want to go. Well, I guess I'm in it.
Never mind. the quiz. I don't care if they do that, so I'm not going to show that. But depending on your school, we're an urban school, so I really want to keep them engaged at Alta. And I mean urban meaning we have fights in the hallway.
We have students that may not be able to get here on time. So where whenever I'm in the class, I want to make sure that it's some topic that engages them and keeps them moving. So, I always say look at the examples, you know, move move the dog and then if you get it right, you get a nice job. Actually, it's just Any questions about this? I know I'm jumping all over the place. Oh, we have a great chat going. but no questions right now. Good. Yeah, this is a great demo of the lessons and the components that the students see on their side. So, I definitely appreciate the look into the student view, Paula. Okay, great.
And then I, you know, the showing the exercise, you have to keep reminding them that, you know, they have all of what they need here. They have all the commands, everything they need. So, so I try not to answer specifically. When they ask questions, I'll say, "Well, did you look in Docs?" And docs is just online documentation because they'll always type in turn left with a lowercase L and it's not working. I go, "Oh, I can't remember. Let's look at docs." Because I'm always trying to reinforce that they can find the answer.
And let's look at a harder one. So, and then once they get it, let me let me see if this kid Let's see. Short stack. So I introduced the use of functions immediately because for one thing because we we know all these answers are on the internet and I'm a big stickler. Don't cheat. So if I and I say main has to be at the bottom, function main at the top start and end.
You know, they're always going to mess up the curly brackets, but I always start them early on this so that if they want to copy off the internet, it's going to look different. So that's one thing I do and check code. That's a good one. So code hs will look and if you have something wrong like let's say here if I take that away and I do a check code didn't make it the assignment was wrong. I go to assignment I go oh that's what it's supposed to look like and then I go oh run it run and it didn't look like this. a little more details. So what I really tried to break break the habit early because the kids will go I don't know how to do this and I'm like coding is nobody knows how to do it until you get it right you know you get you get it right you feel like genius until that point you feel like a loser I go but that's coding and so the people who can get past those feelings of not being able to do it are the ones that do a great job and I try to reinforce that. So, let's look at this one. And and look how beautiful that is.
I mean, it makes you it makes you proud to be a teacher. Look at the indentation. This must be the good student. I picked two. They're all good, don't get me wrong, but some are a little better than others in coding. They're all great people. So, and I stress the indentation because they don't understand. And I keep saying it's so much easier to debug. Look, I know the while stop started here and ended here.
It started here and ended here. I know the function ends because they're always losing their curly brackets. And then I, you know, if they don't get it and then I just say no points unless it's indented correctly, no points. And then all of a sudden they're like, "Yeah, it works." And you can slow it down. I don't know if this is too basic.
Let me know. Yell at me. Tell me to speed it up if you want. I love this, you know. and then you can actually Oh, I'm just covered by this. I think if I move the faces away. There we go. If I go, you can you can run it. You can forward fast. Let's reset. You can make it move fast. you can, you know, slow it down, you can go slowly and that way they can walk through their code and find the exact position of where their problem is. So all these tools really make it hard not to learn if you want to. And then all the you know the little cheat sheet over here nothing better in my estimation.
Let's go look at a different student.
I don't know about Susan, how good she was. These are fake names. Oh, didn't do it. Let's see how far did Susan get. And then you see, I'm clicking on the unit and then it opens up to the exercises. Let's see. No, Susan didn't do that. How about here? Oh, I should have known. It's yellow. It told me that. It was yelling at me. Don't open me. She didn't do it. Mario Kill. Let's see what this one is. And so what I would tell her is, and I also teach four loops early. So when they get to this point because so Carol goes up, he grabs the circles. And I allow them to do it differently than what was described in the directions. as long as it turns green sorry blue and you have where is this function main function main on the top function main on the top then you're good and so what I usually do at this point I'll say h look you got three things put in a for loop and then I'll teach them for loops so so I like to do things early so they can do it in a simple way and all you have to do is you go to box. You find a for loop. You go in here, loops, go to a for loop, and there it is. And they say, "Well, we don't know." I said, "I don't know either. Copy it.
Bring this over. Change the count. Put a number." Count. What do you think count is? I go, "A loop is doing things repetitively. You need a number." And then we stumble through and then they're all happy. So I so I try to kind of judge what they need to learn at whatever point. I don't get stuck with code HS says they have to move at this pace. I I don't even listen to code HS on that. sorry code HS. No, this is wonderful. Like you you're meeting the needs of your students, right? And you are pacing your students as they're ready. And I think this is all fantastic advice on how you are using the platform to best affect with your students. So I love this sharing. Okay, good. Yay. And then I love the history button over here. It's more I haven't used the conversation. I'm going to have to try that. I think that's when you talk. You can put a note in the students code. Is that right? This conversation. Yeah. So, it's a feedback tool. So, you could type a message to a student and they could ask you for help using that conversations tab. you do have the ability to like edit student code and then push those changes to the student.
but that would be different than that conversation tab. Oh, okay. So, the way my room is set up, I have a huge room and I have tables where you that you could write on and so I'm always wandering around looking at their code and I think that helps too because I don't know. I think it helps. So, here's the history. So, you can actually see how they built the program. Let's see. I'm going the right way. Yeah. So, and it'll just show me how the code changes. And then if they do copy, these are pretty early, so they're not copying. It'll say pasted code. so that helps, I think, with the cheating. And they will cheat. And then I just I always remind them the more cheating I catch, the more paper tests I'm going to give because after each little unit in in in any section, I'll say, "Okay, tomorrow we're going to have a paper test. You're going to have to make Carol do something and write it on paper." And I think that helps them try to remember what I'm trying to teach. I I think so. I think I'll go back to the slides, but you'll really enjoy the carol part of the of the class and the kids enjoy it as well. And so that was my carol part. And then I have a lot of discussion questions that I I try to you know well how do you think how can we make our code more readable and I try to do some highlevel questions and keep it pretty and then I use teach student examples. I'll say, "Oh, Susan did this." So, let's look at Susan's code. And anybody having any trouble? Let's show that code so that they get used to helping each other out. And I think that works well. So, now I'm going to go to one of Code Jess's lessons that will really save you a lot of time and give you things to think about.
So it's I mean they share objectives with you which are wonderful. they they all the activities and it's all in one place. Sometimes codes has so many different things you can go through that you can actually get confused and lost.
And this is one of the things I really loved when we when I convinced the principal to pay for it because if there's a lesson I'm having trouble with, it's all here. I can see, oh, here are the objectives. Okay, this is what they're going to do. I can actually print out the quizzes. I can print the slides. I can post the slides because we have to have everything in Google Classroom. I can and then all the the solutions. if you're just learning Java script, maybe you stay away from the solutions and let the kids come up with their solutions, you come up with yours. I found that helped me learn the fastest is if I just did it myself and then thought about it. I mean, of course, towards the end of the course, you need to look at the solutions. there isn't enough time to do much else.
But in the early days, try to do it yourself. the problem guides, some people like them. I'm not a big fan, but I'm sure, you know, let's see what this says. So, and this is pretty basic at this point. Again, I I shouldn't say I'm not a big fan. I'm not a fan at the earlier stage. Later stages I am there, that's better. but it does give you just context and I think we're we all get and I still do, especially in my Java classes. We all want to do what's best. We want them to learn as fast as possible. And I sometimes feel that I'm not performing at my best. And so when that happens, I do look at these lessons and I really try just to pick something that will make me will motivate me because you know teaching is hard and the kids can be challenging. So that's kind of what I use it for. Let's look at a and a lot of times like they'll be let's see what this does. So again, this is a very hard program for the kids. This is in unit three where they had to jump from Carol to variables and they really and user input. So all those things are coming at them and they they just want Carol back and so going to the dis the lesson plan helps me reminds me what are they going to get wrong and then my and then they'll give you because the the grader the coder the autograder is great but he is very specific. So in this one I believe you got to remember to build a blank line in and the kids and you got to remember the exclamation point and this is where I discuss with the kid how the autograder is working. I go the autograder is just looking for certain things. If it wants you to have you know a four loop three functions it find it scans do I have three words that say function?
So, so I, so I guess what I'm saying is the harder the code, the more useful these are and they're all here and easy to access. They give you questions. I don't know. Does that look good? Just do the people in the audience think this is great and it's I mean I haven't seen I don't think code.org does this and I know that CS Awesome does not. So, that's one thing that you're you're on the right tool. Yeah. And I will say that the lesson plans including the solution and problem guides are a paid feature. So, I think the first five lesson plans of each course you can access for free. But the yeah, if you would like more lesson plans then that would be a a pro tool.
And like I said, I was on the the free for this is my first year, six years. And so then you if you're on the free tool, the students will com get the right answers. So you don't have to worry. You'll always have a solution for you. But are the solutions you have to buy, right? They're not or does everybody have the solutions? No, the the autograde I mean the the autograder piece is free. So the students will get feedback on their submissions when they're where when there's an autograder available. But the view you're showing of the problem guides are a pro feature because they're in the lesson plan documents. Oh, okay. So they can't go to the toolbox. Can they go here and find lesson plans, assignments? So, we don't have answer key here, right?
Okay. Yeah. So, it does make it harder when you're on the free version, but you'll always have a student come up with the solution and it might not be the optimum solution, but then you'll have another student, an advanced student. So, so don't cry. It's okay.
You'll make it through. and then you'll come up with solution and they're on the internet. But anyway, so I'm going to go back to here and Paulo, while you were talking about the answer keys and everything, we did have a question from one of the attendees who was asking about grading and this came from Cammy.
I'm assuming Cammy is on a free plan because that is where the grading gets a little tricky. So with our pro license, you have access to a grade book and a custo a customizable grade book. You can totally configure it however you want and set it up, but it is a bit different on the free plan. So Paula, how did you grade when you were on the free plan?
for examp I used to assign like a unit and say it was due at a certain day and then I would go through and look at all the code and I like that a lot but I've moved away from that because of the cheating. So now what I do is unit one is due on certain day. I said, "But then I pick a few of those problems and I put them on Google Classroom and I make them do them in class and then they submit it to Google Classroom so that I I'm cherrypicking which programs I'm going to grade basically, but they all have to have I can still see all the greens. So they have to put in the effort and and then I cherrypick a few assignments and switch them up just a little bit and then I have those they do those in sandbox and then every class I generally have a do now. So I kind of have forward do now. So, if we're gonna if we're working with variables, I say I may have a okay, ask your mother what her age is and then print it out. And that'll be my complete do now. So, they'll say, well, graphics, okay, console, and then we don't know how to do that yet. Go to docs. And then I grade them on that because sometimes that's what they need to keep motivated, that grade. And then I give paper tests where pretty much I create assignments that are very similar to the unit what code HS has, but they have to write it out. And that's pretty much what I do.
Okay. And then kind of a second part to Cammy's question, she was asking if you lock lessons and only let them have access to a certain amount at a certain time. And on our pro license, you do have the ability to configure student access to lessons and to what work they see that's available and also what they can click into to actually work in. but that is part of our pro license. So Paula, how did you kind of weigh that access piece and what students could actually click into and and work on when you were a free teacher?
I don't lock anything. Okay. I I want my advanced my enthusiastic students to run as fast as and do whatever they want.
Meaning of course in order.
I just have seen no need to keep the class as a group.
I mean they are as a group for the testing but if somebody wants to do all the work and finish the whole class in a semester please do it. But getting back to your first part of that question another tool I love is the coding activity log. It shows you exactly when they were logged on to codes and how many activities they completed.
Because sometimes kids will say, "I worked on it all weekend." And I'll say, "Okay, just a minute. Let me look." I'll say, "When did you work on it?" "Well, maybe I looked at it Thursday." You know, and then I'll say, and this kind of keeps them a little bit honest. Sometimes I need to do that with my students, but I don't I don't lock down anything. I want them to do more. And I've had kids who say, "Okay, I've done enough. I've gone through unit 8. I want to learn something else." And I'll put them on a different class. I'll say, "Why don't you go look at Python? Why don't you go look at SQL?" Because those are the kids that are going to pick it up without you. So, why limit them? That's kind of what I But I do have a must have this done by this date. So, kind of have Yeah, I I love that approach. And we do have teachers, you know, who use our platform in completely asynchronous environments, virtual environments, and all of their students are in a different spot in the curriculum, all working on different things. And so that's kind of like one end of the codes use spectrum. And the other end is where we have teachers who are all the students are, you know, instruction is very teacherled. All of the students are on the same page at the same time, learning the same things, and teachers are facilitating debates and discussions and all kinds of in-class activity to keep students kind of engaged in the same spot at the same time. And and then we have use cases everywhere in between. And so I love that code is a solution for so many different types of classrooms and teacher personalities and student personalities. So, I appreciate you sharing how you run it, Paula.
Yeah, basically, and I have whiteboard tables, so sometimes I'll just make them work in teams, writing the code on the table, and then I say, "Okay, go to sandbox." Do now's really to help students arrive to class on time. That helps and to get them going. And then we have students will create challenges.
I think this is I think this is a student project that I really love. I hope so. Yes. So, one of the big tell me I can't run this. There we go. Okay. They've added graphics sooner earlier. So you have a little dry period in unit three where they're learning variables and they really get bored and then we go go to graphics and they love.
So one of the projects was I said bring think about a social issue that you want and I want you to create pictures and convince me that it's bad or good. So this student do you vapor smoke? So he did user input. We'll put a yes. And then he created this slideshow.
So basically what he did was he he has all these images and he has the timers which are are pretty tricky and then he has all his different screens and he added music. So, this was something that really they love to do and I don't know I don't know how to download every piece of music because it's different depending on how the music is stored and they all figured it out and I and I think we have to be comfortable with say I don't know how to download music. Figure it out. So, they figure it out. I know how to test it because codes gives I think you guys give us songs. I don't know. But you give us images. So we can test the image part with a code image, but they don't want those images. So then they have to figure out how to translate it. So this is one of my wonderful I love doing these projects. Well, you just set them free. And in this I'm going to run it again. I'm going to say no. And he used the same music for yes and no, which is silly, but I don't care. You know, he did it.
And I I think I'm getting better at saying I don't care in a good way where hey you know and then they started oh my music's better than your music and then the class is happy and then you'll see that he changed I don't know he changed the what he changed because I said well it's got to be different because otherwise you didn't get the ifs and this we hadn't gotten over the animation But there's a beautiful example in codes that shows a ball rolling across. So this kid has mastered taking a piece of code and inserting it into his code. And to me that's a success for after three months in a coding class that they have that experience and that knowledge actually. So, so Paula, we do have a question in the chat that I think is applicable here because you're allowing your students so much freedom. One of our attendees is wondering, do you allow your students or even show them how to use co-pilot or chat GPT for coding? and if you do, when do you introduce that in the CodeHS curriculum? And and do you feel like it increases or decreases student motivation to to learn?
Yeah, for JavaScript I don't think they know enough. My my view is everybody says, "Oh, coding coders are going to go away." I don't think so. But you have to understand what it takes to build a program. And I think that's what this JavaScript class gives them. They have to learn how to decompose, how to organize their thoughts, how to bring in new technology like songs and music and images.
So I don't use it and I can keep them busy enough with the code HS curriculum so they can learn all the things and then when they get to APA after the test what I did this year was I said okay I want you to learn the front end to Java Java swing they said we don't know I said I don't know chat GPT it GPT I get those whatever and they then started building complex programs with chat GBT and I thought I thought that was good. I also like Claude that does a lot of programming in there, but I only use it for my advanced students because I don't know, maybe because I was a coder, I see the value in understanding, being able to look at a piece of code and understand why it works and how it works. I don't know. Maybe I'll change next year. I don't think so, though.
I don't know if that answers it. Oh, I guess we time for lunch.
Course customization. you can add reorder.
I don't do a lot of this. I don't know why, but sometimes I will block assignments that I don't want them to do. especially in my Java class because sometimes they get a little repetitive. So, I know how to block, but it's not hard to do. Takes time and maybe you wouldn't do it your first year as a teacher because you might not have enough time to do it. And so, this is showing you how to remove it. Just the three dots and then it follows through. That makes sense. And then can add come the same way. I don't know if people are interested in this. Is this for both the free and the paid? Yeah. Yeah. You can customize curriculum if you are on a free plan and you can customize it using any of our pre-made codes content which is what you're showing here from our project catalog or from our career center. You can add in any of that content very easily just using the add button there and navigating through the modal that will help you either add content from a different code course or the project catalog or if you're in the career center you can also add career center assignments to your courses.
So yes, customizing courses by adding content, deleting content, or moving content around is all free.
And these were those supplemental materials that Paula showed at the beginning. So, we do have suggested additional content for many of our courses and you can find that at the very bottom of the assignments page for that section that you're looking for additional content for. And Paula, have you ever added in any content of your own? I know you mentioned some other platforms that you enjoy using. And if you have passion projects that have worked really really well in your classroom, if you have projects that students just respond well to and are engaged with, you can bring all kinds of different content, videos, slideshows, I think even like the quizzes and all kinds of different items into the course by building a custom module lesson and activity like you see here. Have you ever done that, Paula? Yes, I have. especially sometimes when the advanced students are looking for more work then I'll bring it in. I added also, you have a whole section for the AP class on testing practice exercises that I would add in to certain units. And you could make it as simple as anything. Like I'm even thinking like I do my do nows with Google classroom but now I'm even thinking of putting it directly into codes just having you know inserting a simple do now into it. just kind of depends on if the administration will allow me to just have that for the class and not Google Classroom.
Oh, teaching tips. All your students aren't going to catch on the at the same speed and that's normal. it just makes our job harder but more interesting. I can't think of any and this is just my style. I can't think of anything that would be more boring to me is if everybody were doing the same thing at the ex same exact time. That's just kind of mine.
We have kind of a we always say just code it if the you know and the kids get used to saying that to each other. It's I don't know how to start well just do something but they come with fears. I just had a a student Friday I had four interns and one of the interns said Mrs. Medina, I've had you three years and I was scared to death, but you always you always made me get not be afraid. And now he's going off to be a computer science ma major.
And and I think that's really important. And then I had to get rid of my own teacher fears. What if they know more than I do? Well, they all end up more knowing more than you do in one little tiny space.
But as we're the teacher, we know what we're doing. May not know everything about the content, but we know how to teach. And that's what I keep reminding myself. And you got to be a coach. Just go. Come on, let's do it. Student student centered. If they want to veer off a little bit, sure. And just remember, some aren't honest. And of course with AI, it's it's it's a problem. These two two of my favorite students they ran so fast they finished the whole curriculum in one for APA for Java in one semester. I sometimes you get you get those types and it's wonderful just wonderful. So that's why I have sprinters and I have distance runners. So and I try to not I try not to you know, some I try not just because you're going fast doesn't mean you're the best. So, when I have a distance runner who does something well, I really make an effort to show the whole class that work and to remind people it's it's not about where you are, it's what you're doing and the quality of your work. And I find that brings I always pick one student who doesn't think they're doing well and I find something that they do really well. Like it's amazing some kids are just good at finding those missing curly brackets and I try to find that one kid and have him go around finding the missing curly brackets or the debugging something something that nobody else can see. And I try to do that just so just so they know what they're doing and can work together. All right. And I cover I do a lot of pre-eaching. I do the function unit one and I I have I call it Medina style and you don't get any points if it's not in Medina style.
for loops while loops graph graphics I try to I set it up with parameters so that they can have one draw circle routine and I know code hs you have that rainbow problem they have a rainbow problem where you have to print seven columns of color they're all different but they want you to do it in seven functions and I say we're not going to do that we're going to have one function you're going to pass the color and the X, the Y. But it's it's just a way for me to I use it as I teach them that and then they'll say, "Oh, it's not passing the greater." I go, "I know because you're ahead of the greater.
You're doing better than code. We're better than what CodeHS thinks we should be at this point." So, I'm always trying to do a lot of that stuff. Oh, I guess I have it here. What do I have here?
I always try to for example so these are the parameters and they have to do some calculations and then they have one function and it basically does exactly what code HS wanted. I I add a little extra let's see well these they pick their own colors. So this is just a way that you can make it your own. Let's see. I don't even know if this will pass. Oh this would pass.
Yeah, but it's completely different than what the the answer key looks like. But that's just one example of how I try to keep, you know, the the ones that are running fast, interested, and still keep everyone happy. And then I do the same with loops. I try to add loops earlier.
I like to sh brag about our program to the school because I get zero money.
This is the first year they paid we have a teacher and a half and they paid $4,000 for codes the first year and we have the largest program. Now I just sound like a complainer. Largest programmer in Connecticut. but I do this like these were early on programs. I said, "Let's just go out and put them up on the wall." And you see we have Carol and then kids will say, "Who's Carol?" And then they're explaining their code. And I think that makes it to be a more approachable class even for the new kids that haven't taken it yet. this was I love this.
I have a student who had to do something in her AP lang class, I think. So, she decided to modify a famous saying. And so Carol got a little recognition in a in an English class. Who knew? So, we try to keep it light. I think that's it for me.
Have I covered all the material? Yes, you have done absolutely fantastic and I do love this student work bridging language arts and coding. This is just a fantastic example. Thank you so much for sharing how passionate your students have gotten about Carol and coding. Yes, Carol is Everybody loves Carol. We have a Carol costume, too, that they wear and we sing Carol.
Carol carols that even we make words to Christmas carols and about carol. I love it. Well, I will do one last call for Q&A questions as I kind of slowly work up work through our wrapup and support slides here. So, if anybody has outstanding questions for Paula, you want to hear about any of the practices she implements in her classroom or if you would like to go back to anything that she's touched on about our corgi course, we have had some wonderful tips and sharing in the chat around the sandbox feature around the question of the day. Paula, do you use either of those in your classroom?
Yes. I required I required it in my AP class, the question of the day. I love it. I think I'm going next year I want to required it in Java JavaScript because I I just love that.
That that was amazing. And do your students get really passionate about keeping their streaks? No. Okay. No, I have to threaten them. No, they did not like it at all. I'm the only one that likes it. Oh, that's so funny. Well, would you mind showing the group since it was a topic of conversation, would you mind pointing out on the like hopping over to the platform and showing folks where they can find the question of the day?
Now, you're gonna you're gonna am I in the right place? Where do I have to go?
Why isn't it? I think if you go to your toolbox.
Aha. See, you will never know everything. Now, where do I go? resources. The teal area.
Teal. Mhm. Okay. And it's here. Question of the day. Yep. Is that it? Yeah, that's it.
There we go.
Yes. So, we do have several different levels and several different languages available there for your students and you can view your students activity and progress and how they're doing on all those.
Yeah, these are very nice.
This these are very nice. And Paula, do you find that I believe the questions of the day work in conjunction with the curriculum so that they're easier at the beginning of the school year and then they get harder as Right.
Right. They were really good for my AP classes. Yeah. I have to do it. Okay.
You've embarrassed me. I'm going to use them next time. What? No. We've embarrassed you. I you if it's working well for one class, spread the wealth is what I say.
Well, thank you so much for sharing.
Let's pop back to the slides and we do have a question about I believe it's about the question of the day. Do you have students do the question of the day answered on CodeHS or do you do it in a Google doc? courageous because they're all multiple choice, aren't they? Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
All right. So, if you come away from this webinar and you find yourself having questions once you're into the platform and you're clicking around and you're trying to remember something Paula talked about, we always have access to the knowledge base available to you 247. And it is a fantastic place to find help and answers to any of these items that Paula has brought up today or you've seen in the Q&A or the chat. you can just search and we have great stepbystep instructions for how to use tool platform tools and can also probably answer some of your questions about curriculum, selecting curriculum, building pathways for your program of computer science at your school and more. So definitely check out the knowledge base. You can also talk with one of our customer support folks by clicking on the little smiley face icon in the bottom right hand corner of the platform. So, please reach out. Paula, have you ever have you ever reached out to our support? Oh, many times. And it's many times, just many times. And every they always get back to you. And and it's even better now that I'm on pro.
They'll actually sometimes it's like, well, if you're on pro, we could help you with that, which is fine. Not complaining, but no, they're great.
Yeah, very knowledgeable folks. very very accessible and and easy to get a hold of. So, appreciate that. All right, let's go on to the next slide.
other resources if you are interested in becoming a power user of code HS. We have our codes certified educator program that the application window actually just closed but we I think accepted 89 I saw 89 educators into our certified educator group this year in this very large cohort. and there are some special perks to being a part of that group, but you do have to have used codes for at least a year in the classroom before you can apply to be in the certified educator group. You can earn micro credentials with us. You can also, if you have social media, join our codes Facebook educators group. We even have specific groups for specific teaching courses like we have a CSA Facebook group, we have an elementary Facebook group and then we just have a general code pro you know tips tips and tricks for using code HS in the computer science classroom and then of course we also have our social media there. So, last that I would like to show, if you will go on to the next slide, we do have some links for you all.
We would request that you please fill out our webinar survey. Let us know how we did today. So, I put a link to that survey in the chat. We love hearing your feedback. We love to know, was this useful to you? Is this topic useful to you? did we focus on the right items? Did we miss anything? If there is something you still have a question about, if you there is something you still want to know about, please put it in the survey and I will try to follow up and see if we can get whatever get you the information you need. We are here to serve and Paula has been so graciously giving of her time today to share her teaching experience with you and we would just love to to hear how you enjoyed it.
We do also like to provide you with evidence that you've been here today in case that could be useful to you in your license renewal or you know u working with your administrators in your building. and so log into codes first. This is very important. You need to be logged into codes and then you can click on the link that I have put in the chat and that will just bring you to a screen that says thank you for attending the webinar and an email will follow with a certificate of completion. So make sure you're signed into CODHS first then click on our certificate of completion link. And finally, we would invite you, of course, to attend additional PD events this summer. We do have three more sessions in our summer webinar series and we would love to see you again to learn more about these other courses available on the code platform. So please if you are teaching APCSA or APCSP definitely join us. especially that CSA group because as you know if you are teaching APCSA the college board made lots of changes to the APCSA course for 2526 school year and we will be sharing a lot about that new course and how codes is supporting educators in teaching CSA with all the changes from the college board. We have a fantastic brand new course for CSA. So, please join us on the 16th if you can. All right, I think we answered all of the questions. and so we will just leave you with a huge thank you.
And if you are interested in seeing what our protools are about, I will put a link in the chat, codest.com/learnmore. And Paula, I can't thank you enough. You did a fantastic job. I loved seeing your pictures and hearing all of your students stories.
Thank you so much for leading us through this JavaScript corgi course today.
Thank you for having me, Stephanie. It was wonderful. All right, so folks, we'll see you soon, I hope. Have a wonderful afternoon.
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