Reflections on Scratch Educator Meetup @ MIT: Saturday, February 4, 2012

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for the February 2012 Scratch Educator Meetup!

Here's some notes and reflections...

Attendees
Here's a list of people who attended Saturday's meetup:

• Sandra Bleecker
• Nancy Cooperider
• Janet Dee
• Sarah Judd
• Tom Kowalczyk
• Rosemary Slattery
• Jean Sorensen
• Karen Brennan
• Michelle Chung

To connect with people you met, click on a name above to leave a message on their profile page.

Recap

• Networking: Red, Yellow, Green - As they arrived, participants were given three cards, one red, one yellow and one green. Reflecting on the past month, each person was asked to share something from their teaching experience that was great (green), okay (yellow), and not so great (red).
• Breakout Session: Costumes and Drawing - Janet and Sandie led the whole group in a session exploring costumes. They demonstrated how to create a pencil in the paint editor and animate the pencil using the pen tool to simulate drawing a line. Then, with a suggestion from Karen, the group was challenged to explore different ways to use the change costume block to make the pencil tip look like it was wearing down while it drew the line.
• Photos on Flickr - View photos from the event on ScratchEd's Flickr page.

Show & Tell

• Pencil Challenge - Sandie and Janet shared their solution to the morning session's pencil challenge.
• Scratch Rubric - Rosemary shared a rubric for Scratch projects that she uses with her high school students.
• Example Projects Gallery - Jean showed example projects she has been collecting as her favorites on the Scratch website to use when introducing Scratch. You can check out the projects on her Scratch profile page.
• Rhode Island STEM Initiatives - Tom talked about upcoming events that he has helped organize to garner support for integrating Scratch in Rhode Island schools. You can find out more information on the Rhode Island STEM Center website or by contacting Tom directly.

Upcoming Dates and Events

• Scratch@MIT Conference proposals are due February 15. - http://events.scratch.mit.edu/conference
• Next meetup: Saturday, March 10, 10am to 1pm. (Please note this is the 2nd Saturday in March.) - http://mar2012meetup.eventbrite.com
• Next webinar: Wednesday, February 29 at 7pm EDT - http://scratchedwebinarfeb2012.eventbrite.com
• Find out more about future events on our Events page.