Skip to Content
Home

My first Scratch class

Contributed by Ai Boon Tan, May 20, 2010

Hi. I am a free-lance teacher in Singapore  and I fell in love with Scratch more than a year ago. It fascinated me and still continues to amaze me with  its versatility and the creative genius of the Scratch community. I started teaching my first  Scratch class in March 2010 and our last meeting will be on Scratch Day, May 22, 2010. 

My students came to my place once a week on a Saturday for a 2-hour workshop. We had to convert my living and dining area into a makeshift classroom.  I taught 10 lessons and they took part in the Scratch Pass-along Project organized by Karen Randall - see link at http://day.scratch.mit.edu/event/312.  I had  a brand new 20-year -old scratcher as a co-teacher but he was a quick learner and the kids love him. There are eight students in all (7 boys including my son and 1 girl). They are in the age group 8 to 11 years. My husband helped me with the equipment. He also learnt to scratch.

I have learnt a lot from teaching this class and thank my husband, son, co-teacher, students and Karen Randall for giving me the motivation and courage to try it out. It has been very challenging and fun for all concerned. It has also been a wonderful experience for me and today I had the satisfaction of viewing two special projects.

My son (he did it last year too) helped me to prepare a project for our Scratch Day celebrations (Scratching Noah's Ark Poster) - he did a remix after taking some verbal instructions from me. He is a much better scratcher than I am. One of my students was so inspired by Scratch that he decided to use it as the medium of presentation for  his school project (How the WWW is influencing a student's life). By doing so, he is also introducing Scratch to his classmates.

All I can say is that I felt really happy  and thank God for making Scratch possible. My grateful thanks to the Scratch Team for their wonderful support and to Karen Randall and the Scratch PLC members too.

I am looking forward to Scratch Day - we are having 14 boys and 2 girls. What fun! : )

Related Media
Links: 
Scratching Noah's Ark Poster
How the WWW is influencing a student's life
ScratchPLC Scratch Day 2010
Scratching Noah's Ark gallery
The children's circle 2010 gallery
Comments
Ai Boon Tan
Member
June 25, 2010

Hi there. We had fun with the Scratch Day pass-along event although I think that the teachers got a greater thrill out of it than the students. You can view all the projects at the link

http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/74573

These are the projects passed from Singapore to Minnesota to Connecticut to Spain.  There is another gallery of separate projects done in a school in Massachusetts at

http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/79088

We learnt a lot and Karen Randall visited a class in the  Connecticut school via Skpe while my students (half the class) managed to link up with one class in the Connecticut school via Skype too. The time zone problem can be overcome.  It was a great learning experience for my students and me. Scratch brings the world closer!

 

Karen Brennan
Member
June 15, 2010

Thanks for sharing information about your Scratch class. It's great that the Scratch PLC group provided so much support!

How was the Scratch Day pass-along event?

Thanks,
K