Reflections on Intro Scratch Workshop for Educators - Saturday, October 29, 2011 @ MIT

Thanks to everyone who joined us at MIT last Saturday for the Intro Scratch Workshop for Educators!

Here are some reflections and resources from Saturday's session...

Attendees

• Courtney Collins
• Anesta Hicks
• Liddell Hobin
• Alan Landover
• Jared Perrine
• Simone Pyle
• ML UJWAL
• Susan Swan

Summary
We organized the 4-hour workshop around sessions #1 and #2 of the new Scratch curriculum guide. Each participant received a copy of the curriculum guide at the beginning of the workshop. After breakfast and introductions, Karen Brennan presented an overview of Scratch and Creative Computing, followed by the Something Surprising activity. Next, following session #2 of the curriculum guide, Michelle Chung introduced the "About Me" interactive collage activity centered around a Halloween theme. The group brainstormed project ideas about childhood memories of Halloween, and then, Michelle showed one way to get started by starting to build an example project on the large screen in front of the group. Next, everyone was given 40 minutes of uninterrupted hands-on time to explore their own "Spooky Memories" projects. We then held an impromptu Show & Tell session to check-in on everyone's progress and discuss the curriculum guide, followed by a second, 30-minute build session. The workshop ended with Karen sharing resources and strategies for next steps.

Show & Tell
During Show & Tell, each person shared their progress and talked about their process. We asked each participant:

• What are you most proud of?
• What was most challenging? or Is there something you're currently stuck on?

Resources
Here are resources that were shared during the workshop:

• New Scratch curriculum guide draft - http://scratched.media.mit.edu/resources/scratch-curriculum-guide-draft
• Scratch cards - http://scratched.media.mit.edu/resources/scratch-cards
• Sample "About Me" Scratch projects - http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/138381
• Scratch online community - http://scratch.mit.edu

Future Events
Want to learn more? Come to any of our upcoming events:

• Meet and share with other educators at Scratch Educator Meetups, held every first Saturday of the month. The next meetup is Saturday, November 5, 10am to 1pm - http://scratchedmeetupnov2011.eventbrite.com
• Join us online every last Wednesday of the month for ScratchEd Webinar Wednesday, where we discuss different Scratch-related topics. The next webinar is "Debugging Demystified" on Wednesday, November 30 at 7pm - http://scratchedwebinarnov2011.eventbrite.com
• Save the date! Scratch Day 2012 is on May 19, 2012 - http://day.scratch.mit.edu
• Find out about other upcoming events - http://www.scratched.eventbrite.com

Contact Us
Keep in touch!

• Join ScratchEd to get our quarterly newsletter, find resources, and meet other community members. - http://scratched.media.mit.edu/user/register
• Join the Scratch online community to upload, download, and remix projects. - http://scratch.mit.edu/signup
• Trick or Tweet! - @ScratchEdTeam

We hope to see you at the next ScratchEd event!

Michelle and Karen on behalf of the ScratchEd Team