Reflections on Scratch Educator Meetup @ MIT: Saturday, October 5, 2013

Thanks to everyone who attended the first Scratch Educator Meetup of the 2013-2014 school year, which took place on October 5 at MIT. Here is a recap of what happened:

Attendees
Below is a list of people who attended the meetup on Saturday:

• Sandra Bleecker
• Lawrence Burns
• Derek Breen
• Janet Dee
• John Gomes
• Steve Gordon
• Ingrid Gustafson
• Lorraine Leo
• Maria Litvin
• Helen Poldsam
• Mitch Resnick
• Prathima Rhodes
• Adam Scharfenberger
• Rosemary Slattery
• Nanu Swarmy
• Karen Brennan
• Michelle Chung
• Jeff Hawson

To connect with someone from the meetup, click on their name above and leave a message on their profile page.

Recap

• My Summer Vacation - During introductions, Michelle asked participants to gather in a circle and share their name, what they do, and what they did this summer.
• Breakout Sessions - The agenda was co-constructed by everyone present. We wrote breakout session ideas on large sticky notes and then organizing them on the wall by time/place. Two pairs of 45-minute sessions emerged. During the first set of breakout sessions, Karen and Mitch led a group discussion about the Hour of Code initiative (share your activity ideas in this discussion thread). Next door, Janet introduced strategies for using studios, remixing, and debugging in Scratch. In the follow session, a group was organized around using Scratch in different subjects, during which Derek demoed a maze project, while Ingrid answered questions and shared resources from her experiences using Scratch in middle school.
• Announcements - The meetup concluded with a design-your-own lunch from Chipotle, networking, and a group-share of announcements for the upcoming month.
• Photos - Check out all the photos from the meetup on Flickr.

Announcements

• Hour of Code: December 9-15 - http://csedweek.org
• Program or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff - Excerpt or Book
• MIT Education Arcade meetups coming soon. - http://education.mit.edu
• MassCUE (Computer Using Educators) Conference: October 23-24 at Gillette Stadium - http://www.masscue.org
• Somerville Mini Maker Faire: October 5 - http://www.makerfairesomerville.com
• Rube Goldberg Chain Reaction Event: October 11 at MIT Museum - http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/secondfridays.html
• Nicholas Negroponte X-Prize for Learning talk: October 7 at MIT - http://events.mit.edu
• Educator Appreciation Night: October 16 at New England Aquarium - http://www.neaq.org

Please feel free to share you reflections and announcements from the event below.
Join us for the next meetup on Saturday, November 2!