Creative Computing at Middlesex Middle School
Jennifer Sacks has been teaching 8th grade Computer Applications at Middlesex Middle School for the past year. Her course site is available online at http://mmslab130.edublogs.org/
She recently sent me an email that included her students' reflections on their Scratch experiences. I asked her if I could post this email she sent me, and she agreed. Enjoy!
Hi Karen,
I thought this might interest you. I have just finished my first year teaching with Scratch (and used many resources from your curriculum guide), and my 8th grade students have been blogging on my website about their experiences. I pulled some of my favorite comments for you below, but if you want to take a look they can be found on my website (see below). I enjoyed hearing their thoughts on their own learning and the process of working with Scratch. Here are some that really stood out:
* I love seeing how much the Scratch projects have changed since we first started using the program. When we first started we could barely make a sprite walk, now we can make sprites change color, shape, and size. We can make them spin, glide, bounce, stamp, and multiply. The projects students have come up with are amazing and so much fun to watch and interact with!!
* Scratch was very entertaining and creative! You could do a lot of different things with the program but it was SUCH HARD WORK!!! I hope I can use this program again in the future.
* I thought that all of the projects were cool. I like the way people used variables to enhance their projects.
* I loved playing all the games and seeing what other student created. It also helped me create my own project. Seeing these projects inspired me to include certain parts to my project. I really thought that everyone did a great job with the projects.
* The final projects were really interesting to look at because there were so many different versions of games or stories. Also, we were able to learn a lot more about Scratch by seeing other projects with different ways of making them.
* I thought that making the final project was actually easier than making the mini projects because you got use many different techniques that you had learned from previous projects in one final game! I really liked ABarsanti’s baby question game because all of the different categories made it appeal to everybody, and it was challenging too.
* i had a lot of fun working on my scratch project! I also really enjoyed looking at everyone else’s projects. I really liked seeing all the different ideas everyone had. One of my favorites was the packman game. It was very entertaining and a lot of fun to play! I loved how it was a bit of a challenge. I had a lot of fun checking out everyones projects and seeing all the creative ideas everyone had. I also really liked Kiera’s art show. She did something totally different. She used a bunch of cool shapes, colors and effects to make a visual project. She also added music to make it more entertaining. I had a ton of fun trying out all the projects and really enjoyed learning how to use scratch!
* We have learned so much from day 1 of the program scratch. It was hard to operate at first, but now we can do more advanced things with the program. We have definitely progressed since day one.
* At first, I didn’t realize how much you could do with scratch. But now, looking at everyone’s projects and the huge variety of ideas, I have learned that scratch can be used to create almost anything you want. You can make your own animated videos/stories, games, simulations, trivia, and any random thing you feel like creating.
* I really enjoy the creativity that is possible with Scratch because there are many different ways to program the Sprites. What has frustrated me is the sequencing and finding a way to make all the actions in the right order. However, overall I have enjoyed experimenting with it.
* I found Scratch intimidating at first because of all the commands you have to use. Once you figure out the features, such as broadcasting, it becomes a lot easier to use other features and navigate Scratch.
* The first time I had used scratch I was lost on how to do all the commands. Although a big part of learning everything is trial and error. Sometimes you just have to do it wrong multiple times to get the way you want your sprite to move.
Take care!
-Jennifer
