Technology Thursday...Thursday Throwback...Positive Thinking Thursday...Teacher Tip Thursday

Today I'm linkin' up with
The Teaching Tribune for Teacher Tip Thursday,
Teaching Trio for Technology Thursday,
Angela from The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday,
Nick from Sweet Rhyme & Pure Reason for Back to the Archive
and last, but certainly not least...
Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Positive Thinking Thursday.

First things first...

I have to tell myself this every single day of my life.

Family first.

Go home...it will still be there tomorrow.

Agreed?

I'm goin' to do a techy throwback again to somethin' that I think
would benefit every grade level.

& 

&

The Hour of Code is COMIN' BACK

for Computer Science Education Week

Mark your calendars for December 8th through the 14th, 2014.

I know this is a long way away, but you DON'T want to miss this!

My technology throwback:

The Hour of Code

I got an email from Donors Choose at the end of October titled "The Hour of Code is coming".  I quickly read through it and then saved it in my inbox.  Several days later, my Admin said we needed to watch a short video about "The Hour of Code" that our District wanted us to watch.  The next day our mornin' announcements had a video that had music and the words "The Hour of Code is coming in 32 days".  The kids were all askin'...."What is the Hour of Code?"  BOOM...it was everywhere!

So, I got onto Computer Science Education Week's website with the help of my pod bestie, J.R., to find a short video to entice the kids even more.

So...what does this even mean you might be askin'...
  

Basically, durin' Computer Science Education Week, we will spend at least one hour writin' code in our classroom.   My students and I will choose from a variety of one hour tutorials in order to participate.  I've read that no prior experience seems to be needed and it states that computers are optional.

Read here to find out more about the Hour of Code.

Here are some more places to find info:

Computer Science Education Week

Code.org
(sign up on Code.org to get a coupon for 10GB storage on Dropbox for
organizin' an Hour of Code in your classroom)

Edsurge

Gettingsmart
Scratch
(Accordin' to the tech genius in my class...this is the BEST site ever for kids to program their own games and animations.  I truly value his opinion.  He has gotten several of my kids hooked on this site.)
Code Academy
Khan Academy-Computer programming
CodeHS
10 places where anyone can learn to code
Hopscotch

I'm definitely intrigued and will be doin' some more research on the Hour of Code to pick out exactly what we will be doin' durin' the week.

Is anyone else participatin' in this?

Read about and see how we used the Hour of Code in my classroom...here.
I PROMISE YOU...You want to do this with your kids!!!

Source

My sweet friend Laura from Learning, Lessons, and Life was talkin'

about movie theater popcorn the other day and it got me thinkin' about

how much I LOVE POPCORN.

My other sweet friend AMC from Elementary AMC has also 

been subjected to havin' to hear about my obsession with 

movie theater popcorn.  She probably wishes I would just get up 

off my couch already and go get some. 

Source

Surely I'm not the only one that does this???

Source

Source

Source

WHAAAAAAAT?!

How have I gone my whole life without knowin' there was such a

thing as National Popcorn Day? 

It occurs on January 19th.

You need to write this in your calendar too...RIGHT NOW...
you seriously aren't movin' fast enough...we CAN'T miss this!

This is almost...almost...as excitin' as the Hour of Code comin' back.

Happy Thursday, friends!