Episode 40: A New Way of Teaching

03/28/20 • 37 min

With our campus closed due to COVID-19 and distance learning in full swing, Kelly and Sean discuss the brighter side of all these sudden changes to education.

The sudden shift to distance learning for much of the world has introduced more than a few challenges, but many opportunities arise as well. Kelly and Sean talk about the importance of using online tools to capture attention, to shift learning from synchronous to asynchronous delivery, and even how to ask questions of your students that engage their learning.

We'll be recording from home, so you may hear quite a bit of background noise as we record amongst our busy families. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Support Teaching Python

Links:

Seth's Blog — The conversation A short manifesto about the future of online interaction
Repl.it - Multiplayer — Never code alone Code live together with a solid community of programmers, in public and private repls.
Harkness table - Wikipedia — The Harkness table, Harkness method, or Harkness discussion is a teaching and learning method involving students seated in a large, oval configuration to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment with only occasional or minimal teacher intervention.
Platformer Tutorial — Arcade 2.3.9 documentation — In this tutorial, use Python 3.6+ and the Arcade library to create your own 2D platformer. Learn to work with Sprites and the Tiled Map Editor to create your own games. Add coins, ramps, moving platforms, enemies, and more.
Getting Started with Breakout Rooms – Zoom Help Center — Breakout Rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, and can switch between sessions at any time.
If Corona doesn't kill us, Distance Learning will - YouTube — Fantastic Israeli parent's response to all the Distance Learning thang! Words and rant by Shiri Keningsberg Levi. Translated by Robbie Gringras for Makom.
Remember, Online Learning Isn't the Only Way to Learn Remotely - Education Week — This time of school closure provides a magnificent opportunity for us to envision a kind of learning that is different from what happens in our classrooms. We can invite students to learn something that they are curious about or practice a skill that is important to them, and we can connect their learning back to our educational standards. Students may not learn all the content that we had thought we would cover this month. But that loss can be balanced by tremendous benefits.
9 Apps for Parents | Project Zero — Nine easy discussion starters for parents of the App Generation:
J o n a t h a n on Twitter: "If you see me talking to myself next week, don’t worry.. im just having a parent-teacher conference" / Twitter — If you see me talking to myself next week, don’t worry.. im just having a parent-teacher conference

With our campus closed due to COVID-19 and distance learning in full swing, Kelly and Sean discuss the brighter side of all these sudden changes to education.

We'll be recording from home, so you may hear quite a bit of background noise as we record amongst our busy families. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Support Teaching Python

Links:

Seth's Blog — The conversation A short manifesto about the future of online interaction
Repl.it - Multiplayer — Never code alone Code live together with a solid community of programmers, in public and private repls.
Harkness table - Wikipedia — The Harkness table, Harkness method, or Harkness discussion is a teaching and learning method involving students seated in a large, oval configuration to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment with only occasional or minimal teacher intervention.
Platformer Tutorial — Arcade 2.3.9 documentation — In this tutorial, use Python 3.6+ and the Arcade library to create your own 2D platformer. Learn to work with Sprites and the Tiled Map Editor to create your own games. Add coins, ramps, moving platforms, enemies, and more.
Getting Started with Breakout Rooms – Zoom Help Center — Breakout Rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, and can switch between sessions at any time.
If Corona doesn't kill us, Distance Learning will - YouTube — Fantastic Israeli parent's response to all the Distance Learning thang! Words and rant by Shiri Keningsberg Levi. Translated by Robbie Gringras for Makom.
Remember, Online Learning Isn't the Only Way to Learn Remotely - Education Week — This time of school closure provides a magnificent opportunity for us to envision a kind of learning that is different from what happens in our classrooms. We can invite students to learn something that they are curious about or practice a skill that is important to them, and we can connect their learning back to our educational standards. Students may not learn all the content that we had thought we would cover this month. But that loss can be balanced by tremendous benefits.
9 Apps for Parents | Project Zero — Nine easy discussion starters for parents of the App Generation:
J o n a t h a n on Twitter: "If you see me talking to myself next week, don’t worry.. im just having a parent-teacher conference" / Twitter — If you see me talking to myself next week, don’t worry.. im just having a parent-teacher conference

Previous Episode

Episode 39: Livestreaming about Distance Learning

Kelly and Sean stream their show on Twitch as the world moves to quarantines and distance learning. What does this mean for teaching and coding? Learn about the things we took home from our classroom and how we are planning to teach in this new COVID-19 quarantined world.

Support Teaching Python

Links:

Lightform LF2: The AR projector — It’s a projector Use Lightform Creator AR content or plug-in your own HDMI signal and drive the show from Unity, Touch Designer, and more. LF2 supports 1920 x 1080p native resolution playback via the two HDMI inputs.
Overview | Prop-Maker Lightsaber | Adafruit Learning System — The Path to Prop Maker Use your maker skills and become the Jedi you were meant to be! Construct your own lightsaber using 3D printed parts and electronics from Adafruit. This advanced prop uses an accelerometer to detect swings and hits to trigger super bright NeoPixels with full sound FX!
Fluency and Fitness® - Educational Brain Breaks — Fluency and Fitness® helps students review essential K-2 reading and math topics, while providing a movement break. Over 30,000 classrooms worldwide use Fluency and Fitness® for literacy and math blocks, brain breaks, inside recess, morning meetings, or just those few spare minutes in the day. Teachers love that they don’t have to lose instructional time to fit in a movement break. Students have so much fun, they don’t realize how much they’re learning.

Next Episode

Episode 41: Pythonic Parenting With The Shaw Family

Python for Parents or so you want your child to code? Sometimes it just takes a few creative ideas and a short amount of time to make some fun little projects. Sean and Kelly, with the help of Anthony Shaw and his lovely daughters, ‘ Zebra’ and ‘Jaguar’ have a little fun with this topic! The Shaws’ help us to dive into the topic of #pythonicparenting. Together we discuss things that a parent can do to help your child have the same passion for coding as you do. Or at least some interest!

Whether you are an experienced coder or just a beginner, you can still find some projects that you can build with your kids at home. We encourage you to have a little fun, enjoy a lot of giggles and make loads of memories with your kids, while learning Python,.

Special Guest: Anthony Shaw.

Support Teaching Python

Links:

Webinar Recording: “Security Checks for Python Code” with Anthony Shaw | PyCharm Blog — Last week we had a webinar on Python security with Anthony Shaw. He covered a number of places where Python code, including popular frameworks, run into security vulnerabilities. He also showed his PyCharm plugin for showing and fixing known vulnerabilities. The webinar recording is now available
LEGO® Education SPIKETM Prime Set — The LEGO® Education SPIKETM Prime Set is the go-to STEAM learning tool for grade 6-8 students. Combining colorful LEGO building elements, easy-to-use hardware, and an intuitive drag-and-drop coding language based on Scratch, SPIKE Prime continuously engages students through playful learning activities to think critically and solve complex problems, regardless of their learning level.
Amazon.com: ThinkFun Robot Turtles STEM Toy and Coding Board Game for Preschoolers - Made Famous on Kickstarter, Teaches Programming Principles to Preschoolers: Toys & Games — Robot Turtles is one of ThinkFun's best games for kids ages 4 and up. It was designed by programming expert Dan Shapiro and was the most-backed board game in Kickstarter history when first released. For 2-5 players, includes What you get cardboard and cardstock components.
Robot Kit For Kids and Adults | The Fun Way To Learn AI! | Zumi — Meet Zumi She’s the car that learns as you learn, here to make AI approachable for everyone
Amazon.com: micro:bit Single Board Computer, BBC go, Pocket Sized, Fun and Easy to Use: Computers & Accessories — A 5x5 LED matrix with 25 red LEDs to light up and can display animated patterns, scrolling text and alphanumeric characters On-board motion detector or 3-AXIS digital accelerometer that can detect movement e.g. shake, tilt or free-fall and use it to control motion activated games Two programmable buttons. Use them as a games controller, or control music on a smart phone A built-in compass, 3D magnetometer to sense which direction you're facing and your movement in degrees and detect the presence of certain metals and magnets
Amazon.com: Adeept BBC Micro:bit Sensor Starter Kit | Microbit Programmable Starter Kit for Micro:bit with 35 Projects PDF Tutorial Book | Micro:bit and Expansion Board Included: Toys & Games — BBC Micro:bit Development Board is included. A wide variety of Sensor Modules - The best choice for learning electronics, programming and IoT. Excellent PDF Manual - 124 pages, 35 projects with detailed guidance. MakeCode and Python code are provided. Powerful technical support - Official forum, Videos and E-mail.