[Edu-sig] Sample letter from summer camp instructor parents / guardians

[kirby urner]

I currently have six campers in my current class. We meet for three hours a
day for five days.  They're junior high to high school age, grades 8 - 11.

The email below gives the flavor what how we're organized.  Coding with
Kids has spread to several US cities.  The instructor has quite a bit of
latitude.

We're currently using Codesters and in some cases Cloud9.

In the mornings I have a younger group and we do MIT Scratch for three
hours.  A lot of students start in Scratch and continue in Python.  When it
comes to HTML + CSS + JS, we move to codepen.io

That's a snapshot of the state of the art in Greater Portland, when it
comes to augmenting established school programs, both after school and
during summer vacation time.

Kirby


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Coding with Kids <info-portland at codingwithkids.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 11:25 AM
Subject: Greetings from summer camp instructor, Python class

2017 Summer
Lake Oswego - BiC
16318 Bryant Rd
Lake Oswego OR 97035

Greetings all --

Thank you for sharing your camper with our group. We're using Codesters,
modeled after MIT Scratch, to introduce the basics of Python3, a general
purpose computer language used a lot by professionals in many walks of
life, not just by computer programmers.

Mostly they focus on their own projects, getting individualized assistance
from myself or from peers, thereby gradually building up familiarity with
this sprite-based development platform, conducive to designing simple games
and telling stories. Sprite objects are like puppets or comic book figures
and come with methods for moving, sharing talk balloons, detecting
collisions with others. Encourage your camper to show you what it's like,
or come a little early on Friday for an opportunity to see what they've
been working on.

I punctuate their hands-on experience with projected presentations about
what Python looks like outside of Codesters.

Yesterday, for example, we took a look at the Anaconda distribution of
Python, which comes with its own code editor (Spyder) and Jupyter
Notebooks, a system for creating web pages that double as interactive
Python worksheets.  I want them to have more context, a better
understanding of Python's role in the real world.  I have Juper Notebooks
saved on Github which they're welcome to study at their leisure:

https://github.com/4dsolutions/Python5/

Today I will show them Google Blockly and Repl.it, further expanding their
horizons.

Blockly is a Scratch-like block language which automatically translates the
jigsaw-puzzle looking programs into other languages, including Python.
Repl.it (repl = read, evaluate, print, loop per Wikipedia) provides a free
Python interpreter in the cloud, once a user has created login credentials.
I've got several examples in my personal stash: https://repl.it/@kurner

Our goal is to make programming a fun, recreational activity, engaging as
an end in itself, so that moving up the learning curve does not seem an
onerous chore.  If your camper has more specific goals regarding Python in
particular, please encourage them to talk with me, or feel free to send me
email. Please feel free to share this communication with them.

I've used Python for many years and teach it to adults from many walks of
life.  What's great about Python is it's an elegant implementation of the
object oriented way of thinking, and therefore smooths the path to gaining
proficiency with other object oriented languages in addition to Python,
such as Ruby, Java and JavaScript.

Kirby Urner

2017 Summer
kirby.urner at codingwithkids.com
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