Scratch

Please! I might have to teach TOMORROW! 

Sorry, no idea. 

Show them the example games, show how they work, and have them disect the games' scripts
Or make a few really simple games of your own and show them how they work and whatnot
Or you can explain the main blocks let them try programming something without hardly any idea what they're doing, see what they come up with, and show them how to improve it... Also, be sure to show them how to right-click a block and get a description of what it does; that can be really helpful

Last edited by rufflebee (2010-11-11 13:16:55)

Wolfie1996 wrote:

I taught a Scratch class in Year 8, too ^^ Maybe you could try making handouts with pictures of the main scripts used (or, if your school has a way of sharing documents across the network, you could save some trees by putting it in there for the class to open as a Word document/Powerpoint/et cetera). That could be quite useful for helping people understand and read the scripts.

Also, if you have an interactive whiteboard in the classroom, you could do a "team" project, where you invite class members to the board to put a selection of blocks together to achieve a specific goal (e.g., getting the sprite to point towards the mouse pointer, and, if the mouse is clicked, broadcast to the bullet to move), before letting the class recreate the game themselves. It kinda builds confidence, and people can ask one another for help, or you could try to explain things that a lot of people are finding difficult to everyone, at the same time, instead of having to repeat it 25+ times. Plus, interactive whiteboards are fun to use Scratch on, so the likelyhood is that people will want to have a turn at building part of the script 

Thank you so much for your great advice!
Yeah, I'm not in the right kind of state to stumble around the IT room, tripping over bags, etc. Crutches are evil. XD
And yeah, I think I'll save some pictures to hand out, and get people to guess what block is needed to perform commands, e.g. point to the mouse.
And if someone is stuck, and other people get confused too, I'll explain it to everyone. It's going to be an awesome learning curve, Albertt911 is really confident. Me? Not at all! 
I'm going to start throwing together some instructions later. 

rufflebee wrote:

Show them the example games, show how they work, and have them disect the games' scripts
Or make a few really simple games of your own and show them how they work and whatnot
Or you can explain the main blocks let them try programming something without hardly any idea what they're doing, see what they come up with, and show them how to improve it... Also, be sure to show them how to right-click a block and get a description of what it does; that can be really helpful

Good idea, I totally forgot about the 'help' feature. Thanks!! 

And yesh, I have my Donut Wars game at the ready. It's really simple, but my classmates are easily amused. 

They'll think me and Albertt911 are geniuses. 

Gaah, this reminds me of when I used to be a student teacher.

Wolfie hit on a lot of really good points, but from your description, I'm not sure if you're teaching in a regular room with an old-fashioned chalkboard or one with computers/interactive boards. If you're stuck in one of those old fashioned rooms, pics would definitely be the way to go when teaching (in lieu of an interactive board, you could just cut out blown-out pics of blocks and stick them together on the blackboard with sticky tape). 

A senior teacher once told me that a fair rule of thumb for a student's attention is usually their age plus two minutes. Not sure if this policy necessarily sticks for older students, but since your lesson is long, try not to stick to the same topic for over ten to twelve minutes otherwise the students might get bored easily.

LawlzFTW wrote:

Download some decent games and show them how they work.

Thanks, that's easier said than done though. 

cheddargirl wrote:

The_Dancing_Donut wrote:

cheddargirl wrote:

Gaah, this reminds me of when I used to be a student teacher.

Wolfie hit on a lot of really good points, but from your description, I'm not sure if you're teaching in a regular room with an old-fashioned chalkboard or one with computers/interactive boards. If you're stuck in one of those old fashioned rooms, pics would definitely be the way to go when teaching (in lieu of an interactive board, you could just cut out blown-out pics of blocks and stick them together on the blackboard with sticky tape). 

A senior teacher once told me that a fair rule of thumb for a student's attention is usually their age plus two minutes. Not sure if this policy necessarily sticks for older students, but since your lesson is long, try not to stick to the same topic for over ten to twelve minutes otherwise the students might get bored easily.

Thanks for your advice! Basically, it's a huge room with three rows of computers and a giant projector, so you can show what you're doing on the main PC to the class. Sadly, it's not interactive. 
Giant cut-outs of blocks? Awsome idea! 
Thanks again!

No problem.You've at least got a projector, which is a huge plus. 

Not sure if you're aware of this, but there are some teaching materials on the Scratch website already. Maybe these links can help give you some more ideas on how to teach the class:

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Video_Tutorials
http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Scratch_Cards

Thanks again, we could always have a tutorial running while everyone's working, so they could randomly walk up to the board and watch if they wanted to, maybe?
Thanks for the links 

steppenwulf wrote:

The_Dancing_Donut wrote:

cheddargirl wrote:

No problem.You've at least got a projector, which is a huge plus. 

Not sure if you're aware of this, but there are some teaching materials on the Scratch website already. Maybe these links can help give you some more ideas on how to teach the class:

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Video_Tutorials
http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Scratch_Cards

Thanks again, we could always have a tutorial running while everyone's working, so they could randomly walk up to the board and watch if they wanted to, maybe?
Thanks for the links 

Looks like cheddargirl and wolfie have all the good tips covered. I was an assistant Scratch teacher last July at a camp at the library. Basically we had a huge projector screen where the main teacher showed them the gist of the day's lesson. After that, everyone would start working on their project. But all the computers had wi-fi access so half the time we were on youtube goofing off xD We had lunch at 12:00 in the library's underground cafe and played some games afterward we ate. Then it was back to making projects and goofing off for another 3 hours 

If your class isn't anything like this, I can lend you some ninjas to do some tricks for everyone 

To Steppen

I have just placed an order for 3 ninjas to arrive tomorrow. I have enclosed over £9000 for the Ninjas plus £9.99 P&P. Please ensure they arrive well bubble-wrapped. And dressed as cookies, to get the class motivated.
                         Regards,
                                        Albertt911 & The_Dancing_Donut

Might I suggest making a project and breaking it down with comments?

juststickman wrote:

If your school is anything like mine, here's my advice:
Give up and tell the teacher they're hopeless. Then tell the teacher to stop making you do stupid beginner scratch cat dancing projects. Then get depressed and ragequit (IRL!).

If not...
Try to teach them what each block does, how you put them together, how that works, how putting those together works, etc.

Lol awesmoe advice! 
Lol! 

Keep the conversation chill, and don't talk down to them.