How to Host Your Own Hour of Code on Edmodo

Hour of Code and Computer Science Education Week are nearly here! This year, host your own Hour of Code with this simple guide from Edmodo’s own Teacher Advocate Hsuanwei Fan.

The most magical moments in a teacher’s day are those “ah-ha!” moments when you can practically see a light bulb switch on above a student’s head. I particularly loved these moments when, through carefully crafted lessons, students discovered new knowledge on their own and I supported them from the sidelines. Throughout my years of teaching science and computer science to middle and high school students, nothing has excited me more than the Hour of Code.

By now, we’re all familiar with the reasons why our students should be exposed to coding and computer science in schools, summed up perfectly by Code.org:

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that two-thirds of new STEM jobs created within the next decade will be related to computing.
• There are not enough students studying computer science in the U.S. to meet that demand.
• Students LOVE learning about coding and computer science.
• Parents overwhelmingly wish that schools would offer more courses in this field.

Even though I did not major in computer science, I felt confident in using these thoughtfully-built coding puzzles, challenges, and creative tasks with my students because the instructions are thorough and the content is engaging. When I played through some of these activities on my own through inquiry-based learning, I experienced an exciting process of discovery, learning, and problem-solving that I couldn’t wait to share with my students. Many of these activities already come with a thorough lesson plan, extension activities, and ways to adapt the lesson if your students do not have 1:1 access to devices!

I strongly advocated for ALL teachers at my school to host some Hour of Code activities because the critical thinking skills, grit, and confidence that students gain from these lessons are applicable across all subject matters. Looking at the list of Hour of Code activities now, there are plenty of activities related to art, music, ELA, social studies, math, and science!

Luckily, I had already set up all of my students on Edmodo, my preferred digital learning platform, and it was my one-stop shop to post the links to coding activities, provide students with additional support when they needed it, and for students to share their creations with each other!

Here are the steps I took in creating the Hour of Code project I used last year in my Middle School Intro to Computer Science class:

1. Decide what concepts you want to expose students to in this activity.

Starting from the ground up, I wanted students to learn about basic coding commands, if-then relationships, and simple logic.

2. Use the awesome Hour of Code website to browse through an extensive list of free activities.

I settled on 3 intro activities for my middle school students who have never coded before: coding with Moana, Star Wars, and what turned out to be my students’ favorite, Minecraft.

Make sure that the activity you have chosen works with the technology that is available to you or choose an activity that requires no devices!

I was lucky to have a class on the smaller side so I was able to circulate and observe and help students with guiding questions or “have you tried this yet?”, but a variation that teachers can try on Edmodo is to create Small Groups within their main Class ahead of time. You can maximize differentiation by posting a different activity in each small group that only those students will see. The three activities I chose allowed students to learn the same concepts that they will use in their culminating project, but students could choose any of them based on interest. Many of my students who finished quickly did more than one of the activities because they were having such a good time.

3. If you have additional time, take the lesson one step further.

I wanted my students to apply the basic concepts they learned using block coding in creating something that they can truly call their own. Code.org’s Studio is a fantastic sandbox in which students can experiment with creating animations and interactive minigames. There are thorough tutorials that you can assign to students, but I created a rubric of the things I wanted to see in their end products (for example, “two characters must engage in dialogue” for students who chose to create an animation, and “a projectile must be launched in response to a command” for a minigame) and let the students have creative reign within a predetermined time period.

Depending on how much time you want to dedicate to this project, your students may need to save their in-progress work. In this case, they will need to create a Code.org account (or just “sign up with Google” with one click).

4. Monitor your students as they complete activities.

During this time, I mostly walked around and talked to students, some of whom chose to work in pairs and others who excitedly jumped right into creating their own project. They developed ideas, tried out different functions, and fixed bugs when their program didn’t run as expected.

5. Have students share their projects with the class or group

When my students were done with their creations, I asked them to post the link to their projects directly into our Class stream or into pre-made Small Groups. This allowed students to share the fruits of their labor with their peers and receive feedback not just from me, but from other students who marveled at each others’ creativity and ingenuity. I encouraged students to leave comments and constructive feedback while moderating and responding to these discussions.

I love this aspect of Edmodo’s potential for positive student communication and engagement with each other. If students do not finish in class and some students want to take their beloved projects home to finish them, Edmodo allows for these discussions to continue outside of the classroom.

If your class is on the larger side, you can also ask students to post their project links on a Padlet that you make ahead of time! Simply post the link to your Padlet on your Class stream to allow students to share and comment on each others’ projects without overwhelming your stream with posts.

As an example, check out the animation made by one of my 7th graders here! If your students fall in love with coding after this experience, there is an ever-growing list of activities on Hour of Code with follow-on materials, and entire scope and sequence of ready-to-use lessons on Code.org and Khan Academy. Sometimes, when certain students finish another class activity earlier than I expected, I can easily improvise an extension or bonus activity to challenge students by copying the URL to one of these modules and pasting it directly into my Edmodo Class stream on the fly!

If you don’t teach a class in which you can implement the Hour of Code, but still want to share the magic of coding with students at your school, you can host an Hour of Code event as a club or school event and join the movement!

Happy learning & happy teaching!

Looking for More Resources?

Join our teacher conversation on Teaching for the Future.

Read another account of how to host an Hour of Code from one of our Edmodo Ambassadors.

Create Piet Mondrian paintings with code.

Make educational games with this student-friendly tool.

Explore the science of computers, sound, and music.

Show kids how fun CompSci can be with these Minecraft Hour of Code tutorials.

Get free standards-aligned Hour of Code activities from Wonder Workshop here: http://hourofcode.makewonder.com/

Share Your Hour of Code Projects and Win Prizes!

We’ve partnered with Wonder Workshop to bring hands-on robotics and coding activities into your classroom. Share what you are doing with your class for Hour of Code, and you’ll be entered to win one of three Wonder Workshop prizes! Choose from either a Wonder Pack (which includes a Dash robot, a Dot robot, and all of the robot accessories) or a new Cue robot (great for ages 11+).

To enter, post what you did with your class for Hour of Code in this Topic. Make sure you tell us how your students responded to the activity and what you learned from this experience! See all the details in the Hour of Code Topic.