November 2017
This year I attended Picademy and was lucky enough to hear primary school teacher and computing adviser Sway Grantham talk about her personal experience of using Raspberry Pi in the classroom. Not only was her presentation inspiring and incredibly engaging it was also full of useful advice too. One piece of advice that really stood out for me that day and seems even more significant today is: ‘implementation takes time.’
Sway plotted her Raspberry Pi journey (see image above) and whilst it’s full of landmark events, there are a few gaps too. It was these gaps, Sway explained, that tell the bigger story of the journey – the real story! Everything else that happens in a school day or has to happen in a school day are the reasons why those gaps appear at all! In an ideal world it would be a simple journey of getting from A to B in the fastest possible time… a story of constant success and achievement ensuring that implementation of anything in a school would take half the time that it realistically does.
But reality bites and if I was using Sway’s idea of plotting our school’s journey, our first gap would now have appeared. Unfortunately Raspberry Pi has not featured in the classroom yet this half term, and Digital Leaders meetings, have focused on writing an important presentation for an E-safety assembly which has left little time for anything else. At first, I felt a sense of panic – I have so much I want to do with Raspberry Pi throughout the school this year – that every day (especially as a part-time teacher) is precious. But as Sway pointed out, it is expected that implementation takes time and as long as you don’t lose sight of the end goal (which I don’t intend to) I’m beginning to realise that gaps along the way are just part and parcel of this type of journey. I’ve realised that it’s also okay to ask others to ‘mind the gap.’
But this blog is a tale of two halves because…
Whilst there’s been a gap in the classroom, a massive way to bridge the gap has been the relaunch of Code Club in our school again. Our lovely volunteer Sam (a computer programmer from Newcastle) has returned and it has been great to have some designated time after school to allow digitally minded pupils to code and let their imaginations run wild.
The biggest difference to Code Club this year is obviously the use of the Raspberry Pi and it has made a big impression already! Digital leaders, who also attend our Code Club, have already risen to the challenge of completing their first Sense HAT project from the fantastic Code Club resources, which have recently been updated:
https://codeclubprojects.org/en-GB/sense-hat/
It’s great to reflect on just how far we have come as a club in just under a year. This time last year, I would have thought it virtually impossible for Y4 pupils to use Python so confidently. Yet here they are, not only coding but independently building the hardware too. At the beginning of the session, I now set up iPads, laptops, netbooks and Pi equipment, a few resources suitable for each and then let the pupils decide what they would like to use. It means we have a nice selection of projects on the go at the same time and each pupil is working happily and confidently at a pace they feel comfortable with. We also have some chill-out time too where pupils can play on games. Minecraft on Pi is the current favourite!
I’ve mentioned before in this blog, how I am a massive advocate of Code Club and my advice to any teachers in two minds about whether to run one is… DO IT! And then tweet about it…! Code Clubs always seems to have an air of mystery about them (I think its the use of the word ‘Code’!) so Twitter allows you to show parents, carers, other teachers in your school just what you get up to. It’s also a great place to follow other local clubs and teachers and find ideas from official pages for Code Club, Scratch and Raspberry Pi etc.
Twitter is also a great place to discover opportunities for CPD too. After reading the bios of various educators and seeing all of their computing achievements I decided to have a go at acquiring a few for myself! After a couple of weeks of revision I was ready to take the Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam. It was an online exam and took a whopping three hours… but I was delighted to discover I had passed! Phew! Spurred on by this achievement I then worked my way through the Apple Teacher badges for iPads, macs and coding, so now have the honour of being able to call myself an Apple Teacher! I love the fact that Raspberry Pi, Google and Apple offer these opportunities for tech minded educators like myself – its nice to be recognised! The goal is now Google Certified Educator Level 2… maybe before Christmas?!!
Also, whilst using Twitter this week an Astro Pi project caught my eye. The Mission Zero Project, launched by the Raspberry Pi Foundation is a project designed to allow pupils to contribute to the daily routine of the international space station by displaying a personal message and the temperature on an Astro Pi. Discovering that your code is guaranteed to run in space for 30 seconds was the deciding factor for me, therefore Mission Zero will be our Code Club project over the next few weeks. The closing date is 26th November so we need to get started pronto! Click on the link below if you are interested too…
https://astro-pi.org/missions/zero/
So, plans for the next few weeks are to ensure that the Pi makes a welcome return to the classroom, possibly as a maker area for pupils  –  more about the importance of a maker area in a classroom in the next blog. Also this coming week I’m looking forward to attending a Raspberry Pi CPD event at Tech for Life funded by the fantastic Platten Family Fund from the Community Foundation. More information about this CPD and how to secure funding for your own Raspberry Pi equipment in school can be found here…
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/raspberry-pi-cpd-minecraft-pi-tickets-38579421087
http://www.communityfoundation.org.uk/group_grant/to-establish-coding-clubs-in-schools/
How we are doing so far…
Enthusiasm rating – print “Minecraft still keeps the rating at a ten!”
Number of syntax errors – print “apparently syntax error is very hard to say when you’re eight years old, siiiiiiiigntax urror is our new way of pronouncing it!”
First Slice of Pi 💻 