So far in our micro-interview series, we’ve chatted to educators and young coding enthusiasts and heard about their Code Club experiences. For this interview, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re featuring one of our very own Code Club team members!
Meet Amanda, our new Club Program Coordinator in the US! Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Amanda joined our team last month and has already blown us away with her brilliant ideas and her sparkling personality.
Join us as we get to know Amanda!
Photo Credit: Daniella Almona
What Code Club projects do you enjoy?
At the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair, I worked on the ‘Random sparkles’ project with the students who came up to our table. It was my first time doing this project but WOW did those kids teach me a lot.
Instead of making random sparkles appear, I saw one student intentionally create a smiley face, which inspired me to create and teach others to make any shape they like.
I’m also excited to try the ‘Dodgeball’ project in Module 2 of Scratch. Dodgeball was one of my favourite games in primary school, it never gets old!
Which communities in the USA will you be supporting? Can you explain how you plan to engage with these communities?
I live in Georgia and am very excited to start growing and supporting the Code Club community here. I’m eager to visit organisations that are already established in the education sector and see how the Raspberry Pi Foundation can amplify their mission.
My role isn’t exclusively working with adults to set clubs up, I also want to listen to the young people who attend our Code Clubs — they always remind me of the reason why we do what we do!
Additionally, I am beyond excited to begin our webinar series with Kevin. We’re all in this together, so as much as we want to get to know our clubs, they should also get a chance to get to know us too.
Can you share a surprising skill or hidden talent you have?
I can skateboard.
If you could have a superpower to support the USA Code Club community, what would it be and why?
I’d love to be able to sense who wants to start or be part of a Code Club anywhere in the US, so I could equip them with the resources they need to fulfil their coding goals and dreams!
If you could say one thing to all the Code Club volunteers and educators in the USA, what would it be?
Through your hands-on work in equipping our nation’s young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence in digital making, you’re helping them build a brighter future.
Your drive to educate young people in coding inspires me to work hard for you in return.
Thank you so much, Amanda. And welcome to the team!
If you’d like to get to know more about Amanda and the other half of our US clubs team, Kevin, join their monthly webinars every third Thursday at 12pm PT/2pm CT/3pm CT.
At a recent Code Club ‘Coffee and Conversation’ meetup, we had a thoughtful discussion on ways to keep Code Club sessions fun and engaging for everyone. Here are some tips we discussed to help fuel enthusiasm.
Choose a variety of projects
Our range of fun coding projects involve different programming languages and cater for different interests and experience levels. Think about introducing projects that encompass different aspects of coding, such as game development, web design, or app creation. This variety allows learners to explore different areas of coding and discover what excites them the most.
Bob Bilsland, from Malvern, in Worcestershire, England, has been running a Code Club for over 10 years. He shares how he works with our projects to keep activities fresh and keep learners engaged:
“The Code Club projects are a fantastic resource that helps bring structure to my club. Having different paths allows me to plan where to go next with the children — maybe Scratch this term and micro:bits the next. While each project has a clear progression towards a goal, it isn’t at the expense of the child’s creativity; I encourage them to personalise their work to make it their own”.
Bob Bilsland, Educator
Foster a supportive community
At Code Club, we’re all about creating a welcoming and supportive atmosphere where young people feel at ease sharing their ideas, asking questions, and getting the help they need.
When you start a new term at Code Club, why not chat with everyone about how you all want your Code Club to run? Check out our blog post ‘Our Code Club rules! How to have fun and set boundaries’ for some tips. Once you have decided on your rules, write them down using the ‘Our Code Club rules’ template, available on your dashboard.
‘Our Code Club rules’ template
See how you can encourage peer collaboration and mentorship, where more experienced coders can assist their fellow club members and share their knowledge. You could also look at introducing Digital Leaders within your Code Club.
We know that many clubs bring more fun and enthusiasm into their sessions by using KAHOOT! quizzes or running icebreaker activities. You could lead these activities or you could encourage groups of young people to work together to run them.
Building a strong sense of community not only makes learning more fun, but also builds confidence and resilience in young people as they navigate any potential coding challenges.
Darren Bayliss, Code Club Community Coordinator for Ireland, shares how he does this in his Code Club sessions:
“I support my older Code Club members in taking on more responsibilities to develop their skills. I encourage them to support our younger members with their coding projects; this helps them reinforce their understanding of coding concepts and develop their leadership and mentoring skills, while also gaining confidence to push their coding endeavours further.”
Darren Bayliss, Code Club Community Coordinator, Ireland
Promote creativity
While we encourage you to have some structure to your sessions, allowing plenty of space for creativity can significantly enhance the fun factor and increase engagement in your Code Club. Encourage learners to personalise their projects, add unique features, and explore their creativity. This makes coding more enjoyable and promotes innovation and problem-solving skills.
Getting creative with Scratch
Introduce hands-on activities
Consider incorporating hands-on activities into your Code Club sessions.
Experiment with interactive coding platforms, physical computing devices like micro:bits or robots, and collaborative projects that require students to work together.
Hands-on activities can make learning more fun and deepen learners’ understanding of coding concepts.
Celebrate success
Recognising success and effort is super important for making our learning spaces feel safe. It helps build a positive atmosphere where young coders can feel good about what they’re doing and not worry too much about making mistakes. Mistakes are just part of learning, after all!
On your dashboard, you will find lots of certificates that you can use to celebrate your learners’ achievements. Take a look and see which ones you can hand out at your next Code Club session.
Our ‘Awesome!’ certificates
Invite guest speakers
Inviting guest speakers from the tech industry or local coding communities could bring some added excitement and inspiration to your Code Club. Guest speakers can share their experiences, demonstrate real-world applications of coding, and offer valuable insights into different career paths in technology. Exposure to industry professionals can fuel learners’ passion for coding and provide them with valuable role models.
In 2023, a Code Club in Cambridgeshire, England welcomed Gary Foote, CIO at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, to one of their club sessions. Find out how it went!
Grow your inspiration
It’s important to make sure you keep yourself engaged too! Connect with the Code Club community by joining us at our monthly online ‘Coffee and Conversation’ sessions. There’s no agenda, just a welcoming space where you can come and ask your questions, hang out with other educators, and share what is happening in your Code Club. See our events page for details of our next meetup.
You could also have fun trying the projects yourself. Educator Bob Bilsland thoroughly recommends this!
“As I always tell people, go and play with the projects yourself. They aren’t just for children and you could surprise yourself with what you learn.”
Bob Bilsland, Educator
Join the Code Club team at an event
If you are looking to build your confidence and skills to help you support your learners, sign up for one of our online workshops. We have lots of sessions for you to choose from each month, and we’d love to see you there!
How do you keep your Code Club a fun and engaging space? Share your tips with the community on X using the hashtag #MyCodeClub.
Although Code Clubs are fun and informal, some clubs like to observe and track the progress that their members make. Over the summer, we consulted members of our global Code Club community to find out what you see and value as progress.
We also talked about the tools available to help you observe and celebrate progress. Here’s what you told us!
Melbourn Code Club
What kind of progress do you value seeing in your Code Club?
The progress that our community talked about most was growth in confidence and independence, followed closely by growth in “creativity and innovativeness”.
Firstly, I want to see our learners being happy and enjoying the club. I like to see the students’ skills develop. I like to see them make their own things to build their skills beyond the tutorials. –Rhiwbina Library, Wales
The most interesting thing for us is to observe if students are changing the projects we propose, and if they are creating their own things away from the club. Also we’re interested in stimulating teacher confidence in using Code Club tools outside of the club environment. –Tagusvalley, Portugal
I’d like to see them code better and design applications that have direct application in the real world. –Faridabad, India
Club members from St Paul’s C of E Academy, Sandwell
Our community also wanted to see coders “tackling and grasping more challenging concepts” as well as growing their “problem solving, debugging, and critical thinking” skills.
I like to see the young people tackling increasingly complex projects, and having the confidence to move from Scratch to Python, or to try physical computing with Picos or micro:bits. –Cranmere Primary, England
What progress would you like to keep track of?
Clubs are interested in easy, automatic ways to track progress. The progress most clubs wanted to keep track of was young people’s development of “programming skills” followed by their progression through Code Club projects and pathways.
I would like to be able to see what kinds of functions students were able to add to a program independently. For example, if a student used an if/else conditional appropriately or if they used a function that they created. – Dr Knox Middle School, Canada
Specific skills, such as using selection, sequence, repetition, and variables. – Kingston St. Mary Primary School, UK
I’d like to see pupil progress along the various learning pathways. This can easily allow a club facilitator to know who’s progressing and at what pace. –Crosshall Junior School, UK
Children having fun with code!
Other community members told us they were also interested in tracking the development of computational logic as well as learning confidence and independence; however, some were not keen on tracking at all.
I don’t feel the need to track progress at all. It is a non-formal club, not a lesson. – Anonymous
Why track progress?
Our community members expressed a general consensus that tracking progress increased awareness of learners’ progression and several people discussed other positives to monitoring development.
For example, Fiona Lindsay from Hillside School in Scotland valued automatic tracking of individual progress as she felt this would give her a better appreciation of how each child is progressing and who is able to then support newer members of the club.
I’d really like an automatic track of where they are in a project, so I can monitor this, to help me keep better track of where each pupil or pair actually is in their learning journey.
Meanwhile, Sue Gray from Fakenham Library said she uses a spreadsheet to see who has attended her club, how often they’ve come, and what projects they’ve already done. This has helped her to see who is ready to move on to the Introduction to Python path or other projects beyond the Introduction to Scratch pathway.
Similarly, Nick Nurock from Thomas’s Academy felt it would be helpful to receive an automatic reminder of which blocks or commands had been used successfully in a previous week so as to know which concepts to move onto (or remain on) in the following week.
How to track progress in your Code Club
One way to follow your members’ progress is to create pupil accounts. These enable young people’s work to be saved, so you and they can revisit projects and see how much they have progressed.
You spoke…we listened! More ways to celebrate progress
We’re excited to share two new resources that we’ve developed in response to some of the needs expressed by members during our community consultations. We hope that they will help you to observe and celebrate progress in your club — no matter how small!
The Unique Feedback certificate is blank and editable. You can tailor it to whatever is valuable to you, to recognise and celebrate your learners.
The accounts permissions letter: this is a template letter for you to obtain parental permission for learners to use accounts during or outside of Code Club sessions. We’ve updated it to include the Raspberry Pi Foundation Code Editor and Raspberry Pi accounts so you can use the automatic tracking features to monitor your learners’ progress. This editable version of the accounts permission letter can be sent to parents by email, while this printable version can be printed and filled out manually.
Unique feedback certificate
We hope that these two new resources will help you keep track of what matters to you. If you have another way to monitor progress that you’d like to share with us, you can contact us at support@codeclub.org
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