Welcome back to school - 2016

Friday was the last day of our first week of school for 2016. That week flew by at breakneck speed! So, what's in store for Numeracy this year?

The Year 10 Numeracy class is made up of the same group of fourteen students from the 2015 Year 9 Numeracy group, which is fantastic from my point. Why? Basically because they're great young people: ten boys and four girls. Our main goal this year is to develop their numeracy skills to a point that ensures they will pass the compulsory semester of maths required to achieve their Souths Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). Coding for Numeracy is our fun way of spending Lesson 6 on Fridays (last lesson of the week) using the skills we develop during our more structured lessons each week as well as meeting the requirements of a host of Australian Curriculum General Capabilities, which are also considered as 21st Century Skills required in the workplace.

On Friday afternoon, we all agreed that there was a need for some 'refresher' type sessions after the long Summer break. Students were asked to explore You Tube to find one short and interesting tutorial for the coding App, Hopscotch, that could be done by the group in a single lesson (50 minutes). They all got right into this (some working independently whilst other paired up with a friend) to view and then do a short tutorial. At the end of the lesson, each student ... or pair of students ... shared what they'd discovered. These included a simple program that allows the participant to draw pictures on the screen using a finger and drawing using Emoji symbols. Several students explored a tutorial that creates a light-sabre game but thought it too challenging. We'll explore this concept of trying something that seems difficult once we're back in the swing of creating.

Tutorials that got the thumbs up will be on the agenda for next Friday's lesson, with the students who discovered the tutorial taking the lead in teaching the class. This will be a new experience for them. However, I expect them as Year 10 students, to be able to step up and do this. More on this next week ...