<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">We now have 37 kids enrolled at our school. Getting excited as we count down and hoping that more of you can join us. I'll be giving it a tryout too.<div><br></div><div>If i can share a secret, it isn't some kind of evil puzzle for code nerds but a gradual learning journey with many, many, many guides on the side. Read the questions, make use of all the online resources, especially discuss problems on the forums and talk about challenges afterwards as a class. We learned about persistence, reflection and especially the power of computational thinking.</div><div><div apple-content-edited="true">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>On the Monday 5 August launch (9pm Melbourne time) we will be running another ACCELN Hangout, talking live with some of the Grok Learning staff who are working hard to make this magic happen: Join us </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><a href="http://acceln.wikispaces.com">http://acceln.wikispaces.com</a></div><div></div></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br>Regards Roland</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">PS: If you tune in on Monday 29 July you can hear about plans for the ACEC2014 conference as they have launched their cool new website <a href="http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/">http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/</a><br><br><b>Roland Gesthuizen</b> | eLearning Leader <br>Keysborough College DEECD<br><a href="http://about.me/rgesthuizen">http://about.me/rgesthuizen</a></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br>"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead</div></div></div>
</div>
<br><div><div>On 26/07/2013, at 9:28 PM, Sue Bicknell <<a href="mailto:sue.bicknell@gmail.com">sue.bicknell@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Thank you, that is just what I needed. Probably better <font>steering my<span></span></font> group onto a Scratch challenge, or maybe code academy?<br><br>On Friday, July 26, 2013, Sybille wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font face="Arial">Sue</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">I did it a couple of years ago in my IT lessons, ie
3-4 hours a week and the kids still had to work from home and we ran an
afternoon session or 2 as well. They really need to be interested.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">This year I'm trying it as an external project as
the school I'm in does not do middle school IT and I am running 2 after school
sessions of an hour+ and advising them they will have to work at home
also.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Its pretty time consuming but some loved it and
were working at home in groups happily, others found it too hard and gave up
after week 2 or so.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">You can do lots without computers, they email you
the tutorial and the questions so you can plan your answer before getting
anywhere near Python on the computer. Then you need some time to test your
result, and possibly tweak your answers. Some student prefer to do it all
online.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Sybille</font></div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#000000 2px solid;PADDING-LEFT:5px;PADDING-RIGHT:0px;MARGIN-LEFT:5px;MARGIN-RIGHT:0px">
<div style="FONT:10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial;BACKGROUND:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="sue.bicknell@gmail.com">Sue
Bicknell</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a title="oz-teachers@rite.ed.qut.edu.au">Professional community for
teachers</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Cc:</b> <a title="echalk@lists.otn.edu.au">eChalk mailing list</a> </div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Friday, July 26, 2013 7:31 PM</div>
<div style="FONT:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Oz-teachers] Fwd: NCSS
Challenge 2013 begins August 5th</div>
<div><br></div>This has me intrigued and I have a few 12 year olds interested.
Can anyone give me an idea about how much time might need to be committed over
the 5 weeks of the challenge? I can run a lunchtime session and probably get
some class time allocated, but how much is in question. I also see reference
to off computer work but do not know how much work on th eproblems can be done
before entering the data.
<div>Sue<span></span><br><br>On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, Roland Gesthuizen
wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex">
<div dir="auto">
<div>
<div>The NCSS challenge is really worth joining. Details are below. Register
ASAP with your students.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>We had a great time doing this last year for year 11 and 9, involving
all the students into our IT classes. Repeating it again for 2013. The
organisers offer oodles of online and realtime help and teachers can even
get to learn some programming along the way, especially with the new Python
3 programming language.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>It was cool to hand out some IT certificates at a school assembly for a
change. Go for IT</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Regards Roland @rgesthuizen</div></div>
<div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><b>From:</b> Nicky Ringland
<<a>challenge@ncss.edu.au</a>><br><b>Date:</b> 10 July 2013 5:40:54
PM AEST<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>NCSS Challenge 2013 begins August
5th</b><br><br></div></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div>Hi CS4HS teachers!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The <a href="https://groklearning.com/challenge/teachers?utm_source=csteachers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=challenge-2013" target="_blank">National Computer Science School Challenge 2013</a>, run by
the University of Sydney, starts on August 5th for 5 weeks until 9th
September. In the Challenge, students (and teachers) learn how to
program while they compete. Last year we had over 4200 high school
students (and some primary students) and 330 teachers from 420
schools compete in the Challenge. This year we're hoping to
more than double that number, and we need your help to reach 10,000
students this year!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Many of you have enrolled your classes, and sometimes even whole
school years, in the NCSS Challenge. We would really appreciate it
if you could encourage your colleagues to take a look at participating in
the Challenge this year. The <a href="https://groklearning.com/learn/challenge-beginners-2013/w1p1/0/" target="_blank">first part of the Beginners' stream</a> is now available for
free, so teachers and students have a easy way to experiment with the
content and judge if it's right for them.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Watch out for the NCSS Challenge poster and letter to teachers, sent
to the "head computing teacher" in every high school in Australia in the
last few days. Just in case you miss that, I've included more
details below. Also, we've made some changes for 2013, so if you've
done the Challenge before, you may still want to read the <b>New in
2013</b> section below (<b>especially the change from Python 2 to
Python 3</b>).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>We look forward to seeing you and your students in the
Challenge!</div>
<div>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY:arial,sans-serif;FONT-SIZE:13px"><br></div>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY:arial,sans-serif;FONT-SIZE:13px"><b>What is the
NCSS Challenge?</b></div>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY:arial,sans-serif;FONT-SIZE:13px"><br></div>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY:arial,sans-serif;FONT-SIZE:13px">The <a href="https://groklearning.com/challenge/teachers?utm_source=csteachers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=challenge-2013" target="_blank">NC</a></div>
</div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><div>
<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><hr><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>_______________________________________________<br>The voluntary work
of the oz-teachers list is supported through the kind donation of the ACCE
<a href="http://www.acce.edu.au/" target="_blank">http://www.acce.edu.au</a><br><br>oz-teachers mailing
list<br><a href="javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'oz-teachers@rite.ed.qut.edu.au');" target="_blank">oz-teachers@rite.ed.qut.edu.au</a><br><a href="http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/oz-teachers" target="_blank">http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/oz-teachers</a><br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></blockquote></div>
</blockquote><br><br>-- <br><b>Sue</b><i><br><br>The rut hungers for the soul</i><br><br>
_______________________________________________<br>The voluntary work of the oz-teachers list is supported through the kind donation of the ACCE <a href="http://www.acce.edu.au">http://www.acce.edu.au</a><br><br>oz-teachers mailing list<br><a href="mailto:oz-teachers@rite.ed.qut.edu.au">oz-teachers@rite.ed.qut.edu.au</a><br>http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/oz-teachers<br></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>