Shanna Martin 0:19
Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast, where each week we talk about a free piece of technology that you can use in your classroom. I’m your host, Shanna Martin. I’m a middle school teacher Technology and Instructional Coach for my district.
Fuzz Martin 0:32
And I’m a producer husband, Fuzz Martin. And it seems like I’ve been pod’in for life.
Shanna Martin 0:37
Codin’ for Life. Codin’ for life. Hi,
Fuzz Martin 0:43
I recorded you singing by the way, I might might drop that in the show.
Shanna Martin 0:46
Then we’ll get we’re covering today. Yeah, that’s fun. Sometimes I sing about my tech tools. They’re
Fuzz Martin 0:54
You just yourself amped up for the positive smile on your face get rollin.
Shanna Martin 1:00
Sometimes, I write songs about tech tools.
Fuzz Martin 1:04
Yeah. What free tech tools that you can use in your classroom?
Shanna Martin 1:09
So we are here we are in March. We’re cruising through this year coming up on spring break. Spring Break.
Fuzz Martin 1:19
We it’s spring break for you like all of our family members seem to have different spring breaks Correct?
Shanna Martin 1:25
Very much. So they are not consistent. So everybody just kind of
Fuzz Martin 1:29
gets a little time off to themselves. Basically, when the seven year olds home by herself because everybody else is back at school.
Shanna Martin 1:34
She won’t be she was No, she won’t be back with her friends because she will not want to be away from her peers.
Fuzz Martin 1:43
No, she. She is.
Shanna Martin 1:47
So this week, though. We’re coding. We’re coding. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve talked about a coding site. And we all know how I love the code. So there’s a few more that we haven’t talked about, that I’m pretty excited for. The first one is called Code for life.
Fuzz Martin 2:07
Oh, it’s called for life. For life. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So code
Shanna Martin 2:11
for life. And it is code for life dot education, it’d be a good place for you to search it up. Yeah. And I guess I should take a step back a little bit. Code for life is created by I think it’s the Ocado group, OCADO group. Okay. So they have resources for educators, and they teach about code. And they want to make sure that everybody is able to do these things. So like they explained, like computer science, like all kinds of stuff. So code for life is a way to give resources to both teachers and students to play. I’m going to highlight the play part that kids can do, but they do have a whole education section for like teachers and families and helping like computer science teachers and things like that. So they do have tons of resources for that. So if you go to code for Life dot education, you can go to play and
Fuzz Martin 3:11
I’m about to be distracted aren’t.
Shanna Martin 3:15
You are. So go to code for Life dot education, there’s two, the screen is divided. And you’ll give your kids this option like educate for teachers, blue play for kids, click Get Started. And then what’s really cool is I mean, it’ll explain rapid router to you, but the play rapid router know, like the kids can just click right through. But what I really like is starts in Blockly. Right, and then it introduces you to Python. So it walks you through like from Blockly to Python all in one place versus like, pick one or pick the other like this will kind of walk you through. But what I like is like it gets you started it like shortest route, like how you’re gonna get there. It gives you the vocabulary that kind of like this lesson is going to teach you about loops and repetitions like these lessons, I should say is more than one like getting started as levels one through 12 loops and repetitions is going to be levels 19 through 28. And loops and conditions. If only limited blocks procedures, likely brain teasers So and these are all like levels you work your way through it with then it brings you to the Python level. So introduction to Python and then Python enough levels 92 through 109. So it’s really cool is that you can actually work yourself through your levels from block coding to Python coding all in one space. So, as a kiddo, you can go ahead like the kids can figure this one out pretty quickly. Get started. What do you want to do? Like the first sentence, it’ll tell you level one. Can you help the van get to the house on the street. So choose the right blocks, drag your blocks drag and drop, super easy play and then you start and then you start coding your little van down the street to see what it means to do and it’s really cool because again, it’s black Extra just dragging and dropping. So you got drag and drop, where you want your little car to go. And you put it and you make a drive down the street. So what’s nice about this is it’s great for introductory kiddos that are learning how to do this. But then also like there’s hope for kids that are moving through quickly. If they’re able to, like advance, like they can just keep moving up the levels and keep working in trying anything so, so it’s kind of fun. So go ahead and drop your code in, start with a little van today, move forwards hit play, and oh, look, my van drove down the street, and I got some coins. So it’s really kind of fun. It’s a great way to get kids started in coding and it connects nicely to them Python to them moving forward and challenging them. Great. Are you driving a van right now?
Fuzz Martin 5:46
I am. Yes.
Shanna Martin 5:49
It’s like you like it’s very, like easy to understand. For Kids. It’s also colorful, and it’s very, like you get a little van on the street and then keep adding things to the street bill. The next lesson is go back and forth. And go ahead next step. So there you go, in all kinds of fun things to do in code for life. Starting with driving a van down the street with black coding. today. I’m just cranking through,
Fuzz Martin 6:13
I’m cranking through, I’m pretty much a master coder now.
Shanna Martin 6:18
Cool. I want to try some Python instead. What I like is like, like Python, it’s like your traffic lights and your intersections. Anyway, you can definitely register creatures have a login as a teacher or a student students can have logins, so then they have access to their things, unit class codes, all that kind of stuff. So code for life, check it out is a great collection of resources for teachers, whether you are a computer science teacher, or if you’re just teaching some coding in your classroom, they also have a multiplayer game that you can register for as well. And there’s different stages for computer science for that, too. So that is another way for you can connect that into computer science do so code for life. Very fun to start our coding and getting our kids going on that one.
Fuzz Martin 6:59
Yeah, I might be playing this for life. No, no.
Shanna Martin 7:03
Well, I have another slide to talk about. Because when we’re talking about coding, I always like to share things that are going to be for our younger students. And then for some of our older students. So the second app, you might or second website, I should call it you might be more interested in just because of the challenge. So it’s called Codin Game, (Codin’ Game). CO code and game. C O D I N G A M e.com. Coding game. That’s coding game, good. Game, board, game board and game here
Fuzz Martin 7:36
Hey whatcha doin’ today?
Shanna Martin 7:38
Wow. We are on a roll.
Fuzz Martin 7:41
We are Wisconsin through and through,
Shanna Martin 7:43
again, with your tourist and have some tourists and play my coding game. Hey,
Fuzz Martin 7:49
can I put that in a bag?
Shanna Martin 7:51
In a bag. Toast in a bag.
Fuzz Martin 7:54
Put your toast in a bag.
Shanna Martin 7:54
Buy some melk. There we go buy some milk. Okay, go to the office and do some coding.
Shanna Martin 8:01
It wasn’t coding. I’m sorry, everybody. I’m really sorry. Coding I live for this coding game. What’s really cool about this? So this site is set up for I would say students that are very familiar with coding. Yeah, like they need to have some background. And but what’s really great, it’s a gives them the background, like if you were a developer, there is a developer mode to be working in. So it is not just like black coding. It’s not just to like simplify. This is like real coding. Oh, yeah. Okay, so they have results like the find out what hiring looks like today, like technologies salaries, like they even have like tips on how to get hired as a coder, which is awesome. So that’s cool. Yeah. And you choose if you’re a developer, or if you are like searching for coders, or if you are a coder, and you’re practicing. So there’s a whole like onboarding process with this, you don’t have to go through the whole thing. And you can be a part of that community. Again, this is older students, I would say Upper Middle High School, I mean, some really strong Middle School coders. There is a like, they can join the community and have stuff like that. But also, so what they do is they throw out these like coding problems, and then you have to solve them. So like coding game, lets you improve your coding skills and games and then like, test out your ideas as you code through. So you can be like solo or multiplayer code games, as you’re creating them. And then it it has you practice certain skills, and then go through and test them out as you’re building as well, which is pretty cool. And so you can choose your programming language, which they have a whole list of programming languages, see that that I am not familiar with, like there. I mean, I know Python, I get some Java, but then
Fuzz Martin 9:53
C, C#, C++, PHP, Ruby, a whole bunch of them. I Yeah, I don’t have. Yeah. I mean, there’s probably 20 different ones in there. So
Shanna Martin 10:07
which is really cool, because it’s gonna give you like, it really gives students exposure, besides like the basics that they’re always seeing, which is awesome. And so then it like, like, first I pick Python, because that’s what I’m familiar with. And it will give you like, your program picked
Fuzz Martin 10:23
Python to look at us.
Shanna Martin 10:27
So your program must destroy the enemy ships by shooting the closest enemy with each turn on each turn and tells you like how to set your code with enemy versus destroying. And that tells you what to do within the code. But then within the game, like you got to put it in the right spot. So you got to make sure that when you’re putting your code in that you’re like, putting it where it needs to go, and that you’re following the directions. And then they have you like test it out, which is pretty cool. So like Achievement unlocked. What’s the next button, yay, me, I can move on. But it’s really cool, because the graphics are very authentic looking. Yeah. And the code, watching yourself code is very cool. You can play, like the different test cases, you can submit your own, like how you would set things up. There’s all kinds of ways and you work your way through, you can do all of this, the onboarding is just like, basic, this is how to set things up here. And then you can go in, and there’s all kinds of ways to create and set and practice all types of code. So if you are super familiar with Python, and you want to try something totally different, you can click on that button, change it out, and like I’m going to try out Ruby coding. Cool. Great. I don’t know what that means. Yeah, I mean, I’d have to read about it. So it
Fuzz Martin 11:35
was the original language that Twitter was written in. Really Ruby on Rails. Yep.
Shanna Martin 11:40
Fun fact. Yeah. So yeah, so there’s just all kinds of stuff anyway, so coding game really gives you exposure to like upper level coding, looking at what else is out there being a part of this forum and kind of making connections, other coders and things like that. And the best part is like, it’s all free, free, which we love. Because if we can expose kids to coding, especially at upper levels, and, you know, being exposed to like, this is what your job might entail later on. And what does this look like, and here’s, you know, all that kind of stuff is pretty cool. So I say, check it out, there’s a lot of options that they can choose from. And it’s a very cool site to work with. When you’re in the homepage, and you have like your little, I guess, dashboard, your your students can stay anonymous, they don’t have to, like sign everything in. So if you want your kids to stay anonymous, I suggest they do so they can connect with friends on this. So that is something just to be aware of. And I also appreciate, like employers, like, screened developers, like this is an assessment that you could test out like, this is what you get assessed on, if you’re going to be a developer, and you want this to be your job, try it out. Like the fact that this connects with real world skills, I think is awesome. Because like, there is so much coding out there in the real world. What a great way to expose because of practicing coding. And then also like, This connects to real world people that also are developers and things like that. So coding
Fuzz Martin 13:08
game coding games, so it’s like coding,
Shanna Martin 13:10
let’s code without the G without the G coding, coding game, Odin game.com. And,
Fuzz Martin 13:18
yeah, it’s like they took coding and game. And they got rid of one of the GS and those two in the smash them together.
Shanna Martin 13:25
Like an app Smash,
Fuzz Martin 13:27
it’s like an app Smash. snares. Yeah, it’s
Shanna Martin 13:32
so good. You’re live coding game, go get some coding done.
Fuzz Martin 13:37
Yeah, got it.
Shanna Martin 13:38
All spring break to do it. You got an extra week here, because we’ll take a week off. We’ll break here and you can code and then I want to hear about all the code and maybe we’ll report out on the code and that we’ve done over break. I think that’s a good idea or what you’re doing right now.
Fuzz Martin 13:51
What am I doing right now?
Shanna Martin 13:51
I assumed you were coding. I was coding. You’re playing a game?
Fuzz Martin 13:55
Yeah. You’re just playing a coding game.
Shanna Martin 13:57
Nice. All right.
Fuzz Martin 13:59
Got some extra XP points. Good work. Yeah, experience points. For those of you who don’t know.
Shanna Martin 14:05
Oh, my goodness. Thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Twitter smartinwi and if you want to get more information on the links the technology discussed in this episode, visit smartinwi.com. If you’d like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or to visit buy me a coffee.com/smartinwi or visit smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes each week, except for next week because we’re taking a break. Thanks for listening, go educate and innovate
Fuzz Martin 14:40
the ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the smart in WI web center. Those are the author’s Shanna Martin and not of her employer. Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, but we sure hope they do. Coding for life, Codin’ for life! enjoy your spring break
