"Meet the Principal" Video
FCPS recently released a new video profiling Ms. Aiello. Click on the link below to learn more about our new principal and hear about her vision for elevating Spring Hill.
https://youtu.be/cS6ELYUGmDM
Computer Science Education Week
In December, Spring Hill celebrates computer science education week by highlighting the field of computer science and participating in the annual “Hour of Code” which provides an introduction to coding and computer programming skills to students in elementary school and beyond. The hope is that each class and each student will have the opportunity to spend an hour experimenting with coding and computer programming at home or in the classroom at some point this week or during the month of December.
We’ll be supporting Computer Science Education Week in a variety of ways:
- Reminders and videos will be shown on the morning show and we’ll have posters hanging throughout the school.
- The “ReadBox” in the library will feature books related to computers, programming, and technology.
- Mrs. DeVylder will be running technology themed "Breakouts" with classes in the Library.
- Additional links with access to coding tutorials and games will be added to the student section of the Spring Hill website, including a link to a YouTube video series on how computers work.
- K-3 students will participate in hour of code activities during their scheduled computer lab time.
- Students in all grades are encouraged to find time to try coding activity at some point during the week/month, at home or in school, as time allows. Interested students can access several online Hour of Code resources and activities on our website throughout the year. Most of the sites don't require any type of account or login to try the activities, but many of the sites, including Code.org and Khan Academy, allow students to log in with their Schoogle (fcpsschools.net) accounts to save progress on their coding projects and share them.
There are myriad resources out there for participating in the hour of code, but I wanted to highlight three sites in particular that you can easily use with your children. These activities are all self-guided and don’t require any programming knowledge on the part of the parent/teacher.
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Khan Academy – Khan Academy has three different options for the hour of code: programming, web site creation, and databases. These hour-long lessons don’t require students to have a Khan Academy account, but if you do have an account and sign in, you can save your progress and advance onto more complex lessons and activities at a later time. Recommended for ages 8+.
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Make Your Own Mazes – This coding activity from Kodable.com is great for our youngest students and requires no reading or typing. Students can select “play without saving” to avoid having to log in.
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Code.org – This site has a ton of different possible hour of code activities sorted by age group. Activities span pre-reader to high school levels so there is something for everyone. My personal favorite is the all-new Dance Party activity but there are also themed activities with characters from Frozen, Star Wars, Minecraft, and more. You can view the music video that Mr. Mosher created and shared on the morning show at the following link: Hour of Code Dance Party
Thank you for participating!
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