George Grant Mason School participates in Computer Science Week

TUXEDO — The Tuxedo School District will participate in Hour Of Code during Computer Science Education Week from Dec. 5-11.
The annual global campaign is an effort to ensure all students are equipped with 21st century critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
Students will participate in events during the school day, as well as evening family activities, to give everyone in the community an introduction to computer science.
“We believe that learning computer programming gives kids important skills to navigate a future where many aspects of their lives will be influenced by technology,” said Beverly Tesser, a teacher in the district's Department of Instructional Technology. “Giving them the confidence to understand how technology works and the ability to control it, is an increasingly important part of children’s education today, and we are getting started with an Hour of Code.”
The George Grant Mason School wants all students to experience how easy and empowering it is to learn programming.
The entire school will participate in an Hour of Code using a variety of activities from Tynker, Kodable, Scratch Jr. and Code.org, companies that allows students to create and share projects with code, while supporting Common Core and CSTA standards.
Both internationally recognized creative computing platform helps children of all ages develop computational thinking and programming skills as they snap together visual code blocks to create computer programs.
Younger students will focus on solving simple coding puzzles, using Kodable and Scratch Jr. and will use what they learn to create simple games and stories.
Older students will be able to choose from a variety of coding projects from Tynker and Code.org/learn that will guide them through the creation of drawing tools, math art, and even multi-level and multi-player games that they can share and play with each other.
All week long, students will engage in collaborative activities and they will learn key programming concepts that GGM will build on in the future.
Essential informationStudents are excited about computer programming and are looking forward to the events planned for Dec. 5-11. Look for pictures of students on Instagram. #ggm or #mrstesserggm.
Hour of Code events will take place at GGM Multipurpose Room on Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 3 to 7 p.m. Parents, community leaders and the media are welcome to attend.
For more information, contact Beverly Tesser at btesser@tuxedoufsd.org or call 845-351-4797.