New Lexmark printer

Among the things I asked for in my INNOVATION! grant application was a printer. I did not buy an expensive one although I would have loved to!! Instead I bought a $423.00 model. (I also remembered to buy a lockdown device so the print doesn't walk away)!!! The purpose for the printer was so that I could print out teacher-made worksheets with code on them so that the students could copy the code into Editra. Editra is a free text editor that I discovered online. It is easy to download and install. I've installed it on all 20 of my laptops in addition to every computer in the lab! Yes, it took a while but it was a very easy download and installation.

I've used the teacher-made worksheets (below and to the left is just one sample) with both of my classes - the 6th graders and the 12th graders. I've been using them since last spring. I create the code in Editra, print the page out, make photocopies, hand one out to each student, and it is the student's job to copy the code EXACTLY as they see it on the page. Then they are to save their file as an HTML file to their flash drive and open it up in a browser by opening a browser, any one, and selecting "Open File." To the left is a sample of the teacher-made worksheets that I've made. I am going to start doing things a little differently, in fact I've already started, by having my students use Codecademy to learn HTML and CSS. Instead of me writing code, printing it out, photocopying it, and handing it out to students for them to copy, they can just do modules in Codecademy. This is the downside to that though. When I write the code and then have them copy it, I can help them with any difficulties they have because I am familiar with the code. With the modules, if a student goes ahead of me (I am doing the modules too), then I cannot help them as I would like. The upside of the modules as I said yesterday is that students can work at their own pace and the program also provides feedback. It's too soon to tell, but I think the students will enjoy Codecademy more. We'll see.

Teacher-made worksheet

Worksheet up-close