Inspiring great teaching through Kodu
Today I have been talking at the West Country Computing Hub's Primary Computing Festival all about how my school use Minecraft across the primary curriculum. I've attached a PDF of my slides (to keep my Minecraft fonts intact!) and you can see QR codes for a range of links to helpful websites and videos I... Continue Reading →
Here is an article from Hello World about how we used Minecraft during Lockdown to explore Roman worlds virtually in Minecraft. We explored the Roman cities of Bath and Exeter as part of out Year 3 pupils' Roman Day. Our Minecraft Club went remote as we all logged in from home and continued to build... Continue Reading →
On October 6th, the second issue of the Micro:Mag came out. It features my guide explaining how to use Kodu Game Lab with the micro:bit, using the micro:bit as a controller. This uses the micro:bit's accelerometer to control a character in a game, You can also make the micro:bit spell out a word or sentence... Continue Reading →
I recently wrote an article for Lego's hub on the TES website about how coding challenges can be used to inspire your pupils and the importance of placing them within a real-world context. A great way to help your pupils understand the relevance and importance of coding is through the use of competitions. There are... Continue Reading →
The program I needed to make: For my Part 3 investigation, I wanted to have a working game showing an octopus simulation game based on the Tamagotchi/Nintendogs style where the only interaction the player has with the character is through GUI buttons on their screen. In the past, I had only made sections of... Continue Reading →
BCS Certificate in Computer Science teaching Part 3 investigation. Question investigated is: 'Can the same programming objectives be achieved when pupils are creating different types of programs or must a class always work towards the same goal to ensure that no one misses out on a key concept?'
This year I decided to get an alternative tree for my classroom and when I saw this one from Hobbycraft, it seemed perfect for some coding projects to be easily attached. The tree decorations are made up of sparkle batons cotrolled by a Crumble controller. We used sparkle batons but if you don't have any... Continue Reading →
For this activity, I asked pupils to work in pairs to plan a Christmas-themed game. I demonstrated my own planning using the planning sheets that I was providing them with as well as providing the game I had created based on the planning: The game is available here I was building on some of the... Continue Reading →
