Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Raspberry Pi After School Program

This past summer I received a pi-topCEED that I contributed for on indigogo. I had no idea what I was getting but sounded great and I wanted to start programming again
I received it; I turned it on; I worked with it a little and then turned it off. I had not idea what I was doing and what a Raspberry Pi was. Now, I can't believe I gave up so easily. This thing is Awesome!

December comes along and I was lucky enough to attend a +Raspberry Pi #Picademy, in Austin. I did so much learning in those two days....Amazing! While I was there, I started thinking how I could get my students involved in the things I learned. When I got home, I took out the pi-topCEED and I now knew what to do :-) I knew what I was supposed to do with pi-topPROTO and of course regretted not getting the pi-topSPEAKER.

When I went back to school the following morning, I was able to demonstrate to my classes what I had learned about the +Raspberry Pi and how we could use it.

I started planning how we could start an after school program. I was able to work with our school Region One GEAR UP Facilitator to get 10 Raspberry Pi's kits and our Librarian for a place for the students to work. By the end of January, we were able to hold our first session of the Port Isabel High School Raspberry Pi After School Program :-D
https://twitter.com/EfrenR/status/826566319218700289

The students have continued going since then and really enjoyed using the Raspberry Pi's for programming in Python for Minecraft, programming in Sonic Pi, and doing some Physical Computing. We will keep on going for the rest of the year and hoping to add more students next year.


Friday, April 7, 2017

My First Raspberry Pi Training

As can be seen below, I'm working with my pi-topCEED along with Raspberry Pi resources to prepare for my first Raspberry Pi training. I will be working with teachers in the Rio Grande Valley area in figuring out ways to use Raspberry Pi's in the classroom. From talking to teachers, there are very few of them that know what Raspberry Pi's are and how they can be used to get students interested in programming and physical computing. I'm hoping I can pass on a little of what I learned from attending the Austin's Raspberry Pi Picademy. Here's hoping I'll do OK :-D
Will provide update....