Tips to Run a Perfect EU Code Week 2020 Event From Turkey
Publication date: September 29, 2020
October’s Best Fun!
Written by Adil Tugyan – Code Week Ambassador For Turkey
In Turkey, October is one of the best times of the year when almost all the schools, teachers and students get together to work in teams or individually to join the coding event of the year called” EU Code Week”. The event lasting for two weeks is full of activities inspiration, innovation, collaboration and fun. But in fact to keep this great learning event running smoothly, having a good and well-structured action plan in hand is a must. In this blog post, I am going to tell you about how I create my power action plan in steps.
Pre-Code Week
1. Think about a previous Code Week Event and try to sort things out:
- Worked very well
- Was okay
- I should have done that differently
2. Go to your National Facebook Group or page and update the information using eye-taking Code Week visuals to remind them the Code Week Event is approaching. For the newcomers, you can provide the links of National and European Code Week Web pages to help them learn how to make a good start. Create a team to work together and help you with the organisations.
“Everybody should learn to program a computer because it teaches you how to think”.
Steve Jobs, 1995
3. Plan and organise a webinar titled “All About Code Week’. Talk about what Code Week is and why it is vital students. At the webinar, share your screen, introduce EU Code Week Web page in general but focus on how to add an event, how to take part in Codeweek4All and on the resources. You can also show some events from previous events done by teachers. Answer some questions. Make the Facebook Group your partner in finding information, sharing your work and seeking help. Because group members usually answer each others’ questions.
Integrate Code Week with other projects like eTwinning. This will help you reach more teachers and schools.
During Code Week
1. Maintain a good communication network using Facebook and set aside some time for an hour or two every evening excluding weekend days or you can choose come specific days suitable for you. You can use this time to answer questions, like members’ posts, approve events.
2. Remind teachers to join CodeWeek4All to collaborate with other schools and get excellence certificate.
3. Organise focused online workshops to give introductions about Scratch, Python or some easy to use apps.
4. While the activities are going on, encourage teachers to take the EU Code Week Deep Dive MOOC 2020 available on the EU Schoolnet Academy for their own professional development.
5. Ask the teachers to post the photos or videos of their completed activities on Facebook to inspire other members.
6. Invite other teachers and students as well as parents to join the activities.
A Code Week Event Organiser said:
“EU Code Week is the most anticipated event for my school, and for me, this is the only whole school event.”
Post-Code Week
After the Code Week Event is over, take a few days to rest and think about how to end the event at a national level.
1. Organise a webinar at the most suitable time and a few days before the webinar share it on your Facebook group and Twitter, adding EU Code Week and your national Code Week hashtag. If the conferencing tool that you are using is not sufficient, then also use YouTube broadcast to reach more participants.
At the webinar:
- Ask other teachers to present their activities and gather good practices for inspiration.
- Make a brief evaluation of the National Code Week Event and the reached numbers using the Scoreboard and the map to make a comparison among the number of activities in different cities.
“Coding teaches you how to face really big problems.”
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter
- Before the webinar, create an online survey about your Code Week Event and share the link with participants during the webinar. At this stage, get one of two teachers to give their reflections and feedback online.
- Talk about the certificates they will receive.
- Talk about” Coding – All Year Long” (participants can organise activities any time they wish).
2. Close the meeting.
3. Remember to check the Facebook Group for questions and comments occasionally.
Celebrate your success!
