New year, new location, new fun
Welcome to Seattle CoderDojo 2015. We have 38 events planned for this year and more possibly coming down the pike. For a list of all events we are planning, we now have a 2015 schedule online.
WE’RE IN WAINRIGHT NOW. As much as we enjoy Van Vorst, the times we got rescheduled to Wainwright, we fell in love with it. The bigger classrooms, wide hallway, and larger kitchen area all just called out to us. We requested it as our default location for 2015 and Amazon said yes. It’s just a block south and on the other side of the street.
Upcoming events with tickets available:
January 10th at Amazon.com Wainwright
January 17th at Amazon.com Wainwright
Upcoming dates of interest:
Jan 17: Lottery for Minecraft modding class opens. Class starts Feb 21. Lottery will be announced at Dojo on the 17th and then in the newsletter on the 19th. Remember that it’s a lottery, so getting in early will not change your odds.
Jan 24: Hallway Robot Rodeo – Bring your robots for a robot obstacle course in the big Wainwright hallway.
Temporary loaner laptops coordinator needed
We want to say thanks to mentor Don for the great job he’s been doing as our loaner laptop coordinator. He will be leaving us for a few months this year and we could use an additional person with experience in PC maintenance, preferably with a solid desktop Linux background. You’ll help keep our stock of loaner laptops and Chromebooks in shape, help troubleshoot problems, and mentor some kids who are interested in learning more about hardware and operating systems.
What are Pods?
You know about the Minecraft modding class we’re working on for February. But did you know that we’re working on others? For the moment, we’re calling these “Pods.”
Pods are 4-6 week special interest classes. These will require advance registration and weekly attendance. On top of the Minecraft modding class, mentor Chris from the JavaScript/Independent Study room is working on a multi-week intro to Python. We have not scheduled it yet, but we are looking for mentors to help Chris so we can have a good mentor-to-child ratio when we launch. If you’re interested in mentoring for the Python Pod, please talk to Chris or Greg. If you’d like to run a pod, please talk to Greg or Jonathan.
The 2015 Survey is coming!
In the next couple of weeks, please look for an invitation in your mailbox to take our 2015 survey. It’s how you’ll help us focus our efforts for 2015 better to serve you.