Tickets now available for March 21
Tickets are now available for March 21. Get your tickets now.
People occasionally express dismay that we’re always sold out. We give them the same advice every time: reserve your tickets on Monday. It usually takes 20-28 hours for a weekly Dojo to sell out (the 2 minutes on the CenturyLink Dojo was a special case).
For those of you who reserve tickets, if you realize you can’t make it, please try to cancel by Wednesday morning before Dojo. That gives us a few swings through the waiting list to let a replacement in. The closer we get to Friday, the fewer waiting list people claim the seats released to them.
And if the text above distracted you from your mission of getting tickets for March 21st, get your tickets now.
Laptops Volunteer Needed AND Codestarter laptops available
First, congrats to volunteer Ryan, who is leaving us so he can accept a position at GitHub in California. That’s going to leave us a bit shortstaffed among loaner laptop coordinators.
Volunteer Drew has jumped in to help in the last couple of weeks, but we need someone (or two someones) to make sure we have enough people to help with loaners. This is a great option for a parent, because you can come a little early, get your child settled in, help with laptops until a little after the rooms start, and then go work with your child for a while until around 11:20 when people start needing to check them back in.
If you want to help out with laptops, come to the rec room when you get to Dojo and let us know.
Also, if your child needs a laptop, we have a handful of Codestarter Chromebooks to give away. This is intended to help kids who do not have a computer of their own. You’ll need to go through Codestarter’s application process, and if you get approved, you’ll need to attend 4 Dojos where your child will check out the Chromebook like a loaner, but on the 4th Dojo, they’ll take it home as their own. We’ll also make sure you get tickets for 6 consecutive Dojos to help you meet that 4-week requirement.
If interested, talk to the loaner volunteers or Greg to get the application URL.
Python for kids, NodeSchool for parents
We’ve had enough interest for both and we’re planning to launch them April 4th. The NodeSchool study group for parents will be drop-in and will not require a special sign-up. Since the Python workshop will be sequential and we’ll pre-reserve a multi-week ticket for each student, Python will have a special sign-up. We’ll open that next week via EventBrite.
To head off the inevitable questions about when or where the Python workshop is being held. It’s the same day, place, and time as regular Dojos… with a twist.
We’re going to be testing a new option with the Python workshop: livestreaming. Chris will be wearing a bluetooth headset and sharing his screen via Google Hangouts. Kids who can’t make it to Dojo will be able to tune into the broadcast live and ask questions via text chat. If they can’t tune in live, the livestreams will be archived on YouTube.
Special page for stuff from workshops
To make it easier to find blog posts by our mentors, we’ve added a page under the “Learning Links” menu. It’s nothing special, just a list of posts in the “Tutorials and Curriculum” category. But it’ll make it easier to find stuff like the Minecraft Modding cheat sheet or a page of links to Jonathan’s recent tutorials from the JavaScript room.
Brandon and Subarno’s mods from the Minecraft room will be online there by the end of the week.