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About the Book

For the past 6 years, I have looked and looked for the best guide to teach young people the basics of programming. While teaching in Canadian public schools, I've taught Squeak to 12-year-olds, and once I even tried Python for 15-year-olds.

Nothing (and I do mean "NOTHING!") was as much of a success as teaching Scratch. (Scratch is an open source project from MIT - scratch.mit.edu)

• The user interface (a.k.a. "IDE") was intuitive.
• The feedback was immediate.
• The game-like feel was inviting.
• The audio sounds and controls worked out-of-the-box (as did everything else).

Now, Scratch is no panacea. After all, for those of you teachers who understand programming, there are no "arrays". This is a major drawback for true programmers... but means that programs are kept simple and intuitive for the beginner! And after all, that is the point!

In making this book, my target audience is first the teacher and then the student. The reason for this is two-fold.

1. Teachers need more resources that excites their students (and maybe themselves as well). These resources should include not just the instruction materials but also sample assessment rubrics and warnings of common pitfalls.
2. Students need instructions that are engaging. If following a video where the student simply types what they see on the screen, do they actually learn anything? Can they prove their learning by repeating the activity? If it doesn't engage, then I don't do it!

In today's education system, I find I'm part-teacher and part-entertainer. Maybe I'm an "edu-tainer". While some see this as a hinderance, I choose to promote the exciting learning possibilities. I think it's more fun for the students, and it sure is more fun for me!

Are you curious about where this book came from? The majority of the site content was Youtube videos. To see the original site, "Intros 1&2" are here, "Intro 3" is here and the "Frogger" series starts here and continues if you follow the fine-print links at the very bottom of each page. These will all be recreated here in this book over the coming weeks and months!

And since this book is being written online, please feel free to read along and comment on anything. Who knows, maybe you'll even get a reference of thanks in the final product?!

I hope you enjoy learning Scratch!

Cheers, Graham

About the Author

Graham Rich

Graham has been a teacher for 5 years in Nova Scotia, Canada. He taught "Technology Education" in a computer lab for those wonderful years.

Recently, Graham moved his family to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He's been a supply teacher there for the past year, including the time that he decided to sit down and create a site for his students to learn Scratch.

Feel free to contact Graham on Twitter: @kindofanonymous.