5 Week update (well a little late)

As a review my One Best Thing was to share my experiences, learned best practices and things to avoid when establishing a Swift Coding Club.

Starting your club

1. Download, save somewhere easy to access, and read the Swift Coding Club Guide https://www.apple.com/in/education/k12/docs/swift-club-playgrounds.pdf

2. Date and time: check with admin and others to ensure that your Coding Club sessions won’t conflict with other clubs, meetings, or sporting practices. This helps to ensure maximum participation.

3. Plan for how long you want to run the club for.  The guide breaks down the lessons into 3 12 lesson blocks, having one meeting a week going through the whole guide will take almost an entire school year.

4. Check you iPad inventory and make sure:

1. They can run a current version of iPadOS

2. That Swift Playgrounds, Apple Books, Keynote, and Pages are installed and updated.

5. Determine the maximum number of club members this will depend on:

1. The number of iPads that are usable.

2. The size of the space you have access to.

6. Present admin with your idea for the club and what information you’ve gathered.

1. Number of members you estimate.

2. Number of usable iPads.

3. Location of meetings.

4. Time and day of meetings.

5. Which grade levels can join the club.

6. Overview of what you will be covering in meetings.

7. How long the club will run.

7. Create a flyer about your club:

1. Apple provides a basic template to use in their Swift Coding Club guide.

2. I recommend making another flyer that provides more information.

3. I created an online form for parents to sign up their child and included the link on the flyer. This gave me a good idea of the number of members.

4. I distributed flyers 6 weeks before the start of the club to allow sign up time.

8. Decide how to communicate with parents

1. I chose to use a password protected website for parent communication as it allowed the most flexibility.

9. Prior to the first meeting:

1. Make sure iPads are charged.

2. Make sure iPadOS is up to date.

3. Make sure apps are up to date.

4. Make sure Swift Playgrounds “Learn to Code 1” is downloaded.

5. Have snacks and drinks ready (be sure to check for member allergies)

6. Print Swift Coding Stickers (the template is included with the Swift Coding Club Guide)

7. Review the Everyone Can Code Puzzles book both student and teacher guide. https://books.apple.com/us/book/everyone-can-code-puzzles/id1481279769 https://books.apple.com/us/book/everyone-can-code-puzzles-teacher-guide/id1481279144