Community reviews for Scratch

Perhaps my favorite teaching (or should I say learning) tool in the computer lab. Hits on so many important skills and is remarkably rewarding.

Scratch can be overwhelming at first because it can be used for so many different activities, so teachers can dismiss it. But if given the time the websites offers an abundance of instructional vides and support. For first time users I recommend taking apart a previously created project or starting with a simple animation.

I liked it and I liked the scratch edu community. I wish there were more lesson plans that also had the iste/common core standards that correlated. I used it for two years, but did not use this year.

I love Scratch as a teaching tool. Students can learn math, programming, basically helps with STEM. Students can get very creative, or, if they have trouble coming up with ideas can try to re-create something someone else already created. I haven't found a student yet who hasn't been excited about using Scratch!

The gallery shows what other students have created, and you can see how they did it and work off of their projects. When the program doesn't work, there's no way to know why unless I go over and help them figure it out. It works well with students who can think abstractly but can follow a linear train of thought. I've only used this program for a few months, and I have a lot to learn, but it's really cool.

Coding in general is a very important skill that students should all be exposed to. Scratch provides an introduction to coding that can then lead to more complex tasks. It is a tool that can be mastered and then customized, allowing students to go beyond what the program comes with and forces students to use creative thinking, and problem solving skills to create and develop their product.

I can't say enough about this product. I love how engaged the kids are, and it almost seems like I'm pulling something over on them: they learn while having fun. A few things that would make it better: ~the ability to set up and monitor class progress ~a way to see inside the code blocks - to show the actual underlying script ~offline player capability No matter the above - I LOVE Scratch, and so do my students!

I really enjoy this free tool, however, it's not for all students. Scratch is very detail oriented, and can become complicated with advanced programming. In my experience, Scratch is for a niche-group of students that are ok with self-directed learning and for students that aren't afraid to fail. When I used Scratch with a general middle school and high school class, some students became frustrated and gave up.

Scratch is a fun and very well-supported free tool for embedding computer science concepts into the general curriculum. Unlike some other intro. to computer science applications which require minimal teacher knowledge of the app (e.g. Tynker), the teacher does need to invest some time in learning Scratch. Because it is free and has a well-established kid-friendly online community people can easily find support for their learning. There is a portal for educators, ScratchEd, which has excellent resources, but does not set cookies and is considerably less well-supported than the Scratch site itself. If you are in the Boston area, MIT provides free teacher training.

Scratch can be used for digital storytelling and game creation, to support academic content or it can be used to introduce coding as a technology skill. I have used it with 7-12 graders and all have found it engaging. Students must problem solve and troubleshoot to get their project to work. The sky is the limit as far as the amount of complexity that can be added. Support is built in through tutorials on the site or the array of published projects. Students can see an animation or game they like and then look at or even copy the code to see how it is done. They can remix a project to make it their own. I like the creativity and originality Scratch encourages. The library of backgrounds, sprites and sound effects is adequate, but students can also upload their own photos or sound effects, including adding voiceovers. During all of this, students are learning coding, logic and computational thinking.