Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Contact: Pegge Erkeneff, 907.714.8888
News Release
Seward Elementary awarded 10K for Hour of Code
Soldotna, December 2, 2014—Second grade Seward Elementary teacher, Leigh Ray, organized an Hour of Code for her school last year, and invited other KPBSD schools to participate. Imagine her surprise in November, 2014, when she learned her school would receive $10,000 worth of computer hardware and accessories from Code.org. In addition, Seward Elementary was one of 51 schools, and the only school in Alaska to receive the award!
“What’s exciting to me about this gift is the increased opportunities it gives our students here in Seward,” said Leigh Ray. “We already have an award-winning school and a supportive little town, and through this gift, our ability to educate our elementary students with first class technology has leapt forward substantially! Imagine what this will do for our students’ curiosity, aspirations, and love of learning! Through technology, our world has changed. It’s only natural that our classrooms should be equipped to support learning that matches those changes.”
The international Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to show that anyone can learn the basics of computer coding. Last year during Computer Education Week, nearly 15 million students tried computer science in one week. This year, December 8 – 14, 2014, marks a week when tens of millions of students in 180+ countries will participate.
A Seward Elementary assembly will take place at 1:00, December 8, 2014, to celebrate the educational experience taking place in the school, and accept the $10,000 award.
“We are very excited that Seward Elementary has won this opportunity through the efforts of the school and in particular, educator Leigh Ray,” said Sean Dusek, KPBSD superintendent. “Utilizing projects that are application based like this are the kinds of activities that make a real difference in developing student thinking and technology skills. I am very happy the school is emphasizing 21st Century learning schools in this manner. Congratulations Seward Elementary!”
Links
http://hourofcode.com/us
KPBSD story: Hour of Code, 2013 http://bit.ly/KPBSDHourOfCode
