Resources

1 November 2019 · by Amy O'Meara

CoderDojo Ninjas and volunteers do truly remarkable things, for example designing a socially impactful project or supporting a younger child with making their idea a reality. As a Dojo champion, you may be looking for ways to recognise these achievements.  Below are some simple and practical ways to recognise the efforts of your Dojo members. 1. Certificates We offer a free, editable certificate template for all Dojos. Certificates may be awarded for, but are not limited to, the following achievements: Attending a Dojo for the entire academic… Read More

27 September 2019 · by Nuala McHale

As Dojos get older, thinking about sustainability matters more and more. We know that a key challenge for older clubs is ensuring a wider team of mentors or volunteers are able to manage different aspects of a Dojo, so that a Dojo is not dependent on one person to run. Champions can help mentors develop leadership skills and take on more responsibilities of the club. This has been shown to empower volunteers. Spending time together as a group, learning about each other, trusting and giving mentors the space to try new things means that the Dojo… Read More

24 July 2019 · by Nuala McHale

Scratch Conference Europe 2019 is one month away, and we’ve got a stellar group of speakers and workshops ready to rock your world. Here are five Scratch Conference things you can get super excited about!   Different perspectives From our opening keynote by Scratch co-founder Mitchel Resnick on how coding is at a crossroads, to stories about how Dojo leaders are using Scratch to inspire children and grow the CoderDojo community in Japan and Italy, there will be so many things to inspire you and give you fresh ideas to use in your own community. International networking… Read More

17 July 2019 · by Nuala McHale

We are very excited to be hosting our next #Chat Dojo Twitter discussion on 22 October 2019, from 9am-11am GMT+1. To get an idea of what’s in store, you can take a look at the highlights from our June Twitter chat below! Highlights of our #ChatDojo Discussion – June On June 23 we held a two-hour Twitter chat giving CoderDojo community members the opportunity to share their experiences and insights. In advance of the discussion Dojo volunteers voted on the topics they wanted to discuss. These were, in order of preference: motivating volunteers… Read More

7 June 2019 · by Nuala McHale

John Madden is a coordinator at Involve, an organisation that works to widen youth services for young people from the Traveller community in Ireland; involve, formerly the National Association of Traveller Centres, has the aim to improve the lives of young Travellers through inclusion and development. John shares the story of why he introduced CoderDojo training to the youth workers and volunteers at Involve. In large pockets across all of Ireland, people from the Traveller community face great barriers to accessing services and support that are readily available to the vast majority of the settled community. The reasons… Read More

5 June 2019 · by Nuala McHale

Accessibility is a founding principle of the CoderDojo movement: our vision is that all young people should have the opportunity to learn about technology and be creative in a safe and social environment. Leading by example Prior to releasing this guide, multiple Dojo organisers noted how they wanted to make their Dojo more accessible, but they weren’t sure where to begin. When CoderDojo champion Hannah approached us, with her experience and the knowledge of accessibility resources, we jumped at the opportunity to support clubs become more inclusive. “I have been teaching kids coding since 2013. As an autistic adult,… Read More