2013 December

A Day With Disney

In October 2013, the CoderDojo LA was treated to an extra special session thanks to our wonderful friends at Disney Animation!

The kids (and parents) were undoubtedly excited with what magic might lie behind the Disney doors. And they did not disappoint, planning a packed day of fun tours, viewings of movie trailers, animation shorts, and special surprises for our mini coders. But the best part about our day with Disney was being able to expose the ninjas to a whole new avenue of where their coding skills may take them!

We’ve often used games for lessons and it’s a quick association for the kids to make with what they’re learning, but it was the first time we’ve really been able to put them face to face with a group of adults making this coding “play” their careers in movies. The amazing volunteers from Disney guided everyone through their fantastical hallways decorated with the latest to come (and planned to be coming) from their creative minds. Kids were able to hear first hand what it was like to work on projects like Wreck It Ralph and the soon to be released Frozen.

And while we had fun lessons for both the beginner and advanced classes, from the buzz of excited chatter you could easily tell it was the environment and the wonderful team at Disney that the kids won’t soon be forgetting.

So a big thank you to everyone who made it out to our October 2013 session at Disney and a monstrous thanks to the fantastic crew from Disney for such an unforgettable experience full of special treats like this fun animation done for all the kids’ names!

http://youtu.be/rlTTaicCvJI

Don’t forget to check out Frozen when it hits theaters November 27th!

http://youtu.be/YahWt4GIQl4

And enjoy some games while you wait!

A lot to be thankful for at Idealab

Our November session took us back to one of our favorite and most supportive teams at Idealab. As always the wonderful team at Idealab treated us to a perfect weekend for our little ninjas to get some more coding under their belts before Thanksgiving tummies fill them up!

It’s been partners such as Idealab who’ve really made it possible for CoderDojo LA to continue bringing kids and parents together to learn about programming. So in honor of Thanksgiving, we want to say an extra thanks to not only Idealab but all those who allow us to keep coding!

Parents

Every month parents patiently wait for the announcement of our next session and fill the RSVP lists in record time! It’s these parents who tirelessly shuttle their little ninjas to our different host partners around LA…

who jump in to lend a hand and who provide unending support of their coder’s efforts and progress.

Sometimes it’s even the GRANDPARENTS who join the coding fun!

So to all our parents AND grandparents, we thank you!

Volunteers

What good would a nonprofit be without its volunteers? We for one know we wouldn’t be much without these guys! CoderDojo LA has been truly lucky to find a fun, energetic group of volunteers from our tireless leaders Una and Shara, to those who have been with us for the last year and those just joining. 2013 has been an exciting year for us with November proving to be no different as a new advanced game was introduced by Kyle Yamamoto and volunteer Jennifer Ellis took on leading her first ever session for the beginners! We can’t wait for what’s in store for 2014!

Ninjas

Last but definitely not least, we want to thank all of our CoderDojo LA Ninjas! Whether a veteran or IdeaLab was their first time, without these guys and gals CoderDojo LA wouldn’t even have a purpose. It’s by far the best part of every dojo to see these energetic (sometimes bouncing) ninjas come rushing through the doors to snag their seats. Their creativity and bravery in taking risks, openness to trying new things, and the way they reach out to help other ninjas never cease to amaze us. It’s true that they’ve really become the biggest teachers in this whole process and we cannot thank them enough for believing in us and coming back each month for a new round of coding!

Miss out on our session with Idealab? Don’t worry! No need to feel like a…

Just access all the coder’s shared projects in the CoderDojoLA Studio to join the fun!

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