Students participate in a previous session of Minecraft: Desert Island Survival at the MACC.Signal Mountain resident Tiffany Henry, who has been teaching computer and technology skills for the past five years at local schools including Bright, St. Nicholas and McCallie, is now offering programs closer to home, at the MACC.
“It’s exciting for me to be doing something up on the mountain,” she said.
A session of her Minecraft: Desert Island Survival workshop for first- through fifth-graders is currently underway, with another seven-week session to be held Tuesdays beginning April 12 from 4:15-5:15 p.m.
ComputerTOTS is a program for 2-and-a-half- to 5-year-olds that Henry is offering at the Mountain Arts Community Center for the first time. It will be held on Tuesdays, April 12 through May 24, from either 3-3:30 p.m. or 3:30-4 p.m.
For either program, the deadline to register is April 5.
The objective of ComputerTOTS is to introduce toddlers to computers. The class will explain what a screen is, what an icon is and other computer-related vocabulary, as well as offer an instruction on computer basics, such as how to properly use a mouse, said Henry.
“We also use software in the curriculum to reinforce academic skills while teaching technology,” she said.
Two sessions will be spent playing Dora the Explorer-Animal Adventure, which allows students to practice reading and play matching games while learning about rainforest animals with Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego.
Caillou, another software program that will be used in the ComputerTOTS class, teaches students about the seasons while helping them learn and practice the difference between clicking an icon and clicking and dragging an icon using a mouse. As a bonus, the program also uses skills associated with reasoning and logic.
Henry said she also loves using Every Body has a Brain, an interactive musical brain game that gives students a new appreciation for their brains, in her classes.
“I’ve taught it at some of the schools, and the kids just love it,” she said.
Henry said Minecraft, a game involving the placement of blocks to build whatever one can imagine, is all the rage with kids, who constantly play the game at home.
Using MinecraftEdu, a school-ready remix of the original game, Henry’s students will work together in their own Minecraft worlds hosted on Henry’s private server. After reviewing basics of the game, students will “wash up” on a deserted island where they are charged with surviving by creating everything from scratch with imagination, ingenuity and Minecraft blocks. To get off the island, the students have to bypass the local castle by solving puzzles and avoiding traps.
The Minecraft class is $105 for MACC members and $120 for nonmembers. ComputerTOTS costs $85 for members and $100 for nonmembers. All supplies will be provided for both classes.
The MACC is at 809 Kentucky Ave. To register, visit computerexplorers.com/Chattanooga or signalmacc.org, call the MACC at 886-1959 or Henry at 678-525-8660, or email Henry at tiffany511@hotmail.com.