For teachers helping students learn code, Itch saves them time and effort!

This week’s shout-out goes to Ucodemy’s Principal, Jason Rukman. Ucodemy is a learning platform that equips classrooms with coding curriculums, teaching tools and software coaching. We want to especially congratulate Jason and his team on their launch of Itch. Itch is a resource that provides all of the features of the Scratch coding program but without the hassles of the open Internet.

For those of you who don’t know, Scratch is a popular tool invented by MIT to teach children coding. The program includes interactive stories, games and animations that are built by visual blocks rather than standard coding language.

While Scratch is an effective means to teach children coding, Jason found the site’s layout to be less than optimal for the classroom environment. After teaching Scratch in a number of classrooms, Jason had a eureka moment. If he could somehow create a hybrid version of Scratch with some additional features, teachers would have a much easier time leveraging the program. That’s when Jason decided to create Itch– a product that is a cross between Scratch and EDUonGo.

Itch not only provides the same free activities found at Scratch.com, it also integrates ready-to-go lessons (see course catalog here) right inside the Scratch user interface. By providing each teacher a private workspace, students’ projects can be shared instantaneously with their classmates and teachers.

Itch provides a single unified experience, enabling students to bypass the inconvenience of managing multiple browser windows. Itch’s secure social network also makes it easy for teachers to manage student projects without the clutter or noise of millions of other users.

In the words of one teacher…

“Itch is awesome… this was just what I needed to easily get my kids into coding! I have almost no background in coding and this was a breeze to use!”

With Itch, coding activities are already organized in ready-to-go lesson format. Currently, Itch is offering a limited number of free teacher accounts. Claim yours before they are all gone by visiting www.ucodemy.com/itch.

Thanks, Jason, for creating a product that can save teachers time and effort. Keep up the great work!