I was asked to address all the teachers in my county (Fulton) in Georgia towards increasing teacher training and collaboration for teaching CS courses. Our county Department Chair, for Career Tech, Business and Computer Science at the county, asked me to conduct a survey on what kind of interest teachers would have towards being more successful in teaching CS courses. The choices offered had a wide range of courses from AP Computer Science to Introduction to Computer Programming. The response was awesome. Most teachers said they felt lost and responded that the training would help a lot. In Fulton (my county) since last year all students K-12 have an early release day once a month (Sept., Oct., Jan, Feb and March). Teachers are expected to use this extra time toward Professional Learning and counts towards adding to their PLUs. I am cashing into this and offering training in different CS courses. I plan to start with AP Computer Science (only because I have other teachers with whom I collaborate with and I have most success teaching this course).
This kind of project is the first of its kind. I am not sure how things will turn out. I guess I will solve the problems as they come along. As I progress, I will keep you posted of my successes, frustrations and failures.
Deepa Muralidhar
Northview High School
Johns Creek Georgia