This December marks the 10th anniversary of Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) and it’s remarkable how far it has come. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a CS teacher during the first-ever CS Education Week, so I can’t claim to remember the full history, but thanks to the magic of unlimited email storage I can share the first email I ever got about CS Ed Week:
It’s no surprise that my local CSTA chapter was also my connection to the early days of this national movement. I know I proudly took the 2010 CSEdWeek pledge (not that I can remember exactly what the pledge was anymore). In 2011, I remember trying, unsuccessfully, to get my local alderman to get the Chicago City Council to officially proclaim CSEdWeek. Given the amazing momentum around CS education, it’s easy to forget that we’re building on a foundation built by passionate teachers, and I am so proud that CSTA has been there supporting teacher voices from the start.
That’s why I’m very excited that CSTA will be co-hosting this year’s CSEdWeek kickoff. We’ve partnered with Code.org and the Computer Science Alliance to launch CS Ed Week 2019 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Dec. 9 with an insightful panel discussion focused on this year’s theme — CS for Good — and the announcement of the 2019 Champions of Computer Science. For those of you who can’t make it to Santa Fe, we’ll be live streaming this event, so I encourage you to watch if you have the opportunity.
Behind the scenes at CSTA, our team has been developing new classroom resources honoring the CS for Good theme, including a set of posters that feature diverse people who use CS for Good in multiple industries. We’ll be releasing these as part of our CSEdWeek celebration, so make sure you’re following our social media channels to learn how to download the posters.
What happens in each of your schools and classrooms is what makes CS Ed Week most exciting. Please share what you do by tagging @csteachersorg in your Tweets and use #CSforGood #CSEdWeek in your posts.
Jake Baskin, CSTA Executive Director
