I will start at the beginning of my story to explain why I titled my blog with the famous quote. The beginning of the 2011-2012 school year I had a conversation with one of the school board members for the school district where I am a teacher. I discovered during our conversation that she had been a mathematician and a computer scientist prior to retiring to raise her children. I had mentioned to her that I wanted to propose that the board recognize Computer Science Education Week. She suggested that I contact the superintendent and make the proposal to him. I followed through with her suggestion but did not receive a response during the school year from the superintendent. The teachers’ union was in the middle of negotiating a new contract, so I felt this was not a good time to pursue my request.
During summer 2012, I wrote letters to each of the school board members asking them to support a proposal to recognize Computer Science Education Week. In my letter, I told the board members that I would be attending the next school board meeting to make my request public. I also sent an email to other computer science teachers in my district asking them to either attend the school board meeting to support me or to send a letters to the school board members requesting that they recognize Computer Science Education Week. I attached the letter I had written and the addresses of the school board members.
The following week I attended the school board meeting. I had prepared a statement and was relieved that I did. I was so nervous speaking to the board and the principals that I read the speech. The text of the statement is listed below:
Board Members and Administrators
I’m sure that you check your email, surf the Internet and use your cell phone as part of your daily life. It is computing and technology that make this all possible. Both play an important role in driving innovation and society. Since 2010 the US House of Representatives have endorsed Computer Science Education Week to raise awareness of the transformative role that computer science has played. Going forward, CS Ed Week will always be held the week containing December 9, Grace Hopper’s birthday.
This year, December 9-15 has been designated as Computer Science Education Week. I am already planning my activities for the week which will include a field trip to Raytheon, a graduate student from UCI that will discuss her project using computers to help parents monitor their premature babies, and a guest speaker from the industry. I am requesting that the board recognize CS Ed Week just as you have recognized CTE, FFA, and student leaders. Please join with me to help promote awareness of the importance of computer science in our society.
Once again I did not hear any response from my request. Last week I was planning my next step when I received a surprise visit from the superintendent. He explained why it had taken so long to respond to my request. He told me that due to my request, the board had reviewed which groups they had honored at school board meetings. They discovered that sports received the most recognition and academics the least amount. It was decided, with the approval of the Athletic Directors, to decrease the number of times per year that athletics is recognized. The board decided to not only recognize Computer Science Week, but to recognize other academic areas. He asked that I send him a sample resolution for the board to use. That evening I visited the Computer Science Education Website (www.csedweek.org) to download the sample resolution that is listed under resources. I sent it to the superintendent with a thank you for dropping by my classroom.
It seems that “Good things come to those who wait” did apply to this situation.
Now, I need to get to work pulling together all of my activities for CS Ed Week.
What activities are you planning for CS Ed Week? It is not too early to begin your planning.
Myra Deister
CSTA At-Large Representative
Sunny Hills High School
Fullerton, CA

I often talk with my students about the impact of technology on our lives: the good and the bad, the capabilities and the limitations. A great example of this was this past summer when my family spent close to a month living in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was amazing how easy living in a foreign country can be thanks to technology.
We found an apartment to rent through an online service and communicated often with our landlord-to-be via email. Money wasn’t a problem once we were there, as electronic banking allowed us to use our ATM and credit cards freely (although most places required a PIN for credit cards). With a wifi connection in our apartment, we were able to use an iPad to FaceTime with family back in the states. And even though we didn’t have cell service there, we were still able track our location and navigate around town using the iPhone map and GPS.
As good as technology is, however, it does have its limitations. The Google Translate app was great for translating signs or phrases, but it also demonstrated how hard language translation still is for computers. While doing laundry one day, I passed the time by translating the dryer settings from Danish to English using Google Translate. Most of the settings mapped closely to what I expected, until I tried the top one: “Ekstra tort.” Based on the other translations, I expected to see “Extra hot.” However, I was surprised to find that it translated as “Additional indignity.” I now feel guilty every time I do laundry, knowing that I am inflicting indignity upon my clothes.

Dave Reed
CSTA Board of Directors

Recently, Rutgers University hosted a CS4HS workshop for K-12 CS educators. With the help of a grant from Google, Rutgers CS Department planned and hosted a two-day event for local K-12 computing teachers. What a great experience for everyone!
I have been involved with many CS workshops for teachers and have always come away from these workshops with a rejuvenated motivation to teach. And I am usually on the presenting end of the workshop! Professional development activities benefit the presenters as well as the participants. The teachers attending the workshops consistently verify the existence of a K-12 community devoted to educating students in the computing disciplines. When surveyed, this K-12 CS community appreciates any professional development that will help them better their teaching, give them new approaches to education, teach them new techniques, or introduce new ways of incorporating technological tools in their curriculum. The presenters have the same appreciation! After all, the presenters are, in most cases, also teachers! And the teachers attending always have something worthwhile to offer other teachers!
Take the first step towards providing professional development to your local communities of CS teachers. There have been so many successful teacher workshops around the country. The CS Principles Web Site provides a calendar of many of the events that were offered this past summer and that are scheduled for the Fall. If you have an interest in reaching out to your local communities of CS educators and you have no idea what type of professional development to offer, browse the CS Principles calendar:
http://www.csprinciples.org/home/pd
If you click on a particular workshop, there will most likely be a link to that workshop’s web site which may include an agenda, pictures, presentations, and most of what you might need to plan your own workshop.
Involve and educate your local community: Not only have our efforts reached out to the K-12 CS community, but we were also fortunate to have the School of Arts and Sciences take note of our efforts. Publicity never hurts! Now the entire Rutgers community is aware of our outreach and our goals. Read about our outreach efforts:
http://sas.rutgers.edu/news-a-events/feature-archive/1305-computer-scientists-reach-beyond-their-ranks-to-shape-the-future
Although we did have financial support from Google for this first event, we plan to continue our efforts throughout the school year. We are fortunate to have a group of CS educators that are committed to K-12 CS Education.
Take your first step in reaching out. Plan a professional development event for your teachers! It doesn’t have to be a multi-day event. If you have a CSTA chapter near you, reach out for their help! If you are interested in starting a chapter in your local region, contact [email protected] for more information.
Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately for different projects I have at my school. Every time I research something for my unit plans or projects, I keep stumbling into the same term over and over again. STEM. I am familiar with the term STEM and its growing popularity in the U.S. but then again, I am a Computer Science teacher and it is my job to be as familiar as possible with any term related to it. I am quite sure however, that there are many more teachers who would be interested in STEM if they understood its critical importance for their students.
So I started doing a little bit more research on STEM-related careers and jobs and found out that the possibilities are huge. STEM could open so many doors for our high school students. Every article and website related to STEM ended up with the same conclusion: STEM is where the future lies because it is where the jobs are!
A few days later, while still experiencing STEM bliss, I was casually chatting to a high school junior about his plans for the future. He is a great athlete and of course is aiming towards a sports scholarship in his college of choice, but when I asked him if he had decided on a major, he said he still wasn’t sure. This, of course, is no surprise considering that he still has one more high school year to go. I took the opportunity to inquire as to whether he would be interested in pursuing a STEM-related career. Needless to say, his response was sadly telling. His face was as blank as if I had asked him about the weather on Pluto. I was so disappointed to know that he had no idea what I was talking about. My biggest concern is that most of the students at my school are in the same position.
Sad and concerned I went back to my desk and fired up Google and Bing to find out if this array of opportunities is only open for kids in the U.S. I found out that there are several countries that are not only orienting their high school students towards a STEM-related education, they are surpassing the U.S. (North Korea and Australia among others). Of course, those are all world leaders in education and technology so this is not surprising. But what about the rest of the world?
What about countries like mine that have adopted U.S. curricula with our students with the hope they will have improved opportunities for higher education in a U.S. college? Where do we stand on this? Our students are working hard to be able to get into a college that will help them succeed anywhere, but are oriented to old fashion careers and jobs. And even if they find out about the rest of opportunities available to them, they don’t have the base to perform as well as their peers in these areas. It’s worth also mentioning that we are an ESL (English as a second language) school.
So I think that a campaign is in order and a change of mind to define where education is being oriented in countries such as mine (Honduras) where we have to open our students’ eyes and engage them into new paths and careers. It has to start with the educators and policy makers and permeate to the student s and their families. It is imperative that they know what is out there and how to compete in the race and that they have a chance to succeed in this ever-changing world.
Michelle Lagos
CSTA International Representative