In a previous blog post (3/10/2012), Thinking Big About Computer Science Education, Baker Franke addressed two tightly-coupled problems: where does computer science (CS) fit in American education and who will teach it? This blog focuses primarily on the second of these two questions…who will teach computer science if and when we educate students on the importance of learning computer science before they graduate high school. This blog looks at a different approach.
I recently consulted at an AP CS Summer Institute where I was joined by 12 very motivated AP computer science teachers. We spent the week talking Java and pedagogy, working in pairs, working in teams, sharing stories and learning new things. Everyone in the institute walked away with some knowledge that they didn’t have at the beginning of the week. This workshop was a great experience for me. In one room there were teachers of all levels of CS-teaching experience and content knowledge. That, in itself, is not unusual. But this workshop was fortunate to have a first-year AP CS teacher who was actually a current computer professional. We’ll call him JT. JT added a new dimension to the group by bringing his life-experiences to our professional development workshop. JT wasn’t a retired programmer looking for a second profession. JT actually taught AP CS (block scheduling) twice a week before going to work. He arranged his schedule by working late on teaching days and/or adding time to the non-teaching days. JT shared experiences and advise (especially on team work and documentation) and took away pedagogical ideas that will probably alter the way he teaches his course. After all, teaching high school students is a bit different than speaking to people out there in the business world…or is it?
Our week of activities ended with a presentation by one of the other participants on advocating computer science as a discipline. Yes, it was preaching to the choir but the presentation made us aware some startling facts about CS Education in this country and what some people are doing about it. Some facts:

The facts presented are primarily from a TEALS (Technology Education And Literacy in Schools) presentation that was attended by one of the participants and is posted on the TEALS website. “TEALS is a grassroots employee driven program that recruits, mentors, and places high tech professionals who are passionate about digital literacy and computer science education into high school classes as part-time teachers in a team teaching model where the school district is unable to meet their students’ Computer Science needs on its own.”
This is the same idea as JT teaching AP CS except that TEALS teachers always team teach with a teacher; “the school teachers learn the course material and eventually teach the course by themselves later on in the day.” My question is, “Where does the tech-professional learn about CS pedagogy?”
Many of the blog posts prophesize that professional development is important and meaningful to teachers. This is my personal belief. But, what if you can’t find teachers to teach computer science? Is tapping the technology professionals in our communities a viable solution? Can the tech-pros help us develop competent CS teachers? Are they willing to reach out for help with CS pedagogy as JT did?
What’s the ideal solution?
Resources:
http://tealsk12.org/index.html
(http://inthecapital.com/2012/06/04/come-to-teals-to-save-computer-science-in-d-c-schools/
Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison

Half of my job revolves around conducting professional development for teachers. My colleagues and I have done our best to offer quality sessions that are customized to meet the needs of our audiences. And since many of us have worked together for 7 or more years, we have developed a good rapport and ease in doing this. One thing we sometimes have to come back to when planning our professional development sessions is we often have fostered bias based on what we think we know, how we were taught, what we think teachers need, what some teachers have told us they need as an individual, or what we get funding to do. While we could discuss the merit and perils to each of biases, that is not where I want to take you in this post. Instead I’d like to share some of the things we think we have learned from carefully refining our process, removing these biases, and get feedback from those of you in the trenches.
#1- Free does not automatically elicit attendance
While many teachers have limited budgets and schools that do not pay for professional development, free does not always mean your enrollment will be full and everyone in a tri-state area will be begging to attend. We’ve found that requiring a small registration fee commits teachers to coming and many are willing to pay minimal charges even if their school will not. Signing up for a free workshop requires no commitment on the teachers’ parts, and they often find other commitments to take precedent.
#2- Customizing a workshop to MOST of the teachers’ needs is really not that difficult.
Doing a quick demographic check of your audience at the beginning of a workshop can go a long way. Giving teachers a chance to tell you who they are and what they hope to get out of the professional development will help you tailor your workshop. This may seem difficult on the fly and you may think you have to revise your entire content, but this is not true. All that really is needed is a tad bit of creativity to make those connections from what the teachers mention they would like to see to how your planned content can meet that need.
#3- Timing is Key
I’ve seen way too many workshops that take on the if you build it, they will come mentality. This simply is not true. You need to be attuned to the best time to offer professional development workshops. There are so many considerations when choosing a timeframe. Summer seems like a great time but there are SO many offerings for teachers to choose from and some required by their school districts, so you may not be able to get a robust group at the workshop if ill-timed. Additionally, trying to offer a workshop right at the beginning or close of a school year, or during state testing will most likely result in very low attendance. Knowing your audience and keeping up with typical school schedules will help you choose just the right time for a workshop.
I’d love to hear tips others have learned or your feedback on the three offered above!
Mindy Hart
At- Large Representative

Teachers get to celebrate two New Years per year : The secular one in winter and the academic one in summer.
As I finalize my grades, I can’t help but reflect on the year past. What went well? What were my successes? What did I have difficulty with? What did I learn? However, in the midst of students turning in final projects, I also have ebullient kids bouncing into my room to proclaim, “I got into your class next year Mrs. Pirmann!”, so I also can’t help but look forward to next year .
What went well:
I taught Computer Science Principles this year to a great group of students from a wide variety of academic and social backgrounds. My class covered every demographic available: Students from each of the four grades, of every race and ethnicity in our school, of both genders, and from both ends of the special education spectrum. This was a real workout for the curriculum and for me. All but one of the students found the course valuable (Isn’t there always one?), and of the students who are eligible to take AP Computer Science next year, all but two requested it.
Using App Inventor to teach basic concepts was a huge hit with my group. They really enjoyed being “syntax free” and especially liked that they could share their work. Even when what they had to show was basic class work like “Hello Purr,” most students couldn’t wait to hand the phone to some unsuspecting classroom visitor to get them to use their App. This behavior really took off when they worked in pairs to create an app of their own.
What I learned:
The first month of the school year was a difficult one for me and my students as I was homebound after surgery for breast cancer. However, I learned that I could teach via Skype and Moodle. This revelation has led me to rework my Advanced Web Application Development course to be “flipped”. Due to budget constraints, I was informed that the only way I could teach both Intro to Web App Dev and Adv Web App Dev next year was if I taught them both in the same room at the same time. My initial reaction was not positive, but after some reflection, I realized that I could utilize the same technologies that made it possible for me to teach in September.
I’ve talked to the students who have signed up for this course about how I plan to make it work, and they are universally supportive. Some have even expressed a preference for the “homework” to be content delivery. They will be working on code in the classroom with me, while I teach the intro students more traditionally.
Successes and Difficulties:
Several years ago, my school district made Computer Science in the Modern World a graduation requirement. We had adopted the CSTA K-12 Standards, and this was the final step. One of my ulterior motives was to increase enrollment in computer science electives. I believed that more students would pursue computer science courses if they knew what CS was like. Prior to implementation of the graduation requirement, approximately 5% of each grade would sign up for a computer science elective. However, after all ninth-graders took the required course , 27% of them signed up for a computer science elective the following year. This was success on a level I was not prepared for. Neither was the school district. We would have to hire another full-time computer science teacher (we currently have 1.5 CS teachers) to meet the demand. Unfortunately, budget constraints have us under a hiring freeze, so not all of those students will get into one of my classes.
The other difficulty I encountered is one of public perception. Our school offers 17 AP courses, so there are bound to be conflicts. Multiple AP courses are running at the same time next year, and unfortunately for my students, AP Calculus BC and AP US History are both running at the same time as AP Computer Science. My juniors have to choose between APUSH (an exciting rite of passage at our school) or AP CS, and my seniors have to choose between AP Calculus BC or AP CS. Many parents and guidance counselors are advising against AP Computer Science unless the student has expressed a clear and firm conviction that he/she will be majoring in Computer Science.
The New Year:
I am teaching seven different courses to approximately 150 students next year. There is a lot about next year that I’m excited about, and I have some work to do this summer to make sure these students have a great CS experience. I also have some continuing work to do to make sure the adults in my community understand the role of CS in education and in our society. I need to put together a rich and valuable CS Ed Week, and I need to refine my recruitment strategies to include parents. My to-do list seems to grow every time I think about it, so I am very grateful that I have my energy back!
See you at CS&IT!
Tammy Pirmann
Member Elect of the CSTA Board of Directors

Have you ever looked at the history of Coca-Cola? They have been around for 126 years and while they keep re-creating themselves, they have a recognizable brand that is available in over 200 countries (http://heritage.coca-cola.com/). Granted, Coca-cola serves a different need than CSTA, but still, both serve to have a world-wide target audience and similar missions to reach all populations and produce innovative products that empower our consumers.
What if millions of school children could recognize the CSTA logo by just seeing the first letter or the swoosh on top?
What if CSTA was known in every country as the premiere organization and authority on computer science education?
What if CSTA merchandise was sold in every big box store? (Perhaps Chris Stephenson bobbleheads?)
OK – many of you are thinking this is terribly unrealistic and wondering where I am going with this. Sure – CSTA is not a product to be consumed. It is an organization. Its success is determined by the benefit to the members, not a tasty treat. But it is the spirit of growth that is most interesting to me. The makers of Coca-Cola so believed in their product that they forged ways to make inroads to parts of countries that do not even have running water. Do we have such a faith in the cause of CSTA that we would go to all ends of the earth to advocate for our group? When have you last encouraged someone to join CSTA? As a member, what are your hopes for growth of CSTA? Finally, what are you willing to do about it?
Consider the success of any product or group, and then ask yourself what you are willing to do to be part of the growth cycle.
Mindy Hart
At-Large Representative

As I prepare to meet with a local School Board member and a magnet high school principal to discuss implementing computer programming in the high school, I have to wonder what has taken them so long! It seems like a no-brainer to me (but then I guess I’m one who is singing in the choir). The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that “Employment of software developers is projected to grow 30 percent from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations,” so why aren’t students and parents beating down our doors? And then I remember my own daughter telling me (during my Accounting I class) “Mom, no one says they want to grow up to be an Accountant.” Insert Computer Programmer and there we have it! The student perception of these occupations is pretty dismal, but in fact the careers are far from dismal! (Given my druthers, I would most certainly choose Computer Programmer over Accountant although the combination of the two would be quite marketable.)
An article in our Sunday newspaper highlighted a Computer Science professor and two students at Wake Forest University working on a cure for cancer (Video Game vs. Cancer). The requisite skills for the team of scientists: “the ability to comprehend, interpret and apply complex concepts and data in a new format; the pursuit or completion of advanced degrees; patience and a tireless work ethic, and being a video game master.” Doesn’t everyone want to find a cure for cancer? Who would have thought that being a “video game master” was a required skill? Again, I guess I am singing in the choir on this subject as well. For our statewide computer programming curriculum next year, we will be field testing the use of XNA Game Studio to apply the C# programming concepts the students learn in class. We knew we had to do something when we saw the huge drop-off in enrollment from the first course to the second course. We’ll see how this goes, but preliminary word-of-mouth reports tell us that the students are very interested.
And, that’s not the only change we have made in our statewide curriculum. We have a new course for freshmen titled Foundations of Information Technology that will allow the students to see the kind of work that is done in each of the four pathways we have in the IT Career Cluster: Programming and Software Development, Web and Digital Communications, Information Support and Services, and Network Systems. Most ninth graders have no clue what a network engineer or network administrator does, let alone a software developer. And most ninth graders can see no connection between high school and his/her world beyond. This course is intended to appeal to the target market while directing them to further study while in high school and beyond. These young students do need to see the big picture so they can graduate from high school “college and career ready”.
Additionally, we have completely revamped our Network Administration I and II courses to provide students the opportunity to earn Microsoft certifications (something beyond MOS certifications that are available in every high school in our state). Also, we’re refreshing our e-Commerce I course by updating the content to teach HTML 5.0 and the applications of social media and mobile computing in an e-commerce environment. AND, we have also been fortunate enough to be asked to participate in a pilot of the Computer Science Principles course by partnering with Dr. Tiffany Barnes at UNC Charlotte. What a great opportunity for our teachers and students to explore the Beauty and Joy of Computing! We have eight classroom teachers participating in the pilot, and a section of the course will be taught through the state virtual public school.
We are working diligently in our state to interest and inform students about the world of opportunities that awaits them in the computer science world. It’s not just about computer programming, but that’s a great fit for some of the students. That’s where I got my start, but now there are so many more venues to explore. And the interrelationships among disciplines are fascinating and create even more opportunities.
What are you doing to interest students in the wonderful world of computer science?
Websites:
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Computer-and-Information-Technology/Software-developers.htm
Video Game vs. Cancer: http://www.newsobserver.com/scitech/
Career Clusters: http://www.careertech.org/
Deborah Seehorn
CSTA State Department Representative