Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything accomplished. It can be hard for me to balance my family, career, and personal life. So how can I find time to search for new resources that I need next month for the start of school? Here are a few of the resources than I am relying upon to get me started for the new school year.
CSTA Source: Have you checked it out lately? I have to admit that this was a resource that I had sparingly used in the past. Why? Well, I get into the pattern of using a new variation of lessons from last year. This year, I have changed jobs and there aren’t any last year’s lessons to rely upon. The CSTA Source is a great place to find new resources for the classroom. When was the last time you checked it out? Now might be a great time to add a resource of your own or search for a new one.
Social Networking Sites: It sounds strange, but you can use social networking to find resources for the classroom too. A friend of mine posted a status update that referred me to a Web site which helps to introduce students to algorithmic thinking. You might want to check it out at:
http://www.robozzle.com/
Another friend created a networking site for teachers to share ideas. I usually think of social networks as social communications tools but I am now finding them good for professional resources as well. By the way, did you know that CSTA is on Facebook? Just go to
www.facebook.com
and search for CSTA.
Blogs: Blogs are becoming more important to me. I have a few favorites that I follow and check periodically. The CSTA Blog is one that I follow more than others. Barb Ericson’s blog entry from July 22 shares several online resources that will be of help to those of us returning to the classroom in a few weeks. It can be a great place for others to share their ideas too. Where do you find your resources?
Summer Activities: This is the time of the year that I think back to all the activities that I have participated in over the summer. I think back to the GameMaker:
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/
session at CS&IT 2009:
http://csta.acm.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/CSIT09Presentations.html
by Fran Trees. This is an idea that I hope to use with my upper middle school students who have no previous programming experience. GameMaker makes it very easy for students to create interactive games.
My wife will be adding a standalone technology course to her elementary school this year. While at NECC, I saw previews of Kodu which will be great for her to use with her third through fifth graders. Kodu is a graphics based, drag and drop coding application that allows students to create games using the Xbox 360 system on the PC. While the classroom version of Kodu hasn’t been released I have heard it is to be released sometime in August. You might want to check into it if you teach in an elementary or middle school classroom.
What are some of the things that you learned this summer and plan to take back into your classroom? I would love to hear about some of your experiences in the comment section. Remember, I too use this blog as a resource for my classroom ideas.
Dave Burkhart
CSTA Board of Directors

Many people believe that teachers have it easy in the summer since they have summers off. But, many teachers have very busy summers. Some teachers need to work another job in the summer and many teachers take workshops and go to conferences in the summer. I saw many teachers at CS&IT and NECC. In fact CS&IT had the largest number of attendees ever.
I have been teaching workshops for high school computing teachers the last few weeks at Georgia Tech. I have enjoyed showing the Computing in the Modern World teachers PicoCrickets, Scratch, and Alice. Teachers enjoyed creating animations and games in Scratch and Alice as well as learning kinesthetic activities to teach computing concepts (like those from CS Unplugged and Berkeley’s KLA group). See:
http://csunplugged.org/
and
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/Projects/Data/102187.html.
This week I am teaching Beginning Programming teachers using Institute for Personal Robotics robots and Media Computation in Python. Today they were working on mirroring images and some of the teachers got very excited when they figured out how to mirror top to bottom or how to create an image collage. See:

Find Robotics, AI, & Machine Learning Degrees and Career Paths

and
http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-teach.
Some people have claimed that we shouldn’t teach programming, but just computing concepts in order to attract more people to computing. I very much disagree. Getting a program to work gets people excited about computing. Learning about computing without doing any programming seems like learning about science by just reading about it and not actually doing any science. One of my daughters loves to do experiments, but came home from elementary school saying that she hated science. The problem was that they didn’t actually do any science, but only read about it.
Barb Ericson
CSTA Director

One of the things I love best and hate the most about my job is reviewing at the evaluations for our annual conference. I love it because it is so clear from the evaluations that we are doing something right. I hate it because we never get it absolutely perfect.
This year we held our 10th annual Computer Science & Information Technology Symposium on June 27 in Washington D.C. We knew we had a very good agenda because we had terrific speakers (all of whom, by the way, donated their time for the day). We also knew we had an enthusiastic audience because we had to close registration early when we reached our capacity of 200 attendees.
But as usual, I spent my day in a state of panic. What if we have technical issues? (There are always technical issues at a conference!) What if a keynote speaker doesn’t show up, or pranks me with an email two days before the conference saying she isn’t coming? (Yes, this actually happened!) What if they hate the food? (This simply cannot happen because our project manager Barb Conover always makes sure we provide a fabulous feast.)
The truth is, our speakers, volunteers, and Board members are so smart and so steady, they can weather any potential disaster. But you know, I worry. That’s my official job for the day.
And when I read over all of the evaluation forms, I feel incredibly relieved. Our attendees are so generous with their praise and good will. But I also feel a little sad, because sometimes the attendees make really good suggestions that we cannot accommodate. This year, for example, a couple of our attendees suggested that we have all of the presentations from all of the speakers available for download before the conference. This is such a good idea, and heaven knows, we have tried every year to do this. But the simple truth is that most of our speakers are still tinkering with their presentations up until the last minute, so the best we can do, is get them to send them to us after the conference so we can post them on the website. (And hey, if you still have not sent us your presentation…people are waiting!)
If you didn’t get the chance to join us in D.C. this year, I hope you will be able to attend next year. Because even if we never get it perfect, it is still, as one attendee said “a fantastic day of professional development with wonderful opportunities for networking with other teachers and outstanding presentations”.
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director
CSTA

Over the last couple of years, the question of whether CSTA should initiate an honor society for high school computer science students has been raised a number of times, both by members of the CSTA Board of Directors and by CSTA volunteers.
At our most recent CSTA Board of Directors meeting, the issue was discussed again at length thanks to a report prepared by CSTA Vice-President Steve Cooper. Among the many considerations, the Board members discussed how such a society might function, its purpose, and related costs (both direct and indirect).
While a number of the Directors thought that it would be a good idea to support such a society, several key questions remain unanswered. As always, CSTA places a priority on projects that support and sustain both our mission and our members, so we would really like to know what you think about any and all of the following questions.
How would a CS honor society support CSTA’s mission of supporting the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines?
Do CSTA members feel the need for a CS honor society?
How would a CS honor society help CS teachers meet their classroom goals?
What would members expect of such an organization?
What would a Computer Science Honor Society look like?
Is a CS honor society something that CSTA members would embrace?
Would members be willing to help raise funding and provide volunteer support for such a program on a on-going basis?
Forming a student honor organization within CSTA would be a huge project and your feedback on these questions is critically important. Please share your ideas (pro and con) on the topic.
Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice

* Do you teach students in elementary or middle school?
* Do you teach high school and find that students come to you with (incorrect) preconceived notions of what computer science is?
* Do you want to encourage your school or district to develop or enhance CS instruction at the lower grades?
* Can we teach computer science before high school?
* Can we engage girls’ interest before they hit the age where they hear that girls aren’t supposed to like/succeed with technology?
If you’ve been hanging around this blog or connecting with CSTA folks for any length of time, you’ve heard of the ACM’s A Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science, a vision and broad outline of computer science education in grades K-12. This curriculum consists of four levels, the first of which is for grades K-8.
CSTA has been developing implementation documents for these levels, first for Levels II and III, and now for Level I: Foundations of Computer Science . The Level I framework is in its final stages of development, and the authors are asking for critical review and feedback.
This document provides an outline and objectives; it does not describe a single course but “a broad and integrated set of student learning outcomes, held together by a coherent concept of computer science for younger students…(It) can be the starting point for a teacher, school, district, or state to make computer science a vital part of K-8 education” (from the Level I Overview).
The subject matter is divided into twelve topics, which are grouped into three categories:
Computers and software applications
Topic 1: Parts of a personal computer
Topic 2: Standard software
Topic 3: Operating systems
Topic 4: Networks
Topic 5: World Wide Web and Email
Problem solving with computer science
Topic 6: Representing information digitally
Topic 7: Problem solving and algorithms
Topic 8: Computer programming
Social context of computing
Topic 9: Privacy and security
Topic 10: Evaluating and using information from networked sources
Topic 11: Human-computer interaction
Topic 12: Computers in society
Each topic is divided into grade ranges K-2, 3-5, and 6-8, with focus areas and sample activities in each range.
How can we teach these topics?
To support the ACM Model Curriculum, CSTA developed the CSTA Source Web Repository: K-12 Computer Science Teaching and Learning Materials. Level I resources in the repository were originally organized into six classifications, to match the 1998 version of ISTE’s NETS (standards) for Students (ISTE 1998), plus one for “Algorithmic problem-solving tools.”” However, to align with the new curriculum for Level I, we are currently reclassifying these resources, as we’ll do with any new resources that are being added, to match the new topic list above.
Check them out!
P. S. The upcoming CS & IT Symposium (June 26, Washington, DC) also includes several sessions of interest to teachers in K-8: Making CS Happen in K-8, Scratching the Surface of Computer Science with Scratch!
Debbie Carter
Co-Chair, CSTA Professional Development Committee

As a member of the CSTA Leadership cohort, I have had an exciting year in Washington. A group of very dedicated educators and business members have been working since January 2009 in the formation of a chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association in Western Washington State. We have met monthly since January 2009. We are a small team, but a very passionate one. We have been discussing what we want our group to accomplish, setting goals that are attainable and not overwhelming ourselves attempting to accomplish too much. There is so much that we would like to do, but we are taking small steps and ensuring that that which we do take on is done well.
We have started to put together a list of resources that have been vetted by our members, as well as information on programming language selection for courses. We have also shared information on related workshops in the area that our members might attend.
We were able to put on a very successful computer programming competition, hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle. A very capable member of our group was willing to relocate a contest she had planned to put on at her high school to the University of Washington. Members’ industry contacts supplied us with many volunteer judges from industry. The University of Washington provided space, student-led tours of the Computer Science and Engineering facilities, some interesting lectures and lunch and snacks for the contest. Thanks to fast and efficient planning, the contest was a great success. We plan on repeating it in the fall and spring each year.
We are on meeting hiatus for the summer, but are planning a discussion on Alice 3.0 (if it releases on time) in September once we all return to school. We are also looking into other possible workshops and contests that we could offer to teachers and students, and will continue sharing information with our members, as well as other groups interested in what we are accomplishing.
We are a small team, but we are determined. There is a lot that we hope to accomplish, and we will over time.
Greg Kilpatrick
President
Puget Sound CSTA (pending chapter approval)