By Steve Cooper
I’d like to let everyone know that the early registration deadline for SIGCSE 2010 is coming up at the end of January. While SIGCSE runs from March 11-13, there is a special K-12 teachers day on Friday March 12 (and a cheaper registration fee for teachers who can only attend this one day).
Some of the exciting sessions that day include:
– a keynote address by Nobel prize winner Carl Weiman
– a paper session (and a separate panel session) on middle school issues
– a special session on the future of computing
– a special session on the proposed new AP CS course
– free lunches from Greenfoot and Alice (I think you’re only supposed to get one, but for the hungry among you….)
– a paper session on K-12 instruction
– a special session on Google’s new App Inventor
– computational thinking in HS
– lots of great workshops (unfortunately, the cost for these isn’t included as part of the registration for SIGCSE)
– lots of other sessions (that my way of saying I’m probably leaving out some cool sessions)
The program is available from
http://db.grinnell.edu/sigcse/sigcse2010/Program/Program.asp
There is also the wonderful opportunity to talk to nearly all of the textbook authors from the texts you are using in your computing classes. (I cannot guarantee all of us will be at SIGCSE, but most of us will be there.)
If you can get to sunny Milwaukee (yes, I know the organizers chose an interesting location for SIGCSE, but at least we’ll be indoors), I strongly recommend it!
Steve Cooper
CSTA Vice President

The Myra Sadker Foundation has established teacher and student awards to support the creation of teaching and learning materials that advance educational equity and social justice.
Myra Sadker was one of the early researchers examining gender bias in the classroom. Her work uncovered the subtle and not so subtle biases that shape the lives of girls and boys. The foundation, established in her name, is dedicated to promoting equity, eliminating gender bias, and enhancing the lives of children.
The Sadker Foundation teacher award ranges from $1,000 to $2,000. It is designed to promote and support teacher projects (K-12) that help students learn about and respect group differences, promote fairness. Each project must include a gender dimension.
The student awards range from $100 to $1,000 and are designed to encourage student ideas, activities and projects (K-12) that promote respect for group differences and fairness.
Both awards are intended to support projects that build upon the values and contributions of Myra Sadker’s work.
You can find more information about these awards or apply for one online at:
http://www.sadker.org/awards.html
The awards are distributed throughout the year.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

If you know an organization or an individual who is doing outstanding work mentoring underrepresented students in computing, you might want to nominate them for this important and prestigious award.
The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) is the highest federal recognition award for mentoring in the country. The award is made to recognize individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to mentoring of students at any of several educational levels from underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Nominations can be made for individuals or organizations. Awards are intended as a symbol of recognition at the highest level and to highlight the achievements of individuals and organizations that serve important function of developing our future scientists, engineers and mathematicians.
Awardees are invited to Washington, D.C. for a visit to the White House, photos with the President (his schedule permitting), presentation of a citation signed by the President and a working session on mentoring at the National Science Foundation.
For more information about this award, go to:
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04525/nsf04525.htm#toc
The nominations deadline is April 21, 2009.
If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Daphne Rainey.
Daphne Y. Rainey,
Ph.D. Program Director
Division of Undergraduate Education
Education and Human Resources
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone (703) 292-4671 FAX (703) 292-9015
drainey@nsf.gov

If you are interested in working to improve K-12 computer science in your state, now is the time to get involved by working with your new CSTA local teacher leaders.
In January, CSTA was awarded an exciting new two-year grant with the overall objective of developing a cohort of K-12 teachers who will serve as educational leaders at the state level. Thirty-two people representing 17 states participated in a leadership-building workshop in July. The workshop focused on the leadership qualities needed for effective advocacy, identifying and building partnerships with appropriate stakeholders, and developing a toolkit of advocacy materials to be used in each state. (Individuals from the remaining states will be invited in winter 2009 to participate in a workshop during summer 2009 and continue their work through 2010.)
Since the workshop, participants have begun implementing outreach plans in their respective states focused on establishing K-12 computer science as an essential academic discipline and participating in a cohort online community to share experiences, strategies, and successes.
These local leaders are now working toward organizing local and state chapters of CSTA. CSTA chapters will meet on a regular basis, and address key issues such as community building, curriculum reform, and professional development.
In order for all of these efforts to be effective, members of the leadership cohort will be seeking volunteers to assist them. We will need the combined forces of all CSTA members in order for this project to be successful. For further information on participating states and contact information for local teacher leaders, please visit http://csta.acm.org
Gail Chapman
Leadership Cohort Coordinator

ISTE’s Special Interest Group for Computer Teachers (SIGCT) has announced the rebirth of its journal, which is aimed at enhancing precollege computing instruction. JCT is a K-12 oriented online periodical where the emphasis is on teaching about computing.
The name for the publication was formerly the Journal for Computer Science Education. Starting with the spring 2008 issue, the title was changed to the Journal for Computing Teachers (JCT), which is more indicative of the scope of SIGCT and JCT. Besides the name change, the previous practice of posting papers as they became available was replaced with several issues a year containing multiple papers and other materials of interest. A third change is that JCT is now available to everyone. Previously you had to be an ISTE member in order to access the publication. Now everyone has direct access to JCT. This change will dramatically increase the size of the readership.
Submission topics include but are not limited to:
* Academic and research articles relating to the teaching of computing in K-12 education
* Pedagogical articles describing and explaining the rationale for some teaching practice, approach, or lesson
* Theoretical articles explaining or arguing particular principles or models of learning, teaching, curriculum development, content perspective-taking, etc.
* Explanatory articles providing teachers with professional development information (e.g., understanding hardware and software, conceptual understanding, etc.)
* Reports concerning computing (e.g., curriculum and policy recommendations)
Submissions are either editor reviewed or peer reviewed. The author decides which one. In the “editor reviewed” process, articles are reviewed by the editor. In the “peer-reviewed” portion of the journal, manuscripts are acknowledged by the editor upon receipt and, after a preliminary review to judge their appropriateness for JCT, are sent to at least two members of the Editorial Review Board. Following the completion of the review process, the editor contacts the author(s) to accept the paper for publication, to accept the paper conditional on the completion of any recommended revisions, or to reject it.
For additional information about the journal and submission guidelines for authors, go to http://www.iste.org/JCT. Potential authors do not have to be members of ISTE or SIGCT to publish in JCT. The submission deadline for the fall 2008 issue is September 1, 2008.
Also, members for the Editorial Review Board for the Journal for Computing Teachers are sought. Your name would be included in the list of members of the Editorial Review Board. The quality of JCT’s peer review process is reliant upon the efforts of qualified professionals.
For further information on submitting papers and/or the Editorial Review Board, contact:
John Thompson, PhD
Editor, Journal for Computing Teachers
thompsjt@buffalostate.edu

ACM’s SIGCSE conference is always a great place to meet people doing interesting projects and creating new resources that may be of interest to teachers and students. Over the last year, CSTA has been building up a collection of podcasts featuring people and project we think will be of interest to our members.
Here are two new addition to our podcast collection that you can check out at:
http://csta.acm.org/Resources/sub/Podcasts.html
The CSTA Web Curriculum Repository
Medium: MP3
Listening Time: 7 min.
Interview Location: ACM Sigcse 2008 Portland, Oregon
Interview Date: March 2008
Joe Kmoch, Milwaukee Public Schools
The CSTA Web Repository is a dream come true for busy CS teachers. To promote the sharing of resources among members of the community, CSTA developed a searchable database of K-12 CS instructional materials, lesson plans, and other resources that have never before been collected in one place for use by all CS teachers.
While anyone may browse the repository by curriculum classification or search by keyword, title, author, or publication date, only CSTA members may download the actual resources.
Teachers who wish to contribute original materials, for which they have the copyright, are encouraged to submit.
In our visit, Joe Kmoch describes what you’ll find in the Repository, how to get to it, and how to contribute your own teaching materials. Be sure to visit the CSTA Web Repository to jump-start your next teaching lesson and please consider sharing your good ideas with your colleagues at http://csta.acm.org/WebRepository/WebRepository.html.
The Computing Educators Oral History Project with Vicki Almstrum
Medium: MP3
Listening Time: 10:30 min.
Interview Location: ACM Sigcse 2008 Portland, Oregon
Interview Date: March 2008
Vicki Almstrum, University of Texas at Austin:
Vicki and her colleagues are venturing into uncharted waters and the result of their work has the potential to impact an entire generation of young women curious about how their life might unfold as a computer scientist. The Computing Educators Oral History Project is a growing collection of audio interviews with women computing educators. “This endeavor will eventually create a body of narratives to serve as role models to attract students, in particular women, to computing; it will also serve to preserve the history of the female pioneers in computing education.”
In our visit Vicki describes the impetus for the project and explores ways that teachers might use the interviews to create teaching opportunities for retaining and supporting individuals at all stages of the pipeline. The interviews are available at www.ceohp.org.
Pat Phillips,
Editor, CSTA Voice

Over 1000 computer science educators gathered recently in Portland Oregon for the 2008 ACM Sigcse conference, giving us a chance to interview more people thinking and doing interesting things for our CSTA Snipits podcast collection
The 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education provided a wide selection of technical sessions and opportunities for teachers to network and to learn. The topics ranged from innovative strategies for increasing classroom diversity to hands-on techniques with applications and curriculum. I love the excitement of SIGCSE, the opportunities to catch up with friends, and the discovery of new and innovative teaching strategies. I managed to catch up with a few presenters and participants who I thought you would value hearing from.
Check out our growing CSTA Snips podcast collection and listen in on these new conversations about teaching and computer science at:
http://csta.acm.org/Resources/sub/Podcasts.html
Using Mario Brothers to Teach Inheritance Concepts with Terrence Mason and Bruce Johnston
Medium: MP3
Listening Time: 8 min.
Interview Location: ACM Sigcse 2008 Portland, Oregon
Interview Date: March 2008
Terrence Mason and Bruce Johnston, University of Wisconsin-Stout
Bruce and Terry have a goal in their CS1 course to reduce the “excitement deficit” found in many beginning computer science courses. In our visit they describe how they use a familiar computer game to teach inheritance concepts and to reduce that deficit. The project worked so well that students were heard cheering at their own programming successes. Now that’s something to look into!
While inheritance is generally a difficult concept for beginning students to master, it remains an important CS concept to teach for the utility and power it brings to CS. The familiarity of the game functionality enables students to more easily comprehend the topic, identify objects, and construct the inheritance hierarchy. More information is available at http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=27944194178976
Teaching Students about Electronic Privacy with Flo Appel
Medium: MP3
Listening Time: 9 min.
Interview Location: ACM Sigcse 2008 Portland, Oregon
Interview Date: March 2008
Florence Appel, Saint Xavier University
Why is it most important for educators to teach about privacy issues? How do educators teach these concepts? How do we get our students to value their privacy? And how do we teach them to balance their privacy and security with convenience? As I listened to Flo, I found myself thinking that her words were valuable not only for me professionally, but also personally, as I deal with these modern-world issues. She describes how public spaces including the internet impact students, invade privacy, and ultimately, impact personal security. Recommended resources for parents, teachers, and students are available at the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy/).
Pat Philips
CSTA Podmeister

We were very sad to receive the following email from our friend Don Allen about the passing of a much-loved CSTA member.
It is with an incredibly sorrowful heart and tears in my eyes that I must report that the teaching profession and the world has lost a wonderful human. Within the past two days, Dave Wittry while training for a triathlon became distressed while swimming. A fellow swimmer was able to get Dave to shore but rescue efforts to revive Dave failed and he was pronounce dead.
I had the privilege of working with Dave for several years at Troy High School and can attest to the fact that as helpful as he was to those posting question, he was order of magnitudes better in person.
I consider one of the greatest privileges of my life to have work and an even greater honor to have known Dave.
As I get information on any memorial services (Dave grew up in the Chicago area and I believe there will be a service in that area), I will pass on any information as I get it. I also understand a memorial service is possible in Orange County, CA. Once again, I will pass on any information as soon as I get it.
Please feel free to email me for more information at big_zero@hotmail.com.
In addition, Dave’s mom has asked anyone with pictures or stories to please email her at helen@helenWittry.com.

The last two winters Microsoft and Microsoft Research have partnered to host a conference on game development in computer science education. This year, for the first time, Microsoft’s Alfred Thompson reports that he has been given leave to create a special high school computer science track for the conference and to encourage high school teachers to attend.
Between the academic papers and the support through attendance and participation of commercial game development and game tool creating companies, the Microsoft Academic Days on Game Development in Computer Science Education conference has become one of the much anticipated conferences of the year.
In the past, the conference has been attended by only a small number of high school teachers. This new track, however, should make it much more accessible and interesting for teachers. Thompson says he is still working on the track but already there are some great things lined up that will make this a valuable experience.
The current list of confirmed GDCSE 08 general session and tech talk speakers includes people from the Alice project at Carnegie Mellon, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Bungie (the people who create Halo). A large number of university faculty will also be talking about how they use game development to teach computer science concepts. Beyond that the networking possibilities are amazing. Here is a chance to discuss how game development can be used to teach and attract students in computer science with some of the best in the field.
Please look at this page (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7977046 ) for information on the conference and contact Alfred (Alfred.Thompson@microsoft.com) if you have any questions.
BTW High school teachers can get a 50% reduction in the cost of the conference. Oh, and did I mention that the conference is on a cruise ship leaving from Florida?
This year’s conference is co-sponsored by ACM/SIGCSE and Electronic Arts.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

We don’t usually post these kinds of messages but the folks at GirlStart contacted us to let us know about an interesting job they have available. Here is the job description. Please contact the folks at GirlStart for more information.
Wanted: Contract Educator to create cutting-edge curriculum. Girlstart’s Project IT Girl program (www.girlstart.org/itgirl/) needs fresh and creative lesson plans to introduce programming to high school girls. Ideal candidate must have a strong background in computer science and programming, the ability to explain programming concepts to novices in innovative and exciting ways, and the desire to expand the minds of young people. Ability to adhere to a tight timeline is a must.
Project IT Girl is an after-school program run by Girlstart in Austin, TX, for high school girls to provide hands-on training in math, science, and technology. The focus of the IT Girl program is on making a difference in the world and helping people to understand concepts through technology and information visualization. During the 2007 – 2008 school year, Project IT Girl participants will be introduced to programming through designing and creating short, educational games using Python and Pygame.
For a full job description, go to http://www.girlstart.org/jobs.asp. To apply, please submit a cover letter, references, resume, and hourly rates to Zakiyyah at Zakiyyah@girlstart.org.