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

Join Me! Become a Computer Science Education Advocate — With Some Help, Of Course
At CSTA’s Computer Science & Information Technology conference this year, Cameron Wilson, who is the Director of Public Policy for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and I talked to a riveted audience (trust me, they were riveted) about how to be a computer science education advocate. Cameron and I shared stories and witty repartee (link to presentation), and I hope that those in the audience came away feeling like they can and should take on advocacy.
While Cameron works daily in Washington, DC on policy issues important to ACM and the Computing in the Core Coalition (CinC), which he played a large part in starting, my day to day responsibilities are similar to so many of my CS educator colleagues. My first thought of the day is often, “I have to teach in 30 minutes and I have very little prepared.” I like to think that Cameron and his like-minded colleagues at CinC are waking up thinking, “Today I have to change federal education policies to make room for computer science in K-12 classrooms.” Last year, the Computer Science Education Act (S. 1614/HR 3014) was introduced in Congress on a particularly good day for CS advocates and CinC.
Like you, I spend most of my time thinking and worrying about my courses and my students, but I also share Cameron’s concerns about the future of computing in the country at a time when only nine states count it as a graduation credit. Very few students graduate from high school with CS, because at the moment there simply is no place at the table for CS in American education. And, while the STEM education community points to the 9.2 million jobs that are expected to be in those fields in the country in 2020, they don’t mention that half of those jobs, HALF will be in computing.
Computing in the Core and its members are working in Washington, DC to change K-12 education policies that marginalize the teaching and learning of computer science in the country’s classrooms, but it is important that state legislators and leaders hear what is at stake and how they can help, and it is the educators working in local schools that are the experts on these issues.
I know how daunting it can be to get nudged into advocacy, but I assure you, you know more about how important computer science is to our young people and the country than any elected official. To help you get started, the CinC team has pulled together a state policy reform toolkit that I think can get you started:

Also, hosting a CSEdWeek event (http://www.csedweek.org/forms/sign/pledge-step1) this year (check out our event planning toolkit), is a great way to introduce computer science education to your community and local lawmakers. You should really try it.
It is local concerns and requests that can be the most powerful in policy changes. I came to advocacy after some pushing and pulling, but I know it is where my voice can be the most powerful in the growing movement to improve computer science education across the country. I hope you’ll join us.
Baker Franke
CSTA Leadership Cohort
Originally posted on August 28, 2012, at csedweek.org.

I just returned from the Snowbird Conference in Utah and I was astounded at the level of attendee interest in education policy issues relating to computer science education in K-12. I Perhaps our time has finally come to work together as a community to make sure that all students have access to rigorous computer science courses.
The Snowbird conference is sponsored by the Computing Research Association (CRA) and here is how they describe the event:
The biennial CRA Conference at Snowbird is the flagship invitation-only conference for the leadership of the North American computing research community. Invitees include computer science, computer engineering, and information technology department chairs; assistant, associate, and prospective chairs; directors of graduate or undergraduate education; directors of industry or government research labs/centers; and professional society or government leaders in computing.
Clearly this is a group of people with a lot on their minds right now.
I was at Snowbird thanks to ACM CEO John White, who invited me to participate in a panel focusing on policy and advocacy for K-12 computer science. My fellow panelist Jan Cuny from NSF noted that it is always good when you have more people in the audience than on the panel. :-) And this time we had five people on the panel and more than 60 in the audience!
My job was to set the advocacy policy by describing the current situation with K-12 computing. I told the audience that I felt a bit like Chicken Little. I was there to tell them that the sky is falling (it is really is!) but I also wanted them to know that I have never felt so hopeful about our potential to make real, systemic, and sustained improvements to CS education. From new resources that are making CS concepts easier to teach (Alice, Bootstrap, Scratch, Scaleable Design, to name just a few), to curricula such as Exploring Computer Science and Media Computation that are teaching us how teach in ways that better engage all student, to the exploding number of professional development events for teachers this summer, there is much to feel hopeful about.
But as the Snowbird attendees pointed out, there are also many things that still makes us feel frustrated and discouraged. Computer science is not part of the academic core in schools and so we continually fight for a place in the school schedule and the state standards. In most states, CS courses do not count as a graduation credit. CS is still being largely ignored by national and state-level organizations that purport to support STEM. And the hot mess that is teacher certification is almost beyond belief. These are all things, however, that we can change through policy.
While many of the attendees rose to talk about these issues during our discussion, I was a bit disappointed that no one followed up those comments with: “And this is what I am going to do to fix this problem…!”.
So I would just like to offer three of my favorite quotes in hopes that they will inspire you to take that first step toward making change happen:
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Desmond Tutu
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”Arthur Ashe
“You can’t build a reputation on what you intend to do.”Liz Smith
Chris Stephenson
CSTAExecutive Director

In our fast-paced, digitally connected world, we all seem to have less time but more work. Productivity experts will tell you that you have to focus on your number one priorities, create templates for the work you do over and over again, and break large projects into 10 to 15 minute segments in order to achieve them in a timely manner.
Well, advocacy can definitely be counted as a “large” project. It takes repeat efforts, lots of follow up and follow through, and a lot of persistence and perseverance. So to help make it a bit more manageable, I’ve put together a brief list of things you can do that will have an impact as long as you keep doing them. This is where the perseverance comes in. You can’t just do them once and then forget about them. The best news is that they can be done in 10 minutes or less.
#1: Write a letter to your school district administrator.
You know the value of computer science, but your administrator may not. Even if s/he does, it isn’t always at the top of her or his priority list. Your letter should focus on why it is important to have CS in your district, specifically how adding it into the curriculum benefits not only the students but the district as a whole.
Afraid you’ll hear your administrator tell you there is no money in the budget for CS? Offer alternative low-cost or no-cost solutions. Here are three to help you get started:

• Recommend setting up a district wide CS club after school. Start small and create the demand for it. Once you have a regular group of students, you can leverage their parents to help you advocate for funding it and building it into the regular school day.
• Host a CS weekend every couple of months. Use Alice or similar software that is easy to use and easy to teach but gets students engaged in creating their own programs.
• Team up with industry people in your area to provide a school-wide assembly that promotes whichever aspect of computer science that particular company focuses on. This is a win-win. They get exposure for their organization and your students get to see cool computer science jobs and outcomes. Not to mention, we all know how much students love getting out of regular classes and going to assemblies!

#2: Write or answer a blog post about the importance of computer science in K-12 education.
Blog posts don’t have to be long and they don’t have to be brilliant. Pick a topic and write about it. You can write about things like:

• What about funding for CS frustrates you?
• What has someone done recently that ignited your computer science passion?
• Or just answer someone else’s blog post.

It is all about taking some time to engage and connect. Reading a blog post and being a shadow person (someone who doesn’t comment) doesn’t drive up the SEO numbers for that posting. Exposure helps drive advocacy efforts and more people talking about a posting increase exposure. This leads to more people being aware of the problem, which in turn, increases support for the issue, etc. You get the point. Any politician will tell you the squeaky wheel does get the grease in political circles. So go out and squeak!
#3: Network with other CS professionals through your CSTA chapter.
Revolutions aren’t usually started by the actions of a single person. When people passionate about a particular subject get together they create an energy that can spread and cause change. You’ll find like-minded members at your local CSTA chapter. If you aren’t a member, then join. The cost is free! Then reach out to the group and start creating a buzz. It may take a while to pick up momentum, but once you get going you’ll be a CS juggernaut and implement the change you are seeking.
No chapter in your area? Grab some CS buddies and look into starting one. You will find more information on what is involved at the bottom of the chapter listing on the CSTA website.
#4. Contact the computer science department chair at a nearby university or college.
Computer science departments need students to stay in business and keep their funding. You are their direct conduit to students. Reach out to them and ask them how you can work together to build interest in and support for computer science in your school or district.
#5: Write a letter to your governor or mayor.
Do your pitch in the first paragraph. Since politicians are bombarded by high demands for their support, you have to catch their (or more likely an aide’s) attention in 30 seconds or less. Provide them with one hook that is important to their platform. For example, you could talk about the number of jobs that will need to be outsourced by 2018 if we don’t have enough computer science majors to support the growing CS job market. Point out how the impact of the loss of these jobs will affect your city or state. No government official wants to see companies relocate because they can’t find qualified workers.
After your hook, ask for a meeting or a call. Tell them what you want to discuss and why. Then provide additional supporting information but be sure to keep your letter to a page (or two at most). You won’t be able to state your case in a letter. It just won’t get read. It is really about getting that aide to read it and react to it. Your goal is to get that 5-15 minute meeting so you can do your pitch face-to-face.
Don’t worry if it doesn’t work the first time. Change up the content and write again. Or draft the next letter as a group. Again, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
There are more advocacy actions you can take in under 10 minutes. Those I have mentioned are just a few. In truth, sometimes just getting started is the hardest. Set aside 10 minutes once a week, and you will find that over a course of the year, you will have made a difference.
Lissa Clayborn
CSTA Leadership Cohort Wrangler

This blog entry was originally posted by Doug Peterson at his blog http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/old-and-new-dogs-new-tricks/ and is used with his permission.
The Computer Science Teachers Association recently posted an entry entitled “Who Teaches CS?”. That caught my eye and set me about thinking. Some of the facts presented in the post are:

Do you see a problem?
Computer Science is undoubtedly the fastest changing and I would suggest one of the most important subject disciplines there is. I’ve long been on the record advocating for at least one compulsory Computer Science course. It scares me that people aren’t recognizing the importance of the discipline. But, just offering the course is no guarantee of success.
Continued professional learning in the field is paramount.
This week, I attended the CSTA CSIT Conference. Day 1 was filled with hands-on workshops and Day 2 was packed with concurrent sessions and motivating speakers. Complete details are available at:
www.cstaconference.org
This conference was absolutely packed with great professional learning. It is supported by Microsoft Research, Google, and the Anita Borg Institute and is entirely devoted to the professional learning of Computer Science teachers. Even those old dogs who have been around the block with many initiatives from the past are here to learn going forward. It’s also refreshing to see new teachers learning and presenting alongside. Do you think you are on top of everything? Look at the topics addressed.

and so much more.
But it isn’t just about the new technologies or the next big thing.
Sessions devoted to advocacy and pedagogy presented a well rounded agenda for the attendees.
It begs the question though; it’s great for those who are in attendance. How about the rest? How will they address the issues identified above?
Doug Peterson
Doug — off the record

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