For the first time in my teaching career, I am teaching at a school with other computer science instructors. Not all computer teachers are as lucky; many are the only such teachers in their schools, and in some cases, even their districts. The availability of advanced placement computer science classes in some high schools makes finding other high school computer science teacher more likely. Sadly, communities of fellow K-8 teachers are much harder to find.
In an effort to find a professional learning network, I recently expanded my search to include virtual connections. For the past couple of years I had been attending professional conferences and workshops for computer teachers. As a result of my participation and attendance, I met a number of K-8 teachers. But, I soon came to realize that the once or twice a year contact that conferences provided was not enough. I needed this connection and assistance to continue throughout the school year.
My local pool of K-8 computer science educators is small, so I decided to explore additional ways to extend my contacts. My sister found social networking to be very helpful to her professionally, and I heard that I could expect similar results for education. As a result the #CSK8 twitter hashtag was born.
So what exactly is a professional learning network or PLN? A PLN is defined as “a system of interpersonal connections and resources that support informal learning” (from The Connected Educator: Building a Professional Learning Network by Allison Rossett). And why should you create your own PLN? Participation in a professional learning network helps teachers learn from each other in a self-directed and communal way. They are much more flexible, and personalized, than conventional, professional development programs, and, because they aren’t limited by availability and location, educators can access their PLNs on their own time from their homes, during planning periods, or even at a local coffee shop. All of which makes, a PLN the perfect vehicle for “lonely” K-8 computer science teachers.
How to get started with PLNs
If you are new to twitter, it can be an intimidating experience. Twitter is not just about the latest fashion trends, or shout outs from celebrities. It has become a viable option for educators looking for ways to connect and learn from each other. For many educators, Twitter has made more of an impact on their professional learning than other professional development opportunities they’ve attended. The learning is real, the ideas are powerful, yet simple, and the connections to resources and people are almost infinite (from 21 things 4 the 21st Century Educator).
To start, simply go to Twitter and create an account. The first thing you will need to do is find fellow educators to follow. A number of CSTA board members are currently on twitter (see the list below).
Another good way to narrow your search is to use a #hashtag to locate topics of interest. Here are some common computing hashtags: #CSK8 (Computer Science in K-8), #KidsCanCode, #CS4ALL (Computer Science 4 All), #HourofCode, #BeyondHourofCode. You can also find organizations and conferences using twitter “handles” or hashtags. For example, CSTA has the hashtag #CSTA, handle @csteachersa, as well as a hashtag for this year’s conference #CSTA14.
I am so glad I joined twitter. Being a K-8 computer science teacher can be lonely at times. Computer science for the primary grades is still in its infancy, so quality curriculum, pedagogy and classroom resources can be hard to locate. Belonging to a PLN through twitter has helped me navigate the resources that the web has to offer while simultaneously connecting me to other computer science professionals to share the journey.
Twitter Resources:

Additional Twitter Resources:

CSTA Board Member and Staff Twitter Accounts

Patrice Gans
CSTA K-8 Representative

Increasing the availability of Computer Science offerings for all students, especially those who are members of underrepresented groups, is going to require an “all hands on deck” approach. Ensuring all students are exposed to the highest-quality curriculum and experiences can be realized if we commit to aligning our programs to the CSTA Computer Science Standards.
When Gary Beach founded TECH CORPS almost 20 years ago, he had a belief that technology professionals could be a tremendous resource to schools if they could be effectively connected. In 1995, TECH CORPS was launched to be that connector, and since that time more than 10,000 technology professionals in the U.S. have shared their time and talents assisting schools with technology-related projects.
Early TECH CORPS projects focused on hardware, from wiring schools to setting up computer labs, but fast forward to today and a majority of our TECH CORPS projects and programs now focus on providing students with access to the technology competencies they need to be successful in the classroom today and workforce tomorrow.
As technical innovation plays an increasingly critical role in virtually every sector of the US economy, young people entering the marketplace without the necessary technical skills will not only be unemployable, they will be irrelevant in our global economy. TECH CORPS is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for students by providing high-quality, experiential learning opportunities in the areas of computer science and information technology.
It is that dedication that led to the creation of Techie Club. Techie Club includes 40+ hours of hands-on, interactive activities for 3rd through 6th grade students. The lessons focus on a variety of computing topics, promote 21st century skills and provide students with an awareness of technology and STEM-related careers. Over the course of a school year, teams of TECH CORPS volunteers deliver the lessons to groups of up to 20 elementary school students.
When CSTA released the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards in 2011, our staff was interested to see how our Techie Club lessons aligned. After a couple of very productive working sessions with the CSTA team we started mapping our curriculum to the standards using the curriculum crosswalk template. I am extremely proud to say that not only did our lessons meet the CS Standards for the Level I 3-6 grade band but some also aligned with the Level II 6-9 grade band as well.
CSTA encourages districts and states to demonstrate that their curricula align to the learning standards detailed in the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards. I encourage all informal education organizations creating materials or delivering programs to support K-12 Computer Science education do the same.
Lisa M. Chambers
National Executive Director
TECH CORPS

Each year during CS Ed Week I invite alumni to return to my school to talk about their education and careers with the junior class. I open it up to any alumni who feels that Computer Science and computational thinking is a large part of what they do on a daily basis. I believe it is important to bring people in who aren’t necessarily in the software field, but who use computational thinking skills in their work and who realize the value of those skills in what they do.
One of the visitors this year is a young woman who I taught several years ago and who is now a neurobiology doctoral student at MIT. She conveyed the important message that her computing skills are what have enabled her to be an immediate contributor to the labs she works in. As a Ph.D. student, she rotates through labs monthly so there is a small window to make herself helpful and to make herself known. She said that the majority of people with whom she interacts do not have computer science skills and are reluctant to try to develop them to solve a problem. She has quickly become a go-to person because she knows how to code and she is not afraid to try to figure out a new language or piece of software to get the job done. She attributes that to her background in Computer Science, even though she does not consider herself a programmer.
Although she is in the biology field, she talked about how important it is for a scientist today to have the ability to work with and manipulate data. What I found particularly interesting was that she herself never understood the importance of Computer Science to her education and work until now. It was good feedback for me as a teacher to hear that what she learned in high school and in college held no real relevance to her. She was a good student and did well in my course. However, she said the assignments at the time seemed disconnected and if she had been asked to build something to accomplish a real-world task that held meaning to her personally, it would have had a bigger impact on her.
One might question whether maturity and finding her true calling allowed her to finally make the connection, but as a teacher, it makes me think that I need to try to come up with projects that can make a personal connection for students. This young woman had a great message for my students, and a great message for me too.
Karen Lang
CSTA 9-12 Representative

I was in the Chicago area this past weekend as part of the Conference Committee. While I can’t tell you everything you may want to know about our summer conference, I can say that it looks like it will be the best program we’ve ever had!
So many great proposals make it easy to put together a conference program that is varied and relevant, but hard to winnow them down to the number of concurrent sessions we can run. I am confident every CSTA member will be able to find several sessions they don’t want to miss on this year’s agenda!
Pheasant Run Resort was under snow when I got there and decorated for the holidays, however, I could see that the resort has much to offer your family if you choose to bring them to the conference with you. Three pools, a golf course, a spa, and an indoor version of Bourbon Street are just the beginning. A full theater and comedy club as well as five different restaurants ranging from the award winning Harvest, serving gourmet cuisine with regional ingredients, to the fun Jambalaya for Cajun fare. The golf course is large and very close (it made a beautiful snow scene) and they have a Pro Shop in the Lounge. While we were there, the resort had many activities aimed at children, so I’m sure yours will find something fun to do while you are in the conference! I hope to see you there.
Tammy Pirmann
District Representative
Conference Committee Member

Wisconsin is one of the few states to have a distinct license that is required for teachers of computer science courses in high schools. This license, created in the 1980s, helped Wisconsin develop a strong cadre of computer science teachers. However, over the past 20 years, as computer science was replaced by computer literacy in schools, the number of practicing computer science teachers in the state dwindled. Due to lack of demand, schools of education dropped their computer science licensing programs, leaving fewer and fewer qualified computer science teachers in high schools.
Why is licensure so important? Teachers in Wisconsin cannot teach computer science without this certification. When schools of education dropped their licensure program in the early 2000s they made it impossible for schools to hire new teachers to teach computer science classes. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has a “guidance rule” which says that any teacher can teach an introductory computer literacy course, as long as that course does not contain more than 25% programming content. CSTA-WI has asked DPI to use this rule to allow any licensed teacher to teach Exploring Computer Science, since this course is at an introductory level and has less than 25% programming. However, the current licensing rules require a Computer Science license in order to teach AP CS A and, most likely, AP CS Principles.
With these problems in mind, the CSTA Wisconsin leadership reached out to members of the Wisconsin university CS community. We found individuals at Marquette University and UW-La Crosse who shared our desire to revive computer science education in Wisconsin and agreed to write a NSF CE-21 grant with us. We call our consortium PUMP-CS, which stands for Preparing the Upper Midwest for Principles of Computer Science.
PUMP-CS reached out to the DPI and asked them to partner in our CE-21 proposal. This was an important move because, when the NSF awarded us the grant, we were then able to ask the DPI to step forward to make change.
The DPI set up a meeting in December that included high-level DPI staff and the consultants responsible for Mathematics and Business and IT professional development. The DPI members in the group had already had internal discussions about the definition of computer science, why it is vitally important to teach it in grades K-12, and why a computer science license helps to promote quality instruction. In fact, they made copies of the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and passed them out to everyone in the room!
Our team, led by Dennis Brylow of Marquette University and Tom Gendreau of UW-LaCrosse, presented information to the group about a wide variety of topics, including a definition of computer science, the state of computer science education in Wisconsin, and the goals of our grant.
The DPI team then explained that they wanted to help us update the Computer Science license requirements developed in the 1980s and put computer science at an equal level with other academic subjects. In other words, they wanted the new standards to define what teachers should know and be able to do and bring them into accordance with the NCATE teacher education standards developed by ISTE and CSTA.
The current political environment is highly charged with regards to the adoption of any kind of standards, so the DPI asked us to be patient and to work internally while they assemble a group of expert computer science teachers and teacher educators, to create the student CS standards and the teacher CS standards that would form the basis of all of DPI’s further decisions. CSTA-WI is meeting this request but we are also looking at alternative licensure pathways. Current legislation would allow our PUMP-CS consortium to create an alternative licensure pathway for our cohort participants that can either go through a traditional school of education (such as Marquette University or UW-La Crosse) or can be implemented by the Wisconsin CSTA! We are carefully looking at this option as a means to get more current teachers a CS license without an unwieldy amount of time and money.
CSTA-WI members also found a provision in Wisconsin’s licensing law that allows teachers with certain licenses to earn additional licenses in related areas by passing a content test. For instance, a teacher with a Chemistry license can earn a Physics license by passing a Pearson or Praxis test in Physics. This provision, however, was not being used for computer science because the Wisconsin DPI had not found a CS content test that they could use.
CSTA-WI pointed out to the DPI that other states had tests in place and we began to discuss how Wisconsin could utilize this forgotten provision. Once Wisconsin adopts Teacher Standards for CS, the DPI can approve a current national exam, or pay to have one created that matches the standards that Wisconsin adopts. While politically unlikely at this time, it is also possible that the DPI could modify the provision in the licensing rules to allow teachers with other certifications, such as Business Education or Technical Education, to use the test as a path towards Computer Science licensure.
The team that writes these standards has an important and far-reaching task, one that will affect computer science education in our state for years. CSTA-WI is using our member list to identify and recommend computer science content experts with extensive classroom experience. We are reaching out to these people and providing their names to the DPI in order to populate the committee with members who understand what it means to teach computer science.
Andy Kuemmel
CSTA-WI Chapter

This morning I had a conversation with the other computer science teacher at my school. I told him I wasn’t sure what to use for an exercise for my students in Explorations in Computer Science class. This is a brand new course for our school and we are still figuring it all out. I teach 2 sections of it and Tom, the other teacher, teaches three sections of this one semester course. Tom showed me a project he gave to one of his sections yesterday and it looked great so I asked for a copy. He agreed and asked for a copy of the quiz I had given my sections in return.
Like many CS teachers, I teach multiple courses and brand new courses (all three of my preps are new to me this year) can be especially challenging. Fortunately I have someone in the building to help me. Tom and I discuss projects, quizzes, tests, and everything else about our courses. It is a huge help. I know that I have it better than many though.
In most subjects in high school there are several, sometimes many, teachers who are teaching in the same department. Often there are several teachers teaching different sections of the same course. This is more often not the case in computer science. For every teacher I talk to who has other CS teachers in his/her school, there are many more who are the only CS teacher in the building. Sometimes the only CS teacher in a district. It is hard to explain just how difficult that can make things.
Local CSTA chapters can help with some of this isolation. CSTA is working with teachers and university faculty across the US to help establish and support chapters. Increasingly CSTA chapters are able to support teachers in many ways. For many, just being part of a community is a big help. A chance to bounce ideas off of other teachers teaching the same subject can be an emotional as well as informational lift. More and more CSTA chapters are providing professional development opportunities as well.
The annual CSTA Conference is another huge community event for Computer Science Educators. Ironically in many cases teachers are able to connect with other teachers who are geographically local to them while away at this conference. This can lead to the growth of new local communities and CSTA chapters.
Community is an important part of overcoming the feeling of isolation many teachers feel. It can require some effort on that part of teachers though. It may mean some travel. It often means some planning and setting community building as a priority. But it is worth the effort. I hope to see you at the annual conference or a CSTA chapter meeting sometime soon.
Alfred Thompson
At-large Member, CSTA Board

In 2009, after significant advocacy work on the part of CSTA and ACM, the United States Congress passed a resolution (H. RES. 558) sponsored by Congressmen Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) and Jared Polis (D-CO), designating the first week of December as “National Computer Science Education Week.” Citing the influence of computing technology as a significant contributor to the U.S. economy and the importance of computer science learning at all educational levels, the resolution called for educators and policymakers to improve computer science education.
Every year, since the passage of H. RES 558, computer science educators have used Computer Science Education Week (www.csedweek.org) as an opportunity to advocate for the development of “sustainable learning experiences in computer science at all educational levels and encourage students to be exposed to computer science concepts”. This year’s celebration, which commenced on Monday, December 9, has seen a dramatic increase in the participation rate, due to the joint efforts of CSTA, ACM and Code.org. The clarion call for 2013 included a new effort, Hour of Code, which, as of Friday, December 13, had seen over 13,473,058 participants writing almost 428,5790,679 lines of code!
While that huge number is an amazing accomplishment, I would like to take the opportunity to also reflect on another important observation for Computer Science Education week, and that is to applaud the efforts of one of America’s first female computer scientists, Grace Murray Hopper.
It is no coincidence that this yearly celebration occurs around her birthday (December 9, 1908). Grace Hopper earned a PhD in mathematics at Yale in 1934, at a time when women simply didn’t do such things. She left the faculty of Vassar in 1943, at the age of 37, to join the WAVES, the women’s Navy auxiliary. A pioneer in the field, Admiral Hopper went on to work on the team that developed the world’s first modern computer, the Harvard Mark I, and pioneered dozens of innovations in computer science over a long career. She conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages. She is also credited with popularizing the term “debugging” for fixing computer glitches (inspired by an actual moth removed from the computer). She retired twice, in 1966 and 1971, but was persuaded to come back to active duty within a few months both times. She ultimately retired for good in 1986 as a rear admiral. Owing to the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as “Amazing Grace”.
Such stories motivate me to share the human side of computing with my students. So, while celebrating computer science education week, in addition to participating in a variety of Hour of Code activities, I also showed my 6th graders Grace Hopper’s celebrated interview on the David Letterman show which aired shortly after her retirement in 1986.
Computer Science has a rich history. Technology has changed tremendously over the past 70 years, and many of my students are completely ignorant of its roots. What better time, than Computer Science Education Week to remind them of how computer science started and how far it has come. I am eager to teach my students how to program, but more importantly, I am determined to teach them how to think. I believe that the teaching of computer science should not take place in a vacuum, and students will benefit the most when they make real-world connections to the topic.
So far, my students’ experiences with Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code has been very positive. Hopefully, enthusiasm for the topic will continue and many more meaningful learning opportunities will present themselves. I will continue to teach my students how to program, but, more importantly I will teach them computer science. In the words of “Amazing” Grace, “programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.”
Additional Links:
Anita Borg Institute, Famous Women in Computer Science: http://anitaborg.org/news/profiles-of-technical-women/famous-women-in-computer-science/

Patrice Gans
CSTA K-8 Representative

Like schools across the country, we are celebrating Computer Science Education week here at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts (ASMSA) in several ways and we are making sure to involve the educational stakeholders who have given us so much support, including our administration, faculty, and staff.
At the November school assembly, we showed the Code.org video What Most School’s Don’t Teach as a teaser for our planned Hour of Code Event. After the video, the students were told to watch for emails with more information about the Hour of Code.
At a December 2 School Board meeting, we informed our Board that Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe had issued a Proclamation declaring December 9-15, 2013 as Computer Science Education Week. We also shared our plans to participate in one of the Hour of Code activities.
We were ready for CSEdWeek to actually arrive!
On December 9, we emailed information about Grace Hopper to all of our students and faculty. We explained about her “nanosecond”, the 11.8 inch pieces of wire she carried to help illustrate how far light could travel in a nanosecond. This helped prepare our students for lunch that day. Our Food Service Director from AmeriServ had prepared a menu that included food that could be measured with a nanosecond. There were Nanosecond Hot Dogs, Nanosecond Sub Sandwiches, and Nanosecond Spaghetti. They also served a birthday cake in honor of Grace Hopper’s Birthday. The nanosecond lunch was a huge hit with our students!
On December 10, we held our Hour of Code Event. Four computer labs were used to ensure we had enough available computers. We scheduled our event for 1.5 hours, building in some snack time as programming can work up an appetite. We had about 60 students participate and the state and local paper was on hand to take some pictures and interview some of the students.
Many of the computer science students wrapped up Computer Science Education Week by taking exams in their respective Computer Science courses. I am sure that these test-taking activities were not as fun as Hour of Code, or celebrating Grace Hopper’s Birthday, but they managed.
Carl Frank
President, Arkansas CSTA Chapter

CSTA has always been about creating change agents for CS education, that is, making every member a powerful force in getting things done. Summing up what various educator-leaders have accomplished over the past 10+ years would be a long list indeed! The momentum of change initiated by our chapters and individual members has gained speed over the years to what currently appears to be the dawn for a bright future in CS education.
While reading in the November issue of Tech & Learning magazine, I was spurred to reflect on the exciting changes I’ve seen in both the attention given to, and the public perception of, CS education. A small article at the bottom of page 32 caught my attention because it summarized how CSTA has influenced me and apparently many other CS educators. The article by Jean Tower, Director of Technology in the Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough, Massachusetts, listed Three Change Leadership Practices.
1. Shine the light. Bring focus and energy to the problems you want to solve. Spread the word to parents and community. Tell a compelling story. Paint a picture that’s desirable.
2. Loose/Tight leadership. Create a core set of principles everyone agrees on. People within that framework can make leaps of creativity that make change happen. Think for yourself and find the way to bring core principles to life.
3. Build relationships. Without strong relationships, on one will move ahead and change won’t happen. Build a climate where people are not afraid to take risks. Create a platform for teachers’ voices, one bite at a time.
Without a doubt, CSTA members have grown into influential change agents with these principles as the wind at our backs. The CSTA Voice is packed with articles of incredible changes brought about by CSTA change leaders. Congratulate yourself and fellow members on hard work and amazing results.
Pat Phillips, Editor
CSTA Voice

I’ve taught middle school for fifteen years. Every year, after the students have graduated and moved on to high school, most of them return to thank me. Normally, my current students do not make an effort to thank me or acknowledge me in any positive way. To them, I am an evil math teacher who makes them solve problems without giving them hints. Well, this year is very different!
This year, our small parochial school started a computer science and robotics program for fifth through eighth grade students. We had been awarded a small math and science grant in the spring of last year. When I reached out to my support network of family, friends, and colleagues who taught math to ask what new graphics calculators we should get, my aunt, a CS professor, responded, “Why calculators? You could get a robot for a hundred dollars!” And there it began.
I thought I was going to start with a small computer club, maybe about ten interested students. Well, the administration was so excited about the prospect of a computer club, I was asked to develop a weekly course program for all middle school grade levels! Thanks in large part to an intense and highly informative CS conference hosted at Rutgers University, a colleague and I were able develop a pilot program to begin educating our students in CS. The course meets weekly, is required, and lasts 75 minutes.
Earlier this year there was a shortened morning schedule because of an assembly. This meant shortened CSR (computer science and robotics) time for the students. The groans of disappointment from the classes scheduled for CSR that day echoed through the building after morning announcements. This is not an exaggeration. The only other period that ever gets that response if it is shortened is recess.
Thanks to CS Unplugged, my colleague had plenty of great lessons while our computer lab underwent necessary repairs after flooding. We are very excited to have our students animate using Scratch 2.0, to complete our When the Finch Stole Christmas activity, to problem-solve while building and programming Lego Mindstorms, and whatever else we can include before the end of the year in June.
Last week, an eighth grader that I’ve taught for three years who has a rather severe learning disability approached me to say that he loved binary code. This is a child who, when given two to the third power, would have answered “six” eternally, if not for the perspective presented during CSR. I tried everything (at least I thought I had) before this. I watched him complete a binary code puzzle without aid, and everything was correct. A seventh grader who had attended a robotics camp over the summer expressed that it was amazing to have a “fun block” once a week. The eighth grade girls unanimously objected when the boys asked if it was a program meant for boys. The students, all students, simply cannot wait to attend their CSR class, and I can’t wait to go with them.
Considering everything they don’t know quite yet: the impact CS education will have on the their future, the future of our country, the world of education and employment opportunities that will be available to them personally, the theoretical aspect of cognitive development, the response is already incredible.
I hope that when the graduates visit me next fall they will still tell me that my work affected them deeply, but I have a feeling that the first thing they come back to thank me for this time will be computer science, even if they’ve already said it.
We are sharing our CSR program with the diocesan administrators this week with hope that our efforts can motivate others to initiate similar programs in parochial schools throughout the diocese. What a great way to celebrate CS Ed Week.
Marieve Patterson
Sacred Heart School
Mount Holly, NJ
Proudly submitted for my niece!
Fran Trees
CSTA Board of Directors-Chapter Liaison