Today marks the end of National Teacher Appreciation Week and I find myself wondering how many current students or former students actually took the time to say “thank you” the teachers who have guided their learning and inspired them to become more than they might have dreamed possible.
In recent years we have seen unprecedented focus on measuring what teachers achieve, codifying what they do, assessing their value. Yes, it is true that there is a science of teaching, a body of knowledge about pedagogy and methodology that can help teachers become better teachers. But there is also an art of teaching and it is the art that transforms good teachers into great teachers. It is the heart of teaching that makes it more than a job; that makes it a commitment, a vocation, an inspiration.
I have always believed that most of us who come to work in education in K-12 do so because of a teacher. Someone in a classroom somewhere sparked our curiosity, our love of learning, and our understanding that problems had to be approached with tenacity and creativity.
In my role at CSTA I’ve had the honor of working with so many great teachers. But I think I got here because I was taught by so many great teachers. They include Miss Brown, who saved my life by teaching me to read, Mrs. Morrow who helped me understand that math was not to be feared, and Mr. Kress who taught me the complexity and beauty of language and how to use it to explore and describe my inner and outer worlds. These and many more are remembered with gratitude and I do my best to pay it forward.
So today, I hope all teachers will take a moment to acknowledge that what they do is important and good. It makes a difference and sometimes, it saves a life. I also hope that you will take a moment to watch this video created by Google in celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week. In celebration of you.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

A new phenomenon cropping up certainly among college age students that is trickling down to the K12 arena is the concept of a hackathon. Often the events take place over 24-48 hours and are sponsored by a college or university. Attendees are presented with an open-ended problem (or are left to come up with one themselves) and form teams to build a solution. Often, they revolve around mobile or web apps.
Recently, MIT sponsored a hackathon for K12, called Blueprint. A dozen or so students from my school attended, with varying reviews. Although the event was advertised as open to all skill levels, some of my students with limited skills felt left out. Some even left early. Others jumped right into projects with other students from other towns and really enjoyed the energy of the event. The swag from sponsoring companies and limitless food were other benefits students really enjoyed.
In my student population, there are a cadre of students, mostly seniors, who are beginning to regularly attend these hackathons, often traveling long distances to attend these weekend events. Because my senior students attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute, they are aware of most of the college level hackathons and can attend through their WPI connection. Hackathons seems to appeal to a certain type of student; one who is willing to work in a team, who likes meeting new people, and who is confident in his/her abilities! There is the option to work alone at the events, so some students will do that, but the majority team up with other attendees to collaborate on a project of interest to all of them. I have one female student who has been to several hackathons this year. Although a good Computer Science student last year, she never showed much interest in pursuing it as a career. Even though she currently intends to major in engineering in college, she has multiple programming projects that began at hackathons that she continues to work on in her spare time. She has made connections with other students around the country with whom she continues to network. She went out and bought an Android tablet so she can work on these projects. The hackathon connection has really changed her perspective on Computer Science. She sees limitless opportunities.
These hackathons are definitely a motivator for certain students. It is a different mode of learning from many classrooms: intense, collaborative, energized, real world, and unstructured. As a teacher, it makes me wonder (a) if this is how students today prefer to learn and (b) if I can take some of the elements of hackathons to make my classroom more energizing and motivating for students.
Karen Lang
CSTA 9-12 Representative

We are seeing many indications these days that administrators are realizing that a strong computer science curriculum for students is a critical aspect of providing high quality education. Now it seems that school district are beginning to use this message to attract parents as well.
The Crowley Independent School District in Texas is a great example of this new thinking. As CSTA member Lynne Ryan explained, a new toll road called the Chism Trail is about to be opened that will connect downtown Fort Worth with communities south. More than half of this new tool road will be in Crowley ISD. When the new road is opened, the community expects to see tremendous growth due to development. In expectation of these changes, Crowley ISD has launched a new marketing campaign to highlight the excellence of its school system.
The campaign consists of a series of five short videos that were created to “sell” the strengths of the district. The video topics include:

The Developing 21st Century Learners video focuses on student access to new technologies to promote and expand learning and Lynne herself talks about the importance of tools for collaborative learning and exploration.
The world is changing and parents have a lot more flexibility and power when it comes to school choice within many public school systems. The Crowley ISD videos demonstrate the importance of strong computing programs as an indicator of a forward-thinking learning environment.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

A day never goes by that I don’t hear some mention of data (big or otherwise) that has create problems or is being used to solve a myriad of problems. “If only we had more data on Flight 370” or “The government has too much data on our citizens”.
So in a world that simultaneously experiences too much and not enough data, how do teachers help their students understand what all the hub-bub is about and to feel in control of data rather than victimized by it?
The topic of data is not one that we, as CS educators, can ignore. Data Science is a part of Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum and in the upcoming AP CS Principles course. It’s popping up in many other curricular areas and you might be called on to help colleagues incorporate it into their areas as well. The challenge is that that many of us need nearly as much help in learning about data as our students do!
While the topic of data is not exactly new to CS curricula, the availability, abundance, and the importance of data, not to mention the tools for powerful analytics and visualizations, are certainly beyond anything most CS classrooms and K-12 teachers have typically been equipped to handle. The list of data topics and skills that our students will need to be effective citizens is long.
But there is good news! CSTA is going to be part of the solution in providing resources and opportunities to members. Take a look at the agenda for the 2014 CSTA Annual Conference in July. There are several sessions on data. In addition, a set of professional development kits will be coming online soon. While the kit resources were specifically created to enhance ECS, the lessons, teaching tools, and ideas for student activities will enhance any classroom. The kits will be perfect for Chapters to offer two to six hour workshops. My guess is that it won’t only be CS teachers knocking at the door!
Watch for news about these new PD resources in the next month. We’ll let you know when they are ready.
Pat Philips
Editor, CSTA Voice

CSTA-Central NJ and CSTA-Northern NJ are working together with their advocacy efforts. A few members from each chapter focus on state-wide advocacy. The mission of this small advocacy group (CSNJ) is to establish K-12 Computer Science as an essential academic discipline in NJ. CSNJ believes that all students should take Computer Science classes to help develop logical thinking, problem solving and computational thinking skills necessary for the jobs of tomorrow.
The state of NJ requires students to complete three years of math and three years of science to graduate. CSNJ is proposing an additional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) graduation requirement. They call this proposal 3+3+STEM. The STEM requirement can be satisfied by a Math, Science, Computer Science, or Engineering class. CSNJ has their first meeting with members of NJ Department of Education scheduled for next week.
In addition to the efforts of CSNJ, both NJ CSTA chapters have been awarded CSTA grants promote CS Education statewide. With funding provided under a mini-grant program sponsored by the ACM SIG Governing Board, they will co-sponsor an informational booth at the New Jersey Educational Association (NJEA) convention in November to advocate for Computer Science education in New Jersey and are submitting a proposal for a professional development (PD) workshop on CS education to the NJEA. If the workshop proposal is accepted, members of the chapters will present a PD workshop on the state of Computer Science in New Jersey and the impact of CS on student achievement and future career prospects.
The two chapters will also co-sponsor an informational booth and a half hour presentation on Computer Science education in New Jersey at the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) conference during October 2014. The workshop will focus on the state of Computer Science in New Jersey and the impact of CS on student achievement and future career prospects.
Funds from the grants will also be used in support of CS advocacy activities such as meetings with legislators, business leaders, educators, parents, administrators, members of local school boards, other education professionals, the commissioner of education, the State board of education and any other stakeholders who can influence the direction of CS education in New Jersey. Both chapters will work together to develop the materials for the booths and the workshops/presentations. Both CSTA NJ chapters will be represented at these state conferences to show cohesiveness and statewide initiative.
NJ CSTA chapters have worked very hard to advocate for CS Education in our state.
For more information on CSTA in NJ, visit: http://www.cstanj.org/home
If you haven’t started advocacy work in your state, now is the time!!!
Fran Trees, CSTA Chapter Liaison
Proud member of CSNJ!

On March 7, 2014, after a long day at SIGCSE, the members of the Georgia and Alabama chapters of the CSTA got together for some collaboration and conversation.
CSTA-Georgia Vice-President, Deepa Muralidhar, thought it would be a great idea for the neighboring chapters to get to know each other. With the financial support of Jeff Gray and the University of Alabama, as well as Barb Ericson and Georgia Tech, Deepa was able to plan an evening reception with light refreshments. Several people were kind enough to help Deepa with the planning and implementation of the reception including: CSTA Director of Development Lissa Clayborn, Jeff Baker and Carol Yarbrough of the CSTA-Alabama chapter, and Crystal Furman CSTA-Georgia.
Approximately 30 members of the Georgia and Alabama chapters of the CSTA met and mingled with each other and members of the CSTA Board of Directors. Chris Stephenson, Executive Director, CSTA said a few words to get the reception started. As always, her words were inspirational and well received by the crowd. Chris’ remarks were followed by a game of “Sort and Mingle”, devised to help members get to know a little bit about each other. After that, it was time to enjoy great food and conversations with fellow CSTA members.
A great time was had by all. It was a great opportunity for the Georgia and Alabama teachers to get to know each other and socialize. This was especially true for the members of the newly established CSTA-Alabama chapter. The Alabama chapter is just getting started and beginning to plan activities and future meetings. The reception was a great way for the Alabama teachers to learn what the Georgia teachers and CSTA National Board members are doing and get ideas for chapter activities.
We hope to continue to find opportunities for the neighboring chapters to get together and collaborate. We encourage other closely located chapters to do the same. The evening proved true to the theme: Collaboration opens new avenues.
Carol Yarbrough
Vice-President, CSTA-Alabama

Last month Patrice Gans had a great post Creating a Professional Learning Network here on the CSTA blog about creating a professional learning network using Twitter. I thought it might be worthwhile to add some suggestions of my own.
You may wonder how this works in practice and I ran into a great example recently. Mike Zamansky, a CS teacher and CSTA member from New York City (on Twitter @zamansky), tweeted a link to a blog post he wrote about a lesson in sorting he had taught. Carolyn Petite, a CS teacher from Ohio (on Twitter @cfhsPetite) replied to his tweet with two resources that she used. A follow up reply from Mike included two more resources. So in a short period of time two teachers had shared five different teaching resources with their followers and each other. I eventually captured these resources and some others I knew about on my blog post Resources For Teaching Sorts.
As you can see this sharing occurs across multiple channels though. Tweeter is great for sharing resource links and short discussions. Blogs are great for longer discussions and more in-depth information. (I have a list of computer science educators who blog BTW.) But that is not all.
If blogging and Twitter are not your style there are also email lists and even Facebook. The CSTA has a Facebook group where some great discussions take place on a regular basis. CSTA also runs an email discussion list for members. You can join the conversation there at http://listserv.acm.org/scripts/wa-ACMLPX.exe?SUBED1=csta-members&A=1.
These are friendly venues for asking questions, answering questions, sharing news and ideas and building relationships with one’s peers. Everyone’s ideas have value and are worth sharing. Especially yours!
Jump in the water is fine!
Alfred Thompson
At-large Member, CSTA

That was the title I chose for a recent workshop that Vicky Sedgwick (@VisionsByVicky) and I presented at the local Computing Using Educators (CUE) Conference in California. I had meet Vicky a few months earlier at another local CUE Conference where she was presenting a session about programming with elementary and junior high students. We chatted after the session about other platforms that students at the elementary level could use. That was prior to Hour of Code.
We kept in touch over Twitter. I attended an Edcamp conference in another neighboring county which was held after the Hour of Code event. During Edcamps the participants suggest topics and other interested teachers attend either to learn more or to help inform the teachers. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were three sessions related to programming. The teachers were eager to get more information about teaching programming. I attended all three and was able to promote CSTA and help inform the teachers about teaching programming. I decided to apply to present at the local CUE conference about how coding could be used in other subject areas. Vicky had been considering the same topic. So we teamed up.
Our session was scheduled as the last session of the day. I was concerned, but 15 educators attended our session. They were eager to learn and we had information to provide. The session was well received and I once again promoted CSTA.
But that is not the only type of increase in interest that I have seen. In California, there has been legislation proposed to encourage computer science in elementary schools. I was able to consult with the Chief of Staff for the legislator that is authoring the legislation. Another piece of legislation that is making its way through the assembly is one that would allow districts to count computer science toward high school graduation. However, the computer science class must have the “C” designation for entrance to University of California/California State Universities. The computer science teachers will need to work as a team to get this new designation for their computer science classes.
Last year I attempted to have one of my local assemblypersons pass a resolution to recognize “Computer Science Education Week.” I was unsuccessful for 2013. However, I contacted local assembly people again and found one that was willing to propose the resolution. It is now making its way through the legislature for 2014.
Do I feel the exposure of Computer Science through Hour of Code has increased the interest in computer science? I do. I want to keep this momentum going! I noticed on the Code.org website that there are six states, California included, that have legislation pending to make computer science count as math or science credit. I encourage you to visit the website and if you live in one of the states, click on the link and tell your representative that you support the legislation
What changes have you noticed since Hour of Code?
What have you been doing since Hour of Code to promote computer science? We need to keep to keep the momentum moving.
What can you do?
Myra Deister
At-Large Representative

It is that time of year again. All across the country computer science faculty members are preparing to submit their grant proposals. This means that they are also sending requests to CSTA for involvement in their grants and for letters of support to accompany their grant proposals.
CSTA receives so many requests for grant project involvement and letters of support that we had to set up a protocol to deal with them all. The protocol defines three different kinds of CSTA engagement:

Each of these is defined and although each involves a different process for making the request, the CSTA Executive Committee uses the same criteria to evaluate every request. These are:

These may seem like a lot of requirements for a letter of support but this is the only way to make sure that CSTA recommends only those projects that are worthy of the support of our 16,000 members and that we use our resources, including our reputation, to support those institutions that, in turn, support CSTA and its members.
It is perhaps not surprising that the most important factor in CSTA’s involvement in national, regional, and local computer science education projects is the phenomenal success of the CSTA regional chapters program. Thanks especially to the work of CSTA Chapter Liaison, Fran Trees, there are now more than 53 CSTA chapters in the U.S. and Canada and more are added each month.
Many of these chapters are playing a direct role in several very large grants from the National Science Foundation’s CE21 grants program. They are serving not just as peer-to-peer professional learning communities, but as centers for innovation, professional development, and advocacy. The chapters are also hot-houses of CSTA’s blossoming leadership programs and exemplars of mutually-supportive relationships between K-12 educators and post-secondary faculty.
Over the years, it has become increasingly easier to understand why the chapters prove so attractive to faculty members looking for grant partners. The chapters provide a direct link to teachers and students. They are a place where the ingenuity of research can meet the realities of classroom practice. The CSTA chapters provide an invaluable meeting of the minds for computer science educators of all levels.
Since their inception, the chapters have also been perceived as providing an invaluable link between K-12 computer science educators and post-secondary mentors. But this weekend at SIGCSE, I learned that CSTA’s chapters are being viewed in a new and unexpected way. They are increasingly seen as an important resource for post-secondary faculty who are similarly in need of mentoring. As Dale Reed from the University of Illinois Chicago noted: “As computer science faculty in universities, we know a lot about computer science but many of us have had absolutely no training in teaching. Being part of a CSTA chapter gives us access to people who can help us learn to be better teachers”. As is true in the best cases, the mentoring goes in both directions.
If you would like to become more involved on a CSTA chapter, feel free to contact me at:
[email protected]
and I will introduce you to a wonderful community of practice.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

After attending the World’s Fair in 1964, Isaac Asimov wrote about the world 50 years in the future, 2014. Fun to read, but I was especially interested in what he wrote about the state of computer science education in 2014. According to Asimov, by 2014
All the high-school students will be taught the fundamentals of computer technology, will become proficient in binary arithmetic and will be trained to perfection in the use of the computer languages that will have developed out of those like the contemporary Fortran (from “formula translation”).
Right from the first word, we can see that Isaac Asimov would have been likely to support the ongoing efforts of CSTA. But in this one phrase: All the high-school students his prediction both fell short, because we have excellent computer science education in K-8, and overreached, because not all high-school students have access to computer science education.
Many high school students have had the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of computer technology, it is true. However, Asimov realized that being a user would not be sufficient. He finishes up with a sweepingly optimistic vision of every high-school student being able to write code in a high level language.
We may not be there yet, but it isn’t for lack of trying!
In the 10 years since CSTA was founded, we have worked hard to make this prediction come true. If you were a teacher 10 years ago, or a student 10 years ago, take a moment to recall what the computer science education landscape looked like before CSTA got to work. No standards, no regional chapters, no national conference, no advocacy, very little research. We’ve come along way in 10 years but there is much more that needs to be done to achieve the future Asimov predicted for us.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard for so long so we could come so far!
Tammy Pirmann
School District Representative