Check out the recording from Edsurge on Air, “How the Other Half Learns to Code” https://soundcloud.com/edsurge/episode-40-why-there-are-so-few-women-in-computer-science-edtech-recap-1121
Hear interviews with students, teachers, and professionals on the state of, and strategies for impacting, CS gender balance. The revelations from the 6th graders are most interesting!
December 7-11, 2015 is Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). It began in 2009 with roughly a dozen organizations (including CSTA) joining together to raise awareness of the need for increased CS education and the importance of computational thinking across careers and disciplines.
Now in its 7th year, CSEdWeek will have more than 190,000 events world-wide, and could surpass 200 million participants this year, with participants in nearly every country on the planet. This growth and success was facilitated by the foresight of founders, the diligent work of volunteers, the ongoing support of many organizations, the media power and appeal of organizations like Code.org, and most importantly—the considerable hard work and dedication of teachers.
Around the world, CS education is getting increased attention from governments, businesses, and other organizations as a top educational priority. Access to CS skills and education will change the global landscape, affecting more than just the future access to careers. Increasingly, we see examples of using CS concepts, such as coding, to learn new things. Ultimately, access to CS education will affect equity and the ability of individuals or groups to participate in society at many levels.
CS: More than just Coding
In recent years, CSEdWeek focused heavily on the Hour of Code™. The Hour of Code™ is a nationwide initiative by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org to introduce millions of students to one hour of computer science and computer programming. This may have both positive and negative implications for CS education.
On the positive side, the simplicity of the message and the accessibility of the event have lifted interest in CS to incredible heights. The Hour of Code™ made CS fun and accessible in a new way. It introduced CS to children, parents, CS teachers’ peers and school and district leaders and many others who might otherwise have continued to think using online learning is the same as computer science, or that PowerPoint is a computer science skill crucial to the 21st Century. This is much of what we celebrate during CSEdWeek.
While coding may attract many individuals to experience CS, at some level, the simplicity of the message and the focus on “coding” has unintentionally narrowed the public discourse as to what CS really is. Coding is to CS as arithmetic is to math, or sentences are to writing. Coding is often one of the first content areas learned in CS and is fundamental to the discipline. However, like arithmetic and sentences, there is much more to CS than coding alone. Computer science embodies a wide variety of skills and practices… many of which can wrapped up into a more complete package called computational thinking. Within the K-12 CS education community, we must build upon the initial message to broaden the understanding and discourse around what students should know about CS today and in the future.
CS: The Need for Teacher PD
The global supply of people with CS skills falls short of current and projected industry demands, and the shortage of K-12 CS teachers leaves a vital part of the pipeline to fill these positions mostly empty. According to a study from Code School, interest in CS careers occurs early, with most programmers and developers showing interest before age 16. At the same time, a recent Google and Gallup poll reported that only one in four responding schools has a CS teacher. The poll findings further indicated significant differences in access to CS education based on race, gender, and other demographic factors. Without experiences like those offered during CSEdWeek, many students might never find that interest in CS that could lead to future computing careers.
Among other needs, providing an ongoing CS educational experience for students that goes beyond what CSEdWeek can provide requires teachers trained in CS concepts, practices, and pedagogy. Closing the gaps in access to CS education for students will require a great deal of teacher professional development (PD). Currently many, if not the majority, of CS teachers come from other disciplines. It is not uncommon to hear tales from teachers who have had minimal access to CS PD. As the public continues to become more aware of the need and importance of CS skills, we must think about what is required to develop those skills in both students and teachers.
Educated citizens of the new millennium will need CS skills to ensure both economic and social prosperity. There are excellent CS teachers, but growing the supply to meet demand will take many, many more. The PD needs for CS teachers, in response to constant evolution of the field, is not just a short-term challenge. PD needs will be high and ongoing to help increase teacher capabilities and confidence with CS content and practices even as CS itself continues to evolve.
CSTA in CSEdWeek 2015 and the Future
Being new to the Executive Director role at CSTA, the breadth of organizations collaborating on activities during CSEdWeek is inspiring. It is also interesting to note the many follow-on activities that will provide extensions to those who want to go beyond an Hour of Code™ event. There are TechJams and Hackathons. There are competitions, such as the Cutler-Bell Prize and the Congressional App Challenge. There are other immersive learning experiences, such as the NSA Day of Cyber or Oracle Academy’s JavaOne4Kids coding fair. There will be celebrations of CS happening around the world this week and through the upcoming months.
At the US-national level, CSTA will take a more low-key role in CSEdWeek this year. We are supporting numerous organizations with their initiatives, and our member chapters are participating in many ways. We selected the winners of the Faces of Computing competition, with results being publicized during CSEdWeek. We will go live with a member-based “I AM” campaign to collect pictures and perceptions of CS Teaching as a profession. We are partnering with the College Board to provide PD around the Advanced Placement (AP) CS coursework. We will be present at Hour of Code™ and White House events during the week as well.
Looking past CSEdWeek, members will soon begin to see several changes in CSTA. Before the end of January CSTA will go live with a new website and member portal. We are working on exciting additions to the annual conference which takes place in San Diego in July 2016. Our strategic initiatives will expand PD offerings, support diversity and teachers new to CS education, increase research, strengthen chapters, and provide new services and benefits for members both in the US and internationally. We also plan to update our branding and governance models in the year ahead as part of revamping our methods of communicating with and engaging members.
Final Remarks
Please take time to explore and enjoy the many different opportunities to learn, engage and have fun during CSEdWeek 2015. Experience an Hour of Code™, and then experience one of the thousands of other events in celebration of CS education. Perhaps write a legislative representative or a school superintendent to ask them to support CS Education. We welcome the opportunity to work with new partners to support CS teacher PD. If you would like to help, please feel free to reach out to organizations like TeachCS or CSTA.
Finally, and most importantly, on behalf of CSTA, I would like to thank our more than 22,000 members across 130 countries for all of their hard work, effort, and dedication to creating a future where students have access to great CS education because of great CS teachers.
Happy CSEdWeek!
Mark R. Nelson, Ph.D., MBA, CAE
Executive Director, Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)
(Please note, this piece has been cross-posted within LinkedIn).
I’m one of the co-chairs of the Membership Committee. While all the committees are responsive to members, it’s our job to think about who our members are, what we can do to support them, and how to grow our membership. I joined CSTA about six years ago when I got my first job teaching Computer Science and I had no idea how I was going to do my job, exactly. Sure, there were things online I could refer to, but I needed real people to respond to my questions and reassure me that I wasn’t going to totally fail.
Joining CSTA got me on the email list immediately, which then meant I had thousands of teachers with a variety of experiences that I could tap into. Even if I just read the emails and didn’t directly ask questions of the list, I could get all kinds of information. Joining also gave me access to resources like the standards, curriculum resources, and research. All of these were helpful to me as I planned my courses.
Of course, I wanted to meet some CS teachers in the flesh, so I signed up for the annual conference, which happened to be fairly close by that year. The cost was so reasonable compared to other conferences I had been to in the past. I also signed up for hands-on workshops that gave me in-depth experience that is hard to get outside of a college classroom. The other sessions gave me ideas and information that I use to this day. More importantly, I met people that I am still connected to and often look forward to seeing every year.
After the conference, I found my local CSTA chapter, and became a regular attendee at their meetings where we could have regular conversations about teaching CS or hear speakers talk about different aspects of teaching. I’m still a regular participant in my local chapter, and its members are friends of mine that I regularly rely on for advice and who I look forward to seeing at our monthly meetings. It’s great that I don’t have to wait for the next annual conference to talk with fellow CS teachers.
I have joined many professional organizations over the course of my career, but more than any other, CSTA feels like home. CSTA people are my people. I know when I am with them, they’re going to understand me and be willing to help. Many CS teachers are the only CS teachers in their schools or even districts. Having an affinity group like CSTA can make teachers not feel like they’re not so alone. Just that is extremely important for teachers.
As a co-chair of the Membership Committee, I ask you to think about what membership in CSTA means to you. What has being a member given you? As you think about it, you might be surprised to find out how much you benefit from your CSTA connections. And if you’re not a member, what are you waiting for? Join now!
The Research Committee has been analyzing the High School survey results from May and below are some of the highlights. A detailed Summary of Results is available on our website.
These statistics are encouraging for the outlook of CS education and what is going on in the High Schools at this time. However, this data is self-reported and we need to examine ways to triangulate the numbers, especially the APCS-A enrollment numbers. We encourage you to view the full summary.
The Research Committee,
Stephanie Hoeppner & Aman Yadav
As Computer Science teachers, we can all testify that we have spent hours developing our “hard skills” and using them in the classroom and beyond. Chances are a STEM professional will have been nurtured on computational thinking, mathematics, science and the like, often neglecting the importance of communication, social grace, friendliness and other EQ-related traits. Lately however there’s been a lot of talk about the importance of “soft skills” in the new workplace and “collaboration” is the new keyword in STEM circles. The title of this New York Times article by Claire Cain Miller “Why What You Learn in Preschool Is Crucial at Work” may seem perplexing at first glance; however the reader will soon realize that the fundamental social skills we learn in our early years are equally as important in landing a fulfilling job as our technical expertise. Says Miller: “It’s the jobs that combine technical and interpersonal skills that are booming, like being a computer scientist working on a group project.”
A short while after reading the NY Times article, I stumbled upon an interesting video that reverberated the same concept: the talk is titled “Why Greatness Cannot be Planned” and was delivered by Kenneth Stanley last month in the context of the “Collaboration and the Workplace of the Future” summit in Washington DC. Stanley is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida and one of the creators of Picbreeder, an online collaborative art application that allows pictures to be “bred” almost like animals. I asked Dr. Stanley if he would be willing to be interviewed by e-mail for the CSTA International Community… here’s what he had to say:
Dr. Stanley, I am the International Representative of CSTA, an Association of Computer Science Teachers from all over the world. We’re a diverse community, and we’re looking for ways to build bridges of communication. Is diversity an asset or an obstacle when it comes to collaboration?
Thank you Mina for the opportunity to address the CSTA. I think most professionals would agree that diversity is an asset and I certainly count among them, but the interesting issue is why diversity is so important in particular in creative endeavors. What we’ve found in our research is that a critical component of a successful creative system is its ability to cultivate diverse stepping stones. By stepping stones I mean ideas that lead to other ideas. Creativity in a collaborative group tends to break down or converge prematurely when for example only the stepping stones approved by the leaders or through consensus are brought up for consideration. That premature convergence happens because there are not enough jumping off points to allow the group genuinely to explore the space of possibilities. Unfortunately, as a culture we often strait jacket innovation through just such consensus-driven processes, leading to less creative exploration.
In any case, an important corollary to the insight that diverse stepping stones foster innovation is that of course diverse people are the most likely to generate diverse stepping stones. And that’s a good thing, because the divergence of ideas in a diverse group means that the possible avenues for exploration multiply and expand. So while you may decide individually to pursue a line of inquiry that I never would, in the end your pursuit is good for both of us because your idea could be the stepping stone to my next major discovery. In that way, it’s a good thing that you and I are different because it allows us to lay stepping stones that neither of us would have respectively encountered without such diversity.
(By the way, the research I cited is disclosed in our new book by the same name as the talk you mentioned, Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, which is available online at http://www.amazon.com/Why-Greatness-Cannot-Planned-Objective/dp/3319155237 or http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319155234.)
I had never heard of Picbreeder before, and I was really excited to see an application that applies Artificial Intelligence algorithms to such a universal theme as art. Have you witnessed collaboration patterns developing among users of the site?
We have indeed gained some deep and interesting insights about collaboration from seeing how users behave on Picbreeder. One of the most interesting is that it is important to protect individuals in a collaborative setting so that they can follow their own radical intuitions for a significant time without interference from the group. That is, the most successful collaborations on Picbreeder result from chains of users who individually pursue their own directions eventually to hand off whatever they discover to the next user in the chain. In other words, even in a collaborative setting, periods of individual autonomy play a critical role.
Another insight from Picbreeder is that people almost always benefit from the discoveries of other people quite different from themselves (which ties back to the diversity issue). For example, someone on Picbreeder bred an image that looks like an alien face, which I personally later bred into a car. Interestingly, I would never have bred the alien face myself, but somehow the car I did breed only became possible because someone else bred the alien face. So in aggregate collaboration is feeding effectively off the collective sharing of stepping stones among many diverse users.
I believe you will be happy to learn that CSTA has a chapter in Florida… and I’m sure you know UCF hosts an annual High School Programming Tournament. What lessons can we learn from the collaboration between K-12 and higher education institutes for the future generation of computer scientists and tech professionals?
It’s nice to hear of CSTA’s Florida chapter. This is a big question with many possible answers. I think effective teaching at the K-12 level often involves inspiring passion for a subject in the students. That is, it’s a lot easier to learn when you care about the subject matter. In that spirit, the cutting edge research that happens in higher education can serve as an inspiration for younger students that demonstrates to them just how exciting a particular subject can become down the line. Picbreeder, which packages some pretty advanced technology into an intuitive and entertaining visual form, is an example of how it’s possible to present the cutting edge in a way beginners can appreciate.
On the other hand, the unbounded curiosity and yet-to-be-indoctrinated thinking of K-12 students can also push those in higher grades in new directions. I have the pleasure right now of hosting a 12th-grade participant in one of my lab’s projects. His questions are sometimes so surprising and unanticipated that they pull us back to confronting basic assumptions that we long forgot we had. In that sense, I think the undergraduate and Ph.D. students in my lab are learning perhaps as much from him as he is from them. K-12 students remind those of us long lost in the esoteric details of advanced fields why we were originally inspired to engage those fields in the first place.
Many thanks to Dr. Stanley for the inspiring interview… interestingly enough, even though the original purpose of this post was to reach out to our International Community, I believe his insightful comments touch base with anyone seeking ways to blend a tech-oriented background with the social skills so crucial for collaborating in diverse settings. It’s food for thought.
(which brings us to the next item on my international “agenda”: food! This video portrays a graduate from India who decided to pursue a computer science master’s degree in the USA… apart from the cutting-edge technology, he chose the country for its food! Like art, a topic as universal as food can only spur new opportunities for collaboration; we’ll explore them in my next post for the CSTA international committee).
These days it seems like “how to learn coding yourself” opportunities are everywhere. There are MOOCs from major universities, code.org (http://code.org) has great online tutorials, Facebook just opened a web site called TechPrep (https://techprep.fb.com/) to help parents and students alike find resources and tools, and there seems to be a new edtech company starting up every week with online CS resources. The question for many becomes “do we still need computer science teachers?”
For those of us who make our living teaching computer science the fact that this question is even being asked is a little scary. OK maybe more than a little. I think most of us believe that there is still a crucial role for computer science teachers though. CSTA is at its heart about Teachers for good reason.
Online resources work great for autodidacts. People who can learn on their own gravitate to these tools, often have great success, and often promote them as “THE ANSWER” in all caps. In the real world not many people are autodidacts though. For every person who can learn on their own there are thousands who cannot. They need that personal touch.
What do teachers do? For starters they can explain a concept in multiple ways. We can adapt what we say and how we present it to the specific needs of the student. We can give hints – point students in a direction without giving away the answer. We can even personalize those hints depending on the student. Automated systems are not there yet. Not really even close. I attended a workshop at Microsoft Research last winter where automating hint systems was a major topic of conversation. Hint generation is hard.
We adapt the curriculum around our students. Is one class more interested in story telling than games? Fine, change the projects. More interested in graphics than console applications? Change the projects. Is everyone in the class doing the same project boring for students and teacher? Fine. Let’s all do something different. I’ve played around with autograders lately. They seem like a solution but try creating an autograder for each of forty different final projects? Trust me, you will not save any time that way!
Is there something computing related in the news? Think about the Volkswagen emissions software cheating recently! A teacher can fit it into the curriculum and have a discussion about ethics in computing at the drop of a hat. Flexibility is something human teachers excel at and automated systems really don’t do well.
There may be a bigger reason that we still need computer science teachers though. After school programs and learn on your own programs are generally more available, along with the resources to support them, to students who already have some privilege. For far too many students if they don’t get it in school as part of a regular class they will not get it at all. Often they will not even learn about the opportunity and know what they are missing. For a truly diverse community in computing we need to see more classes in schools, counting for graduation, and taught by actual people.
Do we still need computer science teachers? Yes, now more than ever.
The November Voice is full of great advocacy ideas. Be sure to check it out! (csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/CSTAVoice_Files/csta_voice_11_2015.pdf)
CSEdWeek is quickly approaching and it’s likely that you already have some great projects planned for the week of December 7–13. But if not, here are a few ideas, small to large, to fit the time you have.
You will find many more ideas and resources at csedweek.org, hourofcode.com/us, and csta.acm.org. Great projects can be used any time of the year so don’t limit your computer science (CS) education advocacy ideas to just one week in December.
Pledge your support for CSEdWeek and start planning how you will fuel the future with CS education at csedweek.org/csteacher.
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On Friday, I’m giving a TED-style talk for our regional school association on what I call the “girl problem” in Computer Science, and how we might fix it. I’ve been preparing for this talk for months, reviewing research about best practices for engaging girls in Computer Science and generally examining the landscape. I work at an all-girls’ school, so you’d think this wouldn’t be an issue for me, but I still have to fight against stereotypes that Computer Science is geeky or boring, and girls’ lack of confidence in their ability to do the work. Once I get them into the classroom, I have a little easier time of it that those of you at co-ed schools. It’s getting them there that’s the challenge. For many of you out there, not only do you have to work to get them there, often you have to work to keep girls in the class and convince them to take the next one. Luckily, there are a lot of smart people out there doing research in this area and every time I turn around, I swear I’m seeing a new report on ways of engaging girls in Computer Science. I want to share with you some of things I’m sharing in my talk about why this is a problem, and what you can do to help fix it.
The reasons behind why the percentage of women pursuing a CS undergrad degree has fallen to around 18 percent, half of what it was 30 years ago, are surely complex. Consider, though, the sexism that still exists in our society and that girls find themselves facing at a young age. Think about the toy aisle with its distinct pink and blue color coding. The message that the toy aisle often sends is that girls are meant to be homemakers, caretakers and nurturing while boys are supposed to go places, design things and build stuff. Target got rid of gendered toy aisles and people went nuts.
The idea that boys are better at some things or meant for certain kinds of jobs and girls others permeates the technology industry as well. In my research, I ran across an article just reporting the low percentage of women in the technology industry. The comments on the article fell into two categories: 1) women aren’t as good at technology as men; and 2) women just aren’t interested in technology. Sadly, I’ve seen these attitudes among some educators, and it’s simply not true. Keep in mind that these commenters are often sitting on search committees and are potential co-workers. Their bias might be keeping them from hiring perfectly qualified women. After all, they believe they’re inherently not as good as men at Computer Science and/or are not really interested in the field.
The all-boys’ club image of Computer Science isn’t helped by the media, either. One prime example is Silicon Valley, an Amazon Prime show about a start-up. Sadly, there are no women on the development team, and the guys sit around a house coding all day and sometimes all night. They’re stereotypically socially awkward, especially around women. The show probably doesn’t make being part of a start-up look appealing to girls. There is research that suggests that television shows and films give young people ideas about what kinds of careers are appropriate for men and women. When only 7 percent of the computer scientists in film and only 16 percent of the computer scientists on prime time television are women, they’re certainly not seeing CS as an appropriate career very often (“Gender Roles and Occupation“, 2013).
This cultural environment can make girls not only find CS unappealing, but it can make them feel like they don’t belong, which can lead to a crisis of confidence. Girls already have a tendency to feel like the dumbest kid in the room even when they’re getting the best grades. Boys, on the other hand, feel just the opposite. They might be making Cs, but still see themselves in the top of the class. Girls are less likely to take risks than boys, which is great when it comes to deciding whether or not to skateboard off the railing, but not so great when it comes to trying out a class they’re unsure about. A great book about how girls (and women) feel less confident in their own abilities is The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. There’s some fascinating research in there that helped me understand some of my students (and myself) better.
Okay, so we have a problem. There are actually some fairly easy things to do. In general, I would say to you, think about the message you’re sending to your students in the way your classroom looks, what kind of assignments you create, how your students are asked to complete those assignments. Think about the toy aisle and whether you’re telling girls this work is not for them.
Look around your classroom. If you have control over how it looks, please tell me it doesn’t look like the set of Star Wars, Dr. Who, or a video arcade. Yes, we geeks like those things, but it can be off-putting for some and send the message that in order to be a part of the class, your students have to like those things, too. Keep your decor neutral. Or maybe add some posters of women in Computer Science to go alongside your Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates posters. Think Grace Hopper, Jean Bartik, Maria Klawe, Karli Kloss, or Marissa Mayer. Recent research shows that when the classroom is neutral, girls are three times more likely to show an interest in Computer Science than when the CS classroom is stereotypically geeky. It makes a difference.
Think about your assignments. Are they the same assignments you did in high school? Unless you were in high school a few years ago, it might be time to update them. Connect your assignments to the real world. Many girls particularly like to see practical applications of the work they’re doing in class. Girls, in particular, also like to know that the work they’re doing could potentially help someone or help solve a problem that plagues the world.
Also think about how you have your students work on assignments. Does everyone complete all the assignments individually? Consider using pair programming, peer instruction, and group work. All of these methods not only make the work potentially more appealing to girls, who appreciate the social aspects of work, but they also help all students retain Computer Science concepts. They’re very effective pedagogical strategies.
Finally, encourage your students, especially your female students, along the way. When they make a mistake in class, be supportive, help them learn from it. If a girl seems to like CS, whether or not she’s good at it, encourage her to take another course or enroll in a summer program, or pursue CS at the next level, whether that’s high school, college or graduate school. Recent research from Google shows that encouragement is a key factor in retaining women to continue their student of CS.
If you’re in need of more ideas, there are plenty out there. Here are just a few places to start:
Written by Aung Nay & Aye Thuzar
ScratchJr is a popular graphical programming language that allows children from age five to seven to create “interactive and animated scenes and stories” [1]. It addresses the lack of programming tools that focus on “content creating or higher level thinking” [1] for kindergarten to second grade students. ScratchJr software deployment comes with the curriculum and online community, and the design goal of the ScratchJr software is to “provide young children with a powerful new educational tool as well as guidance for teachers and parents to implement it to the benefit of diverse areas of early learning, from math and literacy to interdisciplinary knowledge structures” [1].
Even though ScratchJr is great at making interactive and animated stories, creating games was a challenge since ScratchJr does not have variables. Because of this, we developed the idea of a sprite moving towards a goal as an ongoing visual tracker/indicator of the player’s progress [2], which allowed us to create a variety of games. The game creation allowed us to move beyond the interactive storytelling phase and pump excitement beyond. For the purposes of this blog, we would like to introduce one of the sample projects, Safari Animals. For this game, the players will have to tap on only the safari animals to win the game. There will be various animals that will be shown but not all will be safari animals. When a non-safari animal is tapped, the game will be over. Please view the game video at https://youtu.be/OkVoS_3lnbU
Fig 1. Safari Animal game with visual progress tracker
Fig 1 shows a sample project of a game that has the progress dot which starts at row 15 and column 16 and has a red bars at row 15 and column 20. As the game progresses, the red dot moves towards the red bar. When the red dot reaches the red bar, the player is greeted by a “You Win” scene. Along with the achievement tracking, this game also tells a story about animals, particularly the taxonomy of the animal kingdom. The storytelling aspect of the games always draws students in, motivates, and inspires them to create their own games with storyline. And this creativity has to be integrated into the lesson plan. Please see and download the Safari Animal lesson plan at http://scratchjr.zatna.com.
ScrachJr is a great platform for younger kids because you can create exciting games with the progress tracker using fewer code blocks than Scratch or other block programming environments. We hope that ScratchJr team maintains and updates it regularly and more K-2 teachers as well as Pre-K environments will adopt ScratchJr.
Our paper, “Teaching and Learning through Creating Games in ScratchJr: Who needs variables anyway!” will be published in this month as part of the proceedings of the Blocks and Beyond Lessons and Directions for First Programming Environments A VL/HCC 2015.
Reference:
[1] Flannery, Louise P., Elizabeth R. Kazakoff, Paula Bontá, Brian Silverman, Marina Umaschi Bers, and Mitchel Resnick. “Designing ScratchJr: Support for Early Childhood Learning through Computer Programming.” DevTech Research Group. Proc. of 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, ACM, New York, NY. Tufts University, n.d. Web. 29 Aug. 2015
[2] Thuzar, Aye, and Aung Nay. “Teaching and Learning through Creating Games in ScratchJr.” Proc. of Blocks and Beyond Lessons and Directions for First Programming Environments A VL/HCC 2015 Workshop, Atlanta, GA (To be published in Oct. 2015)
What are you doing this year?
At the start of the year all educators like to refresh materials, think about what else we could use to teach our content and figure out new ways to engage and challenge our students. We do this to “turn on a light” in a student. We can all think back to that teacher who was the reason we looked forward to the school day, the teacher who made us smile, connected with us, and made us want to learn more. As this year starts I challenge you to be “that teacher” for your students. Be the teacher who teaches differently and diversely. Grow yourself by learning different pedagogy and methodology that can lead to more enriched classes and better student achievement.
So all this sounds great but you are thinking – HOW do I do all of that and do everything else my school requires me to do? My answer – by connecting with other CS educators. Teachers who do the best normally have a cohort of other teachers they work with, bounce ideas off of, and work through problems with. Teachers are not islands and sharing strategies allows us to become better teachers. CSTA is your best resource for finding a cohort or a connection of other CS educators.
Did you get some great ideas at the CSTA Annual Conference this summer and meet new people? If so, email them and ask what they are teaching and doing. Offer to share projects and ideas. If you missed the conference or want a refresher on what you saw check the CSTA Conference page for the presenters material. Past years are already available and the 2015 will be available soon. Presenters are always willing to answer questions and help you if you are trying something they presented.
Are you looking for people who are near you or a group of CS teachers to work with? There may be people in your area you can collaborate with. Check out the Chapters page. Or are you just looking for other resources right now? You can check out the Podcasts page, the CSTA Voice page, PD Videos page, or search through the blog for posts you may have missed. All of the authors and/or presenters are approachable and are willing to connect with other CS educators.
So this year make it your goal to grow yourself, try something new and engaging, make connections with other CS educators, and most importantly do all of this to turn on the lights in your students. Show them the wonderment of CS and be the reason they want to come to school.
Stephanie Hoeppner
CSTA Board Representative