CSforAZ News
Updates, resources and more
Upcoming events
- Building Pathways to Teaching Computer Science
Date: Saturday, December 16th, 2017
Time: 10am PST
How to Join: Watch the live event on the Google for Education on YouTube channel. The agenda, session descriptions, and speakers will be available in the coming weeks.
Spread the word: Share this event with your network using this message on social media.
Want to learn more about #CS professional development? Tune in on Dec 16th for Building Pathways to Teaching Computer Science online summit
- Amazon recently launched the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids, an online competition for building Alexa skills that educate, entertain, and engage kids under the age of 13. Youth ages 13 through 17 who submit an eligible certified skill will receive a limited-edition Echo Dot, 20 finalists will win $5,000 and promotion in the Alexa Skills Store, and the grand prize winner will receive $20,000. There’s also a $10,000 high school team bonus prize! Submissions are open now through January 10, 2018. Find more details at alexakidskills.devpost.com.
- Infosys Foundation USA Pathfinders Summer Institute 2018: Register for notification when the application process opens in January 2018 here. Open to all K-12 teachers and counselors in the US.
CS Resource Spotlight: SCRIPT
The SCRIPT — the School CSforALL Resource & Implementation Planning Tool — is a new initiative of the Consortium that will serve as a framework and platform to guide Consortium and district staff in the creation of CSforALL implementation plans that adhere to CSforALL values and reflect the unique needs and goals of any school district. The SCRIPT engages school districts in self reflection, review of examples, and goal setting for 6 areas designed from the literature supporting curriculum adoption and organizational change. These areas are: (1) Leadership, (2) Technology Infrastructure, (3) Teacher Capacity and Development, (4) Curriculum and Materials Selection and Refinement, (5) Partners, and (6) Community.
The SCRIPT, in its final form, will be:
- A modular planning tool, addressing multiple areas of preparedness for CSforALL at the district level.
- A customizable tool, allowing districts to identify current strengths, weaknesses, local and state policy climates, and set priority areas based on district needs and a self assessment.
- A goal setting environment, enabling districts to identify priority goals, report progress on the goals, and update the plan over time as change occurs.
- A just-in-time resource dissemination opportunity, where users are presented with resources, case studies, and opportunities to connect to the CSforALL community at appropriate times in the planning process.
The SCRIPT tools are currently being developed. We have created rubrics for Leadership, Teacher Capacity and Development, and Curriculum and Materials Selection and Refinement. These rubrics, linked here, are meant to aid school districts in a self-reflection process and help guide them to rich conversations around CSforALL in their schools.
More about SCRIPT here.
AZ K12 Computer Science Standards - Deadline extended
The Arizona Department of Education is seeking public comments to guide the process of developing K-12 Computer Science Standards. Please take the survey by December 15, 2017 to help inform and guide the development process.
The ADE is currently accepting applications from K-12 educators, higher education/post-secondary educators, business stakeholders, and parents/community members to serve on working groups and focus groups. We hope you will consider applying for the opportunity to participate in this important work. We would like to have representation from around the state. The standards review process will use an accordion model for committee selection; an individual might be selected to serve once or multiple times, depending on the focus of the work and their expertise. Members unable to serve for a particular meeting due to schedule conflicts or other concerns are still eligible to be selected to participate in future meetings. Applications will be accepted throughout the entire development process. Working groups will convene starting in January 2018.
Please visit ADE’s Computer Science Standards Development page to access the applications and for more information.
Lacey Wieser
Director of K-12 Science and STEM
Arizona Department of Education
CS Spotlight on Administrators: Jon Castelhano
Jon is the Executive Director of Technology for Gilbert Public Schools.
CS for All
If you have been following Computer Science (CS) for the last couple of years, you are most likely familiar with the various CS initiatives at the federal and state levels. President Obama brought attention on the federal level when he addressed the need for better CS education in his 2016 State of Union Address and followed with his initiative calling for $4 billion in funding and $100 million to districts for teacher training, materials and partnerships. We all know now that $4 billion was not committed too, however, the attention brought to the topic and movement from smaller initiatives have continued to gain momentum and CS initiatives are growing across the country. The current administration under President Trump, in September 2017, issued a memorandum directing the Department of Education to spend $200 million in grants to supporting STEM programs, including CS. Ivanka Trump, who is an adviser to the President, has also been active in supporting STEM education and more specifically for girls. In September, Ivanka, Hadi Partovi (Code.org), and Brad Smith (Microsoft President), visited an elementary school in Virginia to discuss women in STEM fields, Hour of Code, and support for CS in schools with students. This type of awareness and support will need to continue from multiple levels to move CS for all and STEM related education in the right direction.
Why CS
I often hear the question, why is CS important for our students, not all students are going to become coders. True, not all students will be interested in coding, but CS is more than coding and the computational thinking process applies to more than CS. Computational thinking is about the process of solving a problem and potentially using technology for the outcome. The process involves collecting and processing data, looking for patterns, creating the steps to solve the problem and testing the solution for accuracy and efficiency. These are skills that all students can use in a variety of disciplines.
If we take a look at the data around open computer science jobs in the United States, from an economic and innovative perspective, we are in danger of falling behind the curve. According to the Conference Board's Help Wanted Online service, there are around 500,000 CS openings across multiple industries and states. With CS career opportunities being the second highest paid starting salaries according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, where is the disconnect?
Read more here and follow Jon on Twitter @jcastelhano.
CS Spotlight on Educators: Michelle Cannon
Preparing for CyberWar
Students at Desert Shadows Middle School were quite surprised when their teacher showed up dressed in Military Fatigues. They soon found out that they were going to be trained for war, but not your ordinary war. This war does not involve guns or weapons but computers! This is CYBER WAR and the DSMS students learned about the threat of cyber attacks and how to become prepared and act as cyber warriors. They were excited to crack codes and make cyber decisions during this 3 day journey.
They participated in the NSA Day Of Cyber sponsored by the National Security Agency, which is an interactive cyber career exploration experience that enables students to take a seat beside the NSA Cyber Threat Director and test drive a day in the life of six NSA cyber professionals. They completed challenging real-life cyber scenarios while discovering the skills and tools used by the NSA cyber professionals. This is an important skill to introduce as there are currently 285,000 open positions in cybersecurity nationally, and 6,800 in Arizona, according to Cyberseek.org. The average pay for a cybersecurity analyst is $92,600, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This online free tool is a great way to introduce students to careers in Cybersecurity.
Teachers can get the Cyber Teacher Certificate issued by the Computer Science Teachers Association and receive 8 clock hours of CEU credit. There are currently corporate - funded scholarships available that enable Cyber teacher development available to you at NO COST to you or your school. Be the Next cyber warrior and prepare your students for battle. Click HERE for more information.
CSforAZ
Website: https://csforaz.org/
Location: Phoenix, AZ, United States
Twitter: @CSforAZ