From your Board: CSTA New England is here! Plan your CS ED Week with us!
Congratulations for getting this far Connecticut! Sure it's dark when we get to school in the morning and yes it's also dark when we're leaving that that wont stop us from being the light that brightens our students day!
Did I lay it on a bit thick there?
The big thing this letter is the CSTA New England conference happening this weekend. There's still time to register. Additionally if you're feeling like you want to push your Domain 4 stats our Secretary position is open and ready for you.
Did you hear about three Australian boys ( 14, 15, & 15) who made a COVID data tracking site? What a great story to share with your students on how their generation is using technology to change the world for the better!
Your Chapter in Action
π CSTA New England Conference is this weekend! π
This yearβs theme for CSTA 2021 is Innovation! Attendees will be exposed to innovations in the ever-expanding field of computer science and its impacts on education, industry, and the world.
Schedule
9:30am to 10:00am: Networking
10:00am to 10:30am: Welcome and Morning Keynote
10:40am to 11:25am: Breakout Sessions 1
11:35am to 12:20: Breakout Sessions 2
12:20pm to 12:50pm: Networking/Lunch
12:50pm to 1:05pm: Afternoon Keynote
1:15pm to 2:00 pm: Breakout Sessions 3
2:10pm to 2:55 pm: Breakout Sessions 4
3pm to 3:30pm: Closing Remarks/Fabulous Prizes
3:30pm to 4:00pm: Last Chance Networking
Ticket Prices
$45 for CSTA Members
$60 for Non CSTA Members
Would you like to take a leadership role in our community? The Secretarial position has just become available. Typical responsibilities are sending out bulletins like this using our friendly WYSIWYG editor, composing a tweet, and keeping up on meeting notes during meetings.
It's the first step towards a larger role in your community and it looks great for Domain 4 evaluation data! Reach out to Christopher to inquire on how you can join us!
π¨βπ¨βπ§βπ¦ IST Mentorship Certification PD Postponed!! π¨βπ¨βπ§βπ¦
"A plan never survives contact with the enemy" or more appropriately in 2021, "... survives contact with COVID!"
We're postponing our IST Mentorship training originally scheduled for November 2021 to March 2022. We had lots of interest for the early year PD but the move to March helps position our mentors to better assist supporting new educators when appropriate.
New Dates: March, 9, 16, 23 - 3:00pm -5:00pm
Sign up on our Event Page and remember there's a $25 stipend for those who qualify!
To further support our pledge to promote good teaching and equitable access of Computer Science to our state we're offering 10 Connecticut schools $100 to fund their CS ED Week programs.
CS Ed Week is December 6 - 12, 2021.
What is CS Ed Week?
CS Ed week is our special week to promote Computer Science Education across the U.S.
Itβs a great time to educate your school and your district about Computer Science Education.
Itβs a great time to connect with your school, district, town and state officials about the importance of CS Education.
How to apply: Complete the following application document and submit it via this Google Form.
To promote this in the meeting we should have members mention things that they have done in the past.
An hour of code activity after school with a pizza party and raffle prizes.
Department head PD activities for CS Ed week so they could promote CS week via their curriculum.
Turn your library into a multi-media center with awards, raffles, and technology demos!
Create a Home Room / Advisory activity with raffles for completed challenges!
NEWS!
A recently funded grant will create the National Cybersecurity Teaching Academy (NCTA). NCTA will offer a12-credit hour graduate certificate to high school teachers and will include coursework on teaching cybersecurity, foundations of cybersecurity, network security, and advanced topics. Three universities (DePaul, University of Louisville, and UA Little Rock) will be offering the virtual program, with a little bit of variation depending on the university's program. The program will begin Summer 2022.
They can register to receive more information about the program here
Free Resource
π» How do you know your course is a "Computer Science" course? π»
The State of Connecticut's Department of Education published a Course Reporting Guidance document which can help identify if a course you're designing or course you're inheriting can be accepted as a Computer Science course and by association count as a STEM credit.
This document uses the NCES Course Code structure and sorts courses into one of two categories:
This year our theme is all about building community, leadership, and uplifting our educators. Each meeting will have time for the Computer Science Praxis preparation, sharing out of best practices in the five TEAM modules, and more! Take a look below at a VERY brief view of what we've put together. Each meeting will also have a guest speaker, product demo, or the like.
Praxis Subject Area: Computing Systems and Networks
TEAM Module Show & Tell - Module 5 - Professional Responsibilities (Share out that cool website, PD, you've found! Self-nominate for a CT CSTA position!)
Remember, your Connecticut Computer Science Teacher's association loves you! Thanks for everything you do!
