Our next PSCSTA meeting will be an Unconference!

When: March 24, 12:00 (arrive and socialize), 12:30-2:30 for program with more social time at the end
Where: Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) Gates Commons (6th floor)
Registration: https://pscsta-unconference2018.eventbrite.com

Event Schedule:
12:00 – Arrive/socialize (Parking is free on campus after noon)
12:30 – 2:30: Unconference!
2:30 – Time to continue discussion or to socialize

If you would like to come strictly as a participant! Great!
If you feel you have something to share, even better! Topics are finalized on the date of the Unconference but could include:

– What happened at SIGCSE?
– How K-12 curriculum is changing as more students are seeing CS at earlier grades.
– CS Teach strategies in Elementary/MS/HS
– What to do for post AP projects?
– There’s all this talk about Data Science? Should I be doing it?
– What’s a good Post AP class?
– Robotics dos and don’ts
– Or many others

If you have other topics you would like to include PLEASE bring them!

Some may find this article helpful: How to prepare to attend an Unconference

NOTE: Participants who wish may have this workshop count for clock hours, sponsored by the PSCSTA and the UW Dawgbytes program. If interested, you will be required to do one follow up hour of reflective writing after the 2 hour workshop will be eligible to receive 3 clock hours.

The post Bring a Friend to the Unconference March 24 appeared first on PSCSTA.

If you’d like to learn more about the workshop, you can view the slides or contact Crystal.

Thanks to Crystal Hess for facilitating the workshop, Lauren Bricker for organizing, and the University of Washington for providing space. Thanks also to Jeremy Munroe for helping to make clock hours available to those who attended the workshop.

The post January workshop on teaching diverse students a success! appeared first on PSCSTA.

This workshop, run by Crystal Hess, is designed to engage critical thinking about how to build a collaborative learning community in the classroom that focuses on advocacy for students from marginalized or underserved populations.

Participants will engage in activities, discussion, and reflection to generate critical thinking about how can they, as educators, act/react to create a safe and equitable learning environment for our students. Participants gain common vocabulary about equity (privilege, bias, and allyship) and participate in discussions about how each of these can effect a student’s ability to engage in learning in the classroom and to feel belonging in to a collaborative learning community (particularly those students you are traditionally underserved or marginalized). Participants will work through example inequity scenarios, discuss solutions with their peers, and practice responses that create a safe and equitable learning experience for their students.

NOTE: Participants will be required to do an hour of pre-work consisting of groundwork for discussions in the sessions including reading supplied articles and completing supplied activities as well as reflecting on those experiences before coming to the workshop.

Participants who complete the pre-work and the 2 hour workshop will be eligible to receive 3 regular clock hours (sponsored by PSCSTA and the UW Dawgbytes program) (pending approval from WSTA, but we don’t think it will be a problem). Please email csta.pugetsound@gmail.com if you would like to receive clock hours for this event.

Event Schedule:
12:00 – Arrive/socialize (Parking is free on campus after noon)
12:30 – 2:30: Workshop
2:30 – Time to continue discussion or to socialize

About the facilitator: Crystal Hess is a tenure-track Computer Science Instructor at Shoreline Community College. She previously taught both High School and was most recently Program Director at Ada Developers Academy (a coding bootcamp in Seattle for women and gender diverse people). She is most passionate about creating an equitable, safe, and fun learning experience for all students (especially the underserved) in the intro sequence (CS0 and CS1 in particular) and creating communities where people feel supported and connected (both students and educators).

The post Jan 20 Workshop: Teaching Diverse Students with a Lens on Equity in the CS Classroom appeared first on PSCSTA.

This meeting has two main purposes:

• It’s an informal social meet up/networking opportunity to encourage our fellow computer science teachers
• It’s a way that PSCSTA can hear your voice! PSCSTA wants to know what activities you would like us to do during this school year to support you and as a CS teachers in this region.

The post Teacher Social Gathering, 10/21 @MIHS appeared first on PSCSTA.

Date: Saturday 9/23 (note: NOT a Football Saturday)
Time: 12:30-2:30 (why? Parking is free on campus after noon)
Place: Paul G. Allen Center, 6th Floor commons

The agenda for the meeting is:

• Reconnecting after our summers and PSCSTA hiatus
• Mapping out a schedule of events for the year
  • Identifying which events could potentially be worth setting up clock hours for
  • Identifying point people to organize these events.
• Discuss determining membership
  • What constitutes membership in this group going forward?
• Identifying people interested in leadership roles within the organization
  • Organizing some kind of election to be in line with our bylaws
• (If time allows)Some long term strategizing
  • Changes to Bylaws
  • Changes to Organization structure
• Next steps

Hope to see you there!

The post Welcome back/Planning meeting Saturday 9/23 appeared first on PSCSTA.

– The zip file of relevant information that Emma pulled together:
– Notes from the meeting.
– A video of the talk – contact us for the link.

There was some interest in having a follow on discussion during one of our meetings later this year. Stay Tuned!!!

The post August Big Data Talk appeared first on PSCSTA.