And it’s finally here! Early summer offers us a chance to enjoy graduation and promotion ceremonies, notice that young people are moving to adulthood faster than we’d prefer, put a final touch on the academic year, celebrate friends moving to new chapters in their lives and, finally, get some well-deserved rest.
Rest is an important word, and within reason, we should take our rest as seriously as our work. Recuperation allows us to recharge our batteries for the upcoming school year. But it also affords us the time to rejuvenate ourselves through personal and professional growth. We hope you’ve availed yourself of the learning opportunities in the Summer of CS, which is in full swing as you read this. Even now, the team behind BitBlast! is super excited about plans already brewing for summer of 2023. There’s more to learn and networking opportunities at the Computer Science Teachers’ Association (CSTA) national conference happening in July in Chicago (details below).
I hope you enjoy your summer and get your rest, but be sure to rejuvenate as well! The new year will be here soon enough and keep in mind we, at the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE), are here to support you in all your endeavors, whether they are for administration, counseling, or teaching. Please feel free to reach out!
Know someone who might enjoy what you’re reading? Please share this link so others can sign up for future issues of Bit Blast!
SDCOE Computer Science Coordinator
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Staying Up to Date on the Latest Research |
The Computer Science Education Reading Group meets weekly via Zoom and is curated by Dr. Emily Thompforde at the California Department of Education. You’ll find an opportunity for robust conversations based around pertinent articles in our field. Articles are posted well in advance of the meeting week so you’ll have time to peruse. The group meets on Tuesday and Friday afternoons, so you can pick the day that suits you best! Find sign-ups and information here.
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Share and Collaborate with Educators from Across California |
Be sure to check out the California Educators Together website. This is the latest phase of the California Educators Community of Practice and has various content groups of interest you can join. The Computer Science Statewide group is open to classroom teachers, grade-level cohorts, content coordinators, and instructional leaders to exchange ideas and resources focused on topics related to this unique subject-area. First, create an account, then select Groups, Computer Science, and Join! You can help contribute resources to this group as well as find useful ones.
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CSTA CS Teacher Landscape Survey is Available |
The K-12 CS Teacher Landscape Survey from (CSTA) and the Kapor Center is available and needs your input. The hope is to gather data from 4,000 to 5,000 PreK-12 CS teachers in the U.S. to better understand the current CS teaching force and to gain insights from CS teachers across regions, grade levels, rural/urban, high-income/low-income, and racially diverse schools and communities. Both national- and state-level data will be shared broadly within the CS education community. Results will be used to inform specific recommendations to improve support for CS teachers and expand equity in CS education. You can view the 2020 survey report and interactive dashboard.
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New SDCOE Computer Science Network for Elementary Teacher Leaders |
SDCOE is planning to launch a new professional network designed for elementary teachers on special assignment (TOSA) to further engage with CS. STEAM, math, and science TOSAs are being invited, but a warm welcome awaits for visual and performing arts and English language arts TOSAs as well as any others who support teachers in implementing CS! The network goal is to expand understanding and implementation capacity around the California Computer Science Standards, learn from each other about successful (and challenging) practices, and explore/play with interesting technologies and ideas. The kickoff for the network is planned for the fall. If you are a district administrator would you please forward this invitation to anyone in your organization who may be interested? Find the interest survey here
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Counselors for Computing Webinar series
Advising for Future-Ready Careers is a monthly webinar series, hosted by NCWIT Counselors for Computing (C4C), providing information and resources to help counselors join the front line of the computing conversation. This webinar series is free and open to the public, ages 16 and up – geared toward school counselors, educators, graduate students, and those in school advising roles.
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GenCyber Summer Camp for Teachers |
CSU Sacramento will host the GenCyber Summer 2022 Camp Program for Secondary School Teachers (grades 6-12) on July 25-29. This camp provides secondary school teachers training and professional development in cybersecurity and its related pedagogy. Participants will be part of a professional community to learn, develop, and deliver security content in the K-12 classroom. You will learn how to encourage and support student interest in studying security and entering the field.
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Dates: July 25-29
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Schedule: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (detailed schedule will be available to selected participants)
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Location: Virtual via Zoom
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Cost: Free, plus each participant will receive a $1,000 stipend to compensate their time and costs of participating in the camp as well as the pre-camp and post-camp events
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Applicants: Teachers of grades 6-12 (US citizen or permanent resident only), with a letter of support from school administrator
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Deadline: Applications are being accepted until all 30 seats are filled. Space is limited; apply today!
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SCRIPT Has Arrived in San Diego County |
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Does the implementation of computer science in your district feel haphazard sometimes? Do you wish you and your leadership team had some time to really think through making CS a priority? Wouldn’t it be great to have real pathways for students to follow in CS? Do you ever wonder if there is somebody who can help facilitate some future planning?
The Strategic CSforALL Resource and Implementation Planning Tool, a.k.a. the SCRIPT, is a framework to guide teams of district administrators, school leaders, and educators through a series of collaborative visioning, self-assessment, and goal-setting exercises to create or expand upon a computer science education implementation plan for their students.
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This section spotlights CS educators, administrators, and organizations making a difference for their students. If you have a CS hero in your system, tell us about them using this Google form for possible inclusion in a future edition of Bit Blast!.
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Nationally Recognized CS Educator Art Lopez Announces Retirement
San Diego's own Art Lopez has announced his retirement from the Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) at the end of this school year. Art has been a lion of an advocate for computer science education, especially for underserved and marginalized students, for over 10 years. Not only a stellar classroom practitioner, Art worked with the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) Design Committee to create and pilot the AP CSP course framework we’ve all grown to know and love. Art was also instrumental in the development and pilot of CSAwesome, a curriculum for the AP Computer Science A course framework. His passion and energy is unmatched in ensuring that all students not only have access to CS, but a rigorous, positive experience.
Art was selected as one of the top 100 Computer Science Educators in the United States by the Obama Administration in 2014 and worked with the administration and the National Science Foundation on starting the Computer Science for All initiative in 2017. Art also served on the development committee for our California Computer Science Standards adopted in 2018. He has brought the same levels of passion to helping develop professional learning for new teachers of CS and has led College Board summer institutes as well as leading table teams at AP Exam readings. For the past few years Art has worked as a curriculum specialist for CS in SUHSD to help the district better implement CS across their schools. Further, he has served on the board of directors for the Computer Science Teachers Association, San Diego chapter, and currently presides as the board president.
Even though he is retiring, you can bet Art will continue to be very active in our community! He plans to continue his project work with the CREATE institute at the University of California at San Diego. The curriculum pathway project, titled Coding Our Future, is a National Science Foundation funded project to develop pathways for 3rd through 8th grade students. We’re certain he will continue to make amazing things happen!
Please help BitBlast! wish Art all the best as he enters this next chapter in life with his lovely wife, Saralina, and the rest of his wonderful family, including new grandbaby Sofia Isabel. Send him a fun graphic of congratulations on Twitter to @ArtLopez_CS.
We are so grateful for his dedicated service, sunny disposition, and contributions to equitable CS education. Congratulations, Art!
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Code.org Releases New AP Computer Science A Curriculum
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This section contains information about CS community groups and their gatherings. If you’d like to share an upcoming event or happening with Bit Blast!, please fill out this Google form.
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CSTA Conference This Summer is On!
As a computer science teacher, you are often the only one in your building, or maybe even in your district. There is a whole community of computer science educators just like you out there. Connect with them at the CSTA 2022 Annual Conference set for July 14-17 in Chicago. Get CSTA conference registration information.
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Algorithms of Oppression
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble examines the nature of search engines and their social consequences. Dr. Noble takes analysis of textual and media searches along with extensive research on paid online advertising to expose cultural bias in the way discoverability is created online. A well-written and thoroughly researched book, you’ll find it revealing to the inner workings of search engines such as Google and Bing alongside their sociological impacts.
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All the best of summer to you! As you recuperate and rejuvenate, we hope you have opportunities to connect with family and friends over your break. And should boredom creep in, just curl up with a good book (I’m currently reading The Big Nine, review to come next time!), and there’s always a new language (R for me!) or API for digging into and raising your curiosity/wondering index! Enjoy summer. Bit Blast! will return in September.
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If you have any questions or comments about the Bit Blast! newsletter, please contact Mark Lantsberger.
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Get up-to-the-minute information about what's happening at SDCOE and in our districts across the county. |
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