Module 4
CS Professionalism

Overview

I am going to argue that one of the most important aspects of being an educator is treating our jobs professionally and staying current with ideas and research in the discipline. 

  • We need to be open to new ideas and methods. 
     
  • We need to become a "reflective practitioner" who is willing to think about what we are doing, why we do it, and how we feel it translates to better learning for our students.
     
  • We have to be willing to make mistakes but then learn from those mistakes and make it better the next time.
     
  • We have to ask ourselves if what we believe about teaching and learning is anecdotal or backed by facts (research) and evaluate how we respond as this information changes.
     

But, of course, to do this requires us to not only reflect on what is going on in our classroom, but in classrooms all around us.  It requires us to be professionals who participate in the process with other professionals. 

In this week's module we are going to consider what it means to be a CS professional

 

Readings/Activities

Monday

[CREDIT: This activity was developed by Michelle Meier at Central Rivers AEA and Corey Rogers at Grant Wood AEA]

While most people know that there are standards for teaching our CS Students, not everyone knows that there are also standards for CS Teachers themselves.

 

 

Today I would like to make you aware of the CSTA Standards for CS Teachers and complete a self-assesment regarding how well you feel you are meeting those standards as a CS Professional. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to set some goals for improving.

The good news - if you attended the CoP last week, congratulations. You have likely done a significant part of this!

 

In your own copy of the CSTA Standards for CS Teachers Self-Reflection Checklist

  1. Review the individual standards within each of the five standards checklists (individual tabs in the spreadsheet).
  2. For each, note your own level of proficiency:
    • Not Yet
    • Proficient
    • Advanced
  3. For each, note your Evidence of Proficiency
    • Lessons plans
    • Courses completed
    • Professional Learning Certificates
    • Book study participation
    • Professional organization participation
    • Videos
    • Results of survey of students
  4. Note your own Reflections & Next Steps (planned targeted professional learning opportunities, etc.)
    • Collaboration with peers, mentor teachers, teachers in other subject areas Planned professional learning
    • Twitter chats
    • Book studies
    • Community engagement
    • Externship Refer to the checklist and update, as needed, to reflect your continuous learning.

 

Once again, we are using your self assessment as an evaluation tool to help us continue to redefine our program. Thus, we would ask you to share your final results with us by submitting your final self-assessment via this form.

Tuesday

Most teaching disciplines have professional organizations that help people connect with like-minded professionals. In K-12 CS teaching there are several, but the arguable leader in the group is CSTA (Computer Science Teacher's Association).

https://csteachers.org/

I know that many of you are familiar with CSTA and some of you are even members of both the national organization and the Iowa Chapter. Even if you are already a member, when was the last time you actually took a few minutes to explore the website?

I would like you to explore the webite. Find a resource that looks interesting to you. Consider joining. At the very least, join at the free level and sign up for CSTA Iowa. But I would also encourage you to check out the CSTA Plus level membership. It is worth the annual fee of only $50 for the additional benefits that you receive.

 

Wednesday

One of the biggest challenges with "self-improvement" is knowing where to find good information.  It can be a challenge identifying and understanding the resources that are available to help us. In this last activity I would like you to help me, and your peers, by generating a list of resources that we can use to keep current as educators and, more specifically, as CS educators. 

Activity #1 - Generating a list of General Pedagogical Resources

Identify at least three different organizations that provide information and/or resources regarding general pedagogical practice of teachers.  [Please note, this is about teaching in general. Not necessarily teaching CS. That's activity #2].

To get started, think about organizations you already follow.  These may be national, state, or regional.  They may be entirely online organizations, groups that hold traditional face to face meetings, publishers of resources, and even well informed bloggers who back ideas/opinion with facts/research.

But you also might look to find at least one organization/resource that is new to you.  One that you think will provide you some real benefit in the future.

For each resource you identify clearly indicate:

  • The name
  • "Contact" information (likely a URL but not necessarily)
  • What kind of information they provide to teachers
  • Ideally, at least one idea from the resource that use regularly or that particularly resonates with you.

The goal here is to draft a resource guide curated by the class members.  The summary that you produce should be something that one of your classmates or I could read and understand why me might want to care about this organization/resource.

Please use this form to submit your responses:

You can use this link to view the responses of your classmates:

 

Activity #2 - Generating a list of CS Pedagogical Resources

Repeat activity #1 looking specifically for resources related to computer science.   Follow the exact same process as outlined in activity #1

Please use this form to submit your responses:

You can use this link to view the responses of your classmates: