Competency #7: CS Professionalism

Summary

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 be 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 need to be willing to make mistakes with our students but then learn from those mistakes and make it better the next time.
   
• We need 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. 

This week I am going to ask you to consider several ways in which you can address the ideas above

Your activities for this Competency are:

• Explore CSTA
• Read about the CSTA CS Teacher Standards
• Apply this material in a "Competency Demo" activity.

Explore CSTA

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 CSTA website.

• Find a resource that looks interesting to you.
• Consider joining. It is worth the annual fee of only $50 for the benefits that you receive.

Readings

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. Please explore the following documents

• Main Standards for CS Teachers website
  • https://csteachers.org/teacherstandards/
• Two page standards document
  • A local copy
• Glossary of Terms used in the standards
  • https://csteachers.org/teacherstandards/glossary
• Additional Standard Resources
  • https://csteachers.org/teacherstandards/resources/

Deliverable

[CREDIT: This activity was developed by Michelle Meier and Corey Rogers and expanded by the State of Iowa CS Working Group by providing consistency metrics for evaluation.]

I would like to have you complete a self-assessment 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! The only thing remaining MAY be submitting your results.

Open and then save your own copy of the CSTA Teacher Standards 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. This could include
• 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.

Evaluation

• Please submit your self assessment results using the form provided.
  • The deadline for this is no later than Sunday, July 27
• This is evaluated as a competency demo.
• Since this is almost entirely a self-assessment there are not right or wrong answers. Only evidence that you have put effort into the process. This is likely a 0/4 evaluation unless there is clear evidence you did not put sufficient time into this self-assessment/reflection.