I just returned from another excellent SIGCSE conference, this time in what became snowy Denver. I had several days to catch up on new ideas, get refreshed on old ones and I even heard presentations that reaffirmed ideas for me. However, for me the most important reason to attend conferences like this is the people-to-people networking that happens.
For most of us involved in teaching computing in the K-12 arena, we often are the only computing teacher in our school, maybe even in the entire district. In a professional CS sense, we are alone. While I suppose for some this is ok, I prefer to have one or more individuals to bounce ideas off of. Also, having your own group of professional friends who are doing similar things – a professional community for yourself – is always really useful and fun.
But, you ask, how can I make that happen for me? Today there are any number of ways to become part of a community and develop your own professional linkages. E-mail based listserves (mailing lists) are available within our CS community.
One such list is available to SIGCSE http://sigcse.org members. There are lots of K-12 teachers on this list and there has been some great conversations recently. Joining SIGCSE is relatively inexpensive ($25US) and with it comes other noteworthy benefits. Membership here as in other groups I’ll mention is worldwide.
CSTA http://csta.acm.org has a newly hatched listserve which is only for its worldwide membership of over 13,000. Joining CSTA is free and we like free. I would encourage you to spend a little time to join CSTA. There are a number of benefits like getting the bi-monthly newsletter CSTA Voice and having easy access to lots of good materials for your classroom.
Usually, when I join a list, I read the list for a few weeks to get a handle on the kinds of topics being discussed. By all means, though, post a question or an answer at least occasionally. You’ll begin to see people who may be in a similar situation or who regularly provide you with answers to questions you’ve had (whether or not you’ve actually posted them). You’ve started to build your own community!
If you join CSTA, you can also look for additional networking opportunities by clicking on CSTA Chapters under About CSTA. See if there’s a CSTA Chapter in your area and make a contact to see what they’re up to. Many exist (like 45 at last count). Find out about their upcoming meetings, about their website, about upcoming online opportunities.
In Wisconsin, we just had our first meeting and about 20 came for an all day Saturday workshop from several leaders in Chicago dealing with the Exploring CS curriculum. We had a great workshop, but also had a chance to meet one another, share some experiences and in general begin to figure out how we can keep this networking going both electronically as well as f2f. (I’m finally getting into these texting abbreviations)!
One other worldwide CS community you can join is the APCS Teacher Community https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/web/apcompsci. You only have to sign up to reap the rich benefits of this group. While it is primarily focused on the AP CS-A course, this is also open to educators interested in APCS and computer science education in general. Over the years there have been many discussions that might be very useful to you while trying to set up a computing program at your school, choosing resources, even on topics like recruiting and good software to involve middle school kids. I would encourage you to set up an account (click on the link below the Sign In Block and just above the “Meet the Moderator block). If you create an account with a non-school domain, the moderator will be asking you for your connection to education. (It’s me – I’ll be nice to you, though).
At the beginning I mentioned the SIGCSE conference in Denver. Being able to attend conferences like SIGCSE where you can network with both high school and college-level individuals offers an excellent opportunity to continue and develop these relationships. There are other conferences that focus on K-12 teachers:
the CSTA Annual Conference
< http://csta.acm.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/sub/CSTAConference.html>
the ISTE International conference
< http://www.iste.org/conference/iste-conference>
There are plenty of opportunities to network at any of these conferences. I should say that the ISTE conference is mostly about using computers. There are a number of sessions on computer science and information technology, STEM, robotics and other areas of interest to computer science teachers. If you’re also involved with infusing technology in your building, there plenty more sessions at ISTE for you.
Conferences like these are spectacularly rich in networking opportunities. Of course, one downside is that these cost some real money that most school districts don’t have. So take advantage of the many online opportunities I’ve mentioned which are either low or no cost and will help you develop that professional network you’ll likely need at some point in your teaching career…and if you can attend either a local, national or international conference at least once for a great experience.
As the song from the play Carousel says “…and you’ll never walk alone…”
