Sept Chapter Meeting, Sat, 9/17

Just a reminder to everyone that our first real chapter meeting of the year is this Saturday, Sept 17, from 1:00 -- 3:00 pm, in the usual place, the 6th Floor Atrium of the Paul Allen Center (CSE building) on the UW campus.

Two specific topics (plus the usual networking chats) are on the agenda:

• Stuart Reges: Issues for constructing quiz and test questions for CS courses.
• Crystal Hess: Discussion of programming contest plans.

Hope to see you all there. Details on the Meetings page.

.andy

2011-12 Meeting Schedule

Dear chapter members,

At our August meeting, we developed a plan for this year's chapter meetings. It promises to be another good year of CS discussions.

As last year, the meetings will be Saturdays, generally the 3rd one of the month, hosted by the UW CSE Department in the lovely 6th Floor Commons room of the Paul Allen Center.

You can find the schedule posted on the chapter website (www.pscsta.org) under the Meetings tab.

The summary version is below. BLUE items are student event days, rather than teacher meetings. (We've abandoned the idea of having teacher workshops in parallel with the student events.)

You can find a Google Calendar version also on the Meetings web page.

Hope to see everyone at the September and other meetings.

Thanks,

.andy

Sep 17, 2011: CS Assessments, Stuart Reges

Oct 15, 2011: CS Pedagogy, Hélène Martin

Nov 19, 2011: Intro to CS Courses, Andy Davidson

Dec 10, 2011: WINTER PROGRAMMING CONTEST, Crystal Hess

Jan 21, 2012: Robotics, Greg Kilpatrick

Feb 18, 2012: STEM Out!, Crystal Hess

Mar 17, 2012: Advanced CS Projects, Lauren Bricker

Apr 28, 2012: SPRING PROGRAMMING CONTEST, Crystal Hess

May 19, 2012: SIGCSE Review, Stuart Reges

Jun 16, 2012: Year-in-Review, All

Registration for ACSL International Contest About to Begin

I wanted to share something I received from the CSTA member listserv, for those that might not yet joined the CSTA. For a FREE membership to the CSTA, click here.

Greg Kilpatrick
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This message is brought to you by the CSTA member listserv.

The American Computer Science League opens registration for this year's contest September 1st.

ACSL is An international computer science competition for grades 6-12 that is way more than just programming!!!

ACSL gives your school the opportunity to:
• Learn about really important computer science concepts
• Engage in creative algorithmic solutions to problems
• Compete against other schools from around the world
• Attend an Invitational All-Star Contest at a common site

There are four contests that are administered at each school monthly. Scores are cumulative. There are four divisions to choose from based upon student ability. Each contest consists of two parts:
• Short Problems – 5 questions on computer science topics that students must be taught before taking the test
• Programming Problem – creatively designed problems that students may solve using a language of their choice

Mention that you are a CSTA member and get a free Contest CD ($20) upon joining.

ACSL is also on approved activities list of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Jerry Tebrow
ACSL
amcompsci@cox.net
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Fall Kickoff Meeting: Sat, Aug 20

Greetings, everyone!

Hope you are all having a good summer.

Lauren gave me this analogy the other day: for a teacher, the summer is just a like a weekend. June is like Friday night. July is Saturday. August is Sunday. I'm sure none of you needs an explanation for that rhythm and the mental state that accompanies the trajectory of the weekend.

So, our first meeting of the 2011-12 academic year is this Saturday, August 20. As usual, it will be at 1:00 pm in the 6th floor conference room of the Paul Allen Center (CSE Building) on the UW's Seattle campus. Thanks as always to the CSE department for hosting and sponsoring us.

We have just one item on the schedule for this meeting -- to map out the schedule of meetings and topics for the coming year. The dates of our meetings are set; now we just need to decide what we'll do at each one.

We hope to see everyone Saturday for a good planning session. Bring your ideas, opinions, and desires for the CSTA sessions ahead. If you can't make it, but have any of those, feel free to post them to the group, or in the comments on this post on the blog, or email me.

In addition to content ideas, if you have opinions about the logistics, please let us know also. In particular, if you don't regularly come to the meetings but would like to, what would make you more likely to do so?

Thanks,

See you Saturday.

.andy

Job Opening - Computer Science Teacher

There is an opening at Newport High School in Bellevue, WA for a Career and Technical Education instructor to teach AP COMPUTER SCIENCE, COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY, WEB PUBLISHING and 3D ANIMATION. Check the job posting at https://employment.bsd405.org/JobPosting.aspx?JPID=3066. Let us know if you have questions about how to become a Career and Technical Education instructor. People who have worked in related fields are encourage to check out this opportunity.

Have a great summer!

We decided at the June meeting last week to stick to our existing schedule of monthly meetings. Minutes are posted on the Meetings page, thanks Cathy.

Our next meeting will be in August, where we will map out the schedule of meetings for the 2011-2012 academic year. Stay tuned for details.

Have a great summer, everyone!

June 18 Meeting: Beyond AP CS and beyond

Our last meeting of the year is this Saturday, June 18.

The main topic for the meeting is "Beyond AP CS," with thoughts and discussion about the kinds of topics and projects we can do after the AP exam and course.

We also will talk about the national chapter report that we have to file soon, as well as do some planning for our meeting schedule for next year.

Details are here, the usual -- 1:00 pm in the Paul Allen Center 6th Floor Commons Room: PSCSTA Meetings.

Hope to see you there.

.andy