Below are the minutes from the open part of the meeting (minutes from initial portion available to board members).
Please let us know if you have any questions.
- Introductions (10 mins, everyone)
- Name, School/Organization, Favorite outdoor activity (Spring!)
- Events (15 mins)
- Equity in Action Summit - debrief from those who attended/participated
- Jenny spoke on a panel (teaching diversity in homogenous classroom)
- Spoke about identity and getting students to be more aware of class make-up and how to be an ally
- Jacqueline attended for an hour.
- SIGCSE
- Physical Computing Workshop
- STEP CS Lightning Talks
- Looking for 10 speakers to give 5 minute lightning talks
- Folks who volunteered to present
- CSTA Conference & Panel (and need for panelists not just from WA state or just HS teachers! :))
- Regional Meetups (Funding for food!!! $12 for each PSCSTA member)
- Adam would like to attend the Olympia.
- Elections (5 mins,
Catherine Lauren)
- Open Positions: President, Treasurer, At-Large members (2 year alternating terms)
- For President position, optimally we'd find a nominee who has experience on the board
- Lauren may be moving into a National Board position and transitioning off PSCSTA (we'll know by May 20th)
- Please nominate yourself or anyone to these open positions
- We will send out the Board Manual out to general membership in the next month. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rlY1sgfo_ylf34aaUwfvPCKJXp8RN1KC/
- Tracey & Jacqueline to help clean up
- Board Manual specifies that elections are held at the beginning of June, and board positions run from July 1 - June 30
- Josh nominated for Member-at-Large
- Discussion (30 mins)
- What's needed in K-5?
- Jacqueline and Elizabeth talked to K-5 teachers and Librarians at NCCE.
- They don't know what to do with kids. Didn't know about hour of code.
- Curated content if you have devices at ___ age level.
- If you've done hour of code, what are other things you could do as turnkey curriculum.
- Real hunger for resources. Lessons in a box.
- Helpful to create a page of resources for K-5.?
- Iowa - fell on the librarians to teach coding.
- Adam: very challenging to find which elementary schools were offering STEM education/CS.
- What is the status of K-5 education? Equity issue.
- How can we promote more K-5 stem education opportunities?
- Lawrence: Kennewick WA. Visited an elementary school there (invited by Maya, VP for Mid-columbia). She said she's the only one who is teaching CS (6 STEM elementary schools).
- They got a grant from the state to help with training
- Can't find people who will teach it in an affordable manner.
- Build a regional resource - small - relationships with districts - "5 things you can do with elementary CS"
- Cory Martin - K-5 CS in Seattle. Talking to the woman in Bellevue.
- Asking if we could facilitate the district level coordinators across the region.
- Not direct to teacher support, next best thing.
- What level of interest is there for integrated CS work (CS+Math, CS+History)
- Districts want to do it - think you can get "something for nothing" not messing with instructional minutes.
- Hard to get the district to get PD and support for every teacher in the district.
- Specialists are targeted.
- Admin folks think it's an easy solution, don't get into the mess. Integration is a harder route.
- Teachers who want to do integration are the folks who are already motivated. +1
- Challenge with buy in: they have to give up what they're doing in their class. (in a school of 35 teachers, there were only 2 who were willing)
- Can we harness all of the things that people are doing already - build community and support for what is already happening.
- Elizabeth: Where it has worked: when you have district support.
- Can't use perkins funding at K-5 (can do it for middle school)
- Could we lean on HS programs to help connect with elementary (they need to do volunteer hours). HS students would need training/background checks.
- Jacqueline: CS Ed week last year -Amazon, Code.org, Microsoft
- Volunteer K-5 employees to do hour of code.
- Unfortunately a 1 time thing. Could it be done more regularly. Need funding to do something longer-term, more programmatic.
- Exploring that at Google.
- Can PSCSTA help build relationships? Facilitate the relationships.
- Alec: A drop in thing, "in a box type development" - we need to understand that some kids are seeing this for the first time vs someone who has seen it before. Need to be cautious - want to make sure the new kids are included.
- Hour of code for 10 years: it hasn't sparked sustainable programs. Need to do something more structured to make it stick. We've been turning
- What's the next steps?
- Separate list of PD resources for district folks.
- Using that as a route to bring folks into the fold.
- Facilitating connections across districts (Special interest group meet up). (Gathering for brainstorming with districts/teachers).
- Work more with OSPI and ESDs to get cross pollination.
- Education/awareness of CS Ed landscape in WA for district admins
- [not discussed - (We're all burnt out on AI] How does AI affect Teachers, and what CS students will need to know in 5-10-20 years?
- [Briefly discussed] What kind of legislation should our state policy-makers be thinking about? (Lawrence, maybe you can give an update on what's happening today?)
- SB5849: it was pulled (passed in the senate 46-3, did not pass in the house). but required all students that they have some competency in CS before they graduate. Issues:
- Lawrence spoke at the public hearings
- Next step: those of us involved in policy, to figure out how to make this happen without it being a bill to force us to do it.
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Lawrence Tanimoto
Treasurer/Advocacy Lead, CSTA Puget Sound (WA)
Bellevue, WA
K-12 Teacher CTE (retired)
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