January 2025 Newsletter

We hope you had a restful and restorative winter break. Read on to learn about the CS opportunities and professional learning available as we start the new year.

The CSinPA team at PaTTAN and PDE are working with AIR to conduct a survey for all K-12 CS educators in Pennsylvania. Eligible teachers should have received an email from pasmartstudy@air.org on December 12 titled: "Your voice matters: Complete the Pennsylvania K-12 CS Teacher Survey for $50!”

As a thank you for participating in this survey, the first 1,000 respondents are eligible to receive a $50 electronic gift card, and the first 400 will be eligible for a 1-year CSTA+ membership. Additionally, respondents will be eligible to participate in three raffles for one of 10, $100 electronic gift cards; one of 100 1-year CSTA+ memberships, and one of 45 micro:bit classroom sets.

We encourage all CS teachers, including those who integrate CS into other subjects, to complete the survey! Learn more about the survey.

The peer tutoring program for teachers preparing for the PA 7-12 CS certification exam is back for 2024-25! We continue to offer the program to participants in any current or previous PaTTAN 7-12 CS professional learning program (7-12 PAsmart 1.0/2.0, CSinPA 7-12 CS Praxis Prep pathway). For more information on the CSinPA 7-12 Praxis Prep pathway for the 2023-24 school year please click here

Are you a teacher planning or interested in teaching AP Computer Science Principles or a current Computer Science A teacher? Or are you an administrator looking to expand your school's AP offerings? AP has an exciting opportunity for you. AP is offering an online Summer Institutes to help you explore the AP Computer Science Principles course and exam.

AP Summer Institutes offer the most thorough professional learning available for AP educators. Attendees engage in 30 hours of content-rich training designed to strengthen how they teach their AP courses.

As part of this opportunity, you will receive a $250 stipend for attending, one year of Plus Membership to the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and your registration fees will be covered by AP.

You’ll leave your AP Summer Institute experience with ready-to-use strategies and pedagogical tools shared by an experienced educator within the AP community.

If you are interested in learning more please fill out this form by January 30, 2025.

Registration is now open and ongoing for the following courses in our Micro-credential Program.

• AI in the Classroom: Introduction (2-hour)

• AI in the Classroom: Integrating AI to Support Student Learning (4- hour)

• Cybersecurity in the K-8 classroom: Introduction (2-hour)

• Using Music to Engage Students in CS Learning (4-hour)

• Empowering all students in CS Learning through a Behavioral approach (4-hour)

PaTTAN will be hosting Virtual Statewide SCRIPT workshops! Check out the SMORE for more details. Due to our virtual setting, we have a limited amount of seats available for LEAs. It will be first come, first serve. There is no cost to attend and Act 48 will be awarded to all participants.

Our “First Time SCRIPT Workshop” will split into two half days so LEAs must attend both days to complete the full workshop.

• Thursday, January 30, 2025 from 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM

• Friday, January 31, 2025 from 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Our “Annual SCRIPT Workshop” will be held for LEA teams to update their previously created collaboration doc.

• Tuesday, January 28, 2025 from 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Are you looking for ways to show your students just how many great careers in Pennsylvania involve CS? Look no further! A huge thanks to the PA CS Workgroup for creating this resource!

This resource was created to support educators and learners in discovering more about Computer Science Careers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This began as a collaborative project in which we gathered responses from individuals who are currently working in Computer Science fields across the state in Fall of 2024 in preparation for CS EdWeek 2024.

Our library of Pop-Up Practices continues to grow!

Check out the new additions from the past month

Access previous editions of the CSinPA newsletter.

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