Our topic for the GLA February Chapter meeting was Building Community. We got to know each other. We shared our latest favorite apps. We shared a spotlight on stand-out Black computer scientists. We talked about what you have let us know are your interests. We presented a 'Nifty Opportunity' the TEALS program a teacher's support program free from Microsoft Philanthropy. And we let you know we're hoping you'll join our board or step into one of the committees we are putting together. If you missed this meeting, be sure to join us at the next one, in Zoom, on March 10th.
Building Community.
We started out in small groups in breakout rooms with the prompt of 'your current favorite app' and the goal of getting acquainted with each other.
We put a spotlight on five Black computer scientists who are rockstars in our field: Latanya Sweeney, Data science; Ian Spalter, Product design; Joy Buolamwini, Algorithmic Bias (AI/ML); Catt Small, Game design; and Mac the VC, Entrepreneurship. Learn more about these CS professionals and share their aspirations/ accomplishments with your students.
We explored the responses to our Community Building poll. Our interests span K-12 grade bands and collaboration along with PDs hold the greatest interest. If you haven't yet taken the poll yet, please do. In addition to asking about what is of greatest interest to you, we ask which days are best for you to hold meetings and if you prefer online or in person. We want to structure the meetings around your schedule and your interests. Community Building Poll.
Next, we invited Michelle Emelle from the Microsoft Philanthropy TEALS program to share a 'Nifty Opportunity.' TEALS offers teachers the opportunity to collaborate with industry software engineers in delivering their computer science curriculum to their students. The program is completely free to teachers and schools. If you're a newbie CS teacher, there is a summer workshop and then you can be paired with an industry volunteer for the school year. If you're a little more experienced in CS, the industry volunteer can assist with the labs while you deliver the content to your students. There are other levels of collaboration as well as support that you can learn about on the TEALS website. The time-critical detail is that applications are due February 18th for the 2022-2023 cohort.
Finally we shared news and events. There are PD opportunities going on every month. Check out the CSTA National calendar. We are looking for someone to join our board. If you're interested, send us a note at GreaterLosAngelesCA@csteachers.org. And we hope to start a rotation of committees to support our chapter. One suggestion was a Robotics committee - investigate and share strategies about using robots in the classroom. Another suggestion was to investigate and share strategies for creating a CS teaching certification protocol. Let us know your interest for a deeper dive or if you want to join one of these committees.
If you weren't able to join us at the February meeting, mark your calendar now for the March 10th meeting. Our presenters are the Bay Area Youth Computer Science (BAYSC) club. This group of high school students will share their strategies for an inclusive computer science activity. We've seen a preview of the presentation - these young computer scientists are terrific. Even more, their activity could be adjusted for upper elementary, middle school grade bands.
Questions, comments, suggestions - we want to hear from you GreaterLosAngelesCA@csteachers.org