The deadline for session and workshop proposals for the 2014 CSTA conference on K-12 computer science education is November 15, 2013.
In addition to 3-hour workshops and 1-hour sessions, this year’s conference will include a limited number of 20-minute mini-sessions that focus on pedagogy and best teaching practices.
Proposals for all three session types must include:
·the names and contact information for all presenters
·an overview of the session
·a description of the intended audience (level, knowledge, …)
·a description of session activity (in sufficient detail for an informed decision)
·presenter background and presentation experience
All proposals will be peer reviewed and submitters will be notified of a decision in early January 2014. Submissions will be evaluated on the following criteria:
· technical quality
· writing and presentation
· relevance to CSTA (focus on K-12 computer science or information technology)
Successful proposers should expect to be asked to submit a reasonably final copy of their presentation by June 8, 2014.
There was some good reading once again this week from Ontario Educational Bloggers. There were a few more posts related to the recent #ECOO13 conference. Then, there were some more quality posts that caught my interest.
Brandon Grasley shares the reality of working and supporting in a big board like Algoma.
I’ve actually driven it recreationally. It is a big distance. How do you support it? With his work with eLearningOntario, Brandon takes on all sides of the issue. I can’t help but wonder if these students and teachers won’t end up ahead of the game understanding Blended Learning and Connectivity long before those who work in highly populated areas. Check out the post for thoughts about this, BYOD, and the whole eLearning environment.
Rod Murray interviewed some students from his AQ course who just happened to be at ECOO. I’m impressed with the quality of filming and the audio. I can place the setting for the video but can’t imagine the time of day given the background!
People for Education released a report on the status of school councils in the province. Sheila Stewart shares some of her concerns and the balance of the blog post is riddled with good questions that anyone working with school councils need to consider.
Now, you’ve got to be intrigued by that paragraph from Tracy Bachellier. The post offers some candid advice that everyone should read and understand. We all have these conversations but are we ready for them?
Royan Lee has started a series of posts that he’s calling the “Behaviour Files”. The series gives him latitude to “I explore ideas, strategies, and experiences educating students identified with behaviour exceptionalities”
This should be required reading and reflections. It may be the most important reading that you do today.
Aviva Dunsiger can get very noisy at times on Twitter. And, by noisy, I mean in a good way. Sure, we have our back and forth chats about coffee but when the bell rings, she’s all business and Twitter is the online forum to share what’s happening in her classroom.
In this post, she shows how she uses Storify to capture the discussion and includes all kinds of photos from an obviously very active classroom. Look at the pictures and you can almost hear the activity.
I think this is a terrific post to share with principals, superintendents, and other classroom teachers who are asking just what it looks like in the classroom. Aviva’s student teacher is certainly getting a good placement.
In the category of pictures supporting and documenting in the classroom, you need to take a look at Erin Little’s blog. She just finished the multiplication unit and shares it with us.
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Check out the complete posts at the links posted. Thanks for reading and please bump up their visitor statistics.
You can check out these and all the rest of the Ontario Edublogger collection here.
There’s so much great learning, commentary, and reflection happening daily.
doug --- off the record 