We appreciate the interest that many educators have expressed in these workshops. Due to this high interest, all workshops are filled as of April 13, 2021.
Update: May 2021
We will be running a select number of workshops for those who did not receive a spot in our Spring sessions! Summer 2021 workshop dates will be released by June 4, 2021! We are pleased to offer this unique opportunity for Massachusetts educators to bring Digital Literacy and Computer Science skills to their classrooms!
We are pleased to announce a unique opportunity for Massachusetts educators to bring Digital Literacy and Computer Science skills to their classrooms! This comprehensive list of professional development offerings is generously funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) through the DLCS Professional Development & Devices Grant awarded to CSforMA, Inc. Educators may choose from a broad range of topics offered through MassCUE, CSTA, and CSforMA and will receive devices and/or stipends for their participation. (Please note that if you are the named recipient of a DLCS Student Learning Devices (Fund Code 134), you may not be able to get additional devices based your award, but you still qualify for the stipend.)
This special offering is limited to MA educators based on availability. Non-MA educators may be considered on a space-available basis but are ineligible for stipends and/or devices. Participants will be selected on a first come, first service basis; however, some adjustments may need to be made to ensure that as many educators as possible may participate and that there is diverse coverage across the state. Please fill out this interest form to indicate your choices in priority order. We will then reach out to you to confirm your slot and secure your registration.
Workshop Descriptions
Computing for Counselors (C4C) [1]
Strategies for Effective and Inclusive CS Teaching [2]
Physical Computing for K-5 Educators [3]
Deep Dive into the Circuit Playground [4]
MicroPython for the AP CSP Task [5]
Computational Thinking Through Music [6]
Block Party: Creative Computing with Scratch [7]
Computational Thinking for Middle School Educators: Creating Future Problem Solvers [8]
Digital Collaboration – Don’t Reinvent! [9]
Teaching Digital Citizenship: Shaping Responsible Members of a Digital World [10]
Collecting, Organizing and Visualizing Data [12]
Computing for Counselors (C4C)
National Center for Women & Information Technology C4C Team
Thursday, April 22 8:00 -3:30 and Monday, June 28 8:00 – 3:30
This one-day workshop (offered in partnership with the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT) will help counselors and administrators learn how to encourage females, minorities and other underrepresented groups to pursue computing. This workshop will be offered twice and serve up to 100 school counselors and district administrators. It will provide an array of resources that are designed to help remove the perceptual barriers so that all students will be able to choose to learn computing, consider pursuing technical career paths, and believe their voices can be heard in the tech industry.
Strategies for Effective and Inclusive CS Teaching
Texas Advanced Computing Center
Date TBA
This 12 contact-hour workshop will be offered in the evenings over six weeks (in partnership with the Exploring Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) at UT Austin). The workshop supports teachers as they work to make their CS courses more inclusive and diverse and includes topics such as examining unconscious bias; CS as a tool for addressing social justice; culturally responsive pedagogy; and CS for neurodiverse learners.
Physical Computing for K-5 Educators
Melissa Zeitz
Thursday, April 22 9:00 – 4:00
This one-day workshop will introduce educators to the Makey-Makey, a physical computing device, that can combine computing and creativity in unique and fun ways. This workshop will also introduce the curriculum modules developed by the MA Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education and Education Development Center to teach DLCS in Math and Science.
Deep Dive into the Circuit Playground
Chad McGowan and Susan Pease
Saturday, June 5 8:30- 3:30 and Saturday, June 12 8:30 – 3:30
This workshop will focus on the Circuit Playground, a small microcontroller board with LEDs, buttons, and sensors, that is used within the CS Discoveries (CSD) course. Educators who are currently teaching CSD will explore more deeply how non-traditional computing platforms take input and provide output in ways that couldn’t be done with the traditional keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
MicroPython for the AP CSP Create Task
Ruth Farmery and Danielle Bodine
Tuesday, April 20 9:00 – 4:00
Creative computing projects with hardware foster collaboration and support students in developing their computational thinking skills by drawing on their imagination, creativity and interests. This workshop (offered in partnership with CSTA) is designed to introduce participants to Microbit and MicroPython to meet the requirements of the AP CSP Create Task (sequence, selection, iteration, functions with parameters and the use of data structures) and engage a wide range of learners in developing interactive projects.
Computational Thinking Through Music
Audra Kaplan and Anne Marie Wyman
Tuesday, June 22 8:00 – 3:00
This workshop (offered in partnership with CSTA) is designed to introduce participants to introductory programming and computational thinking concepts using a variety of tools. Participants in this course will explore Scratch and Micro:bits as they explore simple songs to engage their students with code. Participants will design, code, and debug programs as they make music.
Block Party: Creative Computing with Scratch
Audra Kaplan and Anne Marie Wyman
Wednesday, June 23 8:00 – 3:00
This workshop (offered in partnership with CSTA) is designed to introduce participants to programming and computational thinking concepts using Scratch, MITs’ block-based programming platform and Makey-Makey. Participants will design, code, and debug programs as they build artifacts. Participants will leave this workshop with resources and practical strategies for integrating coding into any curricular area.
Computational Thinking for Middle School Educators: Creating Future Problem Solvers
Audra Kaplan
Self-paced (6 weeks): April 28 – June 2
Live Meetings: April 28, May 5, May 12, May 19, May 26 and June 2 5:00-6:00 pm
This workshop (offered in partnership with MassCUE) is designed to introduce participants to the computational thinking concepts of abstraction, algorithms, data, programming and development. Participants will leave this workshop with resources and practical strategies that encourage computational thinking.
PDPs: 10
Digital Collaboration – Don’t Reinvent!
Erin Foley
Self-paced (4 weeks): May 6 – June 3
Live Meetings: May 6 and June 3 4:00 – 5:30
This workshop (offered in partnership with MassCUE) will focus on infusing DLCS standards into existing lessons and curriculum. Participants will learn how to engage students in creating their own digital artifacts including videos and games to demonstrate their learning. Each module will include resources for elementary, middle, and high school educators.
PDPs: 10
Teaching Digital Citizenship: Shaping Responsible Members of a Digital World
Rochelle Cooper
Self-paced (4 weeks): April 29 – May 24
Live Meetings: April 29 and May 24 3:30 – 5:00
This workshop (offered in partnership with MassCUE) will teach participants key concepts surrounding the topic of digital citizenship and supply them with a variety of creative and fun ways to weave positive digital practices and lessons into their teaching. Participants will use elements of technology and social media throughout the workshop to integrate key digital citizenship concepts into students’ daily lives.
PDPs: 15
Digital Learning Badge Program for Educators
Jed Stefanowicz
Self-paced (6 weeks): April 28 – June 2
Live Meetings: April 28, May 5 and June 2 4:00 – 5:30
This workshop (offered in partnership with MassCUE) will engage educators in adapting and adopting a Digital Learning Badge program for their classroom, school, or district. Participants will learn to adapt the badging platform to fit any criteria and content area across the curriculum to empower students to reflect and archive their own learning in an engaging passbook-style portfolio project that is meaningful, memorable and measurable.
PDPs: 10
Collecting, Organizing and Visualizing Data
Craig Sheil
Self-paced (4 weeks): April 26 – May 26
Live Meetings: April 27 & May 4 – 4:15 – 5:15 pm May 11 & May 18 4:15 – 5:45
With data being constantly collected whether it pertains to school work or during our personal lives, it is important that our students understand how to work with data. This workshop (offered in partnership with MassCUE) will engage participants in learning how data can be collected, how it can be arranged after the data has been collected, as well as how the data should be visualized for others.
PDPs: 11