36 [Topic] One Voice in CS – Empowering CS

Podcast Transcript

Shawn: Three, two, one. Hi everybody, I’m Shawn Patrick Higgins, and welcome to One Voice in CS, the podcast where we talk to leaders from across the world of creative computing and computer science education. Today, I’m sitting down with three CSTA fellows, Michelle, Leah, and Coach Hicks, to talk about their course, Empowering CS.

They built it for anyone heading into their first year in a CS classroom. And here’s the thing about teaching CS — a lot of us didn’t plan to. You get the phone call, the position opens up, someone leaves, and the class is suddenly yours, and then you’re on your own, left to figure it out. This course and this conversation is everything these three wish they’d had on day one.

We get into how it came together across three time zones, the mistakes they each learned along the way, and the ideas that kept coming back around. It’s a good one, so let’s get into it. I wanna thank everybody for joining me today to talk about your course, Empowering CS for New Teachers. What were you trying to do, and what was the problem you hoped to solve?

COACH HICKS: So for teachers new to computer science, or just teachers new in the field, this is a great resource that can help you get started. Well, I think one of the things that made our project special was all of us came into CS from various areas of teaching. It was speaking from a very personal point, because all of us had our different journeys into computer science as — I wouldn’t say — well, I guess second career, right?

I think it was helpful because our intention is important. So we really wanted to make sure we weren’t just giving a random group of resources or just kind of a pool of people could pull from, ’cause I think that exists in computer science. But we were very intentional about how does someone that may not be a brand new teacher transition into and learn computer science.

MICHELLE: Absolutely. So essentially, this course was the culmination of what we felt we needed to know when we were coming in as new computer science teachers that didn’t come from a CS background. And so like Coach and Leah were both saying, this resource is designed to benefit you, benefit any teacher who’s new to CS. So whether they were a teacher in another content area switching over into computer science, or they’re just brand new completely, we wanted to build out something that would benefit everybody.

Shawn: Continuing with exactly what you were just saying there — in conversations with CS teachers, I find that everyone’s coming from a different place, exactly like Coach was just mentioning. For each of you, what was your background as you would describe it, and did you have kind of an aha moment where it hit you — “I’m a computer science teacher”?

COACH HICKS: Well, for me, I came into this — definitely an aha moment. I was signed on to be a reading interventionalist in Chicago, and got a phone call from a principal that was like, “Hey, remember that computer science job in elementary school I told you about? It’s good.” So I actually drove from Chicago the day before the Atlanta Public Schools professional development, and started teaching computer science. So it literally was an eight to eleven-hour aha moment.

But yeah, I think it really was, and one of the things that made it so near and dear to my heart is because I quickly realized how multifaceted that experience was. There was the core piece of learning those computer science skills, but there was also the equity piece. Because I quickly saw — and I think I had two very contrasting experiences very early on in my computer science career — where there was a school that had everything, and it was like, “Oh, great, computer science, this is wonderful.” But then to go to a school that was less than two miles away, and it was like, “Oh, wait a minute. All these bells and whistles, I see how it impacts these kids, so what’s happening if these kids aren’t getting it?” Definitely an aha moment for me.

LEAH: So for me, I don’t think my story is totally unique. I think a lot of computer science teachers can relate because my background is not in computer science. I was trained to be a teacher, and actually originally an elementary school teacher. But I think like many other CS teachers, it was because in my classroom, I work with computers and technology, and just by default, it fell into my line — okay, I’m also gonna teach computer science.

And I guess my aha moment happened in a good way where I realized just what computer science was all about and that I actually get to teach it, when I actually became involved with CSTA and all of the resources, all of the support that comes with just being a member of CSTA. That’s truly what helped me, and that’s what kind of flipped the switch for me. And instead of, “Oh, okay, this is CS,” it was like, “I get to teach this because it’s CS.”

MICHELLE: So for me, my story — it’s funny because Coach said second career, and I think for me it was probably more like fifth or sixth career. But similar to Leah, my second degree was in elementary education, so I had switched to being an elementary ed teacher, and then switched to being a stay-at-home mom to raise my kids for a long time, and then turned into a parent volunteer, which turned into a long-term sub. And in the course of substitute teaching, the computer science position became available, and at first I said, “Oh, well, I’ll fill the position until you hire somebody permanently.” And then I said, “Well, wait — why don’t I just do it?” Never taken a computer science course. My dad is a computer scientist by trade, but that was not my journey.

And so I ended up taking the position. And so when we talk about an aha moment, I think my first thing was actually more of an oh no moment — which was when the other computer science teacher, who had a background in CS, left because he got his dream job. He left pretty quickly after I had accepted the position, so I quickly became a silo of one. So that was my oh no.

Those first couple years was really me figuring it out and learning along with my students. So I taught all three grades — sixth, seventh, and eighth grade middle school. And so all of my students were learning the same thing that first year. And then the next year, once I felt like I got that under my belt, I would add on a differentiated course for one of the grades. So I feel like by year three, when I had three different courses going, that was my aha moment of, “Hey, I’m really a CS teacher now.”

Shawn: Those are all very similar to mine. I was in afterschool, and I was teaching afterschool photo, video, and technology, and I had been teaching at one school for two years and their computer science teacher left, and, “Mr. Higgins, would you potentially consider…” There’s so many similarities between all of our journeys.

To take it back to the course a little bit — I’m always curious about how these collaborative projects, especially not just two people but three people, come together in real life. We only see the polished version at the end. But going through that process and creating this, and merging your experiences in that way — how did this course come together between the three of you? What do you feel like you brought to it most, and what’s something that stands out about it to you?

COACH HICKS: I was gonna say — Michelle and Leah had to tell me to be quiet often, so I wasn’t gonna go first again.

LEAH: No, I think we have a good system going, Coach. We can keep our rotating.

COACH HICKS: Okay. Honestly, it was very interesting. I think one of the things — again, I’m huge on the process and the intention of it. And so I think the fact that Michelle, Leah, and I were in three different — Michelle and I really aren’t in three different corners, but I think we really were. So the time changes and things like that. But I think what that added to our experiences is it made those times when we collaborated, when we sat in our sessions — and I think we really did a good job of holding each other accountable, but also pushing to ask those difficult questions.

And I’m thankful that we were able to iterate, get some feedback from the CSTA leadership that ultimately made our core stronger. But I’m really happy that in that process I had a team that was very like-minded, that knew how to make sure we were listening, but also making sure that our expertise was respected.

LEAH: And I think what each of us brings, it’s really unique, but it all kinda works together. I think when we first got on board, it was the beginning of our phase with CSTA and becoming equity fellows. And so just through the course of discussion and trying to figure out what we could do, I think we kind of clicked from the beginning as a group, and things just kind of fell naturally — choosing our topic and what we could bring.

And if I recall correctly, our project was a lot more ambitious than it actually turned out to be. We had to trim it down quite a bit. We had like a whole semester of curriculum planned. We just kind of got on a roll and kept moving. But I’m really happy with what we ended up producing.

MICHELLE: Yeah, and I think to Leah’s point, I think it came together so well because it was our lived experience, right? This was something very personal to all three of us, and I think that any time you’re focusing on something that really has a personal connection to you, it leads to a more authentic experience. And like they were both saying, we just worked really well together.

It was easy for us to decide on kind of what we wanted to do generally speaking, and so we mapped things out as a group. We had regular meetings on the calendar. We had a lot of frequent communication — because of the time difference, we used a lot of text and email threads and Slack messaging. But then when it came down to it, each person took a separate section of the course, so we were able to work independently to build out our sections, which were all very personal to us as well. And then we were able to come back together during that joint work time and share out our progress and collaborate and give feedback. So all things considered, it went very smoothly once we got into the groove of things and figured out what we were doing.

Shawn: You answered the question already about who it’s designed for — this kind of new teacher who’s coming in, who’s really uncertain. What are some of the design choices that you made to directly help teachers in real classrooms? Is there something that stands out to you?

COACH HICKS: So we realize that a lot of times, a lot of that sounds good on paper, but it looks very different in each school. If there’s going to be — in this school there’s gonna be the media specialist, maybe in school B there’s going to be a paraprofessional. But ultimately, we know that access is what’s important. So how do we equip — how do we present curriculum, which of course is kind of at the base of the student-facing piece? How do we make that accessible to people all over the place?

Because the reality is, many times the computer science person — especially that foundational elementary piece — is not going to be a standalone certified computer science teacher. So we wanted to make sure that we did not forget or kind of leave anybody behind, because that computer science teacher position is so diverse, especially in elementary schools. And so because I came from that world, it was helpful to have that mindset — we wanna make sure that nobody was an afterthought.

LEAH: And then latching onto the title of the course, Empowering CS Teachers — also looking at the resources that are available for computer science teachers, I mean, there’s so many resources. But we try to help them out based on our own experiences and trying to help them not reinvent the wheel, right? So free curriculum that’s out there versus paid ones, what we thought were effective, not so effective compared against the cost for the subscription kind of deal. So trying to vet what’s already well-known and established in a lot of CS classes and help new teachers so they don’t have to spend such a huge amount of time looking into what’s out there.

MICHELLE: Yeah, and to add on what Leah’s saying about time constraints — we also wanted to make sure that the course itself was palatable, that there wasn’t anything that was gonna be so time-consuming that teachers wouldn’t be able to complete it. Because again, it’s supposed to be a resource for teachers, and we know that teachers already have so much on their plates and are already wearing so many hats, that we wanted to give them the most impactful information that we could within the course, and making sure that we were choosing things that were also easily implementable.

And so my section focused on finding community, because that is such an important part since a lot of computer science teachers do find themselves as the only ones at their school or in their district — that community piece was a big part. And so again, just making sure that each section was kind of short activities. We tried to really diversify the type of information, so there are some articles, there are some videos, there are some spreadsheets, just so that no matter what type of person you are, what type of way you like to receive information, you’re able to get what you need within the course.

Shawn: I think that sounds super, super valuable. I know for me, I first started teaching in 2010, and at that time in Portland, Oregon, I looked around and I could not find one person in the entire metro region that was a middle school computer science teacher. And that idea of community — obviously that’s shifted a lot in the last 16 or 17 years, there’s been so much PD as it’s grown — and it sounds great when you first hear about it, but often for some teachers it just kind of sits there and it never quite makes the jump into actually manifesting in the classroom, actually being able to use it. What did you do to make sure that your course was practical and that it was real right away? What’s one thing that the teacher could try just one week after using your course?

LEAH: Yeah. So I think it kind of crosses over between Michelle and my modules for the course, but just — professional development and networking and how a new teacher could get started. We thought having that support was really important because even though things have changed, like you said, over the course of the past 15, 16 years — I’m in rural Kauai in Hawaii, on an island in the middle of the Pacific, literally — and so there are not a lot of CS teachers here on Kauai. And so it has been so important just building that network of support.

And so we do have a part where we’re suggesting for teachers one quick way they can get started is to start building their network by looking at, as an example, CSTA to see what kind of professional development is offered. And I honestly believe that’s the best way for any teacher to get started who’s in computer science.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I was gonna say, Leah stole my thunder a little bit. The whole course is amazing, but I am so biased about the community part. And just, again, going back to what we’ve all been saying about how this was such a personal passion project for us — and in my own personal journey, the finding community piece really made all the difference. I had really big issues with imposter syndrome and not feeling like I belonged in the space, and so it was the community piece that gave me that support, gave me the confidence until I got the confidence on my own, put me in different positions that I would not have put myself in, that has led me to where I am today.

Like Leah was saying, I think the resources that are there — there’s like a one-pager of resources provided where people can go and, okay, here are some just quick, easy to connect to other people type of access points. And so for me, I feel like that’s something very valuable that teachers could take that would still affect also funding and also the curriculum. Kind of ties it all together.

Shawn: Absolutely. And with something like this — you’ve already started talking about this aspect — this course feels like it’s really come directly from your own experience, these kind of best practices, these learnings. Are there any pieces of the course that feel the most personal to you where you said, “This was a mistake I made, a frustration I had. I had to learn something the hard way, and I wanna save that experience for this new educator.” Is there something that pops up to you — just one specific anecdote or story?

COACH HICKS: I think to both of my partners’ points, it was the divine intervention that all of our individual parts about the project were those aha moments for each of us. For me, I was brand new, so one of the things was I jumped into all the things. So I did Lego, I did Code.org — and not understanding that sometimes that intention is important. So even as your comfort level — ’cause one of the things Michelle said, the beautiful part is being able to learn with your students. But if you got 50 cool things going on in your classroom, as cool as they may be, you don’t even have time to assess. And so that was really one of the things I bumped my head on. “Oh, we’re doing this, now we’re doing this,” and then we got to the end of the road and the kid’s like, “I don’t know what…” Like it was cool, but —

And so for me, thinking back to our process — and of course Michelle and Leah can chime in on that — but I think each of our parts, and not saying that I didn’t experience some of the things Michelle experienced with community or Leah with fundraising — but it was like each of us was able to focus on that one thing, that thing that stood out above all.

LEAH: I think you just explained all of that so well. You said it so eloquently. But yes — because the three of us all had these kind of common shared experiences, it just evolved naturally, and I don’t think it really mattered who took what module as our topic to focus on.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I think I feel like a broken record, but community again. The frustration for me was feeling like I was all alone and I had to figure this out all alone. And so I think that was the mistake that I made when I first started — not recognizing that there were so many amazing people just waiting to assist and offer advice about their own journeys. And so just again, that power of connection is so critical.

Shawn: Absolutely. I think for me it’s the kind of unknown knowns of teaching. Until you tap into that larger network, there’s this whole rich tapestry that you just don’t get. You feel alone if you don’t have that proximity, but it’s just that process of learning that there’s this network and tapping into it. What’s something you know now after years of teaching that you wish you knew at the start? The one thing that stands out above all the others?

COACH HICKS: I think just to take your time, and that you don’t have to know it all at once. As much as teachers want our children to be lifelong learners and inquisitive, we are creatures of habit. And so I think Michelle brought up a great point about having to learn with my kids. We would be doing some stuff and the kids would be on a completely different level, but I had to — once I realized to kind of embrace that, I think that was important. But yeah, I think just learning how to enjoy the process. That’s important — enjoy the process.

LEAH: And actually, one thing I wish someone had told me as I got started on this journey is exactly what we produce in our course — that there are resources, there are supports out there, I don’t have to figure it out by myself. I think it just was happenstance that I got connected with CSTA and the wonderful people. But had I known that sooner, that would have been so helpful. It would’ve made me getting started in computer science so much easier.

MICHELLE: I think for me, I wish that I would’ve known that it wasn’t all about the content. It wasn’t just about teaching computer science and how to code. I think when my classroom became the most effective was when I started focusing on other things — relationship building, soft skills. I would always start the semester by telling my students, “Yes, we’re gonna learn to code or we’re gonna learn digital citizenship, but it’s more important that you learn skills like critical thinking and problem-solving and collaboration — because even if you never take a computer science course again, those are skills that are gonna benefit you in the rest of your life.”

And so at my school in particular, every middle school student had to take my class every single year. Which was great that they were being exposed, but it was difficult because the majority of them didn’t wanna be there. So I had to learn — as great as I thought the information, the content was, it wasn’t enough to capture their attention or their interest. And so I had to shift and really focus on relationship building and real-world examples and connecting the content to things that they cared about, project-based learning, making sure it was culturally relevant in terms of the curriculum and materials that I was using in the classroom, because it was so much more than the content.

Because it’s hard sometimes as a teacher to see the impact you’re having, but once I left the classroom and then went back and visited and the kids were like, “Oh my gosh, please come back” — you know. And so these are kids that you think hate your course, and some of them did tell me. They’re like, “Yeah, computer science is okay, but I show up for you.” And so I think that sometimes we’re so focused on the content — are we teaching them, are they getting the right answers — that we miss out on the impact that we’re having just because of the relationships with our students.

Shawn: I think that’s such a profound thing that underlies the teaching experience. As I said, I started in after-school programming, and you know, it was a lot more fun but it’s also optional. And when I ascended — the first thing I always tell teachers is, “I was terrible my first year. My students hated it.” And it wasn’t until — maybe Leah, you may appreciate this — I really looked at what was the big difference, and I really started to wrap my head around it for Scratch: I need to treat this like After Effects. It’s like an intro to After Effects, and let’s focus on the project. Because when you get the students passionate about the project and about the process, then they learn through the experience, and then we can start to call it what it is. But I think that was always the metaphor I loved — you don’t teach cooking by teaching the science of acids and bases, right? You learn your love of cooking by eating the meal first, and then the rest comes.

Is there anything about teaching computer science that you believed early that has really shifted for you?

COACH HICKS: I think for me — to definitely just echo what Michelle said — is that content is always secondary. And it’s interesting, I think that it’s been more of a reminder in computer science, and it’s really been rich because being able to compare it to the other areas where I taught. I think really that reminder that the kids are only gonna learn from people that they know care, right? And so you can try to teach every standard in the world — but I think computer science, it’s probably a big part of why I love it, but it stands out as my favorite and probably why I’ve been doing it as long as I have, because it really is about that.

You can have a lot of great plans — and I think that was one of the where I bumped my head my first year — I wanna do these 50 cool projects, but if the kids don’t understand the culture of respect and the feeling of really taking the time to establish a community where kids feel safe to make mistakes. Until they knew that Coach Hicks’s class was someplace that was safe for them to be vulnerable — one of the most vulnerable points in your life is when you say, “I don’t know,” right? Because if I’m learning something for real, especially something that is completely new, not connected to anything I have a reference point for, you’re vulnerable. And I think that was such an important part of my journey.

LEAH: You know, this is a good question — it just kind of took me back eight years from when I first got started. So for me, jumping into teaching computer science, I was under the impression that it was all about programming. And so my biggest panic was, “Oh my gosh, I need to learn these programming languages in order to teach this class.” But then I soon found out — which was a relief — that it’s not only about programming, right? It’s about the bigger picture.

And I’ve — my mindset has changed. I think it’s also kind of filtered out into the students as well. Just by word of mouth, I think it’s getting communicated that, “Oh, okay, computer science, it’s not only about programming languages or how to code.”

So I think that was the most eye-opening thing for me — that I wasn’t just teaching content, and I had an opportunity to empower my students who were in the exceptional children’s program, who historically sometimes are viewed as not doing as well in courses. And that was something that I had to get over very quickly because I saw that if I created the correct environment for my classroom, that all of my students flourished — including, especially, my EC students.

And so it was really cool to see that my class — I would run it in a very structured way. The students knew what to expect whenever they came into class and the way that we were running it. And so I found that those students tended to do better in my class than they did in their core classes, even though it was, quote-unquote, computer science techie hard stuff — because there was that culture that was created, like Coach said, allowing for mistakes, showing them. All the time I’d be like, “Okay, so I don’t know the answer, but we’re gonna figure this out. I’m sure some of you may get it before me.” And so even giving students that maybe historically struggle in other areas — they got to be the experts and they said, “Oh, I know how to do that, so I can teach so-and-so.” And it was such an empowering thing.

And then also focusing on the girls — because we were fortunate to be able to talk about equity in there — and I ran a Girls Who Code after-school club. And so being able to empower female students to feel like they had a voice — I remember towards the end of my time in the classroom, I remember asking the girls, “How does it feel when you’re in classrooms with male students, and do you feel like you have trouble speaking up?” And they were like, “No. Why would we?” It was such a foreign concept to them that they were less than — and in their eyes they were actually more than. And so again, computer science — when I volunteered to take that job, I just don’t think that I could have even imagined all of the beautiful things that would have come as a result of that opportunity.

Shawn: Well, I think that’s a really powerful sentiment, along with Leah and talking about that mindset shift. As we kind of come towards a close, are there any things you want teachers thinking about as they go forward in the future after the class?

COACH HICKS: Enjoy the ride. Get what you’re supposed to get from each part of it, and be open to change.

LEAH: Yes, being open to change — it’s really important. But I think it’s also important that we be the example, that we’re striving to encourage our students to become the people that they’re meant to be. So not just being open to change, but being resilient, being willing to take the risk and trying new things, doing new things, and just kind of allowing yourself to rise above.

And like Michelle had mentioned earlier, that term imposter syndrome — I think a lot of us when we jump into computer science, we’re so intimidated by the content and what we think we need to cover that a lot of us might feel we’re not qualified to teach. That’s where imposter syndrome takes hold. But once you find your footing and allow yourself to be open and just vulnerable and accepting the help that’s out there, I like to think that we’ve been the example for our students in being bold and doing things and being successful with it. Realizing that success comes with being resilient.

MICHELLE: And one of the things that we often say within CSTA is every teacher is a computer science teacher. But to add on to what Leah is saying — yeah, you are. You’re a computer science teacher. I know a lot of us don’t think that when we start. We’re like, “Oh, okay, I’m a teacher that’s supposed to be teaching computer science.”

But again, just the idea of shared experiences — that so many people… That’s literally what happened: I went to my first CSTA national conference in Chicago, and I was working in a booth with an organization and feeling very overwhelmed and not seen. And I started just talking with different teachers, and it was like teacher after teacher was saying the same thing. We’re all saying the same thing — that we are doing this thing with no computer science experience. And so that’s when I learned that I had a voice, that there were people that needed to hear what I was saying because they were in the same boat. And so just that idea of a shared experience, and that every teacher is a CS teacher, and that they’ve got this. If we can make it through, they can make it through.

Shawn: I think that is an absolutely wonderful sentiment to end things today. I do feel quite lucky to be able to hear this and have this conversation with you. There’s so much of our experience that really is kind of communal, and that there’s an empowering element — so many of us have been through such a similar thing, and we are not alone in our experience. So thank you so much. And that’s our show. A big thanks to everybody for being so open. And like I said, it was truly an honor to hear about the work they’re doing, helping the next wave of CS teachers feel a little less alone on day one. If you like this, follow One Voice in CS wherever you’re listening, and we’ll catch you next time. This has been Shawn Patrick Higgins with One Voice in CS signing off — in three, two, one. Bye, everybody.