Developing a Program Agenda

At the core of the Summer of CS CSPDWeek model, is a program-level, multi-day, in-person agenda that allows for teams of teachers, para-educators, counselors, administrators, and other education partners to participate in concurrent workshops that are specifically tailored to their needs and interests.

Kick-Off Event

Since 2020, the Summer of CS has featured a Kick-Off Event, which has served the purpose of providing California teachers, paraeducators, counselors, administrators, and other education partners a summit-like experience to celebrate equity-minded computer science (CS) education and to help educators prepare for upcoming Summer of CS workshops. Typically, this event has featured a keynote address, a “State of the State” update on CS in California, a student panel presentation highlighting the impact of CS education on the student experience, a “CS Mini Lesson” that demonstrates the engaging and inclusive nature of the CS standards, and sessions where participants can meet the facilitator(s) of their upcoming workshop.

CSPDWeek Workshops

Keeping in mind the rationale for selecting concurrent workshops (including content by grade band and audience), the CSPDWeek model creates opportunities for participants to collaborate within and across professional learning workshops and experiences.

Creating a Concurrent Start for Workshops: For the in-person Summer of CS at the Sacramento County Office of Education, we started ECS, CSD, and CSP on Monday, the administrator and counselor workshops on Tuesday, and the elementary workshops on Wednesday. While this staggered the number of attendees, if everyone had started on Monday morning it would have provided more energy and made clearer the intention of highlighting the need of multi-stakeholder CS education implementation.

One-Day Workshops

Single-day workshops may be more attractive to busy administrators and counselors because they are less time-consuming. However, they also allow less time for interaction with other stakeholders. Consider extending workshops to two days, or intentionally integrating administrators and counselors with teacher workshops. Facilitators reported that having administrators in their teacher-focused workshops led to fuller discussions and understanding of the factors involved in implementing computer science education.

In addition, administrators and counselors can provide valuable insights into the needs of their schools and students. They can also help to promote computer science education to parents and other community members. By including administrators and counselors in workshops, you can ensure that they are fully informed about the benefits of computer science education and are prepared to support its implementation in their schools.

Program-Wide Events

Spread out! We decided to have both our Creativity Breakfast and Policy Luncheon on the same day (Tuesday), so that counselors and administrators could participate in both. This proved to be chaotic and stressful. We would suggest having the panel luncheon on Monday (where you can highlight the multi-stakeholder nature of the Summer of CS) and the breakfast on Tuesday.

Choosing Topics for Program-Wide Events

• Panel: A panel provides the opportunity to hear a deeper discussion between different perspectives on a topic.

• Theme: When creating a panel, select a theme, and be sure to make decisions with adherence to that theme. We wavered among themes of Equity, CS Policy, Multi-stakeholder involvement in CS, as well as the story of CS in California

• Panelists: Seven (7) panelists participated in our panel, but in order to get deeper discussion and understanding, we would recommend no more than 3 or 4. Consider the diversity of your panel, including their role in CS education, gender, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation.

• Duration: Devote at least 30 minutes to the panel session with at least 15 additional minutes for Q & A (45 minutes total).

Post-Workshop “Excursions”

In service of building community and relationships among participants, consider hosting team-building activities after one or more of the workshop days. This works particularly well for in-person resident participants, but has also worked for commuting participants and virtual participants. In past years, excursions have included bowling, escape rooms, baseball games, virtual trivia competitions, and group dinners.

Sample Program-Level Agenda