[Edu-sig] Education Summit and a personal note

[Naomi Ceder]

Hi everyone,

I would like to make one more announcement of the PyCon Education Summit.
In case you missed it, I have proposed (and gotten full organizer support
for) a daylong summit dedicated to education before the start of the 2013
PyCon (March 14, 2013). I've included a full description of what the summit
will be below. Since we don't have unlimited resources, and to help connect
attendees to their PyCon registration, we're asking everyone who plans to
attend to indicate that via Eventbrite. If you haven't already received an
invite, please let me know and I'll send you one.

We already have about 15 people committed to attending, including some key
figures from leading community based programs, schools, and colleges. So if
you can make it all (PyCon does offer financial aid, by the way) this
promises to be an interesting event indeed!

And on a personal note...

You may have already figured this out... But since I've been on this list
and known some of you for a long time, let me just officially get the word
out.

To cut to the chase, I'm trans, I'll be fully transitioning to female in
about 3 weeks, when (19th Circuit Court being willing) the change will be
legally recognized. As far as this list is concerned the main things that
will be changing are my name and email.

The name and email are Naomi and naomi.ceder at gmail.com - my posts to this
list will be coming from her from now on. (and if you don't have a clue who
I am, well then, never mind... ;) )

I'd appreciate this news not being spread (*too much* at least, I'm aware
that this list is publicly archived) on the interwebz for another 3 weeks
(I'm still getting things set a work), but otherwise, it's not much of a
secret at this point (particularly in the Python and OSS communities). In
the (rather unlikely) event anyone cares to know more, the tl;dr version of
my story can be found at
http://whataboutnaomi.blogspot.com/2012/06/coming-out-post.html

That is all... now back to the business of Python and education...

Cheers,
Naomi Ceder

*Education summit description*

This summit will be a gathering of teachers and educators from the many
> venues that support the teaching of programming in Python - schools,
> colleges and universities, community based workshops, online programs,
> authors and more. These constituencies differ widely  in resources and
> constraints, in methods, and in goals and aspirations, yet are all working
> to address the same issue - a lack of coding literacy - with the same
> belief - that teaching programming is needed and that Python is an
> excellent way to do that.
>
> The goal of the summit is to bring together leaders from those diverse
> constituencies to learn more about each other's efforts and gain useful
> insight from them, to form connections that might foster future
> collaboration, to identify common issues and begin discussing ways to
> attack them, and to create an enhanced sense of unity, purpose and
> community among teachers of Python, wherever they might be. It is also our
> hope that the summit will serve as catalyst for the rest of PyCon to
> encourage even more interaction - hallway discussions, open spaces,
> lightning talks, and sprints.
>
> Anyone attending this conference will gain a broader understanding of the
> approaches and issues in teaching Python, will have the opportunity to
> contribute to the discussion, and will make contacts with other teachers of
> Python from across the community. A high school teacher might make contacts
> that allow her to enlist the support of a community based program while a
> community volunteer might gain useful guidance on curriculum design.
>
> In addition to active involvement in the process of teaching Python, the
> only requirement of attendees is engagement. The morning sessions will
> include a keynote and panel discussions that encourage participation and
> the afternoon will consist of unconference style breakout sessions that
> demand it. So please come willing to learn, to teach, and to participate.
>
> *Core Issues and Themes*
>
> As I see it there are the three core issues that most impact Python
> education today: engagement, curriculum, and teaching. So I'm proposing
> that we frame the topics for the summit accordingly.
>
> Engagement -  By "engagement" I mean getting people involved - attracting
> learners and letting them know why they should be eager to learn Python,
> recruiting teachers, sponsors and supporters with the skills needed to
> facilitate that learning, and then keeping everyone involved in the
> community. You could also call this "outreach" or even "marketing".
> Whatever  you call it, we need to attract people who want to learn Python
> and the people and the people to help satisfy that need.
>
> Possible Topics: How are the various education communities attracting
> people to their programs? What things can each learn from other programs,
> particularly in terms of increasing interest and involvement in the Python
> language and community?
>
> Curriculum - The need for uptodate, accessible and appropriate curriculum
> is felt in all aspects of Python education. Community programs need free
> and flexible lesson plans and teaching materials, schools are often
> reluctant to offer a program without an established curriculum, and
> teachers in all areas are often desperate for curricula that can be
> leveraged with minimal time and effort.
>
> Possible Topics: What curriculum materials are currently freely available
> for teaching Python? What means can be used to increase their quality,
> coverage and availablity?
>
> Teaching - Again, teaching is a universal issue. Schools often have
> experienced teachers, but ones who don't know Python. Community programs
> can find Python experts, but they frequently have little teaching
> experience or knowledge.
>
> Possible Topics: what best practices might community programs follow to
> help volunteer teachers do a better job? Are there any teaching guildes or
> hints available now? What strategies might help schools qualify their
> current experienced teachers to teach Python? How might we increase the
> number of qualified teachers generally?
>
> Underlying themes: The two underlying and unifying themes for the summit
> are communication and collaboration.
>
>
-- 
Naomi Ceder
https://plus.google.com/u/0/111396744045017339164/about
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