Janice Parsons

How did you get involved in computer science and computer science education?
 
I excelled at math and physics in high school - scored in the top 2.5% of the US on PSAT exams. So I was looking for a way that I could make a career out of it. I took a job with the City of Edmonton in their tax department, used their software and thought I could make it better. (the arrogance of youth) I took my B.Sc. with Software Design. I worked as a summer intern with Jonathan Schaeffer (now Dean of Science) and then went on to work for the Office of the Auditor General, as a System Analyst, Database Designer, Project Manager and finally as an independent consultant. I had children, one of whom had learning disabilities, and my husband worked out of town, so I transitioned out of the paid workforce into the world of moms and community volunteers. I spent 12 years volunteering in the local elementary school, teaching preschool, coaching sports, running tournaments, etc etc. When my eldest got to high school, I felt that I was ready to start a new career. I looked at University and debated the after degree or a Masters degree. I applied to the wrong Master's degree and was rejected -- so I looked into getting an after degree in Education. They looked at my transcript and were not at all sure I could qualify to teach anything in high school. I went with Math and technology. I got my first temporary contract teaching Math and Photography. I made a backroom swap, a Graphic Arts course for a Computer Science 20/30 and that was the beginning of teaching Computer Science for me. The first day of the classes was my first time programming in Java.
What do you like about your current program and/or what are you hoping for the future?
I love that I can teach Computer Science all day every day, without the distraction of other courses. I love taking students from knowing little about computers to being confident that this is a career for them. I have had couple of students who are planning to teach CS as a career - I would love to be their mentor teacher.
 
Is there an interesting project, idea, tool, resource, etc that you would like to share with the group?
I like working with Greenfoot because it is a Java library that allows students to explore object oriented programming with some helper classes but mostly they have to do the work themselves. Conway's Game of Life was fun, elegant and simple to do in Greenfoot.