With ISTE ending, the next big event for CS treachers is the annual CSTA Conference. I first attended two years ago in Baltimore. Last year the conference, in Omaha was bigger and better in every way imaginable. I expect this year to be the best yet.

I don't go to a lot of conferences so I don't have much to compare CSTA with but I like the fact that it's is about half the size of SIGCSE. At about 1000 attendees it still feels small enough to be intimate but at the same time large enough so that there's something for everyone and plenty of people to learn and share from and with.

Just like last year, I'll be spending a lot of time at the GitHub booth so if you want to talk about how to use GitHub to support your students make sure to stop by and say hello.

I'll also be giving a session with my long time partner in crime JonAlf.

Most of us know that Git is a version control system and that GitHub is pretty much the industry standard platform for using Git. Many of us also know that GitHub for Education has a great toolset to support using GitHub with your classes. Tools that help organize, distribute, collect, and assess assignments.

Fewer people know that GitHub can be used to really easily create a web presence and as a way to distribute class material and you don't even have to use the command line if you don't want to. I use GitHub as a lightweight CMS with my classes, to host full blown web sites, and also to host this blog.

Come join JonAlf and me on Tuesday at 11:15 in West 106C and we'll show you how you can use GitHub as a web presence as well.

I also want to briefly mention that my better half, Devorah, is going to be with us at the GitHub booth running a really cool knitting/crocheting for charity project (thanks to both CSTA and GitHub for facilitating this). I'll write more about it in a day or so but if you're going to be at CSTA2019 and you knit or crochet or want to learn, you can check the project out here: http://blanketstatementproject.com/ (note that the site is hosted on GitHub and the source is here).

GitHub is also holding a pre-conference reception on July 7 from 5:30 - 8:00. You can sign up here.

Hope to see many of you in a couple of weeks in Phoenix.