What Do Educators Do?

Early in my education career there was a movement to help the public understand what educators do. While I have to admit that I did not actively pick up and participate in this campaign, I now understand the importance of it. As I visit with a variety of organizations about my role as an educator, I realize many people really don't understand the complexity and challenges of the classroom. Even my husband, who patiently listens to me share my experiences, really has difficulty comprehending the highs, lows, ins, and outs of teaching.

 

Perhaps the challenge comes from the variety of school cultures that exist, especially from coast to coast. Perhaps it's the fact that each teacher brings their individual passions and personalities to the classroom. Perhaps it's that each school has flexibility in how they structure their school day. Perhaps the challenge is that many people, except for their own school years, have spent little if no extended time in classrooms.  Is spending time in a classroom enough though? How can educators help someone outside the classroom understand all the time and energy that goes in to developing lessons that meet individual students needs, meet standards, and engage students?  I think it is difficult to understand and until you live it.

I can only speak for myself, my experiences, and the educators I know. We all work and plan with the best intention for each student. This includes examining their interests and comparing it with the content we need to cover to be able to determine how to connect the two.  We also sacrifice personal time and money to create the best learning experiences for our students.  Being in an office environment with my fellowship has really made me clearly realize the freedoms and constraints I personally have in the classroom.  I hope all educators have the opportunity to use our passions and professional knowledge to create meaningful learning for students.



In general, it is difficult to understand what other people do in their day to day careers. However, careers such as teaching, have challenges that few professionals have to conquer. My husband will often mention that he could never be a teacher. It's not because he couldn't work with kids, or deal with the stress of meeting the needs of all the stakeholders. It is simply that he could never wait to use the restroom as long as I do.  While there can be a lot of freedoms for teaching in the classroom, it is physically very constraining.  Since we cannot leave students unsupervised, our schedules for anything outside the classroom, hopefully, become trained to work on a bell system.  It really is an odd part of the profession.

All careers have challenges and rewards. I do believe that the rewards outweigh the challenges in education. Nevertheless, it is a difficult profession to walk a mile in someone else's shoes when you don't understand all the hazards, challenges, along that mile. Somehow, educators need to help others who have not worked long term in a classroom understand our mile, understand the challenges.  In developing this understanding, we can work together to promote better outcomes for students, teacher retention, and the high quality education that we all want to see.

Smithsonian Learning Lab

As Einstein Fellows, not only does each fellow have an opportunity to create a professional development plan, but we also participate in program-developed each month. In October, we visited Smithsonian Learning Labs.

During our day at Smithsonian Learning Labs, we explored activities that are available for educators to download and use in their classrooms.  Have you ever thought about what makes an item innovative? What if you had to rank items based on their level of innovation? Where would you place an arrowhead in the ranking? What about a clock?  It's not as easy as it might seem.

After explorations and discussions, we visited the rooftop for some awesome photos!

We also learned about some simulations that are available.  The fellows had a lot of fun with the Wright Flyer simulation.  Just have to say, I landed it without crashing. 

One of the features I liked best was being able to collect and house online resources under my own free account.  Resources could be 2D images of objects, lesson plans, secondary sources, and more. We were barely able to scratch the surface of the available resources, but I plan to continue to explore and collect resources.

NAVSEA Calculator Robots and More

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit NAVSEA Carderock division.  This division is mainly civilian engineers working on research, development, test and evaluation, fleet support, an in-service engineering for surface and undersea vehicles.  In order to conduct much of this work, the testing systems areas were amazing to see and a fantastic maker lab is available to staff and for training and research purposes. NASA has shared about the challenges with 3D printing in microgravity, but have you ever considered the challenges with printing on a ship with rolling seas?  Apparently, 3D printers can be of use when out in the middle of the ocean, but may not function so well while in that location.  While this could be an interesting challenge for students to ponder, NAVSEA Carderock offers K-16 STEM Outreach.  Another opportunity that was shared was the use of TI-84 calculators for robots.  NASA has an educator guide for using the robots with 6-9 grades but I think it would be amazing to use the calculator robots with elementary students and get them familiar with the graphing calculator and practice with computational thinking.

Sorry, no pictures were allowed at Carderock.

NASA OPSPARC's New Missions

I participated in an ITEEA webinar this week on Optimus Prime for K-12 students.  NASA OPSPARC has three sets of missions beginning with learning about spinoff technology from NASA's extensive work. It is amazing how many things we can find around our homes and communities that began with engineering designs at NASA. Next, students can create their own spinoff technology form existing NASA projects to solve a problem. This mission is where the engineering design process kicks in.  Finally, the third mission has students share their new spinoff technology in a virtual world where they can interact with NASA engineers and other professionals.  This challenge is a great way to work on real-world challenges without leaving the classroom.  I look forward to giving it a try when I return to the classroom.  https://opsparc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 

NASA offers a variety of educational outreach through their various campuses in a variety of formats.  You can also attend educator conferences at Space Center Houston and the Kennedy Space Center.

@NASAedu NASA for Educators Pinterest Board NASA Students on Facebook NASA STEM Engagement YouTube Channel

Visit NASA STEM Engagement on the Web:  NASA's Office of STEM Engagement: http://www.nasa.gov/education For Educators: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html For Students: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html NASA Kids' Club: http://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub

Geographic information system (GIS) in Elementary Education

Just attended an amazing lecture series at the Library of Congress today about the use of geographic information system (GIS) in K-12 education. Now while we might consider something like this for use with high school or even middle school students, I love the idea of using it with elementary students.

Currently, we have students who are working on identifying problems with natural resources and then developing a solution. This is all part of being a part of FabSLAM, a multi-week, team-based, digital fabrication competition where youth learn and practice design, iteration, and rapid prototyping skills primarily focused on 3D Design and 3D Printing (https://www.digitalharbor.org/whatwedo/projects/fabslam/).  In my experience, students have difficulties doing quality research to identify real problems. As I sat in the K-12 GIS lecture series, I could envision students using natural resource map data to identify areas of concerns. In Idaho, they may find there are increasing issues with access to public lands. Maybe it's the dangers of forest fires and their impact on the loss of natural resources.  I could go on. This is just one way GIS could be useful in the elementary classroom. Imagine if students could make their own data to then analyze.  Students could even create a presentation that includes their data with https://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/.  The integration of GIS can take place in multiple subject areas and create valuable practice in analysis and presenting information.

You can request a free esri software bundle for your school at https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/education/schools/schools-mapping-software-bundle.

There are even mentors available across the country to help!

Best Experience So Far

Wow! I had another inspirational experience last night with a talk by Astronaut Scott Kelly. His message about being an average, or even bad student, and still being able to accomplish his goals through planning and hard work was very insightful. Perseverance and hard work were underlying themes throughout the evening.  His passion for his work was clearly evident.

As an Einstein Fellow from rural Idaho, spending 11 months in Washington, D.C., I am often asked what has been the best experience so far.  For me, there is no single event or experience.  The variety of experiences to date include getting to know my cohort, attending lectures and symposiums, participating in professional development coordinated by the Albert Einstein Fellowship program, participating in professional development I have created for myself, and having fun in this amazing city.  I suppose my favorite experience is the overall experience all woven together. It is a rich and engaging experience that nurtures my professional career, my thrill of adventure, and drive to explore.

I can't believe it has already been two months since I started my time as an Einstein Fellow. On one hand, I would be hard pressed to list all the experiences I have already had. On the other hand, I am constantly looking for more experiences since I know my time in this fellowship is slowly ticking away.  During these two months, I have already begun a transformation.
Much like the fall trees with their changing colors, I feel as though I am in a similar process of natural and yet amazing change.


I am growing my knowledge base and developing a confidence in the learning opportunity I have created for students and hope to create for students in the future.  Furthermore, I have a new awareness of possible resources that can help support engaging STEM education for all students. I have no idea of what my total transformation will be by the end of the 11 months. In fact, I don't know what I will be doing after the 11 months since my previous teaching position is now experiencing its own transformation with a fantastic educator.  I do know that I have an increased passion for the importance of hands-on STEM in elementary education and a desire to continue to make a difference for students and educators.  My one piece of advice for other educators is find your passion and bring it to the classroom! You deserve it, and your students deserve it.  I am constantly inspired by the educators around me with a passion for students and educators.