2016 MAVEN Elementary Teacher Summit

The MAVEN Elementary Teacher Summit was an application based professional development.  Housing and registration was covered, but travel was not.  The goal of the PD was to develop content knowledge about Mars and space science, as well as how to integrate the content and lessons into elementary curriculum.  The organizers were fantastic, but sadly, we were told this was the last year for this teacher summit.  Lessons can be found at http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/education-outreach/for-educators/red-planet/.  Besides having engaging presentations and lessons shared with us, it was great to network with teachers from across the country.

Takeaways:

• "Vote with your feet"- students move to a particular part of the room to show they agree or disagree.
• Mars is similar to Earth - ice caps, topography, etc.
• Still a lot we don't know about Mars...Scientists don't have all the answers.  Scientists still disagree and have discussions to come to a consensus.
• Let students self-evaluate themselves before and after the lesson. 

• Mystery Bag activity - would be a good lesson for introducing Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning.  Students are given a sealed bag that holds mystery items.  They have to make a claim and evidence based upon their observations.
• Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) vs. Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI)
• instructional approaches
• practices of science
• share, critique, and revise ideas
• find contextual evidence from text, activities, etc.
• Teaching magnetism goes well with Mars lessons.

• If you pin a location on Google Earth, it will show the similar location for Mars when you choose Mars as an option.  Compare where your school would be located on Mars.
• Transition from teaching scientific method to teaching scientific process. Play "Would you Rather" with living in different locations on Mars.
• Have a classroom timeline of Earth's history.  Could be compared to Mars or other timelines.  
• Print out some of the futuristic NASA travel posters.  http://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/resources/mars-posters-explorers-wanted/
• Have students learn to create academic scientific posters.

• Plan for full solar eclipse August 21, 2017.

http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/education-outreach/for-educators/summit/

2016 Global MindED Conference

After receiving a scholarship for registration and a grant from the Micron Foundation to fund the travel, I attended the Global MindED Conference for the first time.  This conference was unique in that attendees included high school students, K-12 educators, higher education, and businesses.  Topic tracks included K-12, STEM, Health, Higher Education, Global Work Skills, Students, Technology, and Policy.

During the two day conference, I had big picture and classroom level takeaways.

Big Picture:

• There is no STEM pipeline, but rather individual STEM castles with moats around each.
• Education should help bring out students' innate strengths.
• Today's students are more risk averse.
• Host a school-wide Innovation Week.
• Use 6 Good Life Habitats for the school's character traits.
• No one is exempt from having a brilliant mind.
• Grit/gumption - resilience, perseverance, determination, resourcefulness
• Grow other students and teachers.
• How do you define educational excellence?
• Capacities to be independent
• Value the diversity of students
• Different talents (human potential)
• Different motivations (where does the passion come from)
• Different opportunities
• Do you provide different opportunities, spend time nurturing, teach or coach?
• We need the different passions in our communities.
• Find a way to help students see themselves in STEM careers and doing it.

Classroom Level:

• Consider long-term projects across grade levels.
• Kerbal Space Program and Learning Blade are good ways to integrate gaming and learning.
• Capacities to build in students - communication, teaming, and collaboration.
• Implement dense instructional units
• standards
• technology
• problem-based learning (Buck Institute for resources)
• Assess novelty/creativity, efficiency, and accuracy of engineered solutions, not just whether or not it works.
• Have expert guest speakers as hook at the beginning of projects or as resources throughout the project (virtually or in-person).
• How do I come across to my students?
• Be a self advocate.
• Take risks as a professional.

2017 Global MindED Conference - June 22-23
Scholarship applications for educators
http://www.globalminded.org/

Fantastic Summer of Professional Development

It's been another amazing summer of professional development.  I attended the 2016 Global MindED conference in Denver, the MAVEN Elementary Educator Summit in Boulder, Texas Regional Collaborative Conference, and the Idaho MEMTA retreat.  Furthermore, I taught camp for STEMBus.usa.  All of these events combined for an exciting time networking and learning more strategies and content for my classroom.

In order to make the most of these professional development events, ideas, and people met, I decided to keep one notebook for all of notes, worksheets, and contacts.  Usually, I use a different notebook for each event and then have a hodge podge of notes and handouts that are difficult to keep organized and access.  After a summer full of learning, I now have all my information in one place.  I also made sure to highlight specific items I would like to integrate into my classroom instruction.  Now, as I prepare for the fast approaching school year, I can easily find information key for the new year.

If you are interested in attending professional development opportunities, it is possible to do it without funding it yourself.  My PD opportunities came through applications, scholarships, and grant writing to fund any remaining costs of the training.  There are a variety of paid professional development opportunities out there.  Do some basic searches, and you will begin to find opportunities that fit your needs.

Teachers, you have something of value to offer other educators

A recent discussion with a colleague of mine reminded me of how often teachers feel that what they do in their classroom each day has little impact on others outside of that classroom.  I am not referring to the impact in reaching students but rather the impact fellow educators can have on one another.  It was only just a few years ago that I too felt as though what I did in the classroom related only to me and my students.  However, when I began the pursuit of an Ed.D. in Educational Technology at Boise State University, I was encouraged to move outside of my comfort zone and begin presenting at conferences.  My initial thought was what could I possibly have to share that would be of value to other teachers.  I quickly realized that much like the students all educators have their own strengths that other educators can learn from.  While I could go into a discussion of how I found my strengths and shared those with others, I think it is more important to remind other educators who may read this to share their strengths.  Your strength may be in a particular subject, a style of teaching, technology integration, developing relationships with students, or another possibility from the multitudes that are out there.  You have something of value to offer not only students but your colleagues as well.  Sometimes it is difficult to recognize this in yourself.  Take the time to understand your strengths and share them when you can. 

The video below is a surgeon who gave a group of teachers participating in an i-STEM summer workshop a tour of the surgical robot room.  After thanking him for his time and sharing of his strengths, he had the following to say in response about educators. 

First FLL Meeting

We had our first FLL meeting this week.  It was fantastic to have time for a meeting to just organize the team, set goals and rules for team participation, and get to know each other.  The team will be working through NXT programming tutorials for the next few weeks to improve their programming skills for the upcoming missions in August.

The team consists of three incoming fourth graders, four incoming fifth graders, one incoming sixth grader, and one incoming seventh grader.  Six of our nine team members made up our first FLL team last year.  I consider last season a success since they all returned.  I am excited to see the team grow, in part, so the workload isn't as heavy for each team member.  It looks to be a great season.

Idaho TECH Challenge

Our school participated in the NASA sponsored Idaho TECH Challenge competition this spring.  It was a fantastic experience for the students.  I would recommend it to any group.  LEGO Technics are used to design a Mars Rover.  The rover competes in weight, speed, hill climb, rock collection, and a blind driving test.  Teams are also evaluated on their lab notebooks, team poster, and presentation.  It was a lot to complete with a team of only three fourth grade students, but I think we will have a bigger team next year.  Fun! Fun! Fun!

http://ed.isu.edu/Idaho_TECH/index.shtml

Family Engineering Night

Last night was our school's third annual Family Engineering Night.  I am able to run the event all on my own thanks to the fantastic kits by Family Engineering (http://www.familyengineering.org/).  The kits come with activities prepped and ready to go.  It is important to remember to purchase the guide which comes separate from the kits.  Even in the third year of holding the event, I am able to add fun new activities to the ones that came prepared in the initial kit.

The main activity last night was having families create an artistic robot out of craft materials, a small motor, and a AA battery.  I waited to offer help until it was needed, and we had a variety of creative ideas.  Caution: Some ideas did involve ink from the washable markers creating a splatter effect.