Help me, but not because I am a girl.

Training Week 2
Location: Tyler, TX

Project Lead the Way Gateways to Technology Training
I am all about girl power. I usually don’t let boys (including my husband) open the door for me. But, I will say during these 2 weeks, I have had no shame in playing the “please help me card.”

I know, it’s awful. I am not proud of it. But, there are only three girls in our class. There are about 20 boys in our class. When I start looking around, I usually have five boys close by that I can ask for help.

They are usually already done and are waiting for me to move on, so they notice my struggles and ask what I need. It is actually pretty awesome.

So, we are working on this ridiculously tough project where we are following dimensions to create a playground.

It is on a computer design system that is the bane of my existence--Inventor. I am learning more and more about it every day but this project is complete craziness.

There are a ton of parts to it, but no directions. There is a rock wall, two slides, monkey bars, all kinds of stuff and we have to create it all…line by line and pole by pole. It is not fun.

Of course most of the boys already have it done. So, they are willing to help.
I have learned how to do most of it, but when I can’t get something to line up right, I ask.

It is not a project we will teach our kids. It is only something that we are doing so we, as the teacher, can learn Inventor better. So, I am not worried that I am getting too much help.

Really, it’s ok to ask for help. Right?

But, I won’t let anyone carry my books or hold the door open for me. I still have some standards.

Plus, I don’t think my husband would like that very much.

Engineering and Elementary School?!?

An integral part of our curriculum this year has been Engineering is Elementary from the Boston Museum of Science.

The lessons all start out the same. Read a book about an elementary school age child (usually from a foreign country) who encounters some sort of dilemma that relates to a field of engineering. Then, the child meets this particular engineer who teaches them how to make/design a product and voila the problem is solved.

Then, there are some inquiry lessons along the way which all lead up to the big project.

The projects don’t all work the first time, which truly is part of the engineering design process. Some lessons need to be tried out by the teachers first—other times we give the kids the items and tell them to go for it, and most projects require quite a bit of advanced preparation and items must be purchased in advance.

It is not a curriculum for districts that don’t have disposable income/parents who can not donate items, but if you have the resources, it is worth it. I have been amazed by what the kids have created this year.

We have made solar ovens, parachutes, water filters, a magnetic levitation train, an alarm as part of an electrical circuit, and we are ending the year with simple machines, where the kids are designing a pulley system.

I will say this; the kids come to school and ask, “What are we doing in engineering today?” They are absolutely obsessed with working on the projects. They love to create the big projects—they are reflective and enjoy making improvements to their designs.

They always work well in their small groups. I hardly ever hear them arguing and when they are “engineering” behavior problems are nonexistent. The kids are so focused on creating their project; they don’t have time to misbehave.

I am so happy that our district has signed on for Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology class, so that our kids can continue their engineering experience as middle schoolers.

It makes me wonder how many of them will actually stick with engineering as a career? Seriously, they are amazingly good at it! They come up with ideas that most adults probably would struggle with. It has made a believer out of me, I never thought engineering was for kids, but, boy was I wrong!

Flip Camera Filming

Ok, I have to admit this blogging thing is kind of addictive. I didn’t think I would blog so often, but today was another one of those crazy in a good way days.

I had a feeling the instructional strategist who runs our STEM program would be coming in today, to film me as I taught. She mentioned it a few weeks ago, but I never got a confirmation. A part of me was hoping she forgot. Regardless, I had planned a fairly good lesson in science. I had my PowerPoint ready, and I knew what I was talking about—you know, tongue rolling, hitchhikers thumbs, widows peaks, etc.

Of course the two hours I teach science came and went, and no instructional strategist.

It was finally time for recess, and as I was walking my kids to lunch, that’s when my strategist appeared. My counterpart across the hall was able to speak with her and confirmed she’d be coming by this afternoon.

Hmmm…what to do now? My plan for the rest of the afternoon was fairly simple. I was going to wrap up an activity from the morning about the Civil War. Then, I had some persuasion/summarizing Language Arts stuff for the afternoon. But, I wanted something more exciting, something more impressive.

Yesterday my kids were obsessed with the earthquake and the devastation in Japan. I had found some links this morning on how advances in engineering had actually saved quite a few lives in Japan. I had put those links on my website, and I figured I could come up with something pretty quick. I wrote some open ended questions, and they were good to go.

One of the greatest advantages to having access to technology is that it really allows the kids to learn independently—given the proper level of scaffolding. I gave them their assignment, and with their mini laptops in hand, the kids began their engineering activity.

As I let them loose, and started monitoring their progress, finally my instructional strategist came in. She set up the flip camera and then went to work on her laptop.

After 30 minutes, my kids were still working on their assignments. I answered their questions, gave all sorts of feedback, and admittedly, things were going fairly well. The end of day was fast approaching, and so I set my timer and gave them ten minutes to completely finish. Then, we started our wrap up to discuss what we had discovered.

At the end of the day, I had to watch the video and evaluate how it went with my strategist.

I will say this, if you have never video taped yourself while teaching, it is extremely interesting.

This is what I learned:

1. I hate the sound of my own voice.
2. T.V. must really add ten pounds, because I know I lost 20 pounds in the last year, (my scale tells me so) but according to the video, I have no idea where.
3. 5th graders are really quite mean to each other—even to people they call their friends.
4. 5th graders have mastered the art of looking busy—when in actuality, they are not.
5. I never give kids the answer. (I am always asking them to elaborate, or asking them what they think—how annoying!)
6. Nothing is too hard for my 5th graders, they impress me daily! I asked them some really difficult questions and they were able to do it without complaining/major issues.
7. I don’t need a PowerPoint for everything. An activity that took ten minutes to create kept my kids just as engaged as something that I worked on for hours.