PLTW Training: Master Teacher Reflection

I have been teaching Project Lead the Way curriculum for the last 4 years, and I absolutely love it. I love the way that they teach “new teachers” curriculum—by having them go through the lessons and do the activities that their students complete.

I applied to be a Master Teacher in January. I had to make several videos and then I did some online training modules. I had to get 2 letters of reference.

I got accepted and then that meant I was able to train adults to learn the curriculum. I am going to travel to two places this summer—Spokane, Washington and Las Vegas, Nevada.

This past week I was able to travel to Spokane, and I worked with 5 teachers from Spokane Public Schools to learn one of the curriculum modules from PLTW, called Science of Technology. This is one of my favorite modules because it involves ice cream, roller coasters, making and testing glue, nanotechnology labs, and simple machines. It is a lot and when I think about how much we covered in three days I am amazed.

Since I had not trained adults before I was nervous. Luckily, I had an amazing Master Teacher (I was the Apprentice Teacher), I was able to learn so much from her. I also got to present on one of my favorite things in the world to talk about “Recruiting Girls in STEM.”

Spokane was absolutely gorgeous. It is in the mountains, they have water (and waterfalls), pine trees, some rolling hills, low humidity and abundant sunshine. My hubby came along to and loved seeing the sights in Spokane. He walked the trail, found some amazing restaurants and visited four of the campuses that were close by.

Like any teacher, this experience helped me to reflect on what I want to improve upon for my next training.

1. Time—There is not enough, and we are going to have to stick to deadlines better. There may need to be more homework assigned, but we also need to realize that the adults have lots of responsibilities when they head home each night—not just school related responsibilities.
2. Discussion is vital—even though we are on a time crunch, we have to allow for discussion. This is what helped our group in Spokane because they were able to see how the curriculum would work for them.
3. Advance Planning—communication between the affiliate, the master teacher, and myself is important. We have to make sure the supplies we need are there ahead of time and we need to know who is presenting what and how we are presenting it.

We had a great group of teachers and it was such a positive experience for me. If I didn’t have so many other responsibilities at home, I would seriously consider traveling and training more this summer. However, mommy, grad school, new house, wife duties—they all have to take priority. (I am ok with that.)

Here is a Flipagram that I made to highlight what we did. You can check it out, here:


http://flipagram.com/f/YA7p7KnirS

Five Things I learned from having an all-girls STEM class

This year I was lucky enough to have 24 girls in an all-girls STEM class. It was an idea I proposed to my principal almost 3 years ago and for the 2014-2015 school year we were able to make it happen.

I loved having my all-girls class. I loved them for a million reasons and I learned a lot from just teaching girls (and I was used to having almost all boys in my classes)—so they were a welcome change.

1. Girls love working in groups even more than boys do. I think it is the social aspect, but I never heard them complain when I assigned them to a group and I never had anyone ask me if they could “just work alone.”
2. Girls love to see how engineers make a difference in the world. The idea of an engineer being a super hero really resonated with them. If you haven’t seen this video, you have to check it out. https://vimeo.com/86537339
3. Girls will bring in their own materials from home. For example, when we would do Genius Hour, my girls class was the most organized, the most on task, and they brought in the most materials. I had one girl who made a dress, and bought the materials at Hobby Lobby—I had another group make ice cream and bring in all the supplies they would need—another group made a birdhouse and used some leftover materials from their recycling bin.
4. Girls can be nice to each other. Maybe it was my group of girls—they were just not the catty type?  My experience in the past with girls (even coaching them) was that they were really mean and kind of awful. My girls in my STEM class were amazing.
5. Girls don’t need boys to work with in a class. In fact, if they don’t have the boys as a distraction, they seem to be more at ease working with tools, they aren’t afraid to take the lead on the project; they are more willing to speak their mind.
    
   I don’t think I will be able to have another all-girls class this year, but I really feel that being able to have them for one year was amazing and a great experience for them and me. I know they will do great no matter what class they take or who their teacher is, but I hope we started planting some of those seeds to get them excited about a future career in STEM.

My all girls STEM class can code!

This week my 6^th grade all girls STEM class participated in The Hour of Code—which was a great end to our Gaming and Computer Science Unit this semester.

I actually let my girls code all week, so we did more than just an hour—we coded in total for about 4 hours. The girls were able to see all kinds of tutorials and create thousands of lines of code. Each day I started them out with a video, some were from Code.org and others were ones I found on the internet. One day we saw a parody about Coding with Anna and Elsa from Frozen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRX_Fv7BRU, another day we saw a video from Reshma Saujani—the Founder from Girls Who Code: http://www.makers.com/reshma-saujani. These videos provide some very interesting discussions from my girls where we decided that we need stronger girl avatars that conquer or lead. We want to see less “Princess Peach” and more everyday heroes. The girls enjoyed the videos because they were inspiring and made them realize that coding is for everyone—boys or girls, no matter how old or how famous you are.

I loved hearing them talk each day about going home and doing more tutorials from Code.org. Almost half of the class reported downloading one of the apps to their devices. That was not a requirement, but they just loved coding!

I gave them a survey today and 100% of my girls enjoyed learning about coding with Hour of Code. 93.75% of girls surveyed reported that “Girls can code just as well as boys can.” I also asked them why they thought that girls don’t typically take programming or coding classes in school. Some girls stated that they didn’t want to be seen as dorky, or that computers are a “boy thing.” My favorite response was, "because they (girls) think they are weak and we (girls) are not. Girls are STRONG."

Seeing the girls having so much fun and learning together made my heart happy. They truly loved coding this week and I think we are in for a great second semester!

Goldie Blox-Helping Girls become Engineers?

By now, I hope you have seen this video.

This week I had it sent to me 3 times, once from my sister, once from a co-worker and another from a follower on Twitter.

Finally, I took the two minutes to watch it.

I wasn't amazed.

I know that kids can do this. I see it everyday in my STEM classroom. The skeptic in me knows for these three girls to make a Rube Goldberg of this magnitude it would have taken months.

Last year, my 7th graders made their own Rube Goldberg's out of everyday household materials. They made them out of a 12 x 12 square of plywood. It took them over a month to come up with ideas, put them on paper and then they had to create their simple machines to transfer energy from one groups device to another. They tried and tried and failed. Then, they improved. They failed and got frustrated but when it worked, they were so happy.

One of my classes was successful with their energy transfers and one of them was not. Those Rube Goldberg's took a lot of time and dedication. There were days when I thought they were just wasting time, but I tried not to intervene unless it was really bad.

But, the point is--the world needs Goldie Blox. Most schools don't have STEM programs. They don't have Project Lead the Way. Goldie Blox could give girls the opportunity to start building and innovating.

I have found that my girls are the ones who are really good at building--even if they are working on something that involves ugly, cold metal. (Also known as VEX kits.) They do such a great job, they have more patience than the boys, and they even think about aesthetics.

So, if you have a daughter and you want to get her something different for Christmas-maybe you should look into Goldie Blox?

Teacher Training in the Summer-80 hours in 2 weeks

Let’s talk about being a dedicated teacher. Who else would give up two weeks of their summer to study topics such as: aeronautics, electrical circuits, chemistry, and physics?

Yes, me, and apparently 30 other people. And, there are another 80+ others that are here studying even more complicated topics.

I am at Project Lead the Way’s summer institute at the University of Texas at Tyler. Over the next two weeks I will receive 80 hours of professional development so that I can be certified to teach the Gateways to Technology Advanced course to middle schoolers.

But, I think I am the only person here who is 5 months pregnant. I haven’t really played the pregnancy card—unless I am at home with my hubby. I also haven’t really started to look pregnant until the last few weeks. Today, I am feeling pregnant.

I drove by myself to Tyler, TX. Tyler is about a 5 and a half hour drive from my house. It is a place that I had never heard of before I became a Gateways to Technology Teacher.  Last year, (yes, this is my second summer here) driving to Tyler was a complete disaster. I had a GPS and an Iphone—and I made one wrong turn and neither was working/getting a signal. It was by the grace of God that I made it to Tyler. No Joke. I was so stressed out. Then, when I finally got to Tyler, I could not find the university.  I was in tears multiple times on that trip.

This year, I stressed about the drive all weekend. When I had a “bad” look on my face, hubby knew that I was stressing. To avoid the issues I had last year, he hand wrote me directions on how to get to Tyler.

 I am proud to say that I did not get lost.

I made multiple stops along the way. I kind of had to, since my pregnancy urge to pee was constant.

I made it into Tyler by 12:30 and I even had time for lunch. I found a Schlotzky’s Deli, and it was absolutely delicious. I was glad to find out that many of the people I met last year are here again this year! I am so happy that I don’t have to do this all by myself.

It is not easy. These trainings are very challenging. It is a lot to be away from home for two weeks.

But, I know that I can do it—5 months pregnant or not.

I will keep you posted on all that I learn in these next two weeks!

Back to School Night

Thursday night we had our back to school night. I was nervous, but, when I get nervous I tend to be overly enthusiastic. Not ditzy, but I go into saleswoman mode. (Perhaps it is a flashback from my Enterprise Rent-a-Car days.)

We were on a bell schedule and I had over 60 parents attend. Most of them were parents of 6th graders, but I was glad to see them nonetheless.

I had a PowerPoint looping in the background from a Lego League Presentation I attended the weekend prior. In the PowerPoint I included some very interesting findings from a study by the National Academy of Engineering. Aside from the fact that kids overwhelmingly know nothing about STEM education, this study further emphasized that we need to change the way we talk to our kids about engineering.


The NAE recommends that parents and teachers should:

•Stop reinforcing the images of “nerdy and boring”

•Stop focusing on math & science as the needed inputs and instead focus on:

•Outputs

•Career opportunities

•Making a difference in the world

•Use the word create, not build

I thought their findings were fascinating. Up until about three years ago, I always thought of engineers as nerds who sat behind a desk all day. I thought if you wanted to be an engineer you had to excel at math and science. I didn’t think I would ever be an engineer.

Now, I am the STEM/Technology lady. I have been able to go to some awesome STEM trainings and while I am nowhere near an expert, it is a new passion of mine.

The parents were excited about my presentation and I had several who came up to me afterwards and told me that my class is their child’s favorite.

I think the kids like learning about “stuff” they have always wondered about. They get to use computers and work on projects, they get to build...er, create "stuff", program robots, and learn about different STEM careers.

On Friday I had to smile when class was dismissed and I overheard one boy ask another boy, “so what are you going to do when you grow up?”

"Technology" Teacher

Week 2 of school…I am finally getting into the groove. I am still at work until 5 or 5:30 at night, but each day gets easier and easier.

I am thrilled to be able to start teaching the curriculum I learned at Project Lead the Way this summer. The kids are psyched about anything that has to do with engineering/projects. I even convinced them to write in their best “engineering” handwriting while they took notes on various procedures.

I showed up at school last week and I was greeted by a sign on my door. Under my name it read, “Technologist.” Ummmm…our district did away with technologists due to budget cuts. In no way do I want people to think I know anything about technology...because I absolutely do not. I probably put more technology work orders in than anyone else in the district.

Thankfully, I still know more about technology and computers than my students. Windows 2007 is a complete mystery to them, as is copying and pasting information.

My principal calls me the “STEM” teacher, which makes me feel really important. I even put it in my email signature line.

Nevertheless, I am glad that STEM is becoming more and more of a buzz word on our campus and in our district.

I even convinced my language arts husband to write a paper on STEM education for his grad school class.

I am sharing this link and then I need to put in some more work orders for my classroom computers.

It is from the U.S. News—it has news, opinions and STEM information.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/stem-education

Google yourself! Or not.

Have you ever googled yourself? You know, just to see what comes up?

Well, since I have been teaching STEM over the last year, our program gets a little recognition from time to time. Rightly so, as the kids do some awesome stuff throughout the year. On one occasion in particular, our kids participated in a spelling bee at our school versus the school on the “other” side of the highway, and I, along with the other teachers in our program, was named.

Yesterday as I put my lesson planning aside, I decided to google myself. I was surprised to see a write up in the paper in regards to the training I just returned from in Tyler. My name was there, along with the other folks that will be teaching this new class across our district.

I don’t teach because I want to be famous. I teach because I seriously love what I do. But, it is cool to see your name in print.

So, I forwarded the article to my parents. They usually like to know what I am up to, especially since they live many states away.

My mom sent me an article back—it was an editorial that was written to that same local paper about how our district is rushing into STEM programs.

You could tell that this guy really didn’t know much about our district. All he knew was that our superintendents’ wife is in charge of the STEM programs.

He doesn’t know that this “woman” is absolutely brilliant. I got to work with her firsthand this year. She has her Ph.D. and has experience as a teacher and a professor. She would push us as her teachers, and in turn, we pushed our kids. She provided us with the tools and the resources and we were able to produce some amazing results. (As a matter of fact, in the four fifth grade classes at both schools—100% of our kids passed the math, the reading and the science TAKS test!)

That wasn’t in the guy’s opinion piece. He also didn't know that our district has been doing STEM "stuff" for at least four years.

I guess the moral of the story is, when you google yourself, you need to be prepared. You might find something nice, or you might find something that is not true.

Darn you internet.

Bleak Outlook for College Graduates...DUH!

Sunday, I watched “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour. She had a roundtable discussion with a group of new college grads--from particularly fancy colleges, and two successful businessmen.

Out of the four students participating in the round table, one simply doesn’t have a job, one will be continuing with higher education, one has two job offers—not in career fields he wants to pursue, and one was rather vague on if he has a job prospect or not. Yikes.

Here’s the link if you are interested:

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/roundtable-graduates-ceos-13713737

I have to say, I am so glad that I graduated from college when I did. Almost ten years ago, (OMG, I am old!) I was in the same shoes as these college graduates. Truly, I loved every moment that I spent at Michigan State University. I have a liberal arts degree in Social Relations. (No, I am not a professional party planner, the major is actually more about public policy.) I loved what I studied and I loved my friends from 2 South. I graduated in three and a half years and I worked my butt off. It was not easy!

My first job was at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and I worked there for eighteen months. It was not my dream job, but I needed something to pay the bills. I washed and rented cars while wearing a suit. I was in their “Management Training Program.” I made less than $30,000 a year and I worked over 50 hours a week. I was thankful for that overtime, because that mean extra money. I would scarf down my lunch at my desk in between rentals, so that I didn’t have to clock out.

After Enterprise, I worked at several other jobs—some were better, some were worse, but I still felt like I was missing something.

It wasn’t until five years ago that I found that missing “link.” It was at this time that my husband and I decided to sell our house, quit our jobs, and move to Texas. I wanted to teach and there were no opportunities in Michigan.

Thankfully, my husband is ridiculously supportive and we had this blind faith that everything would work out.

Lucky for us, it did. I got a teaching job within three weeks of moving to Texas. I didn’t get my first paycheck until almost two months later, but we made it. On the other hand, my first year of teaching is a whole additional blog post…and then some. But that is neither here nor there.

So, here is where the show, “This week” comes in. One of the businessmen who was being interviewed stated that there are tons of jobs in Silicon Valley for people who are in technical or engineering fields.

Here is where I come in. It is my job as a teacher to prepare my kids for the real world. No matter what grade they are in (Yes, even elementary age kids.) They must be exposed to STEM fields (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). They need to know what possibilities are out there—because that is where the jobs are at now and in the future. We need to teach our lessons and integrate our curriculum so that STEM is in everything we do.

I never thought I could be an engineer because I always hated math. This last year my district started a STEM magnet program for 4th and 5th graders. (I was one of the fifth grade teachers.) I have learned a bit about engineering, and I have seen what a difference it makes for kids. Kids are natural engineers. They love to work with their hands—to design and create improvements to technology. They can do it! I am sold on STEM, and I think more teachers would be if they had the proper resources.

So maybe, if we start our kids early and get them interested in STEM fields, they will realize there are fantastic opportunities out there. And, by the time they graduate from college they will not only have a job, but they will be working in a field they love to work in (and making lots of money that they can donate to their long lost teacher?)

Seriously, what we are doing is not working. We have to get our kids ready for the job market. Otherwise, things will never change.

NASA-A fieldtrip of a lifetime

Today I was able to go on a field trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. I was rather nervous as we were taking 80 fifth graders. We were to leave at 6am and return around 8pm.

Funny, before we boarded the busses, you would think the parents were sending their kids off to their first semester of college. One of my boys later admitted to me, that he got a little “emotional” when he said good bye to his parents for the day.

We took two chartered busses; our drivers name was Money. The other bus drivers name was Sparky. (Seriously, I couldn’t make this up.) After a half an hour detour to get to the highway, we were finally on our way.

We had enough doughnuts and kolaches to feed 200+ kids. And we had over 300 water bottles. That might be a slight exaggeration, but no one should have gone hungry or thirsty the whole trip.

After almost five hours, we arrived at Johnson Space Center. The kids were excited. They had a small project that they needed to complete, but overall, the day was going to be easy for them. Their main goal was to behave. They were put in groups with kids from both schools (from the east and west sides of the highway.) This was interesting on many levels. The short version is: people typically think of kids from the east side as poor and minority and kids from the west as the exact opposite. (I teach the east side kids and I love them dearly.)

As we walked in the doors, we were able to see the various sights and sounds of NASA. We were able to hear astronaut Scott Parazynski talk about his various missions and the future of the space program. I loved it!

The other highlight of the day was the NASA tram tour. Yes, we did have to wait for about an hour, but we got to see the Vehicle Mockup Facility/ the current Mission Control Center. The tram tour concluded with a visit the "all new" Saturn V Complex at Rocket Park. As, our program is named “Saturn V,” we had to take a picture of all 80 kids in front of the rocket.

After a quick trip to the gift shop, we were on our way back home. I wish we would have had a little more time to walk around and see more of the exhibits, but the day was awesome!

My mom (a teacher) told one of her coworkers that we were taking this trip to NASA. Her coworker stated that this field trip was one that kids “in Michigan could never dream of going on. NASA, now, that would be a fieldtrip of a lifetime.”

I couldn’t agree more. We are truly lucky to live in a state that has such awesome places and I am so fortunate to be able to work in a district that makes STEM education a priority!