Vickie make the best chocolate desserts ever!
Brian will ride thousands of miles on his bike to see a giant cow!
Crystal can come up with a slogan faster than anyone I know.
Vanessa has a 17 year old step daughter! WHAT?
Paige loves a nap and she deserves it because she is keeping a lot of kids at her house in line.
Chandler is a great presenter!
Bea can knock out a cheer when everyone else is brain dead.
Gina is more sure of herself than she gives herself credit for.
Diana could be completely self sufficient if she had to be. She knows how to grow and make ANYTHING.
Karen loves college softball. Seriously, I never knew this.
Samantha has chickens and goats, so we know where to get fresh eggs!
It's going to be an amazing year! This is what we decided for our convocation shirt with the name of our school on the front and #exploretheWHY on the back!
Let's get back to STEM Infusing the Elementary Classroom. We are now looking at Chapter 5: The Standards Alignment Approach to STEM-Infusion. Y'all have I said every day feels like Christmas morning? I am loving everything about this book! It's so real and right! In my mind, this is where I see us spending our time. The author says on pg 40 "this is especially helpful if you work in a school where you are required to follow a set pacing guide." I know Diana loved reading about the brain research as it was reminding us that "Our academic curriculum should reflect the beauty of patterns that blend together, rather than resembling a patchwork of unrelated content and experiences." It then went on to say that the more ways we connect content in our students' brains, the more avenues they have to track that information down during recall. YES, YES, and YES! I also thought the author hit the nail on the head when she said that the skills we are teaching are not yet connected in our own brains, it is difficult for us as teachers to come up with a project that relates them together. Did you love her Operation Secret Message to rescue Princess Reagan? Seriously, I did some crazy things in my classroom, but nothing like this! How awesome! I loved the encouragement of "don't let yourself be intimidated by thinking you have to plan a huge activity involving the entire week's curriculum content the first time." During staff development, we will take time to plan together - which you know is key- to design ideas such as this. Look at your math & science pacing guides for the 1st six weeks. I would ask that we incorporate great writing in these activities and brainstorm some things your grade level can do. This will give us a jump start on our design day.
Here's my question for you: Chapter 6 will get into a more thematic approach but from the two approaches we have read about so far, which do you feel more comfortable starting with and why?
Please respond by Friday, June 9th. Thank you all for taking time from your summer to ensure we start the year strong! You are an amazing group of people and I appreciate each one of you. We should have the final members of our team on board soon! I'll keep you posted.
SK loves Rockets!
I loved reading about the Princess Reagan project. What a great way to get students authentically engaged. As far as the preferred approach, I like them both and both have advantages. Personally, the cross- cutting concept approach of designing the curriculum is favored. It does take hours of planning, tweaking and collaborating. I like it because I am most familiar with how it works. While teaching in Indiana this is the approach that we used with the Schlechty – Working on the Work design. Realistically, the Alignment Approach makes more sense for year one at the STEM school. With following the district’s pacing guides, this approach will allow us to make our unit projects fit with the standards/TEKS for each nine weeks. Like the author eludes, we need to start small and build. I am looking forward to a great year of thinking, learning, and collaborating!
ReplyDeleteDiana - you are right on! We need to make sure we are STEMifying everything we do, but we don't need to bite off more than we can chew for us or students. We want to build a firm foundation for year 1. I can't wait to see how you soar this year!
DeleteI always look forward to starting a new year, but man I am so excited (in June) to start this next year. I loved our two day meetings. The communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity of our meetings were perfect examples of what I think we want for our students. I am going to be humble but our stuff is awesome!!! I have already been practicing our school chant and grade level hand gestures with my own kids. Nothing better than watching my almost second grader chest bump and give the peace sign.
ReplyDeleteAs for chapter 5, I understand why we would start with a standards aligned approach. It makes sense with the way our curriculum is lined up. However, I hope to see us move away from that to a more cross cutting or thematic approach as we become more comfortable with integrating STEM. Cross cutting makes the most sense to me because we can naturally connect concepts. I agree with the author when she says, "the sum of our efforts is greater than what we can do individually. If you are planning to get serious about STEM infusion, it's time to rally a group of teacher friends to dive in with you." It is comforting to know that we are building our foundation together!
Have a great weekend!!
I need to get Bea to give me the beat of our chant so I can practice! Once we have proven techniques, I hope we are set free to cross cut! I think that will be amazing and I am going to jump right in and help. This is the kind of teaching/planning I absolutely would love. I know there will be bumps and bruises along the way - but, man, what a ride it's gonna be!
DeleteWowza...what a great two days of training!! I don't think I've ever enjoyed PD as much as I did last week. The excitement and enthusiasm was electric! I only hope that our classrooms can be exactly that exciting and brimming with eagerness to learn new ideas....how fantastic would that be??
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, let's discuss chapter 5. It makes all the sense in the world that our teaching must follow the pacing guide, but that can be done at the very same time we are cross-cutting the curriculum at the same time. I know it works because I did it last year with ELAR and SS. You may have to get "inventive" about doing it, but it can work. To me, cross-cutting just makes life easier. Yes, it may be more work up front, but having the kids be able to connect in ALL classes helps to ensure that they soak up every ounce of learning that they can. For me personally, when I can connect my learning across all areas, it makes more sense in the old brain of mine.
Again, my enthusiasm overflows and I cannot wait to continue on this fantastic voyage that we have begun.
I agree that our training was electric. To watch everyone jumping in and working together for a common purpose was all a leader can ask. Providing an avenue for our students to see natural connections across disciplines only makes sense. I really can't wait until we are at a point - maybe year 3 - where we are 100% cross cutting concepts. Our kids are going to go serious places academically! Keep thinking in that direction! You are right on track!
DeleteHey Team Rockets! I'm gonna jump right into my thoughts on our study.
ReplyDeleteThe standards-based approach sounds like something I can make a big splash right into. This approach will please skeptics while allowing us to still STEMify lessons. Cross-cutting is an approach where I could start at the shallow end and slowly ease my way down to the deep end of the pool. This is for sure my end goal but, it requires more time and planning.
I am in love with the "service learning" that Miranda Reagan's colleague uses. She says, "At the beginning of the year, the students commit to "being the change they want to see in the world" and brainstorm a list of problems they would like to help change." She goes on to say that these are great for bringing into your STEM challenges. This is totally me!
In short, I loving knowing that I can use my creativity to tie standards together when planning for lessons.
I think teaching with a STEM mindset brings back the ART of teaching. I think having the kids make a list is so important. You are then able to use that list as you are creating design challenges infused into your regular curriculum. I think cross cutting is something to strive for! We'll take baby steps! :)
DeleteHey y'all! What an awesome two days we had last week! I thoroughly enjoyed getting together and learned so much about everybody!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to doing more cross-cutting in my classroom. I implemented some cross-cutting in my lessons this last year but want to do more. I think it's a great way to get more bang for your buck and I believe hat the kids enjoyed it more. Thematic teaching is an awesome way to cross-cut your lessons. I know with the littles they enjoy all the different themes, not quite sure how much the uppers would enjoy it though.
Super excited for more planning and get together a that we have planned. Y'all have a great weekend!
Vanessa - I definitely feel like the littles are able to use a more thematic approach within your curriculum. It's important K-5, but our youngest Rockets need a firm academic foundation. When we facilitate a classroom that allows for connections to be made across disciplines, THAT is where the learning comes into play. You are a huge asset to the Rocket staff! I'm so happy to have you.
DeleteYEA!!! I think it's working now!!! Hey everyone...just curious what y'all are thinking...are y'all thinking about a space themed room to go with our rocket mascot?
ReplyDeleteWooHoo!!!! Glad you got it working! I'm thinking doing the Outer Space/Rocket theme as well in my room like we discussed earlier.
DeleteHey!!! Those two days last week were Great! It was great getting to know everyone and working as a TEAM finally!!! This is going to be Great what we are doing!!!!
ReplyDeleteOkay, so the Princess Reagan Project... that was an awesome idea and as funny as it sounds I could see myself doing something like that. (Not dressing up like a princess though!!! 😜, Sorry ain’t gonna happen) Things that make the kiddos think outside the box like this are things that I'm going to love about this school and it’s going to be amazing working with each and every one of y’all doing these “outside the box” activities!!!
I agree with everyone in that I see how it is to start out lining things up according to the standards, especially coming from working with 3’s and 4’s where I used FrogStreet for the past 8 years. FrogStreet had a set plan of growth. I can see this for the first year, especially in Kinder, but after that I think we will venture out more towards the cross-cut method as more and more ideas come from our teachings throughout the year!
Brian, I agree! The art of teaching has to come back into the classroom. I think the standards based techniques are going to be the happy medium that will allow us freedom but keep everyone smiling as well. I know you and Vickie are going to be a dynamic foundational team on our Rocket Staff. So glad you are here.
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