I just got back from a few days at the TEPSA conference in Austin. There was a great deal of fabulous information. I heard things that validated my thoughts and direction we want to go. I heard ideas that I wanted to spur things from, and was able to meet and mingle with other principals. Prior to TEPSA, I was house-sitting and watching America's Got Talent because I live a wild life on a Friday night. There was the most remarkable story of a girl who lost her hearing at age 18. She was a music major. Once she lost her hearing that dream died or so she thought. Her dad encouraged her to get back into music - which she thought he was crazy. She said the most incredible thing as she approached this new journey. She said it's scary, she's nervous but she knew she just had to show up! She said with the use of visual tuning and trusting her voice she was able to continue her dream. Y'all.... she had the most beautiful voice - a lot better than some hearing folks. Her words apply to us. This journey is scary. We are nervous and anxious but we just have to show up! SHOW UP AND TRUST YOUR VOICE. Trust your inner voice that tells you, "You got this!" Trust your voice when you are facilitating the great lessons you are going to deliver. Rise up, show up, and BE AWESOME!
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At the June 20th GISD Board Meeting, the proposed name for our school will be voted on. I will be presenting our current enrollment, demographics, and from which school zone they live. Please send good thoughts Tuesday night as I present this information.
Our GT Training will begin this week (June 19th). Please be at WMAB (Board Room) promptly at 8:30 a.m. so we can get started. I thought we might all go to lunch together on Friday. Otherwise lunch is on your own. Crystal has offered for anyone to bring their lunch and come to her house to eat if you don't live close by.
BOOK STUDY: Chapter 6 - THE THEMATIC APPROACH TO STEM-INFUSION
This is probably the most comfortable approach to STEM infusing for y'all if I had to take a guess. In this particular example, the reading assignment drove the unit. However, it focused on an element of problem-solving and higher-order thinking that may not have been as prevalent in a thematic unit that was planned previously to our STEM journey. I think this chapter came at a perfect time as we delve into our GT training and have some planning time together. This is a perfect jumping off point if you are feeling nervous about the STEM approach. I loved the author saying that this approach allows the teacher to adjust to his or her new role as facilitator instead of giver of knowledge. How true is that? As we go through this week, think of a challenge based on a reading text in which students use a combination of science, technology, engineering and/or math to solve the challenge. Please make some comment regarding our GT training as we go through the week. Let me know what questions you have or where you may need support. I can't wait to spend the week with y'all! We will miss Tonya, Samantha, Brian, and Diana!
I am Walt Disney- is a 3rd grade book. A STEM challenge for this book could include students creating their own animation (like Walt) with their own made up character (like Mickey). The animation could be an instructional video that they make for the 2nd graders that explains how Walt delivered information, by riding his bike to deliver newspapers every morning. Kids will plan and construct an upgraded means of transportation for Walt to deliver mail... this will be a part of their video. This covers science-force and motions, pulleys and levers, technology with the use of iPads to animate, engineering for the bicycle upgrade, and math could also be included in a number of different ways depending on what the kids were working on that week.
ReplyDeleteAnother great tool we use for GT kids is the SCAMPER tool. I don't know how many of you have used this before, but I have a copy if you would like it. It guides kids who need help creating something new, if they haven't had a lot of opportunity exercising their creative muscle.
This could be used to start kids with the bicycle idea and change it into their new creation.
S-substitute
C-combine
A-adapt
M-magnify
P-put to other uses
E-eliminate (or minify)
R-rearrange (or reverse)
I LOVE OUR TEAM!!! It has been great spending time with y'all this week. See ya tomorrow.
Love this SCAMPER tool!! I will definitely put it to use this year! Thanks for sharing!! I, too, have enjoyed spending time with this fantastic group :)
DeleteI would love a copy of SCAMPER. What a marvelous guide for students to use when searching for solutions to the challenges in their creative designs! Thank you for sharing this tool!
DeleteI too love SCAMPER maybe Bea could give us a mini lesson on how to best implement it.
DeleteI am going to read the novel Hatchet this year in class. I love anything by Gary Paulson and find that the kids usually do as well. A STEM challenge is going to be for the students to design a plane that can land on water without sinking. I'm hoping we can utilize some small kiddie pools for the activity. They ill have to use both math and science to measure and plan their plane and its "water-worthiness." I also plan on having them create some survival scenarios as well. They will need to construct a shelter, gather food & water for basic necessities, etc. This book is seriously chocked FULL of STEM activities just ready to jump into the minds of our wonderful new 5th graders!!
ReplyDeleteLove Gary Paulson! Have you read "Guts"?
DeleteWell I am a BIG Dr. Seuss fan and that was my room theme for the past couple of years. There are soooo many fun STEM activities to do with his books. The first one I did with my pre-k class was designing/building (engineering) the Cat-in-the-Hat's hat using different sizes of red and white cups and different sizes of red and white paper squares. Partners teamed up and decided what materials they needed and how to assemble them to build the cat's hat. While they were building, we explored the concepts of balance and gravity (science) and afterwards we compared and measured height and explored the patterns (math).
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me share how extremely honored and blessed I feel to be a part of this incredibly exciting new venture and with such a talented and inspirational staff! It is, as Stacey stated in a previous post, much like the anticipation of Christmas morning!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books in which to weave a thematic unit is Charlotte's Web. As we progress through the book, students work in collaborative groups to learn new vocabulary introduced in each chapter. They show their understanding of these words through various means - pictorially, synonyms, antonyms, acting them out through charades, etc. The book also lends itself to Social Studies through the discussion of various community types. One activity I assign is for students to create a diamante poem in which they compare and contrast urban and rural communities. The diamante poem allows students to also focus on the parts of speech as each line has a specific part of speech assigned to its formation. As the story finalizes in the setting of a county fair, students work in collaborative groups to create a fair with whatever rides they choose. They must include a minimum of four rides using simple and complex machines, along with various forms of force and motion. In addition to rides, their fair must also include at least two activity booths - glass house, fun mirror, skill booths to win a prize, etc. No fair is complete without booths marketing the traditional amusement park culinary delights; so their design must also include at least two booths for selling food, drinks, frozen treats, etc.
Students are assigned a dollar amount from which they will budget the creation of their fair ground. Choice of location, cost of rental space, etc. are also included in their budgetary considerations. Materials from which they may choose to build are provided in a Maker Space station with monetary amounts assigned to each material. Materials will have to be measured and adjusted to accommodate the needs of each machine (a.k.a. ride). Before presenting their working fair to the class, the groups will create a commercial advertisement using their technology of choice. Once completed, student groups then present their working fair to the class. Students will then be given an individual assignment to choose which "fair" he/she would like to visit. Prior to this assignment, students would have "earned" Feduccia Bucks through the accomplishment of various given classroom assignments and goals. Students will complete a budget inclusive of the total amount earned; the amount they plan to spend on rides, food, fun booths, etc.; and the amount they will save or possibly donate so that another child without funds may experience a day of fun. Through this activity students gain a newfound appreciation of the science, technology, engineering and math that is incorporated in order to have a fun day at the fair!
Ok so choosing one theme for me to discuss was HARD!! I absolutely love teaching with thematic units! It is so much fun! I think one of my all time favorites is the Christmas around the World unit. My team and I each took 2 countries and we rotated through our classrooms learning about them. One of my countries was France. We discussed Pierre Noel and how the children set their shoes out for him to fill instead of hanging stockings like we do. So as the kids "flew" into France, I had them take their shoes off and leave them outside of my room for Pierre Noel to fill while we were learning about the French traditions. They thought that it was so cool that Pierre Noel came all the way from France to Lone Oak, Texas lol! So within this unit we had our social studies, we had math when we baked gingerbread from Germany as we measured out all the ingredients and that also included some science. Teaching with thematic units makes it so easy to infuse STEM and different contents together!
ReplyDeleteHello all,
ReplyDeleteI am headed back from my family vaca with about another 7 hours to go. It has been a great week spending lots of much needed time with my family. I am refreshed and anxious to get back and get moving. I love Stacey's insight about how she is seeing the world around her through a different set of glasses. I went to Hoover dam during my trip and although I have been before it really made me stop and think this time about the innovation and ingenuity that was needed to accomplish something so grand. As we drove past wind turbine farms I began to think about future we are going be preparing our students for. We are so fortunate to right in the middle of this "revolution".
As for thematic units, I have always tried to find natural fits in any of my lessons. Teaching Science for the last two years I would look at the lesson and then find literature to go with it. I would use mentor text like "The Bear Snores On" for adaptations or "Fossil" by Bill Thomson. Fossil is a wordless picture book and students wrote the story using their "science" vocabulary. Students would then proceed with their challenge. I also found it extremely helpful to collaborate with the reading teacher. There were several times this year that they would be reading stories in storyworks that had a natural tie to science.
I hope everyone had a productive training week. I hate that I missed it but am looking forward to our next get together!