Final Reflection

WHY CREATING / MAKING MATTERS in EDUCATION

I turned a corner on my Maker Road journey this summer. A great corner. Previously, I had been tip toeing around the edges of the STEAM movement: I started my trip a few years ago with a class from Greg Young, then I took an Engineering Class with the Vermont Science Initiative,  taught some "Engineering is Elementary" units in classrooms, and did a Makey Makey project with 5th and 6th graders. Those were great first experiences for me to get my feet wet and give me a chance to model Making for classroom teachers. I feel that my growth this summer is a personal commitment to expanding my efforts with students in ways that link STEAM to the standards, provide students tinkering time in a Maker Space in my classroom, and lead teachers towards embracing some curricular changes.


Making matters to society, to classrooms, and to me. I'm saying nothing new when I reiterate - the world has changed, our students have changed, and we can no longer rely on nineteenth and twentieth century skills. Jobs today and in the future require critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. These skills are essential if we want to teach young people to solve problems that don't even exist yet.
 
My school thrives when students at the center of authentic, integrated learning. We've gotten closed to project based learning with short term initiatives, projects and artist in residencies. I want to encourage teachers to experiment with more kinds of learner- focused activities because our students learn best when learning is meaningful and embedded in a culture of sharing. In our professional development last week, teachers had fun, were makers, and seemed excited to talk about a return to hands-on, student-centered teaching. Our curriculum is already overcrowded and if this is ever going to work we must integrate the disciplines. The NGSS Engineering have obvious connections to Making and a quick look at the Common Core shows us how compatible Making is with those standards:

• Math Best Practices: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them,  Reason abstractly and quantitatively, Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, Model with mathematics, Use appropriate tools strategically, Attend to precision, Look for and make use of structure, Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

ELA Comprehension and Collaboration, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

I think the reason that my learning was so powerful this summer is that I met truly inspirational people - teachers and co-students alike and I realized that there are plenty of folks on the same journey I'm on. I also reframed my image of myself as a maker, which of course is huge when it comes to developing that very maker-ness in students and colleagues. Thanks Lucie, thanks everybody!! I hope to see you all again next year!!

My Maker's Journey

A Reflection of our Professional Development DAy

My colleagues dutifully filed in at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning after 3 straight days of meetings, mandatory trainings and way too much sitting. Coffee in hand, we briefly read through the NGSS Engineering Standards as well as the NGSS in general. I had already sent them the goals and schedule for the day so we were able to move quickly to Greg Young's part of the day.

Greg is 6'8" tall so that's a great eye opener. He is also so informally informative and calmly passionate that he engaged staff immediately. He started with a problem solving activity with the children's text, Zoom. We had to sequence individual book pages without showing them to each other. The book zooms in to the first picture of a billboard on a bus, each page going deeper into the picture. In addition to the communication and collaboration the activity demanded, Greg was making a point about perspectives - with curriculum, STEAM, and students.

Next Greg presented 2 maker challenges, first a spaghetti tower and then a Pom Pom ball slingshot. Teachers were very engaged: laughing, a little competitive, and talking about the engineering steps as they went along. After each activity Greg led a discussion of possible curricular ties to the activities and we readily recognized problem solving, communication, collaboration and perseverance. Digging a little deeper we talked about geometry, flight and energy. 

I received many thank-yous for the day and I think it was in part because as engaging as the tasks were, by 10:30 we were diving into the resources that Greg and I had prepared. We circulated as teachers reviewed materials, looking for maker tasks that would strengthen an existing unit in any content area. We started a shared Google doc to keep track of our collective ideas and will revisit it at staff meetings throughout the year. It was lunch before we knew it.

After lunch I had arranged for several teachers to share engineering projects I tried with their students last year and how they went (well, thankfully) as well as projects they are already doing. One 2nd grade teacher explained that her students were so engaged in the Engineering is Elementary project we did that she started a Maker Corner. Every Monday she gave a low tech prompt along the lines of a Pom Pom shooter. Students who wanted to could work on it before morning meetings each day. On Wednesdays they had first runs with the class and on Fridays a final run. She said it was so much fun she's going to do it again this year.

Next we had a visit from a representative from VEEP (VT Energy Education Program.) She was great, explaining engineering workshops they provide (1 free visit to every classroom) and modeling the kits we can borrow. I think teachers appreciated the offer, almost like it was a little gift.

We ended the day with about an hour of work time and collaboration. The Art and Music teachers met with grade level teams to plan integrated units. Our Librarian explained a plan for a STEAM skit for our welcome back assembly. Teachers seemed excited to try new things, some on their own and some with me. I also think they were a little relieved that there was an easy entry into this STEAM stuff they'd been hearing about and glad that we were all jumping in together. As I walked around from room to room teachers were saying, "Look what we found!", "I'm going to do this the first week of school", and "Can you meet with us next week to review the EiE materials?" The 5th and 6th grade teachers and I are going to have an academic choice period on Fridays and I will be offering Toy Hacking (hope you're reading this Lisa Foley!)

Greg and I are talking about "What's next?" My principal has offered days when he can come back and work with us. I'm preparing a staff survey for input. One idea Greg and I discussed is taking some time with the staff this year to develop some overarching STEAM goals for next year and then develop a school wide collaborative project. I like the approach of building a program and project carefully: let teachers try stuff out and provide time to process about it with others this year. Take time to make a plan for next year that we all feel part of. Wow! He suggested that I might want to visit The Sustainability School in Burlington for ideas. Greg is excited about our work at CES because, although his experience is with the high school level, he is interested in how STEAM can look in an elementary school.

This was a very rewarding day for me, personally. It was gratifying to develop a plan for the day and to see it work. I feel so fortunate to have support from teachers and administrators for a shift in direction and grateful that I am sharing this journey. I am also quite sure I will be reaching out to my Create Make Learn community for ideas and support as we move forward.

A Draft of My Final Project

I've started this imovie to document the pieces of my project. I'm going to add the documents I've prepared for staff development along with pix of the staff involved in their maker activity.

http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=hYBOyHb1Ikg&u=/watch%3Fv%3DkC3LJandzsQ%26feature%3Dem-upload_owner

Looking for feedback on staff maker activity

This Thursday Greg Young will be joining our staff to lead K-6 teachers in an approximately two hour maker task. The goal is to have teachers experience tinkering/making and get excited about possibilities for their own classrooms. We will spend the rest of the day looking at the NGSS Engineering standards and having work time to find/develop prompts and activities that align with their curriculum. I am so very aware that teachers have a million things to do (always...) but especially the week before school starts so I want to make this a valuable and practical use of their time. I would like feedback on how useful folks have found it to be to be engaged in a maker prompt, even a random one, for a couple of hours. Has it informed your instruction? Has anyone tried it with staff? Should Greg and I try to choose a task that has a specific elementary curriculum connection as a model for what teachers could do or just focus on the process of making in and of itself? Thanks!!

Here is a more detailed agenda for the staff meeting

STEAM In-Service Proposal

Thursday, Aug 27, 2015

Purpose:

• Introduce staff to NGSS Engineering Standards
• Provide an opportunity to practice a hands-on engineering problem that they can use with their students.
• Provide time, resources and and support for teachers to plan an engineering activity to use in an existing unit - any content area
• Share STEAM opportunities already in place and share ideas for the upcoming year

8:00 - 8:30

Explanation of day (Ellen)

Note: have video loop of Greg with students last year playing as folks come in

Intro to Engineering Standards NGSS (Ellen)

• Defining Engineering Problems
• Developing Possible Solutions
• Optimizing the Design Solution

Update about Science Committee - district curriculum, NGSS (checking with Rick about status)

8:30 - 10:30

Hands-on Engineering Task (Greg Young)

• Allows for all steps in engineering design process
• Provides an activity teachers can use in their classroom

10:30 - 12:00

• Showcase of resources for engineering tasks (Ellen, Greg)
• Teacher work time to review resources, pick a task that would apply to existing unit and begin planning (Greg and Ellen circulate)

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 3:00

• Share out of initiatives for this year (Marie, Danielle, Ellen, Cara, Mary F, possible 2nd and 4th grade teachers to describe EiE units)
• Classroom teacher time to meet with specialists to plan for STEAM block
• Continued teacher work time to plan an engineering task (document it in a shared google doc)

• Share out of teacher ideas

And the work continues....



Here are the teacher resources that I will share with staff at our professional development work Aug 27.

Resources for STEAM Activities

Intro Article: Why STEM in the Early Years?

http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/04/03/stem-it's-elementary

Language Arts

general info http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-to-integrate-literacy-with-stem/2012/06/13/gJQAX2DGbV_blog.html

Notebook Hacking /National Writers Project http://www.slj.com/2015/04/technology/hack-your-notebook-circuitry-mixes-with-paper-in-a-creative-project-for-21st-century-learners/#_

and

https://chadsansing.makes.org/thimble/MzM0MDM2OTky/hack-your-notebook-day-teaching-kit

Illuminated Poetry

http://www.middleweb.com/15344/students-illuminate-ideas-paper-circuitry/

Nonfiction texts for STEM units http://sciencenetlinks.com/collections/stem-and-common-core/

Math - all grades

STEM Gives Meaning to Mathematics/STEM and Math Practices (open pdf for full article) http://www.nctm.org/Publications/teaching-children-mathematics/2015/Vol21/Issue7/STEM-Gives-Meaning-to-Mathematics/

Science/Engineering Lesson Plans - all grades

browse by grade or content http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/

night sky project with circuitry https://static1.squarespace.com/static/527d72f8e4b0213a91526969/t/529fd481e4b04f86e6d6df77/1386206337497/PaperCircuitryNotebook.pdf

general list of projects https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/04/23/make-stem-come-alive/

browse by content http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/lesson-plans/helping_others.html

http://tryengineering.org/lesson-plans?cat=37&keyword=

https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/k8plans.php

VT Science Initiative Resource Page

http://vtscience.org/resources/teacher-resources/

Multi-disciplinary

Sample projects K-4 http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=15845&

Sample projects K-6 http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/stem

K-6 browse by activity, video, game or website http://www.discovere.org/our-activities

NGSS (CC connections, multi-disciplinary)

K-2 http://www.nextgenscience.org/k-2ets-engineering-design

3-5 http://www.nextgenscience.org/3-5ets-engineering-design

6-8 http://www.nextgenscience.org/msets-ed-engineering-design

Engineering is Elementary Kits

http://www.eie.org/

More Resources

http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/stem-resources.html

http://veep.org/veep-programs/in-class-presentations/

Post 4: Commitment Post

The Commitment Post

I think I knew this was the one on the 2nd date - sometimes that happens! To recap,  I will plan our staff development for August 27 and plan a maker activity for staff with Greg Young. For the staff, I will create and model several paper and fabric circuitry projects, give resources for these projects and list the standards they address. I will also research and create a document of STEAM/Maker resources that can be integrated throughout content areas.

Here is a link to the paper and soft circuit document I've started:

https://docs.google.com/a/cesvt.net/document/d/1JqK9XvHhzETll_a5_fHxIyAwx-vn4STouDoaUf20kLM/edit?usp=sharing

Post 3: Second Date

Second Date
I've been finalizing what I want to make as sample projects for the in-service day I am developing for my teachers. While I knew I would finish my paper and soft circuit projects from class, I decided to also make an "illuminated" haiku book. I've been researching guides for writing haiku and am having fun playing around with language and imagery related to "light" - sun, moon, streetlight, stars, shining waves, fireflies etc. I'm off to Maine for 2 weeks starting Wednesday so am packing up materials to create/finish all the projects while I relax on a camp porch. Perhaps I'll send you a picture! Speaking of which, here is the cover for the Haiku book. I used some homemade paper I had at home and will bind it with a 2 whole punch, a bamboo skewer and 2 rubber bands.

I've also started preparing 2 documents. One is a general resource page that provides maker ideas for individual content areas. The other is specific to paper and soft circuits and gives links to directions for many projects and also Common Core and NGSS Standards for the projects I am making.