STEAM Parent Day #BestDayEver

I've been coaching three multi-age teachers this year.  It is year one of a 3-5 year plan to integrate STEAM, Chromebooks, robotics et. al.  This year (as I have stated in earlier blog posts) I spend around 90 minutes in each class helping the teacher facilitate a maker activity and a Chromebook SAMR activity.  Our first trimester ends this Friday October 30th.  The pedagogical shifts that have happened in 2+ short months are incredible and will be shared in a different post.

One of the three teachers planned to have a showcase at the end of each trimester.  So, Friday October 23rd was the day we invited the parents and/or caregivers to come and experience STEAM time with their kiddos.  This was something I tried when I was a middle school math teacher after reading this Blog Post by Josh Stumpenhorst.  Chelsea sent out the invite to the parents and 28 RSVP'd.  It is AMAZING because our STEAM time is from 12:30 - 2:10 smack in the middle of the day and the parents were taking time in the middle of their day to come.

When all was said and done, 18 of Chelsea's 22 students had parents and many of those had BOTH parents.  We had one board member attend also.  This day was about the students sharing what they have done each week as well as model making for their parents.  This day was all about the students and Chelsea.  I stood back and let them all lead. It was a huge success and I was honored to be a part of it!  Here are a few pictures:

Parents working with their kiddos on the Mt. Rushmore HyperDoc

Parents work on Mt. Rushmore HyperDoc with their kiddos

Maker Supply Table and some of the catapults

We are ready to test the catapults

Here are the links to the activities:

Candy Corn Catapults

What is Your Story?

Click HERE to go to StoryCorps Great Thanksgiving Listen

I am a huge fan of NPR.  I often find myself in my car parked at a destination not able to get out because I am so entrenched in a story and I'm usually crying so I definitely can't leave until I pull myself together.  When I was in the classroom, I would use things I heard in my math classes. Most often it was a story that had interesting math tied to it.  I would also use stories that would give my students pause - an opportunity to "consider" something.  One of my favorite Morning Edition staples is StoryCorps.  Again I am usually laying in bed knowing that I will be listening with tears in my eyes.  It is my favorite way to start Friday full of empathy and thankfulness for the blessed life I lead.  StoryCorps also teaches me about resilience and bravery and that the challenges we face in life are learning experiences that make us stronger and better.

I am so excited about StoryCorps Great Thanksgiving Listen Project I've downloaded the app onto my phone and perused the questions and all the other tools to create an interview experience.  They are asking teachers to have their students add interviews.  I am thoughtfully contemplating how I will use this powerful tool with the teachers in my district to collect their stories.  Here is a link to the Morning Edition story from October 14, 2015  http://bit.ly/StorycorpsKB.

How will you use this opportunity to have your students, teachers, parents, site leaders, etc... create interviews for themselves and StoryCorps?

Cars Maker Activity

I created this activity for my STEAM teachers after attending Cuerockstar admin I wanted to follow Ramsey Musallam's plan he shared with us"

Cars Maker Activity:

PUFF MOBILE - click here for the LINK

Link to SPARK - final race Cars Movie

Supplies:

• 3 Straws
• 4 Mint life savers
• 1 piece of paper
• 2 paper clips
• Tape

CHALLENGE:

Make a car out of the above supplies and make sure it moves, by the way, you can only blow on it to make it move!

INFORMATION:

Click Here  for information on powering with “wind”

APPLICATION: Continue working on your PUFF MOBILES

On the chromebooks:

http://bit.ly/puffmobiles2 - Mrs. School’s Class

http://bit.ly/puffmobiles - Mrs. Lucas’ Class

Creativity and Learning Take Time

I first learned about Genius Hour two years ago when attending a Classroom 2.0 Live Saturday Meeting  (this is the archived recording and all the resources).  They started off with the video below:

Creativity Requires TIME

As I have been coaching 3 STEAM classes this year I have noticed each class has a thoughtful learner who carefully takes their time.  In the four sessions I have collaborated on each of these students has had his/her success and struggles.  

I ask all educators, please give these kiddos the time they need to find success and struggle through an activity.  The struggle and frustration are key to their learning.  If there is a time limit placed on these kiddos it will cause them to shut down in SOME instances.  

Now, I understand that they need to work through their time issues, however, if you are implementing #geniushour, or #makerspaces, or #robotics, etc...  PLEASE let these thoughtful kiddos have as much time as they need to go through their process.

On that note, I want to share one more thing:

I often tout myself as a relationship builder on this blog, in twitter chats, and elsewhere.  It is one of my core beliefs.  Sylvia Duckworth sums it up in this sketchnote: (However, I believe it true for all not just children)

Click Here to watch Rita Pierson's TED Talk

I believe that relationships are the foundation.  You are thinking, the foundation of what?  The foundation of everything - not just learning but changing thinking or beliefs, risk-taking, creativity, problem-solving, innovation,  etc...

Creating our "Ish" Selves

Last week, I posted our "Ish" lesson from the STEAM classrooms I am coaching this year.  Part two of our lesson was to create our "Ish" selves:

I saw these picture collages when I attended the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) conference in San Diego, CA way back in 1996 (wow! 19 years ago...)  I have had my students make these collages of themselves every year I was in the classroom since then.  The past two years I have not had a classroom so it was a gift to do this in/with the classrooms I am coaching.  Here is a quick how to:

• Have the students stand with their legs apart and their hands out (palms facing me, fingers spread)
• I take two shots:
•  one from the bottom of their hands up to their heads zoomed in so that the student fills the entire frame. 
• one from the feet up to wherever the frame is full of the student.

• Order/Make/Print two copies of each photo so the students have 4 photos to work with
• Have the students cut each picture into horizontal strips
• Students create their collages by placing their strips onto construction paper
• No gluing until they have played with the layout of their strips

As Chelsea (Mrs. Atkinson) and I watched the students cut and place and play and share and collaborate and talk and laugh and create and... 

We were taken aback and at the same time she asked me "this noise is okay, right?"  I assured her that this was the noise of creativity, engagement, and discovery and I also assured her that it would get louder before it got quieter.  The students were making sure that everyone in the room saw their "Ish" selves.  

After finishing our 8th day of school, I am so thankful that I get to spend time in classrooms with teachers and their students.  

As a coach I will defer to a twitter post by Michael Niehoff 

"Sometimes you have to believe in someone else's belief in you until your own belief sets in..." - Manny Scott

We Are "Ish"-es This School Year

Every since Joe Wood introduced me to the book "Ish" by Peter Reynolds 4 years ago, I have looked at myself as a learner and the adult learners I work with in a different way.  SPOILER ALERT: in the book, Ramon realizes that if he sees himself as an "ish" then there is no need to strive for perfection.  It is okay to be artist-ish.  When I share this book with students, teachers, administrators, all learners, I stress that when you are an "ish" you are continually growing and learning.  It is the perfect moniker for me because I know that no matter what I know or can do, there is always room for more learning and improvement, I am an eternal "Ish".  

I have the privilege of modeling being an "Ish" for the teachers in my district this year.  Interestingly, Friday our third day of the new school year was very "Ish-Ish":

I began the day helping a fourth grade class log into their GAFE (Google Apps for Education) accounts for the first time.  We had students who did not exist and about a third of the students were asked to change their passwords (not good).  Luckily patience and flexibility reigned and we worked through the issues.  

Later that day, I worked with a multi-age 2/3 STEAM class.  We began by reading "Ish".  I asked the students to think about something they are really good at and gave them a quiet moment.  I then asked the students to think about something they wish they were good at or were working at being good at.  Then I began reading.  At the end of the story I asked the students to raise their hands if they have something they are "Ish" at, here are some of the responses:

tennis-ish, karate-ish, reading-ish, math-ish, drawing-ish, video game-ish...  

I informed the students that during our time together each week we will be actively practicing "Ish-es".  Sometimes we will have successes and sometimes failures and ALL times we will learn.  There was a collective sigh of relief as we embark on our year-long journey.  

My pre-assessment activity took place after the students got logged onto chromebooks for the first time.  The student pairs built straw towers.  I call it a pre-assessment because the classroom teacher and I were able to assess the students risk-taking level.  I was surprised that there were 3 students who were so frozen with fear of failing they completely gave up, even after pep talks from the teacher and myself.  At the end of the 15 minutes the towers were a little sorry looking and the students were forgetting that they were "Ish-es".  I took pictures and told them that this was our first try and that this is our starting point.  We will look back at the end of the year and see incredible growth.  Next week we will use the chromebooks to do some research on building straw towers and let them do some planning before they try again.

The year of "Ish" has begun!

One at a Time - Go Slow to Move Fast

Image by Krissy Venosdale @venspired

This is a quick post about a shift in my perspective.  For those who chat with me on twitter and elsewhere, you know I often talk about the importance of building relationships - with students, fellow educators... the list is long and distinguished and I'll narrow it to one word: EVERYONE.  Mistakenly, I have thought that I need to reach many teachers at one time as I work to move my district and shift culture.

However, this year I have learned that ONE device, teacher, student, and/or Google tool can have a much larger impact.  This year has been a series of ONES.  So in the spirit of starting a new school year my word for the year is ONE.

Let me share (a few):

• Working with one first grade teacher who wanted to try Google Hangouts lead to 3 virtual field trips: Central Park Zoo, Scotland, and England and one mystery hangout with a first grade class in New Jersey - all during the last 2 months of school.
• Working with one fourth grade special education student helped 5 teachers better understand accessibility tools available on chromebooks and started me on a path of inquiry and discovery around Universal Design Learning
• Working with one IT director and one superintendent has moved our district from zero chromebooks a year ago to nearly 200 being rolled out this year with more on the way.
• One Sphero led to my third grade son learning to program and drive it using the app Tickle and demonstrating for his class and school
• The many other times when I would sit with one educator face to face and figure something out together.

All of my interactions with the teachers I work with are learning experiences for me.  They usually begin with a question that I probably do not know the answer to.  So when I go to meet with him/her/them, I get to share and coach and demonstrate what I have learned from addressing the question(s).  The teacher drives the learning, I ask questions, support, coach and become a learning partner.

This year I will be coaching 4 STEAM multi-age teachers.  I will use this space to document and track the effect my work has on each of them, their students, their colleagues and our district.  Can coaching one teacher at each school start a snowball effect that takes over the district?