In the general session and we were encouraged to Tweet our answers to a reflection question. They have us the wi-fi password for the ballroom so now I'm live online! Check out my tweets by following me at @christinalaoshi!
I had intended to blog somewhat in real time, but the Wi-fi was not accessible to us in the conference rooms, and in fact, the reception was so poor in the rooms that I could see the battery percentage on my phone tick down before my eyes as my poor phone tried to lock into a signal. In fact, my blog post yesterday cost about 30% oft battery (I posted it using the hotspot on my phone). Anyhow, it means that I have to post after the fact...maybe not as fun as posting in real time, but it will work. So, back to the workshops... The first workshop I attended was a K'Nex workshop. Actually, to be correct, it was a workshop involving Energy, Motion, and Aeronautics, and we used a special set of K'Nex to try out some of the activities. The workshop was taught by a STEM teacher that wrote the lessons/experiments designed for classroom use. We built some models and them tested them out, sometimes modifying them, one parameter at a time. We made a rocket launcher and then had fun seeing how far the soft darts would fly... Some other groups built rubber band controlled cars. Then we made a mini figure (can I say that if it's not Lego?) with a parachute, and observed how well it flew. We climbed up an 8-foot ladder and dropped the parachute. We tested different ways to stabilize the supports, and the shape of the chute (round vs. rectangle) while other groups also experimented with different parachute materials. Two of my most memorable things from this workshop--one of the other groups kept making modifications to the darts, adding nose cones using different materials, to try and make the darts fly farther. I loved watching them work together with such enthusiasm. I can totally see how they could also inspire similar enthusiasm in their students! The second thing that was memorable from this workshop is the drawing for the opened kits at the end of the session. I was one of the lucky winners so I got to take home one of the kits that I can now use in my classes! And, on top of that, my building partner's colleague also won a kit, but generously donated his kit to my classroom so that I would have enough sets for all the groups in one class! (They train teachers, so they said they wouldn't use the K'Nex very much if at all). So awesome! I can't wait to dig in and use these awesome materials in class...maybe as soon as next week! The second workshop was about STEM Literacy. It was very affirming to me that what I kind of muddled through and figured out early in the year is, in fact, what we need to be teaching our students. One of the main points we discussed in this workshop was the engineering design process, and how it has parallels to the scientific method. When testing and redesigning a model, just like a science experiment, you should change only one parameter at a time. We also had a fun hands-on activity, where we used a pizza box to make a solar powered cooker. Definitely learned a lot, and had a great day of workshops! Off to Day 2 and the general session and my Enginering by Design workshop this afternoon! I realized that my previous post was entitled "...Part 1..." which generally implies that a Part 2 is forthcoming. Regardless, I decided to change gears a bit and begin to blog about the conference that I'm attending for the next 3 days. I am really excited to be attending the ITEEA conference. ITEEA is the International Technology & Engineering Educators Association. A few months ago was looking for professional organizations for educators in STEM (science, technology, engineering, & math). I found ITEEA and also realized their national meeting was practically in my backyard! I was blessed that my school not only endorsed my attending as professional development, but they actually paid my registration and workshop fees to attend! So the conference officially kicks off tomorrow, but I am attending two pre-conference workshops today. I will be tired by the end of the day...but hopefully armed with a new arsenal of ideas and strategies. My first workshop is called "Hands-on STEM with energy, motion, and aeronautics." We will be learning to use K'Nex kits to teach STEM concepts. The second workshop is an Elementary STEM Literacy Workshop. It sounds like a fabulous workshop involving hands-on standards-based activities, and most importantly, leaning about resources we can use. Definitely looking forward to an afternoon and evening of learning! I do plan to report on these conference sessions in subsequent blog posts. Now to my first workshop and playing with K'Nex! As I wrote in my last post in January (seriously, has it really been that long)? I am not teaching Chinese in school as part of the students' curriculum. What I am doing is incredibly cool and I have been super excited about it. I teach what our school calls Think Tank, a critical thinking class that focuses on having the students learn to problem-solve, exercise their creativity and critical thinking, while building teamwork skills. I am so incredibly grateful to my school and for all the support that I have been given to explore and build this class and allowing me the freedom to experiment, change gears, and try different things in class. Initially, I would approach my administrators with a little trepidation, as I wanted to bounce another new idea or concept past them. The truth is, there are so many cool things we can do, but not enough time to do them all. I have received so much encouragement, affirmation, and support, that I am now excited to present new ideas for Think Tank to our administrators. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that this is actually real. In the parlance of musicians, I have a "sweet gig." I get to experiment with cool stuff, have fun trying new things and watch my students learn while exploring...all with the blessing of our administration. Gotta love that! The original vision for Think Tank was based on the Odyssey of the Mind (OOTM) program, which is usually an after-school program, with teams that work together in both short challenges (spontaneous), and a long-term problem that the team works on and takes to competition. I had no previous experience with OOTM, so I was fortunate to be in an region where OOTM is very strong and active, and was able to attend many different training workshops, both for coaches and for teams. As I attended each training, I picked up ideas for activities I could use in my classes. I also realized that there was a great deal of emphasis in OOTM placed on competitions. After all, the training and team practice was at least as intense as the practice expected of people who do sports. However, as I was developing the curriculum for Think Tank, I was not comfortable with promoting the competitive aspect of OOTM. I wanted Think Tank to be a place where my students felt safe taking risks, trying new things, and not be afraid to make mistakes. I also knew that many students would feel anxiety when faced with a competitive situation. I wanted students to be comfortable coming to Think Tank without having the pressure of competion looming over them, even in the spontaneous challenges. In my class, we had as many as 17 students at a time, so they usually worked in teams of 3 or 4. Each team was given the same challenge to solve. I did not pit the teams against each other. The challenges were meant to be short, but I did not strictly time them. I wanted the students to be able to arrive at a solution, and all solutions were celebrated. I felt the process of arriving at a solution in their own was more important than staying within an arbitrary time limit. I found that I wa gravitating toward more of the building/constructing related challenges. Because I saw most of my students only once per week, I wanted to maximize what they were getting out of the class. I began to weave specific STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills into activities that would not only employ critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork, but would also provide the students with a rudimentary foundation in science, engineering, and technology. So far in class, we used the Engineering Design Process as part of our "Caine's Arcade" #CardboardChallenge. All of the students worked in teams to design, build, and operate their own arcade games constructed out of cardboard. We worked with Kapla Blocks, index cards, and even paper to discover construction principles. We also spent some time learning from famous inventors by studying some of their quotes, and how we could apply their words to our own experiences. These were skills that I was hoping they would not just learn for Think Tank, but that they would be able to apply to all aspects of their lives, whether it be in school or sports, or even at home. Then, as part of Computer Science Education Week, all of our students took part in the Hour of Code. #HourofCode. We continued learning more about coding using a great curriculum developed by Code.org, which combined hands-on (offline) activities with online coding puzzles to solve. We just finished designing Doodles for Google in our classes. This year's theme fit in beautifully with what we had accomplished in Think Tank so far: "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place..." This activity included brainstorming, group idea development as well as arts. We looked at the design aspects of GoogleDoodle submitted by students in pat years, and then my students created their own Doodles based on this year's theme. We will be launching into our final unit as we begin our final quarter of school next week, and I am both excited and nervous...we will be learning about Simple Machines. Time for me to go and do some planning before Soring Break is over! Until next time... |
About MeChristina has been a Chinese language teacher for the last 5 years and now teaches "Think Tank," a Critical Thinking class to elementary students. She is also mom to two amazing girls, wife to a wonderful husband, violinist, and Christian (not necessarily in that order). Archives
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