Category Archives: KFP

Co-Pilots.

I’m sure many of us feel this way, but my project/curriculum would never have been conceivable had I not been partnered with the North Carolina Science Festival.

My mentors, Marissa Hartzler (NCSF K-12 Programs Coordinator) and Jonathan Frederick (NCSF Director) were instrumental in my creation of this curriculum and the success that came from it as I implemented it in my classroom.

With Marissa and Jonathan!
With Marissa and Jonathan!

Between the three of us, we were constantly exchanging emails with links and ideas for the curriculum. We would find an article that would link us to a video that would remind us of this other activity we saw on NASA’s website and the trail sharing continued. Marissa was an incredible sounding board for my ideas and brought a welcome perspective as a K-12 program coordinator and previous educator.

As I went about teaching my curriculum to my class last semester, I asked Marissa to come co-teach a lesson with me. She was able to come and work with both of my classes, which was amazing considering that’s two hours of time in a day that isn’t back-to-back. We discussed weather patterns and how weather impacts flight and launch dates/times, and she was able to discuss in more detail the current events we saw with the Antares rocket launch. We tracked the ISS with my kids and factored in the weather forecasts at the time, highlighting how there are people at NASA doing that very job in that very moment (needless to say, my kids thought that was one of the coolest things EVER).

Marissa also brought my kids a stuffed Kelvin, the NCSF mascot, for our classroom. Kelvin now hangs out in the front of the room and the kids LOVE having him as our class mascot. 🙂

Our class mascot (and the NCSF mascot) Kelvin hanging out with us at Astronaut Boot Camp!
Our class mascot (and the NCSF mascot) Kelvin hanging out with us at Astronaut Boot Camp!

The collaboration to make this curriculum happen has been unreal. I have been connected to people at Morehead Planetarium, librarians from across the state, UNC children’s literature experts, NCSU aerospace engineering students, and more — all thanks to the mentorship I’ve had with Marissa and Jonathan at the NCSF.

Huge ups to my mentors for all their hard work and flexibility throughout this project; couldn’t have done any of this without such incredible co-pilots!

Rocket Fuel.

Social media is essentially the rocket fuel that shoots awareness of anything so high that it surpasses our atmosphere.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ (because yes, some people use that), LinkedIn (some people use this one, too…I think), Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr — all of these mediums of social media provide an open window into the worlds of others.

They can also be an open window to the worlds of our classrooms and schools.

It’s important to use social media to show kids and their families what’s going on inside the classroom, but I also feel as though it’s equally important to show other teachers what’s going on in their classrooms, too.

There are a few Twitter and Instagram accounts that I follow that are constantly posting about teacher’s practices and how their classrooms are laid out. I appreciate seeing the way other people implement organization in their classroom or choose to set things up in a certain way. It gives me a fresh perspective on a concept, and it’s so awesome that technology can make that concept reachable to people everywhere.

I also find social media to be a great platform to preach. I feel as though I’m constantly posting about the latest in education news, or I’m joining in as many Twitter chats I possibly can manage at once (TweetDeck can only get me so far, y’all) so I can further my practice as an educator. I tell people about my involvement in online PD with Twitter and often am met with snarks or smirks, but I can easily say that some of my best conversations revolving around this passionate profession have stemmed from social media.

There is power in numbers, and social media is a multifaceted way that we as teachers can reach not only students and their families, but other teachers and administrators, too. We can learn and grow together, whether we’re in the same district or in a completely different time zone. We can use words, pictures, videos — tweets, filters, Vines — to communicate and reach one another and show off the great things that are happening in our classroom. When great things happen, why wouldn’t we want to share with the world!?

This is what teaching in the 21st century looks like: working with others around the world to expand our knowledge of how to be better educators using a social media lens.

Finding My Wings.

There have been plenty of lessons learned in these last few weeks of reflection. The school year started three weeks ago with students and about four or five weeks ago preparing and planning for the new school year.

I feel like I’m finding myself. I have a new leadership position at my school and have been a little overwhelmed. Testing is time-consuming and all anyone seems to care about right now, which breaks my heart. Despite this, I find solace knowing that over the summer I learned so many new techniques and practices to implement in my classroom.

I’ve learned how to use data for the good. Data has had a negative connotation in my school since we opened last year, which is unfortunate. I’m taking the data I’m getting from assessments and putting them in a comprehensive spreadsheet that I’ll use for the rest of the year. Things are organized and color-coded and I know that I’ll be able to use that information to inform my instruction when it comes to pulling kids in small groups during reading time. I’ve also used multiple pieces of perception data to help me understand where my kids are coming from when they enter the classroom each day. Honest responses like “Sitting is the hardest thing for me to do in school” are so helpful — now I know how to effectively engage that child in my every day instruction. I learned that many of my kids don’t have homework help when they go home, and most of them feel positively about the school year. I’m looking forward to collecting process data once I start doing more project work with my kids during our content PBL time together (…when I finish testing).

I’ve learned that I’m truly a professional. Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s best for my kids, and it also doesn’t mean I should be written off as a peer in a school full of many veteran teachers. The generation gap chat we had over the summer at our second Professional Institute was immensely helpful in my thinking about how to interact with peers and how to tell others to interact with me (I’m a millennial who desires constant feedback and I’m not afraid to tell someone that!).

The beginning of the year always has its ups and downs, and though right now I’m kind of in a trough of frustration over testing, I know the best learning is yet to come. I can’t wait to start my solar system and economy unit, and I am excited to cultivate it into more of a biliteracy unit for me to implement during this school year.

One-Way Flight

As I type this, I sit at my desk in the North Carolina Science Festival/Morehead Production Team office above Sugarland and Carolina Coffee Shop on Franklin Street. My water bottle drips a few beads of sweat while I pull my denim shirt tighter around me to ward off impending goosebumps. I think I might miss being perpetually chilly…

Today is my last day in the office with the team. I’m heading to Ohio for a few days with family, and when I return it’ll be time for me to start whipping my elementary school classroom into shape before the workdays start (does anyone else find it completely absurd that on workdays we never have actual chunks of time to get our classrooms ready? Or is that just me?). Truly, this summer has flown by.

It feels not so long ago that we were all at NCCAT meeting one another for the first time, making connections with our spirit dogs, and adventuring down the Nantahala (HOW GREAT WAS THAT?!).

As I sit here, I find the time to type this because my lessons are completed. My supplemental materials are finished. All that’s left for me to do is wait — I want to review the curriculum with the other third grade teachers at my school, and my mentors need to review the curriculum as well. I’ve started taking the teacher lesson plans I’ve written and translating them into layman’s terms for the Festival’s public library program so we can put together some one-page activity guides.

I’ve also been sketching planes and rockets, but that’s been happening since all this started in the middle of June.

This has been an experience that was unexpected yet wonderful. I’ve learned a lot, and not only in regards to flight. I’ve learned about professionalism, how to work with a wide array of people, and increasing community engagement by networking. I knew this internship would look different than that of my peers, and it was hard for me hearing about all the amazing, hands-on activities so many other people were doing throughout the summer while I sat on a computer most of the day. I had to continue to tell myself to be patient, and that my hands-on moments would come, they’d just come later.

Now that our summer chapter is coming to an end, I’m feeling very hopeful, excited, and happy. I feel very good about my program activities, and I can’t wait to see them translated into activity guides for librarians, informal educators, and other teachers to use. I think the lessons are solid and the community outreach piece that we’re still working on will be just as strong. I’m excited to continue my connections with people at places like the Carolinas Aviation Museum, North Carolina Library Services, and the Wright Brothers Memorial. I’m beyond excited to start communication with companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin (insert nerd FREAK OUT here).

Ultimately, I just cannot wait to meet the sweet babies that get to be my passengers on this curriculum pilot with me!

[Puns!]

This whole summer has given me a fresh perspective on what it means to really engage my students. I like to think I’m fairly aware of what hooks my kiddos, and I’m constantly trying to do all that I can to make their learning experiences enjoyable ones. I’ve seen firsthand the effectiveness of getting kids to create and do, not just “sit and get” their information, and between my previous classroom experiences and this summer’s KFP experience, I’m more cognizant of how imperative it is to grab student attention with science.

Even though today is my last day in the office with NCSF and Morehead staff, they know they’ll have to do more than take away my keys to rid me of this office. 🙂

Here’s to a beautiful summer filled with experiential learning, and an even more beautiful start to a new school year!

Control Panel

There have been a few a-ha moments for me this summer. My eyes have been opened to things that have been lighting up on my control panel for a while that have needed tending to, and now I know that I must do something about those flashing little lights.

  1. Professional Development: The level of PD that I’ve experienced with this program has been out of this world. I’ve been engaged, I’ve been challenged, and I’ve been left with a mind that’s just reeling with questions and ideas. I’ve never left a PD at my school feeling this way, so this is quite refreshing. My time with Morehead Planetarium and the NCSF has also opened my eyes to what it means to be a true professional. It’s been an honor to be called the “in-house teaching expert” while I’ve been there, and it feels so good to be seen as competent, trustworthy, and knowledgeable about my craft. I keep a personal blog and word exploded this post about PD — feel free to check that out if you’re so inclined.
    Action steps: Take my PD experiences with Kenan Fellows and do my best to translate them into my school environment. Continue to stay positive and implement all I can while on the school’s leadership team this year.
  2. Citizen Science: THIS is how to engage kids, y’all. This right here. I had never heard of citizen science before this summer, and I am HOOKED (if you think I’m joking, as any of my non-teaching friends what I’ve been talking about for the last few weeks). The ways we’ve had the chance to engage in citizen science projects with Dr. Holly from NCCAT or with Prairie Ridge Ecostation, all I can think about is my kids and how much they’d love what I’m doing. I’ve always believed science, and education in general, should be very hands-on and experiential, and this concept of citizen science has totally renewed my teaching spirit in this thinking! I literally cannot wait to take this idea back to my school and my kiddos in a few weeks — those eight-year-olds are going to love it!
    Action steps: Integrate citizen science into my every day classroom curriculum. Already thinking of ways I can get involved through our science units this year!

There’s been another overarching a-ha moment for me as well. I really love what I do. I’ve known this and have felt completely confident in my decision to be a teacher (or did teaching choose me? Of course there’s a blog post about that, too). This overarching a-ha comes in the form of reinforcing my passion for this profession. I take this job so seriously, and I am absolutely humbled to call myself a teacher to these precious children in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. I am also humbled at the fact that I have the opportunity to work with all of you Kenan Fellows. I can’t help but think “A-ha! This is exactly where I need to be!” every time we get together. Thank you for that, fellow friends!

Looking forward to experiencing many more a-ha moments as this journey continues.

Elevators Enhancing Lift

The elevators of an aircraft are located on the horizontal stabilizers and work to provide lift for the aircraft. Lift’s force has to be stronger than that of the weight of the aircraft in order for it to fly, and I think I’m finally getting my lift on, y’all.

Throughout the summer, thinking about curriculum hasn’t been the easiest. At the Science Festival, we probably went through at least two or three ideas of what we thought this project would look like until we came up with our definitive vision just a week or so ago. This was hard for me because I like to think writing curriculum is something I’m pretty good at, but when you’re writing and scrapping repeatedly, you don’t exactly feel the most effective.

After meeting with librarians and a children’s literature expert, and having phone conferences with the youth services state librarian coordinator and the Carolinas Aviation Museum, a clear, attainable vision has been drawn out before me, and I like the way that feels.  Getting input from these stakeholders has been imperative, because they’re the people for whom I’m doing this. I am desperately searching out feedback for this program from librarians, because I want what I write to be beneficial to them and successful for the children they reach. I want libraries to use this program and see growth in their attendance and individual programs as well.

So, maybe (hopefully) you’re wondering what kind of curriculum it is that I’m finally writing.

Initially, our plan was the four forces of flight — thinking along the lines of physics and how it would be best to disseminate that information to young children. We tested paper airplane models, did a lot of Googling research, and found that maybe we need to take a different approach to this considering the fact that this concept seemed a bit overdone. Granted, just because something is overdone doesn’t mean it’s (a) done well or (b) impossible to do again, but at the Science Festival we’re always looking for ways to be innovative.

A few weeks later and our track is completely different.

Instead of honing in on the physics, we’re extending our runway and encompassing ALL the ways science is tied to flight. We’re looking at the biology (why wings are shaped after birds’ wings, how to survive in space), chemistry (acid-base bottle rockets, how the chemical reactions of rocket fuel work), engineering (prototyping paper planes, learning how the Wright Brothers crafter their successful powered glider), meteorology (kite-building/testing, weather observations linked to rocket launches), and physics (demos with Bernoulli’s principle, four forces of flight basics).

So yeah, we’re covering all the bases. It’s been especially fun for me to think of the bilingual/biliteracy piece, and when coming up with vocabulary and resources I’m doing my best to find things in both English and Spanish. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that others will find this as useful as I do.

I really, truly, massively love this approach to teaching kids about flight. I think it’s crucial to let kids know how multi-faceted and integrated our lives are — flight isn’t just about engineering a plane to fly, but it’s also about things like material making and understanding how to read maps in an air traffic control tower. This is a great plug for integration across subjects, which is big at my school where we do project-based learning.

In addition to the above science-themed activities, I’m also working on a book list, which I mentioned in a previous post. The list is growing and includes informational and fiction books for K-5 students. There’s a little bit of everything on the list, from graphic novels to picture books to biographies to historical fiction. As a reading teacher, this has been so fun to put together and hear from others about what they’d like to see on a list like this. I’ve been working on some fun visual storytelling and writing activities for the program, too.

In my last post, I mentioned how I wasn’t sure how I would make this fit into my classroom, considering this program I’m writing is specifically for libraries, and librarians were adamant about not receiving anything remotely close to a lesson plan for the program. I was a little concerned because I had already spelled out this great culminating task (well, I think it’s great and I have really high hopes for the implementation of the project this fall!) and was hoping my experience with the NCSF would help me knock out some fun, engaging lessons to lead up to that task. Well, fortunately after talking to one of my mentors, we were able to come up with some more space-themed activities for the library program activity menu, and now I’ll be able to implement those in my class this fall!

Everything is a rough draft and a work in progress, but the way the curriculum writing path is now leading feels good. I have clarity, I know what needs to be done, and I’m confident that I’ll be able to knock out some solid lessons for this program that’ll be usable in both a classroom and a library.

Skies are clear and there’s nowhere to go but up.

Connecting Flights

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I’ve spent a decent amount of time thinking about how to connect my current summer work with my classroom come August, and to be honest it’s a little tricky.

The program I am working on with the Science Festival has me developing curriculum for libraries across the state. This is all well and good, but the largest part of how I’m spending my time is working on something that I won’t necessarily be directly implementing in my classroom.

A few weeks ago, we met with some librarians from Durham County Libraries (DURHAM REPRESENT!), and we had a very productive, informative meeting. Something that struck me as surprising was how adamant the librarians were that they were NOT teachers, and they do NOT want to see lesson plans of any kind in a program, because libraries are NOT school.

Needless to say, this completely changed my perspective on my project at hand.

I had worked on developing some lessons to teach students about the four basic principles of flight — lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Initially, this was the plan, but I’ve come to find out that plans change very quickly. Upon hearing this, a new direction had to be set with our programming. I still have all the lessons I wrote initially, and I will probably use them in some capacity in my class.

The most relevant thing I think about this project is a vetted book list I’m creating with books for all grade levels, K-5, about flight. I’m working with a children’s literature specialist from UNC on vetting the list, and I’m getting input from other librarians and teachers in my network. I do a lot of read alouds in my reading class, and reading about flight will definitely help kids make explicit connections for their project time.

When I started this project, I was under the impression we’d be looking at not only plane flight, but space flight as well. Right before school was out for the summer, I came up with an incredibly integrated culminating task for my unit on solar system, physics, and economy, and I was hoping that would play nicely into the work I’d do at the Science Festival. Needless to say, the jury is still kind of out on that one.

I’m really enjoying my time with the NC Science Festival, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to create a program for libraries across the state to use to further science education, specifically about flight. I’m also curious to get a clearer picture of how I can use what I’m doing now to shape what I do in my classroom with my third graders.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Technology challenges blog post, here I am.

To be honest, I’m not completely sure what I’m supposed to write about here specifically, because I feel like “technology challenges” is kind of a broad term, so I’m just gonna wing it (the flight puns are inescapable, y’all).

When we were at NCCAT, there was this rush of information crashing over me — all these new technology tools, all these great ways to apply them in my classroom. Technology is something really important to me as a teacher in my classroom, and it was actually part of my PDP last year. I love collaborating with our school’s Technology Specialist (he’s actually the BEST – here’s a shout out to Hal even though he’ll never see it!), and I see high levels of student engagement when we use technology in our classroom.

My first year teaching, I used a class Twitter account and blog regularly. It was really easy for me to tell a kid during our two hour reading block to go update the blog with what we’re doing today, and it was super easy at the end of the day to have a couple kids hop on a desktop where the Twitter account was already logged in so they can type a little blurb of what they loved learning that day.

I wanted to do this again in my classroom this past year, and unfortunately it didn’t happen. My classroom doesn’t have any desktop computers in it, so my convenient “Hey [insert kid’s name here], go blog/tweet!” didn’t really apply anymore. Despite this, our grade level DOES have a laptop cart available for all the teachers to share on a daily basis. My new plan is maybe to have a laptop station set up every day with at least one laptop where I can have kids take turns using the laptops for blogging and tweeting. I love Twitter, but I also really love Twiducate, which I heard about at NCCAT. I like that it’s a safe medium for us to use  (not that Twitter is unsafe, but sometimes things can pop up that you might not want the little babies to see).

Another problem I think I have with technology is that I want to try ALL OF IT AT THE SAME TIME. I get so excited about trying all these technology tools, but at times I get caught amidst other things that require immediate attention, like making copies and getting back to school packets together and making sure all my caddies have coloring supplies in them for Meet the Teacher Night. Then, when reality comes up, I don’t always follow through with my initial sparks of technological use. I need to pick a few things, do them well, follow through, and then assess at the end of the year. It’s okay to not try it all at once, regardless of how zealous I am.

I also have all these grand ideas for using technology more during my literacy instruction. In case you aren’t sure, I teach third grade reading and project blocks in English at my bilingual school. I have very little issue integrating technology in my project blocks, but I want to use it even more during reading workshop (the blogging/tweeting will help with this to an extent, I think). I want my kids recording their voices on iPads more consistently, I want them engaging with informational texts online, and I want them to do some mini-projects online as well. To me, this is part of being a 21st Century learner — not just being able to use a computer, but being independent enough to further knowledge of concepts. I know this is attainable, and I also know that this will take more planning on my part to make sure things are set up and ready with tight rotations every day, but I know it’s worth it. It’s worth kids loving reading, it’s worth kids wanting to come to school every day, and it’s worth watching my kids be successful in their academic endeavors.

With this past school year under my belt, I realize how much faster I want to integrate technology in my classroom. I taught my third graders how to use Google Drive this year, and they were incredibly independent with it by the end. A fourth grade teacher at my school already came up to me before the year was over to thank me for teaching my kids how to use that online program, as it becomes exceedingly important as the kids get higher up in grade levels. I want to prep my kids earlier, so that I can let them be even more self-reliant throughout the year (because honestly, in case you couldn’t tell by now, that’s my main goal for these third graders — for them to become independent, lifelong learners who are passionate about growing knowledge in their brains).

Technology can be a challenge for many teachers to use, but it can also be a very powerful medium to reach every child in your classroom. Which will it be for you this year?

The Air is Thinner Up Here

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So this is what it feels like up here, huh? On top of the world, on top of my education game, on top of a mountain.

I just spent a week in Cullowhee, NC at NCCAT with a group of some of the most fabulous educators I’ve had the privilege of meeting.

It’s kind of hard to put into words how perfect this past week was for me. I always feel like SUCH a nerd when I’m at school and in meetings with other teachers. I often feel over-zealous and almost misunderstood when I find so much joy and excitement in creating a really incredible, integrated project and discuss the infinite pleasures I find in my teaching profession.

How refreshing to be in the same room with almost 50 other people who feel the way I feel about all this — about reaching kids, about pushing students to achieve their fullest potential, about getting kids completely stoked about learning.

The number of take-aways from this past week are innumerable. I not only learned how to push my kids, but I pushed myself this week, too. The day we spent on the Nantahala River was definitely something out of my comfort zone — I’m not much of a swimmer, and with zero rafting experience and a terrifying “in case you fall out of the raft” video, I was feeling a tad apprehensive. If I could have flashed forward a couple hours from the start of the rafting experience, I would have NEVER imagined I’d be jumping in the river with a new best friend.

It was thrilling, it was cold, it was everything I needed.

I think one of my favorite things about this Kenan experience thus far is how it pushes me. I enjoy getting out of my comfort zone and learning and growing as a person and teacher, and this is the exact thing I needed right now.

Aside from channeling my inner-Bear Grylls on the river, I learned about a ton of new technology tools I can use in my classroom for myself AND my kiddos. It was so interesting hearing about a flipped classroom — I’ve heard of flipping before, but I never knew much about it and I certainly had no idea how I could (IF I could) ever do that in my third grade classroom. I love that there are options involved — I don’t have to flip EVERY little thing, but rather I can choose what to flip. Also, how brilliant is it to video a lesson to show your kids for when you’re absent?! Mind: blown.

It was also generally amazing to have the opportunity to connect with other Kenan Fellows, both past and present. How wonderful hearing about old projects, their impact, and the projects everyone is currently working on with their mentors! It was also neat connecting with people from my PLN on Twitter. I always knew that Twitter was an amazing platform for education, and there I sat with others I followed for so long. So grateful for you folks!

Even with all the negativity encompassing North Carolina education, I have so much hope. There is so much good happening with educators and in schools in this state, and I am beyond blessed and honored to call myself a Kenan Fellow with all you passionate, driven, stellar human beings.

Preparing for Take Off

Let me begin this post by letting the world know that I plan on making every title of my blog posts a flight pun.

I’m working with the North Carolina Science Festival this summer and I’m studying the physics of flight. To be completely honest, I started this week knowing very little about flying — I have limited experience with planes (I didn’t experience an airplane ride for the first time until I was 17-years-old) and I’m terrible at physics.

Sounds like “The First in Flight Challenge” is right up my alley, right?

I took a class at UNC called Physics 100: How Things Work. It was a requirement for my elementary education major, which, at the time, I found to be completely ridiculous. I’ve never studied so hard in my life and I’ve simultaneously never been more proud of a B-. I never thought I would need to have a physics knowledge to teach elementary schoolers, and as soon as I took that class final, I pulled an Elsa and just let it go.

Flash-forward and I’ve knocked out my first two years teaching on my own. Through those two years, I realized how important physics really is and how much I really do love learning how things work.

I constantly encourage my kids to ask questions and to figure out the why and how of things. Now, here I am, practicing what I preach.

I took on this fellowship with great excitement. I knew nothing about flight (see how that is a past participle?!) and was eager to learn something new.

That’s what this is all about for me — learning something new.

My ultimate goal that I’d like to achieve from this fellowship is to have a new experience and learn throughout the process. I want to better myself as both a teacher and a learner so that I can exemplify lifelong learning to my students.

This week has been such a blast. I’m working on lesson plans, reaching out to libraries, and building paper airplanes and testing the designs. Working this week has been an absolute dream and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see how all this works together in the end!