This month brought the final Professional Advancement Institutes (PA) for my Kenan Fellowship. The final Institute was empowering, we were able to interact with two members of the legislature and had an opportunity to ask questions to the panelists from NC SPIN. It is very empowering to be in a room of great educators who are passionate about their profession. We have such meaningful conversations about the state of education in North Carolina. I believe my biggest take away from all the institutes is that there needs to be a better forum for engaging teachers in the delivery of solutions. I would welcome and encourage any elected official an open invitation to come shadow me and spend a day witnessing the joys and challenges faced by teachers across the state.
I was reading an article this week about STEM in the elementary setting and it referenced the value of a village to help students learn. It is important for teacher, businesses and parents work together to provide opportunities for students to learn how to think like an engineer. http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/04/03/stem-it’s-elementary
This week Underwood Laboratories held it’s first Family STEM project day. This was an opportunity to encourage parents to work on a build project at home. It was phenomenal to see the wide variety of ideas that were represented. The kids were challenged to build a shelter or a building. Families spent quality time together asking, planning, creating, imagining and improving. It was evident that families had discussed the projects at home. I was so impressed with how well spoken the students were when asked about their project. In addition to families coming to our STEM “fair” Laura McGoogan, an electrical engineer from UL came and spoke briefly about being an engineer then visited the children and allowed them to share their creative buildings and or shelters.
What I witnessed by doing this event was that kids are thrilled with their build story. Kids were supportive and proud of each other as they did a gallery walk to see each others projects. I believe parents gain several things by virtue of this type of project. First, they get to witness the process of seeing their child explore through discovery, they get to witness the joy of learning beside their children and finally they are part of the reason why STEM kids are inquisitive and curious, all of which contribute to success in school.
