My schedule this month doesn’t allow for much time to process laundry between flights, but the flights give me a great opportunity to process information. Every year, coworkers ask me, why on earth I would spend my own money, and my own time to do professional development in the summer – THE SUMMER! I don’t know about you, but I went into education because I love to learn. One of the qualities that I hope to pass along to my students each year, is the desire to remain a life long learner.
So, good for you, if you too are seeking professional learning this summer – and yes, in my opinion blogs and Pinterest DO count!
If you were in Las Vegas last week for I Teach K, I Teach 1st, I Teach 2nd, Singapore Math, or Differentiated Instruction Conferences, you are likely tired, and rejuvenated all at the same time! It was fun to see educators from all over the world speak (and really fun just to listen to the accents of some!) It is always amazing to me that even though our geographical positions on this earth are very different, as early childhood educators, we are all passionate about some of the same developmental issues. It is refreshing to hear over and over again that teachers are trying to “sneak” play back into our Kindergarten classrooms, even if they have to be very intentional about it.
I was so honored to present at this conference again this year to around one hundred educators at every stage of their careers. Some had never really heard of STEM/STEAM, but their district had been given a grant to expand a program that they knew nothing about, so they were there to learn. Some had run STEM/STEAM activities in their classrooms before, but were curious about ways to improve. Others had been challenged with creating a Project Based Learning environment for the upcoming year. It was so heart warming to hear one of the teachers say “I had no idea what I was going to do next year to satisfy my Project Based Learning objective, and now I know exactly what I am going to do – thank you!”
That’s what this is all about! I want to help inspire you, but at the same time, solve problems with you! One of my favorite takeaways (and there were a LOT!) from the conference was to create signs that student could put on their physical building work that would “save” their creations until the next work time. This idea struck me, because we are trying to teach them that sometimes the Engineering Design Process can take a LONG time – and yet, we make them start over every day with their great ideas. Let’s let them build upon their ideas . It will be up to you how long you allow a block structure to take over your classroom. You might even have to think about designating an area where projects can be saved, so if they are thinking they might want to work more than one day on something, they know that they have to work in that area. (For me, it would be super inconvenient for my large block builders to decide they wanted to save a structure that was set up in the middle of my group carpet area. This would not be feasible for long. But if I knew they might want to save something over night, I could do a quick rearrange of furniture to allow them to build in the corner where they would be out of the way. You can get the five signs (black and white and color) that will help you organize your STEAM/STEM classroom for FREE!
What were some of your favorite take aways from Las Vegas? (Maybe it was a Casino Jackpot?! If so, congrats!)