New School Year in the STEAM Lab

At the end of this week I sat down and realized that I had enough missed "tweets" to warrant a blog post. There were so many wonderful things happening in the STEAM Lab this week!

Full disclosure, I also saw this week that my blog bio said I had two children. My youngest will be two in the next couple of week, so I decided it was time to pay the neglected blog some attention! Either way, this week was blog-worthy!

Monday started with the eclipse. The school purchased glasses for all our students. The STEM coordinator also made these signs.

Once school was out for the day I was able to take my kindergartener and my second grader out to view the eclipse with me. It was pretty special!

I decided to bring back this project again this year. Instead of just self portraits like the onse in the picture below, I asked students to draw themselves as scientists. I started by asking what a scientist looks like. I typically got the answer I expected - a man in a white coat and googles. From there I showed the search results on PBS LeanringMedia for "Scientist Profile" and picked  few students to select a scientist to learn more about. Interestingly enough, very few of their drawing ended up wearing white lab coats! I have parent volunteers putting the project together next week. I'm excited to see how it comes out!

I always try to start the year with digital citizenship. A could of years ago I purchased the Nearpod version of the Common Sense Media curriculum. I love that I don't have to copy any pages before class starts. It is the perfect way to start the year in the STEAM Lab.

This year the elementary specialists got together and decided to try something new. I still see all elementary classes on a rotating basis, but we added a fourth day to the rotation. Instead of traveling to specials with the whole class, on the fourth day students go to Special Project Enrichment Classes (SPEC). Each quarter students have a different SPEC Class. We even had a team of teachers that have given up their planning once every four days in exchange for a stipend.

This quarter my SPEC class is all about LEGOs. My fourth and fifth graders get to travel into the high school STEM Lab. It has been a lot of work (and will be another post), but it has been worth it so far.

It was a full week, but it was the kind of week you look back at and feel good about. I've spent the weekend trying to distract myself from watching storm coverage and worrying about my mom and sister. I grew up in the Houston area and am praying for all those that are trying to deal with the effects of Harvey. Hang in there my Texas friends!

Have a great week!

Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship

This week my fifth graders were on a field trip so I ended up with an extra planning period. I decided to use that time to work on my application for Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Certification.

The application asks for documentation of how you have shared about the curriculum with the teachers at your school. I realized that I had done that, but I had not shared it clearly enough on my blog.  This post is not an application requirement. I’m not getting paid to post this. I just really think that digital citizenship is important, and I think Common Sense Media does a great job of giving teachers the free tools they need to do just that.



A friend shared a Common Sense Media newsletter with me last spring. She suggested that I sign up. Once I looked around the site, I fell in love with their K-12 digital citizenship curriculum. I remember being at a conference years ago talking about these same digital citizenship skills that no one is teaching. Who owns this? I decided that the STEAM Lab was the perfect place for digital citizenship.



My learning goal for my class this year is based on the ELA technology standard for each grade level. I use the elements of STEAM to teach that standard. Each of these lessons is linked to other ELA standards as well.

I was a little overwhelmed last fall so I decided to just teach the lessons as written. There were a few plans that I taught with low expectations. I was shocked at how much they enjoyed it! We had AMAZING conversations. I was surprised how many of our elementary students were I honestly felt like these lessons made a difference. It changed the way many of my students thought about their digital lives. From keyword searches to cyberbullying to copyright issues, these topics are part of our world today.



I started by printing the entire K-2 curriculum and the 3-5 curriculum. I keep them in a binder so that I have originals to make copies. I did not follow the scope and sequence, but picked the lessons that matched what I had going on. Days I was relocated to the Media Center due to construction in my classroom we did Digital Passport lessons on the library computer. On the other hand when I did not have access to computers, I decided to wait to do the keywords lesson.

Funny enough, I taught most of these lessons before I had computers in my room. They are designed to be as low tech or as high tech as you want/need them to be. One computer with a projector was perfect to guide discussions.



If you do have access to more, the Digital Passport is a website from Common Sense Media for grades 3-5. My students loved these games. The Twalkers game is the best I have ever seen for explaining the dangers of driving (or walking) while texting.  You should try it yourself. They have also released an iBooks version of the curriculum I plan to use in the fall.



The resources available make it idiot proof. They have included everything you need – videos, handouts, extension ideas, computer games to reinforce, and more. There are even resources for sharing with parents or other teachers.  It is well worth signing up and exploring these free resources.

* The pictures in the post were from a bulletin board display we did for digital citizenship week. My 3-5 students each created a Twitter strip with a tip or something they had learned about digital citizenship.

Five for Friday

Today chewed me up and spit me back out.  I won’t go into it, but I’ve decided to take the afternoon for myself. I’m looking at Pinterest and reading blogs. I haven’t done either of those things in a while. I miss it!

So, I am determined to post my Five for Friday ON Friday this time. Here goes nothing…

1

Today was my first day teaching art. While the rest of my day was rough, I enjoyed my classes. (For those who may be new to my blog, I am in a STEAM lab this year. I teach 6 classes a day K-5 on a three day rotating schedule.) I was a little nervous about it. My first two classes were a little crazy, but by the end of the day I managed to finish projects AND clean up before they left me. With only two minutes between classes it is a bit hectic!

2

Speaking of Art, my first project was based on The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. I started with the story:

I’ve already had several students complain that they are not good at art, so I thought it would be a good starting ground.

I gave each student frames to fill with their dot creation. They got 4-8 frames depending on the grade level. I had stations set up around the room for them to create using crayons, markers, paper/glue, and watercolor.



After they completed their dot art, they put it together into their own dot gallery. They look fantastic!



It wasn’t the most technical of lessons, but they were really creative and even the fifth grade boys who rolled their eyes when I started the lesson got into it in the end.

My next step is to sign up for International Dot Day. It just so happens to be on my birthday.

I want to get each student to design one more dot that we will hang up on the GIANT bulletin boards outside my room. With 18 classes K-5, it will be a lot of dots. 

3

Earlier this week I did some more with the Common Core Digital Citizenship Curriculum. I printed these in poster size.

image source

image source

I found with the number of our students on Instagram, I was using the middle school poster starting in third grade. Crazy! It is a great resource though!

4

My own two little ones have requested a picnic in the living room the last two nights. No picnic is complete without popcorn and a movie.

After a long day at work, I can’t complain!

5

I knew Monday was Labor Day, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized we are off on Thursday as well. Many of the schools in South Florida don’t have school on the major Jewish holidays. I am not Jewish myself, so I didn’t realize it was next week. Talk about a welcome surprise! I won’t turn down a three day week!

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Enjoy your long weekend!

Five for Friday…Late again

**I actually wrote this on Friday night and it has taken me all weekend to find time to post it. Such is life!**

The first week of school. There is nothing quite like it! My husband had to work late tonight. I sat down with the kids after work watching Curious George. I woke when my husband called at 7 to say he was on his way home. Thank goodness the kids had snacked and dinner was only leftovers!

I hope to get into a more regular blogging routine again, but right now I’m just trying to figure out life as a specialist.

1

I had fun teaching this week. I’m exhausted, but I enjoyed teaching. Teaching in the lab is completely different from third grade. I have 6 preps on a three day rotation. 

It was half way through the first day that it dawned on me that I have to learn names for 18 classes. On the plus side, I feel like a movie star walking down the halls. I teach every kid in K-5, so everyone wants to say hi or give me a hug.

2

Kindergarten kicked my rear. Our school does a staggered start for K, so there were only six kids for each of the first three days. 

“I’m hungry. When’s lunch? I like art. You’re pretty. Where’s my teacher? Is it lunch time yet? I have to go potty. When do we eat lunch? I have a cat. I’m hungry. Can I go potty now? I have a lunch box. Is it time for lunch yet? I have a sister. When do we go to lunch?”

It was a full 50 minutes of talk. Seriously. Can you tell that I have them right before lunch? 

I had a Kindergarten rotation during my student teaching, but it was November. August is a completely different ball game. They were nonstop. 

Thankfully it is already improving. A little.

3

The computers they ordered for my room are here, but the electricity and data ports still have not been upgraded, so they cannot be used yet. There was a mistake in the work order or something like that. They *might* be in over the weekend to work on it. There is a pretty good chance I will have to teach in the media center all next week, but no one knows for sure yet. I’m all about being flexible this year!

The picture is the hallway outside my room. I made these posters spelling out The Science Technology Engineering Art Math Lab. I love the way my room has come together so far and cannot wait until all the updated furniture and technology is in place! 

4

I’ve started with the digital citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Media. It has been eye opening! I looked at the first lesson in the 3-5 curriculum and was worried that it was going to be boring. Not at all! The conversations it has led to with the fifth graders has been a bit scary. So many of these kids already have Instagram and Facebook accounts, but they had no idea of the potential dangers or potential repercussions from irresponsible actions online. They have been completely wide eyed as we talk. I felt strongly about starting with this unit. We’re only one lesson in I’m sold already.

5

I’ve made some awesome connections this week. Several years ago I worked on the South Florida Arts and Early Literacy Research Project with the Music in Education National Consortium through the New England Conservatory. I’ve contacted several of the university partners from that project this week and have promising leads for help integrating art into the STEAM lab. I also had a parent express an interest in partnering with engineering projects. I think it has lots of potential!

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For now the kids are in bed and my husband just brought home some take out for a date night at home. 

Enjoy your weekend!

(Or what’s left of it! I wrote that on Friday when the weekend was still ahead of us. Now I have a serious case of the Sunday night blues and ironing to do instead of date night. Sigh.)