For the past two years I've had the pleasure and privilege of serving as a Khan Academy Ambassador, sharing the wonderful resources of the non-profit organization, training others on the use of the platform, and connecting with other educators around the world to influence and impact student learning. I am especially fortunate to be able to say I was a part of the initial/inaugural cohort of Khan Academy Ambassadors during the 2016-2017 school year. It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that I continue to serve as a Khan Academy Ambassador for the 2018-2019 school year.
"You can learn anything." I have always appreciated and believed in Khan Academy's mission and purpose for lifelong learning. It's absolutely wonderful to have a organization and an individual (Sal Khan) share their learning modules and resources for free, for everyone, forever. Khan Academy has been changing lives since 2006 when it was created by Salman Khan to help educate students of all ages.
For the past two years I've had the pleasure and privilege of serving as a Khan Academy Ambassador, sharing the wonderful resources of the non-profit organization, training others on the use of the platform, and connecting with other educators around the world to influence and impact student learning. I am especially fortunate to be able to say I was a part of the initial/inaugural cohort of Khan Academy Ambassadors during the 2016-2017 school year. It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that I continue to serve as a Khan Academy Ambassador for the 2018-2019 school year.
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What, in your work, are you proud of? Last Friday, PAUSD’s Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Education asked the TOSA Team to reflect on our work so far this school year. What was I proud of? This being my third year in the role as a Math & STEAM Coach, what was I proud of? The transition to our new math curriculum sure makes the list. Co-facilitating the STEAM Inquiry Group with my colleague, Leslie Faust, is a definite thing. Supporting teachers and students in their math, STEAM, & inquiry based instruction definitely stands out. How did I answer the question of what I was proud of? I am proud of partnering with teachers who have been “harder” to reach the past two and a half years. There are many teachers who I have had the pleasure & privilege of partnering with and have made many connections with. And there are those who I have never worked with or have invited me to do a demo lesson once in the past two and a half years mainly because their principal made it an expectation. Those are the teachers, who I am working with this year, that I am proud of - of continuing my effort to partnering with them. Some of them have forever had their doors closed to TOSAs and coaching. Maybe it’s because they’ve had previous bad experiences with TOSAs. Maybe it’s because of a perception that they’re being judged. No matter the reason, they have always resisted any support. This year some of those resistors have opened up to my support. I’ve had the opportunities to co-plan with them, analyze student data, share resources, model lessons for them, and asked for their feedback. I am reminded of one of Simon Sinek’s quotes. I am proud of those partnerships. What led to the partnerships? What was the difference this year compared to previous years? I’m not sure. What I believe, though, is that three factors are at play. Patience, timing, and readiness.
Patience I’ve wanted to work with those teachers and their students since I first started as a coach. I’ve looked for opportunities, listened for access points, and partnered with their principals to identify how I can support. However, it never happened in the past two years. My efforts never stopped though. I remained patient. I kept listening for access points. I kept partnering with the principals. I kept making conversations, offering support AND asking for their input. I remained patient and trusted that an opportunity will come. Timing Another factor was timing - not anything on my end with timing but timing on the part of the teachers. Coupled with being patient, it was about their timing. The timing wasn’t right during the past two years. This year they were ready, they were open. The timing was right for them. The timing of content, the timing of struggles, the timing of process, ... The timing was right this year. It’s similar to sharing a message. You can say the same thing multiple times, but the listener may not hear it until the timing is right for them. Readiness Just like timing, readiness was another factor. The teachers’ timing and readiness were in place. They were ready. However, when I say readiness, I mean my readiness. I stayed ready. I know I can’t control the teachers’ readiness for support, but I could control my readiness to provide support. So I stayed ready. I stayed ready for when the timing was right, for when they were ready. I stayed ready to listen. I stayed ready to provide resources. I stayed ready to co-plan. I stayed ready. I am indeed proud of being able to partner with teachers who I haven’t had the pleasure and privilege of working with during the past two years. The work with them may be at beginning stages compared to partnerships I have with others over the course of two years, but it’s work I’m proud of. There are still teachers with whom I haven’t partnered with yet. There are still some resistors. But I will be patient. I will prepare for the right timing. I will stay ready. If and when I get that opportunity, I know I will be proud of that too.
As PAUSD elementary teachers continue their implementation of the district's new math curriculum, Bridges in Mathematics, it's always important to be mindful of equity and access. Have we ensured that every class received their necessary materials? Do all teachers have what they need in terms of professional development and support structures to implement the new curriculum effectively? Do principals have what they need to learn how to be the instructional leaders at their sites? If there are technical needs, do all teachers and students have the hardware and infrastructure to support the educational technology integration?
One impressive thing about Math Learning Center, the publisher of Bridges in Mathematics, is their math apps. On their website, they offer ten (with one in beta) mobile apps for users to download and install. Not only are they helpful tools for math instruction and practice, Math Learning Center has developed these apps to be cross-platform - iOS, Chrome, Windows, and web-based. Equity and Access. Not only are these cross-platform apps helpful tools for math instruction and practice, they are apps that can be used with any math curriculum!
Full STEAM Ahead!
What an incredible experience attending the 5th annual California STEAM Symposium. This was my second year attending this symposium (formerly the STEM Symposium). It's always powerful and fulfilling to attend a conference for professional development, connections, and inspiration. Last year's symposium that took place in Anaheim definitely did that for me and my colleague, Mangla Oza. We were inspired by the keynotes (especially Sir Ken Robinson's keynote), made many amazing connections, and attended many wonderful sessions. One of which we were able to share with our district - blog post. This year's CA STEAM Symposium was just as inspirational. Captain Mark Kelly kicked off the Symposium with stories of his journey into NASA and into space, his wife's perseverance and resolve, and shared words of wisdom. Some of the key points include:
The entire California STEAM Symposium was indeed an inspiring experience! The words from their website accurately describes the experience. "The 2017 ... Symposium convened over 3,000 educators ... for ongoing rigorous, collaborative, and inspiring professional learning and resources to support high-quality science, technology, engineering, art, and math instruction for all students."
PAUSD's Maker Movement
It was such a pleasure and privilege to be one of those 3,000 educators who engaged in professional learning. I was able to experience the symposium as both a participant and a presenter. My colleague, PAUSD's Literacy & STEAM Coach for Elementary Education, Leslie Faust, and I presented a session on our district's Maker Movement. It was such an honor to be able to share the work of so many educators in our district. Our session shared the process and development of three initiatives that addresses the Maker Movement and our three focus goals.
It was great to excite creativity with the hands-on design challenge to start the session. There were many fantastic ideas for an ideal school playground from each table group. The session then went over the work of educators and parent volunteers at three elementary schools in our district and the collaboration between AAR and Elementary Education in PAUSD to launch the Creativity Project (Creative Carts). Leslie and I concluded our session by sharing our work on creating a STEAM Lending Library (from the inspiration of Mount Diablo Unified School District's STEM Lending Library - news article).
Again, it was such a pleasure, privilege, and honor to be able to engage in professional learning, connect with other educators, and share the work of PAUSD. The slide deck that Leslie and I used in our session is linked here as well as some of my tweets from the symposium.
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Joe YoungMath & STEAM Coach / TOSA in Palo Alto Unified School District. Categories
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