If I ever wanted to know whether I'm a STEAM Coach, this was definitely a moment that told me my mind goes to the science and technology part of a seemingly simple request.
Here's a story of how you know you're a STEAM Coach. As I was getting ready to go to the store, a friend of mine asked me to pick up a snowball for him. Immediately my mind wondered how I was going to get a snowball in the San Francisco Bay Area. Snow doesn't fall in the Bay Area. My mind thought of all the physical, environmental, and scientific situations that are needed in order to get snow. In that span of about three seconds I thought surely he didn't mean an actual snowball. So, I then thought he must be asking for a Blue Snowball microphone. But why would he want a Blue Snowball microphone when he doesn't do many technical things on his computer. He uses his computer for email, web surfing, and watching videos on YouTube. Turns out he was asking for me to pick up a pack of Hostess Sno Balls.
If I ever wanted to know whether I'm a STEAM Coach, this was definitely a moment that told me my mind goes to the science and technology part of a seemingly simple request.
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As a child, I never wanted to attend summer school. I wanted my summers to be filled with fun, camps, and playing at the playground. As an adult, I still enjoy my summer breaks. It's definitely a time for me to unwind from the school year, take and attend professional development workshops and conferences, and prepare for the coming year. I've only taught two years of summer school out of my 10+ years as a teacher - one year at math-focused summer program and the other year for a middle school digital arts program I designed.
This summer I have the honor and privilege of being a principal for the summer school program. It's not any ordinary program either. This summer's program, designed by a fellow Elementary TOSA, Arcia Dorsti, is an enrichment program that focuses on student choice and STEAM! Students have the opportunity to engage in Genius Hour, Passion Projects, MysterySkype and MysteryHangout, designing thinking projects, coding, and more. Each day will include aspects of Responsive Classroom, Number Talk and an Interactive Read Aloud. The summer program is not only a chance for students to take on projects they're interested in, there are opportunities for teachers too. One message in our first professional development meeting for summer school is that the program allows teachers to do projects and units they've wanted to explore and teach but may not have the time and flexibility during the school year. This year's summer school is also for the educators to learn and grow. I can't wait to support the learning from the students and the teachers this summer! Below is the Padlet we used during our first professional development meeting of ideas and topics summer school teachers are interested in. It's been truly an incredible experience and true pleasure partnering with so many teachers throughout the Palo Alto Unified School District in math and STEAM throughout the school year. I've had the privilege and pleasure of working with Valerie Sabbag, a fifth grade teacher at Fairmeadow, throughout the year on Number Talks, the use of Spheros, and co-planning STEAM integration. BreakoutEDU is one of those STEAM integration projects we got to work on. Throughout the year, her fifth grade students worked together to solve BreakoutEDU games and puzzles that involved math, social studies, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving. BreakoutEDU is definitely an activity that surpasses any curricula and content area. It addresses multiple areas, and, more important, the lifeskills that are essential to educating young children. Character education is a critical part of life. This week, Valerie's fifth grade students had the pleasure of working on their own BreakoutEDU games AND boxes. Valerie really had a wonderful vision of having students build their own boxes. This process addressed many mathematical concepts that she was going to teach and in doing it with this project, it was definitely an engaging and hands-on project. Measurement, surface area, volume. Students got the chance to use a hacksaw, hand sanders, and wood glue to construct their boxes. Students worked in small groups to plan this boxes, check and double check their measurements, and put their box together. While one group worked on building the boxes with Valerie and a wonderful volunteer, the other groups worked collaboratively on writing their own BreakoutEDU games. This was also part of Valerie's integrated approach to teaching. In her Writer's and Reader's Workshop, her class was studying fantasy stories. This became the basis for the BreakoutEDU games. Groups of students created games centered around the themes of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and more. The fifth grade students got to beta test their games with their third grade buddy class, Krisiti Van's class. This was an important step because it helped them observe how effective their clues were for their puzzles. The fifth grade students had opportunities to revise their games before sharing it with their parents at Fairmeadow's Learning Celebration / Open House. Check out the pictures below of this incredible project that spanned a few weeks. Also, check out #breakoutedu for tips and stories. A #breakoutedu Twitter chat also takes place. Be on the lookout for days and times of the chat. Here's an archive of the first chat by EdTechAri. Education is the movement from darkness to light. - Allan BloomAt this week's elementary TOSA team meeting I was given the above quote by the Chief Academic Officer to think about its meaning and impact related to my work as an instructional coach. Each team member received a different quote and the discussion that followed after each quote and impact was read aloud was profound and enlightening. During the think time of my quote, I focused in on Bloom's Taxonomy and my work with it as a facilitator of the Elements of Instruction workshop for the Palo Alto Unified School District. Education leads to Knowledge and Comprehension. It is from the foundation of knowledge and comprehension that one can go to the higher levels of thinking - application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. To me, Education leads to knowledge and comprehension, and as an instructional coach, that knowledge leads to countless benefits: ideas, growth, passion, connections, clarity, support for others, vision, integration, professional development, ... In the picture of my notebook, I wrote, "As a coach ... My continued personal PD & education leads to knowledge and understanding. From there I can move to higher levels of thinking. Higher levels when I can bring light to my surroundings & to others. To support others, challenge status quo, build connections, support PD, growth, continued R&R, ..." What does the quote mean to you? (Below is the digital sketchnote I created from the image in my notebook.) Yesterday, PAUSD's STEAM Inquiry Group had the pleasure of spending a day at The Computer History Museum (CHM). It was a fantastic day for the elementary school teachers to experience the museum's Revolution exhibit, speak with Lauren Silver, CHM's vice president of education, and continue our work on district professional development on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). As a STEAM coach / TOSA, this was a wonderful experience - to engage in so much history of design, computing, and revisions. The Computer History Museum is definitely an amazing treasure in the Bay Area, and specifically in Silicon Valley. CHM's Revolution exhibit takes guests through the first 2000 years of computing, from abacuses and early calculators, punched cards, analog computers, to early computer companies, real-time computing, personal computers, and the internet. If you've never visited the museum, I definitely recommend adding it to your list of things to do in the SF Bay Area. As a Math coach, I loved getting to see the (r)evolution of computing. It was incredible to see the progress of computing and calculators through time. One part of the Revolution exhibit that caught my eye was the display of Napier's Bones (pictured below). This really resembled the lattice method of multiplication that many math curricula, one of which is Everyday Math.
McGraw Hill's Everyday Math curriculum has been PAUSD's adopted math curriculum for the past seven years and have experienced both support and criticism from the community and teachers. One of the complaints was the variety of math strategies students are taught and how this might confuse students. Some family members and teachers question why teaching so many strategies is helpful when the traditional algorithm works. While I understand that perspective, I have always been a proponent of learning multiple ways to do something so that there can always be many options and tools to complete the task at hand. An analogy or story I've used with students in classrooms, and parents while supporting principals at their info coffees and parent ed nights to explain the "why" of learning multiple strategies goes like this. "One day as I was driving home, there was a construction crew digging up the road I always drive down. Oh well. I guess I can't go home today." Students always respond, "No! Just take another street." Napier's Bones reminded me of the lattice method of multiplication, a method that's quite popular with the fifth graders I've taught. It's truly amazing to see how methods of calculating and computing we teach today have origins in history. I wonder if John Napier's method was the foundation to the lattice method. Ten years ago Twitter was born. It's crazy to think about how much Twitter has impacted social media, celebrities, sport teams, and companies.
One view may be that Twitter has contributed to our shorter attention spans. If things, like emails, aren't short, we often use the TLDR approach - Too Long, Didn't Read. Twitter's 140 character messages have contributed to changing the landscape of social media. On the other hand, I've seen the use Twitter has indeed changed the landscape in education, and definitely for this Math and STEAM Coach. I've been on Twitter as an educator for the past few years and I definitely wish I was on sooner. The learning, sharing, encouragements, and connections I've made have impacted my career in countless ways. Social media is career-changing. Here is a list of some of the amazing things I've learned as a result of being a connected educator on Twitter. #OneWord MysterySkype and MysteryHangout Digital Citizenship Resources EdCamps Connection-Based Learning Online Buddies and Peer Editors using Google Apps for Education Countless Twitter chats including #tlap, #caedchat, #dojochat, #Schoologychat, #digcit, #fitnessedu, #Read4Fun, #edtechchat, #1stchat, #2ndchat, #5thchat, #personalizedPD, #educoach, #elemmathchat, and more. Last and certainly not least is #TOSAchat. TOSAchat has changed my life. There are countless professionals in that community who support, share, collaborate, encourage, inspire, and enhance each other's personal growth. I had the pleasure of partnering with Ben Cogswell, Karly Moura, and Kelly Martin to create TOSAchat. The TOSAchat community has a chat every Monday at 8:00PM PST - tosachat.org for more information. Twitter. Social Media. = Game changer for connected educators. Extending the learning. I had the pleasure of working with Gina del Fucco, a first grade teacher at Briones Elementary School, throughout the year. We've explored the use of Number Talks as a way for students to explain their mathematical thinking, ReEngagement with MARS Tasks for students to analyze another student's responses, and Problem of the Months for ongoing problem solving. Gina and I partnered together this week to extend concepts she was teaching her students in geometry. In a conversation together, she shared that her students have learned about 2D shapes and started identifying 3D blocks by their names and attributes. That was a wonderful foundation for the work we did next - turning a (common) 2D design into a 3D block.
During the lesson, we identified familiar vocabulary in geometry with the students - square, sides, corners. With cubes the students had in the classroom, Gina and I introduced the terms faces and edges (we purposefully saved vertices for a future exploration). It was great to see the students work flexibly with the task of taking the 2D design of 6 squares with connecting sides and turning it into a 3D cube with square faces and edges. The students had a lot of fun designing their cubes - some were dies and fortune tellers. Extending the learning. As an instructional coach, I love the opportunities I get to think about how to apply, synthesize, evaluate, and analyze their learning. Pro Tip: When you have students creating cubes, direct them to put the scraps from the paper inside the cube. This will give the cube some weight and also help keep its shape.
Everyone should know how to program a computer, because it teaches you to think! - Steve Jobs
I had the pleasure of partnering with the first grade classes at Escondido Elementary School in PAUSD on learning coding and computer science. It was fun to begin the time together talking about how the first graders have interacted with technology and computer science before. They shared many wonderful ideas including playing video games, watching Netflix, playing Minecraft, using the microwave, using the SmartBoard in the classroom, using the telephone, and also as simply as turning on the lights. As we continued, our time together, I shared a process of determining the "codes" the students need to use to navigate the "fuzzball" to get the prize. It was definitely an engageing intro activity as the first graders used the directions of up, down, left, and right to program the path of the fuzzball. Starting with a whole-class activity on the easel pad helped established a shared learning experience before the students worked in partners to solve the coding puzzles on the iPad app - Kodable.
It was definitely a great time working with the first graders on the introduction to coding and computer science, the essential lifeskill of trying again when mistakes are made, the process of analyzing mistakes in code, and working with another to solve puzzles.
What an incredible gathering of educators and professionals at #EdCampSV yesterday at the Palo Alto High School's Media Arts Center. This was the 3rd annual EdcampSV (Silicon Valley) and the event has really improved and grown.
This was my second year being an organizer of EdcampSV and it was an incredibly enriching and powerful process for me. I had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful educators from all over the bay area from Campbell, San Jose, San Mateo, and Pittsburg. We had incredible success organizing the event, getting sponsorships, and putting the event on. Some of the amazing sponsorship items included tickets to the STEM Museum at Levi Stadium, a Makey Makey, Chromebooks, Swivl, breakoutEDU box, an autographed copy of Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller, a Parrot drone, and a SmartBoard. It was truly amazing to work with such an awesome group of educators / organizers. It was fantastic to make connections, talk about relevant topics in education, and meet people in my PLN in real life. Be sure to click on the EdcampSV link below to see the list of sessions and the notes from some of sessions. Useful links: Edcampsv.net Storify of tweets
Update: The above slideshow doesn't seem to work on some browsers. Perhaps it's an issue embedding it into Weebly. Who knows. It seems to work on EdcampSV.net though.
Families in the Fairmeadow Elementary School community enjoyed a wonderful, hands-on evening at Family Game Night on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. It was such an amazing evening with a full house of students, parents, grandparents, ... in Fairmeadow's Multipurpose Room. As a Math & STEAM Coach, I had the pleasure of sharing in that event, capturing the activities with pictures and videos, and celebrating with the entire school community in its exploration of math games.
Some highlights: -There were over 10 stations of various math games they students enjoyed. - Parents had the opportunity to play with their children. - Various math games were available, from a variety of cultures and countries. - And, of course, this was a wonderful experience that continued to foster positive home-school connections around mathematics. It's always such an amazing process of hearing the mathematical thinking of students during Math Talks - Number Talks and Dot Talks. As a Math & STEAM TOSA, I've had the pleasure of joining many classes throughout PAUSD and listening to the academic discourse from students from Kindergarten to Fifth grade. On Tuesday, February 16th, I had the pleasure of hearing a second grader from Susan Hoff's class at Fairmeadow Elementary School share his mathematical thinking. I had just introduced a new Problem of the Month packet and got to listen this his strategy of solving 19 x 3. Enjoy the video I captured. You'll notice he effectively shares his mathematical thinking and math strategies. Through the Number Talks, MARS Tasks, and Problem of the Month packets Mrs. Hoff and I have used with her class it's clear they have really been exercising Math Practices 1 & 3. Elementary school teachers throughout PAUSD had our staff development day today and I had the pleasure of facilitating the sessions focused on the use of Problem of the Month packets in math. My colleague, Mangla Oza, a math TOSA, and I co-presented to the fifth grade teachers throughout the district during the first session and then to the fourth grade teachers during the second session. It was a wonderful time looking at the use of the Problem of the Month packets and how it touches on the 8 mathematical practices. It was wonderful to see and hear all the mathematical thinking, reasoning, and sharing of ideas during the period of problem solving, the gallery walk, and the debrief time.
After each session, teachers gave Mangla and I very positive feedback. Many said they appreciated the time to just work on problems that really tested their problem solving skills. Many others said they could see their students enjoying the challenge and the chance to share their thinking with their classmates. Everyone who spoke to us told us they mostly appreciated that today's staff development day looked at a familiar topic and not something new. Teachers are definitely overwhelmed with all the new initiatives of this school year. Some of them said it was great to look at the Problem of the Month packets again in light of CCSS and the math practices, and that for whatever reason they had forgotten how powerful the packets are. It was an incredibly fulfilling morning as a presenter and professional developer. One specific appreciation I received today that really filled my bucket was from a dear friend and colleague, Valerie Sabbag. In our conversation, Valerie said the message she heard at church on Ash Wednesday focused on thinking of the people in our lives that have made an impact on our lives and have made a positive impact on our lives. She said, "I thought of you and how every time you're at Fairmeadow, you are always so supportive and complimentary of what I do. You always take pictures of what I do and tweet them out and highlight the things I do." What an incredible bucket-filler! Now, as I write this post, I know I need to just hear the appreciation and take it in. I need to accept it. In reflection, I know I should do that. What I did at that time reflects my humble nature. I responded, "Thank you for filling my bucket. I want you to know that my tweets and compliments are all because you have so many amazing things in your classroom. I just get to spotlight the things you already do. Without your awesome stuff, I wouldn't have anything to tweet about." Appreciations are given with sincerity. I know I can work on myself and my response to them. I know I can accept the appreciations. I know I will always live with humility, AND I can take that moment to accept the appreciation. In the midst of the second trimester assessments period and the option for grades 3-5 to take the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments, I've had the opportunity to support teachers at Fairmeadow Elementary School and Juana Briones Elementary School. It's been a good learning period for everyone in the district as we learn about the various assessment blocks, the test administrator's interface, and the online reporting system. On Friday, January 29th, I had the chance to support Beth Estrada, fifth grade teacher at Juana Briones Elementary School, prepare to administer the SBAC Interim Assessment on fractions. Beth, like many teachers throughout the district, was planning on using the interim assessment for her students to get used to the student interface of the Smarter Balance Assessment, gather formative data on her students for further instruction, and as a means for her students to prepare for the testing period later in the Spring. Students who've been enrolled in PAUSD for the past two years are familiar with the student interface, but it's always good to have repeated exposure to ensure students are familiar and comfortable with the testing system. It will definitely interesting to see the results of these interim assessments. One big question is how the results will be reported - in what format and whether there's a breakdown of the results based on each question, math domain, and/or function. It's been such a pleasure and privilege working with so many teachers throughout Palo Alto Unified School District. The teachers have inspired me, shared challenges that we work on together, and given me the honor of partnering with them on math and STEAM projects. This week, I had the pleasure of working with Mindy Dodsworth, 4th grade teacher at Fairmeadow Elementary School, on introducing Google Docs to her students. We began our time with a discussion about digital citizenship and norms we expect for our online interactions and behaviors. It was great to hear the students generate their ideas for what they consider to be ways to stay safe and productive online. The following are a few ideas from our discussion. -Stay focused on the work. -Stay safe. -Take a break -Stay calm (reload the page). -Be respectful to others (don't hack others' accounts). -Keep private information private (don't share passwords). It was great to hear the students share the point of taking a break. We had a discussion about the importance of that, screen time, the effects on our eyes from staring at a screen for an extended period of time, and ideas for taking a break. As we continued, we talked about the importance of keeping our Google Drive organized. We discussed how similar to any place used for storage, like cubbies in the early elementary years, lockers in middle and high schools, and the bedrooms, keeping their files and folders organized in Google Drive is important for peace of mind and workflow. [Of course there's the search field within Drive, but personalizing a structure of organization is important.] As our lesson continued, I showed the students how to share their "4th grade" folder with their teacher so Mrs. Dodsworth can comment on their Google Doc. We talked about how this helps in the editing and revision process of their work. It was great to immediately demonstrate this as Mrs. Dodsworth and I commented as they wrote about their current study of the California Missions. It was great to support these fourth graders use EdTech while keeping digital citizenship in mind. It was great to support a colleague implement the use of Google Doc into her classroom. Connected to this was a conversation I had with a teacher at another school I support that really filled my bucket. Teri Wilde, 4th grade teacher at Escondido Elementary School, told me the impact of our partnership in her work with her students and EdTech integration. "The best thing was getting you in (my classroom) early because the things you introduced then is helping throughout the year. If you hadn't shared those things I probably wouldn't be doing them." It is such a pleasure of me to partner with so many amazing professionals who inspire me, help me grow, and push me to be a better educator and colleague.
In this digital age, it's important to be mindful of our online posts, pictures, blog posts, and social media interactions and what kind of digital footprint we're leaving.
A fifth grade class at El Carmelo Elementary School in PAUSD had the following footprints taped in the classroom after a series of lessons and discussions of the impact of our digital footprint with their teacher, Jeanne-Marie Atieh. This is definitely an important concept for everyone, and it's great to start learning about our digital footprint at an early age.
I have had such a pleasure partnering with so many professionals through the Palo Alto Unified School District and districts all around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. In this first year as a Math & STEAM Coach / TOSA (teacher on special assignment, it's been extra special because I have the opportunity to go into many more teachers' classrooms, partner with them, collaborate on lessons and projects, and learn and grow together. Two educators I've had the incredible pleasure of partnering with are Kristi Van and Valerie Sabbag, both from Fairmeadow Elementary School in the Palo Alto Unified School District.
This week, the first week back from winter break, has been an incredible experience with STEAM and robotics. On Tuesday, January 5th, I had the pleasure of partnering with Kristi Van, a third grade teacher at Fairmeadow Elementary School as her students had a free exploration of Spheros. The students had a wonderful time with the Spheros and they quickly caught onto the user interface of the iPad app to control their Spheros. Blog post about this experience. The fun with the Spheros continued it the afternoon with Valerie Sabbag's fifth grade class. I had the chance to touch base with Valerie during lunch about her plans for her students with the Spheros. She told me they've explored maneuvering the Spheros the day before and she developed a few courses for her students to take their Spheros on. These 4 to 5 courses became the students' "Driver's Ed" class as well. An example of one of the courses was to drive the Sphero down a straight line of blue tape, stop on an "x," and then drive it back to where it started. Another course involved maneuvering the Sphero around the classroom and under stools without hitting the legs of the stools (if you did, you had to start over). One other course was to circle around the three round picnic tables outside the classroom without bumping into the legs.
It was super fun to see the students' excitement after they passed their "driving test" and I asked them for their names to print on their Sphero Driver's License. As I printed the students' licenses on card stock and cut each one out, Valerie Sabbag gave her students the opportunity to design obstacle courses with any material in the classroom. The students definitely showed a lot of creativity as they used math manipulatives, pencil boxes, white boards, stools and benches, and supplies from their science explorations to construct their obstacle courses. Not only was this activity fun, hands-on, and creative, the students exercised a lot of academic skills and lifeskills. Valerie and I were able to hear the students talk about the angle their Sphero had to rotate to make a particular turn. Students calculated the distances of their obstacle courses. Students worked collaboratively, communicated their ideas, and showed flexibility as they revised their obstacle courses after some test runs.
Here are two more videos of some of the creative obstacle courses Valerie Sabbag's fifth grader made. The one on the right is definitely an example of how the students persevered to achieve their goal of dropping their Sphero into the tub of water.
As you can see in that last video, the students landed their Sphero in the tub of water. It was super fun. A fun connection was Valerie's comment, "This is how we use textbooks" which was a reference to Matt Miller's book, Ditch That Textbook. Of course I had to tweet it to Matt right away.
As you can see, it was such an incredible time for those fifth graders. I feel so honored to have the chance to partner with such amazing professionals. I can't believe that I get to have these experiences of being able to support Valerie Sabbag with the Spheros, STEM, and robotics! This week, the first week back from winter break, has indeed been an incredible experience.
Word Cloud of student responses to using the Spheros. Click "Read More" to view one last video of fifth grade students in Valerie Sabbag's class explore making their Sphero jump, dance, ... in the tub of water.
What an amazing way to start 2016! Today, the third graders in Kristi Van's class at Fairmeadow Elementary School in PAUSD had the pleasure of exploring Spheros. It was a fantastic experience where groups of students shared the iPads, explored the user interface of the Sphero app, and had a free exploration time with those fun robots. The third graders were very quick with finding and trying the different controls on the app. The students loved being able to change the speed of their Spheros, adjust the color, make their Sphero into a disco ball, and make their robot jump.
In the spirit of the holidays and to go with another slow chat, @tosachat began The 12 Days of #TOSAchat on December 21, 2015. It was great to have different members of the #TOSAchat community come up with the questions for each of the twelve days. Special thanks goes to: Knikole Taylor, Joanne Ireland, Courtney Gambetta, Jody Green, Ari Flewelling, Roland Aichele, Lindsey Blass, Nichole Carter, Amanda Haughes, Lisa Guardino, Ann Kozma, and Julie Goo. The following are the questions during these twelve days of #TOSAchat.
Throughout the last days of December and the first days of January, educators shared their responses, insights, questions, book recommendations, theme songs, reflections, and goals for the new year. It was extra special to be able to share a few more hashtags during the twelve days, including #connectedtl, #flyhighfri, and #oneword.
I can't even imagine trying to capture the highlights from the 12 Days because it will make this blog post never ending. Fortunately, #TeamTOSAchat (Ben Cogswell, Karly Moura, Kelly Martin, and I) worked on creating Storify stories. Day 1 Day 2 Days 1-6 Days 7-12 I received this message from a teacher at a school I support today and it was definitely my #flyhighfri moment. Teachers at Fairmeadow in PAUSD have the opportunity at each Tuesday's staff meeting to recognize a colleague with a shout out. It meant so much to me to receive this note because the teacher not only thought of me, but she kept it, held onto it, and made sure to give it to me. Today wasn't a work day for me and I was just dropping off things at the school. What a wonderful way to start winter break. I am touched, honored, and humbled for this heartwarming note. |
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