I can officially say that my son Jordan is headed to Kennesaw State. You may recall that earlier this year I wrote a blog where I confessed to being a naysayer regarding his college application choices. While he was accepted to two of his three choices, he ultimately decided to go with Kennesaw. I am excited because my husband and I attended Kennesaw for undergrad. In fact, that is where we met. But I am more excited for my son, Jordan, because now that his decision has been made, he seems happier. He knows that graduation is just a few short weeks away and he has already secured a roommate...... his best friend. You see, while I spent years focusing on my sons' grades and their sports and making them walk the straight and narrow (maybe not so straight but definitely narrow) I forgot to emphasize that life is about being happy and fulfilled. Jordan says that Kennesaw is the perfect fit for him. He likes the campus size, he knows other kids who are also attending and it isn't far from home. Essentially, he is happy.
As educators, we are paid and programmed to prepare children for their academic future with little emphasis placed on their current or future state of happiness. Starting in Pre K, we preach college and career ready when really all four year olds want to do is play. As parents, we cloak our children with our own experiences and perspectives of the world but the world as we know it is changing. Millennials and Generation Z (yes high school students are Generation Z) want more out of life than a good job, a family and a picket fence. They want to be carefree. They want to create things. They want to travel. Really, they just want to be happy. I am learning how to back off (a little) and let my kids experience life in their own right. In this next phase of parenting, I am learning from past mistakes and listening to my kids when they share the things that make them happy.
Staff Spotlight
This week I would like to shine the spotlight on Shanell Maddrey. While Shanell is not a brand new teacher, this year she has had to learn the "ins" and "outs" of a new school system while living in a new state. As an experienced educator, she has been a great fit for the fifth grade team and for Medlock as a whole. She has a passion for literacy and has worked hard all year to develop solid readers and writers. During second semester, Shanell facilitated a weekly book club for students who were ready for a little more challenge in reading. She runs a tight ship in her classroom but genuinely cares about her students. She has been able to effectively work with students who have exhibited difficult behaviors. Shanell, we are glad that you are a Mustang and thank you for your work with our students.
Interest-Based Electives: Engaging Students With STEAM Explorations
Educators at Walter Bracken STEAM Academy engage students by letting them choose outside-the-box enrichment classes, like toy making, drones, and candy chemistry.
Edutopia
FEBRUARY 16, 2016
Overview
At Walter Bracken STEAM Academy, a Title 1 magnet school in urban Las Vegas, Nevada, they've turned enrichment classes into Explos. Explos, short for explorations, are 50-minute, hands-on, enrichment classes that teachers create based on student interest. These classes -- on topics from costume engineering to bubble gum science -- give students choice, engage them, and allow teachers to get creative with developing Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) curriculum.
Explo classes:
"When the kids are able to choose what they're going to learn about, they're more engaged, and they're more likely to pursue that topic outside of class,” says Katie Decker, Walter Bracken's principal. "It's all about engaging students and getting them excited about learning."
How It's Done
Step 1: Choose an Explo Topic
For ideas on STEAM Explo topics, Decker recommends looking at:Topic ideas come from teachers' passions. They get to bring their hobbies into the classroom. Past Explos have included The Art of Street Performing, Decoding the Rubic's Cube, The Usefulness of Drones, Girls Just Wanna Engineer Fun, and Can-struction (construction principles taught with cans of food, which are later donated).
Step 2: Pitch Your Explo to Your Students
The Explos with the most interest are offered as multiple classes. If one teacher's Explo doesn't get enough votes, someone else's Explo gets a chance. This encourages all teachers to create a captivating pitch so that students will choose their course.
"It's all about selling it to the kids," says Vicky Zblewski, a Walter Bracken fourth-grade teacher.
To create a good pitch, Zblewski recommends:
To make the voting process unbiased, don't mention:
Example Explo Titles and Descriptions
Here are two Explo titles and descriptions that Bracken teachers created and pitched to their students:
Step 3: Set Up Student Voting
Bracken teachers send their Explo titles and descriptions to Principal Decker, and she makes a sign-up sheet for each grade. The sheet includes a space for the student's name, teacher, and room number. She lists each course title in one column, and the course description in the adjacent column.
Decker advises:
After students hand in their sign-up sheets, teachers review the choices and send them to Decker, who divides the students evenly among all staff members.
Step 4: Get Creative With Your Curriculum
In Zblewski's Toy-ology Explo class, students learn about engineering concepts. "When you are building toys, you don't necessarily think that that's educational,” she observes, “but they're using their engineering skills. They have to plan it out, they have to think about measuring and putting the wheels and dowels on equally. In education, curriculum sometimes can be scripted, and these exploration classes give us the freedom to come up with a different idea.""You don't have to have a standardized mainstream curriculum to teach the standards," explains Klaus Friedrich, a Walter Bracken fifth-grade teacher. "I don't have to spend two hours on math out of the math book to teach math. When I teach about drones in the Drone Explo, I'm still going to teach math. That opens up the diversity of curriculum that normally you wouldn't find in a lot of schools."
Step 5: Fund Your Explo
To get funding and materials, Decker recommends:Zblewski's Toy-ology students are making their own toys using Kleenex boxes, water bottle caps, straws, glue, and markers, and they're planning their toy designs with pencil and paper. Making an Explo doesn't have to be expensive.
Step 6: Survey the Students at the End of an Explo
Once students finish an Explo, Bracken teachers give their students a survey to find out what they enjoyed about the class, what other existing Explos they would want to take, and what new subjects they want to learn about that aren't yet offered. This helps inform the teachers in designing their Explos for the next semester.
When creating a survey, Decker recommends:
Step 7: Give Yourself Time
"The biggest challenge that I'm faced with as an educator," acknowledges Friedrich, "is traditional thinking in teaching." He explains that schools will often try a new practice for a year, look at the results, and if it's not meeting their expectations, move on to a new practice. "The hardest part is they need to give it time," adds Friedrich. "It takes years to see it grow and get better. It has taken eight or nine years to get this to be where it is."
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