I have taken many actions beyond my immediate classroom to support other teachers, interns, and student teachers in many ways and to ensure that all the students at my school, district, and greater community are being exposed to high-quality science education. Every year I sign up to have a practicum student or a student teacher come into my classroom. I make sure to expose that teacher in training to a variety of teaching methods when it comes to teaching science. I make sure to show them the value of a balance of direct instruction versus inquiry based learning. It is of extreme importance to me that teachers use hands-on activities when teaching science and I want to instill that in all of the pre-service teachers that visit my classroom.
Also, I have taught workshops to colleagues at my school on the importance of inquiry based science lessons, as well as on the effectiveness of using a science journal to help the students learn to express scientific thinking through writing. These workshops included current research as to why inquiry based learning and science journals were being emphasized, as well as some activities that the teachers could try. For example, I had the teachers construct a straw rocket and then write in their journals about how they thought the rocket got its forward motion. This role-play of acting like the students that they teach really is important to the understanding of why these things are so important.
The past few years I have also had the opportunity to co-teach. We are departmentalized in 4th grade, so communication is the key to our success. Whenever possible, I integrate my science lessons with the math and language arts that are being taught during the other rotations. At our grade level meetings, I share with the teachers what I am doing in science and ask them to support me by giving examples of lessons they could teach in math and language arts to help to internalize the concepts in science. This cross-subject teaching allows the students to see that the subjects all relate to each other and success in one subject often depends on an understanding in another.
My contributions to educational excellence at the school, district, state, and national level are numerous. First, I am the science chair and STEM coordinator for our elementary school. I set up guest science speakers, as well as organize and run the committee meetings. Another example is that I was one of a small group of 4th grade teachers asked to write curriculum guides for science for our school district. We had to align our current textbooks and websites to the new standards to give teachers the tools that they needed to accurately teach science.
Currently, I am the Aerospace Ambassador for the Air Force Association. This title means that it is my job to coordinate professional development for teachers in the neighboring four counties where I live. This past February, I organized a teacher workshop called “Focus on the FUTURE: Furthering Teaching Using Robotics and Engineering. We had a record number of teachers attend. The workshop featured lesson plans to help teachers bring these concepts into the classroom as well as a Science Symposium where teachers could meet community members that have a tie to science and would be willing to visit their schools. It was a great thing for our local educators to develop a partnership with associations that they may not have known before. Also, I recently entered an essay contest for the American Association for the Advancement of Science on innovative ways to teach science and technology in the classroom. This essay was one of two winners in the United States and Canada and is now published on the Science NetLinks website for teachers across the nation to read and get ideas as to how to inspire future engineers and scientists.
Recently, I was also named the winner for Elementary Science in Florida for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. This award provided me with multiple opportunities to network with other science teachers across the nation as well as to meet with various government organizations, the President’s Office of Science and Technology, as well as President Obama himself. The topic of discussion at all of these meetings and round-tables was STEM and how to best promote it in the classroom. Also, I was impressed by how many of the national level committees wanted to know the best way to help us in the classroom. The trip to Washington, DC was eye-opening and showed me that people in high positions do truly care about the education that happens in each of our classrooms. Also, I was just named the National Civil Air Patrol Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year. This prestigious award will open many doors for me to collaborate with other teachers as well. I am heavily involved in the Aerospace Connections in Education program offered by the CAP and have been editing their curriculum binders. I also travel to teacher workshops to help train other educators on how to use the program. In fact, we will be training another three schools on the use of the program to start the new school year.
As you can see, I am fully involved in many ways in promoting STEM education and high quality science experiences. Luckily, I have never really faced any challenges or obstacles with my efforts to improve science and STEM instruction. I think that it is in part due to the fact that my district is very involved in promoting STEM being the number one district in the state of Florida, Okaloosa County, and also being located next to Eglin Air Force Base. Another reason is that each time I bring up a new idea or initiative; I have pictures, proof or data to back up my request along with strong ties to the state and national standards. Using this approach, I have not encountered any hesitation from my principal or district. It is great to have such support and that is why our STEM program continues to excel.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Facing Global Competition
After reading the article, “What’s Our Sputnik” by Thomas Friedman, I really thought that he raised some very valid points. His main point of view was that the war on terror was not really helping out our situation with global competitiveness and that we really should be looking at our own nation and putting money into helping develop new technologies to compete with China, who is currently our main economic partner as well as competitor. This uprising of China as a nation is what Friedman wants Americans to look at as the next Sputnik (Friedman, 2010).
Just to provide some background, when the United States learned that Russia launched the Sputnik satellite into space, it began the “Space Race” in the United States. There was a huge effort made nationally to revisit our education system, the way that we teach science, as well as our infrastructure. This momentum from competing with Russia and other nations to gain control of space exploration continued for about 50 years and was a key component to producing the Internet, along with encouraging more students to study math and science due to the fact that people genuinely were concerned with the status of the United States when compared globally.
Some people think that the war on terror should act as our new Sputnik, however like Friedman (2010) mentions; the results of this war have been greater national debt, better body scanners, and jobs for TSA at airports. This is really not helping our nation to compete with others across the world. I completely agree with Friedman that we really need to look at our priorities within our own nation before we dump time and resources into foreign countries. I understand that the majority of our oil comes from there, but there also comes a point when we need to take responsibility and figure out how to gain access to oil using our own nation’s resources. As mentioned in the article, we don’t need to totally abandon the war on terror, but rather to change the focus to one of demanding that the leaders in these countries step up to the plate and lead and fight against the craziness that is occurring. It seems that the Middle East has gotten complacent with us being there and they really need to start taking charge, especially since the US troops are now beginning to phase out of the war on terror as per President Obama’s latest address. If nothing changes, we are going to continue to waste our money and resources on a country that has no real benefit to our economy besides oil dependency.
I think that we do need to focus on the fact that the majority of NASA’s employees are headed towards retirement and we really need to promote the need for more STEM career choices to our students. It is especially scary now that our current Space Shuttle System is facing its last launch on July 8th. We are going to be literally thumbing a ride with Russia in order to get to the International Space Station. This to me presents a huge problem in our race to innovation and technology. I think that on a local, state and national level there needs to be more publicity about what STEM stands for and why we need more students and citizens to engage in this career field. If society really understood our dire need for scientists and engineers along with the fact that other nations continue to surpass us on math and science assessments, maybe this would spark them to support an initiative to invest in science education. I think that the first step is awareness using a major marketing campaign.
The United States is trying to get on a course towards improvement and I don’t think that we necessarily need an event like Sputnik to spark our attention and commitment to science education reform. I really just think that society needs to be made aware of the cold hard facts and the statistics that show how other countries like China and India and sending their engineers to America to work and taking the jobs of our citizens due to the fact that they are more qualified. Also, I think that when our Space Shuttle Program ends many people will realize that we do need to do something next and quickly. Using Russia for transportation into space will be very limited and we will be completely at their will. This is a scary thought. I know that NASA is already in the planning stages of a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, but what will happen in the meantime if we need to get to space on our own?
Other countries have not cut funding for their space programs, especially China and Russia. Also, there seems to be much more funding for education in other countries with a high focus placed on science and math career paths. It also seems that we are one of the few nations that dabble in foreign politics. You rarely hear of China or Russia supporting another country that is having an internal war. They are instead focusing on the innovation that is occurring within the borders and supporting STEM learning in any way possible.
In conclusion, I do not that think that we need to wait around for another Sputnik-like event. Right now we need to focus on raising awareness about the state of America and the fact that we are soon to be behind the technological advances of China and Russia if we do not act quickly. President Obama has stated that he is going to be pushing STEM and STEM education, but we all need to do our part on a national level to educate society on the fate of our nation if we do not produce some more quality scientists and engineers. Also, funding to education needs to be increased and not cut, specifically to fund STEM initiatives within states and districts. The more our nation realizes the global competition that is currently occurring, the more they will be motivated to do something about it. Let’s begin with educating our children to the best of our ability and preparing them with 21st century skills for the future.
References
Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.
Just to provide some background, when the United States learned that Russia launched the Sputnik satellite into space, it began the “Space Race” in the United States. There was a huge effort made nationally to revisit our education system, the way that we teach science, as well as our infrastructure. This momentum from competing with Russia and other nations to gain control of space exploration continued for about 50 years and was a key component to producing the Internet, along with encouraging more students to study math and science due to the fact that people genuinely were concerned with the status of the United States when compared globally.
Some people think that the war on terror should act as our new Sputnik, however like Friedman (2010) mentions; the results of this war have been greater national debt, better body scanners, and jobs for TSA at airports. This is really not helping our nation to compete with others across the world. I completely agree with Friedman that we really need to look at our priorities within our own nation before we dump time and resources into foreign countries. I understand that the majority of our oil comes from there, but there also comes a point when we need to take responsibility and figure out how to gain access to oil using our own nation’s resources. As mentioned in the article, we don’t need to totally abandon the war on terror, but rather to change the focus to one of demanding that the leaders in these countries step up to the plate and lead and fight against the craziness that is occurring. It seems that the Middle East has gotten complacent with us being there and they really need to start taking charge, especially since the US troops are now beginning to phase out of the war on terror as per President Obama’s latest address. If nothing changes, we are going to continue to waste our money and resources on a country that has no real benefit to our economy besides oil dependency.
I think that we do need to focus on the fact that the majority of NASA’s employees are headed towards retirement and we really need to promote the need for more STEM career choices to our students. It is especially scary now that our current Space Shuttle System is facing its last launch on July 8th. We are going to be literally thumbing a ride with Russia in order to get to the International Space Station. This to me presents a huge problem in our race to innovation and technology. I think that on a local, state and national level there needs to be more publicity about what STEM stands for and why we need more students and citizens to engage in this career field. If society really understood our dire need for scientists and engineers along with the fact that other nations continue to surpass us on math and science assessments, maybe this would spark them to support an initiative to invest in science education. I think that the first step is awareness using a major marketing campaign.
The United States is trying to get on a course towards improvement and I don’t think that we necessarily need an event like Sputnik to spark our attention and commitment to science education reform. I really just think that society needs to be made aware of the cold hard facts and the statistics that show how other countries like China and India and sending their engineers to America to work and taking the jobs of our citizens due to the fact that they are more qualified. Also, I think that when our Space Shuttle Program ends many people will realize that we do need to do something next and quickly. Using Russia for transportation into space will be very limited and we will be completely at their will. This is a scary thought. I know that NASA is already in the planning stages of a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, but what will happen in the meantime if we need to get to space on our own?
Other countries have not cut funding for their space programs, especially China and Russia. Also, there seems to be much more funding for education in other countries with a high focus placed on science and math career paths. It also seems that we are one of the few nations that dabble in foreign politics. You rarely hear of China or Russia supporting another country that is having an internal war. They are instead focusing on the innovation that is occurring within the borders and supporting STEM learning in any way possible.
In conclusion, I do not that think that we need to wait around for another Sputnik-like event. Right now we need to focus on raising awareness about the state of America and the fact that we are soon to be behind the technological advances of China and Russia if we do not act quickly. President Obama has stated that he is going to be pushing STEM and STEM education, but we all need to do our part on a national level to educate society on the fate of our nation if we do not produce some more quality scientists and engineers. Also, funding to education needs to be increased and not cut, specifically to fund STEM initiatives within states and districts. The more our nation realizes the global competition that is currently occurring, the more they will be motivated to do something about it. Let’s begin with educating our children to the best of our ability and preparing them with 21st century skills for the future.
References
Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.
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