The Domino Effect of Change at School, District, and Even National Levels

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.