Fund for Teachers Fellow!

This year, a team of fellow teachers and myself wrote our second attempt at a Fund for Teachers grant to go to ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education).  We narrowed our focus and broadened our horizons with this grant so that our learning would not only impact our classroom areas but also impact our school.  

Brief Description of Fellowship: Participate in the International Society for Technology in Education conference in Denver, CO, to enrich the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards and increase student achievement.

We were beyond excited to learn that our grant proposal had been accepted for 2016.  It was sort of a funny story that day.  The five of us were on pins and needles all day.  I believe I must have refreshed my email on my phone every five minutes.  The post said that everyone would know by 3pm, so we waited.... and waited.  I even had our principal, who was out of the building at a meeting, texting me a few different times asking if we had heard anything.  By 3pm we had heard nothing and didn't know what to make of it.  One of the teachers and I happened to be co-teaching a STEM lesson with her class, and as the students were cleaning up we decided to see if they had posted the list on the Fund for Teacher's website.  After it finally popped up I opened the file and there on the first page was not only myself but another team teacher.  I'll admit I screamed a little which prompted the other teacher to scream as well.  I ran to each of the other classrooms to announce that we had received the grant! I sent a message to our principal who immediately responded with a "Wahoo!"  

All of our hard work and research paid off.  We were finally getting the opportunity to go to one of the greatest edtech conferences around to learn how we can effectively implement the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) with technology and STEM.  Each of us is fully aware of what this opportunity can bring to our building as we embark on a new adventure.

Below is part of our Purpose and Rationale

As elementary teachers we are tasked with the job of introducing our students to technology and teaching them how to be problem solvers and higher-order thinkers. Our collaborative team’s goal is to build our understanding of how to teach these skills through project-based learning, implementation of the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards), STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) activities, and technology integration. One of our focuses has been on the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) model. This model was developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura and offers a shift in the traditional thinking of technology use. Our team plans to move from the substitution level of SAMR, completing the same tasks on a computer, to the redefinition level, allowing for new tasks with technology and acquisition of skills that were otherwise considered inconceivable. Attending the ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education) conference will give us the needed resources and knowledge-base to fuse the NGSS and the district's STEM initiative with project-based learning and effective technology integration. 

Our suburban elementary school currently houses 368 students with 73% of our student population living in poverty. Ethnic diversity is greater in our building than in the district in every disaggregated group (ELL, SWD, Hispanic, and SES). Students from poverty struggle to retain content each year as their working memory is tied up with worries about basic needs. Project-based learning is more likely to "stick" as a meaningful learning opportunity than a paper and pencil task. The ease of differentiation that project-based learning brings will significantly benefit our students in their use of technology and ability to think critically and problem solve. Students are changing and learn differently than in the past, so our teaching needs to change. We need to revitalize our classrooms for tomorrow’s students. The thinking skills that we can help students acquire will be an asset when they transition to middle school, high school and eventually the workforce. We are passionate about moving student learning forward and creating lessons and projects that prepare our students for the real world. We have already begun creating engaging learning experiences, and we want to keep this trend moving forward. Our kids need this to succeed but we can’t just know it, we need to implement it. We will model for our colleagues how to move from a teacher-centered to a student-centered learning environment. We have seen first-hand how students become more engaged in STEM related activities and we want to see this passion increased in their education. 

Our team needs to see the possibilities for our students so that we continue to see wins in the classroom. Students need to feel that the work they do is making a difference in the world. Their world needs to expand beyond the classroom walls. There is research to support the value of authentic learning. When students are engaged in real-world scenarios and challenges, they find relevance in the work and become engaged in learning. Through the expertise we gain by attending the ISTE conference we can redefine our students’ current learning experiences and get them eager to learn. Our team consists of four classroom educators from grades three through five, and a technology innovation specialist, all of whom are driven to make a change. Together we want to gain professional knowledge with others who have already impacted education. We should be embracing purposeful technology use, and teaching students to create, think, and communicate with it. The ISTE conference is the place where we can see, hear, touch, and learn the ways to best make this shift happen. According to Cheryl Lemke’s article The Change Agents, “As educators, we should be using technology as a critical design factor, in combination with research on how people best learn, to establish new and different environments for student-centered learning” (Lemke, 2009, p.54). We know attending this conference will allow us to be the change agents in our school.

After our fellowship is complete, our team plans to return and debrief.  Our goals are to present to staff our biggest take-aways from the conference, meet collaboratively with grade levels to help plan for the coming year, and to plan and implement a STEM parent night so that we can showcase what our kids have been doing, as well as show parents the power of STEM activities.  We are truly honored and eager to begin this amazing journey.  

We thank Fund for Teachers from the bottom of our hearts that they saw the passion we have for helping our students reach amazing heights and chose us to be 2016 Fellows.