For today's "Set the Stage to Engage" event, our students were transported into an Alaskan fishing village as part of our The Year of Miss Agnes novel study! In Mrs. H's room, the kiddos tackled five math stations with Alaska-related math tasks. And in my classroom, they participated in RLA challenges based on the novel and related web articles. These kiddos did a fantastic job with some challenging Alaska-themed tasks! After completing the challenges, we celebrated with Miss Agnes' tea! We would like to give a HUGE thank you to our fantastic room moms and all of the parents who helped transform the classrooms and volunteered at today's event! "I didn't want Miss Agnes to ever stop reading. I felt as if I really was in that dark, deep forest with trees taller than you ever heard of, and when she stopped, I felt shocked, as if I'd come out of a dream."
The kiddos and I have experienced this same feeling several times in the past couple weeks as we have read The Year of Miss Agnes! And today we got to live in the role of the characters for a couple of hours! What an exciting day! Books are awesome! Kids are awesome! Are you new to STEM-Infusion? If so, I want to re-share some of my favorite STEM-infused moments of last school year. I know some of my teacher friends may have a little extra time for pinning and planning (and reading STEM-Infusion books😉) in the summer, so hopefully this will help give you some ideas! As you'll see, some are physical design projects while others are digital design. However, they all include opportunities for students to think creatively, apply knowledge across content areas, and practice essential collaboration skills.
So what has changed since adding STEM-infusion to my class? Absolutely everything! -The students believe in "failing forward." Because they practice risk-taking and learning from mistakes, they are more willing to try hard things. This carries over into other subjects. For example, in math, they are so much more likely to attack and stick with a complex task than before. As a result, their problem solving skills grew like crazy! -Students are showing ownership for their learning more than before. They know that it is their choice whether they "stretch their brains" or not in every activity. Our culture shifted from "how can I make this faster and easier?" to "how can I grow more from this?" Because of this growth mindset, student are learning to self-differentiate in order to challenge themselves. -Students are so curious... And we all know how motivating wonder can be! For example, during a discussion on an informational text about Antarctica, a student proposed this question to his group: "What do you think would happen to the climate in Antarctica if the earth was tipped on its side?" First of all, great question! It required the other students to synthesize information from reading and science and formulate predictions based on prior knowledge. But even more amazingly, one kid in the group went home and took the initiative to simulate the situation using Universe Sandbox software and came back to tell his group what would actually happen. I love seeing kids love learning! -The interaction between students became SO MUCH richer! They intentionally practiced important skills such as asking deep questions, listening to others' ideas, asking thoughtful follow up questions, making eye contact, and balancing the use of technology while prioritizing human interaction. The class culture was the sweetest it's ever been because of the additional intentional focus on respecting people. -I had a blast! I've loved being a teacher my entire career but this past year was my favorite year yet! There were some nights that I felt like I was anticipating Christmas or Disney World when I went to bed because I was so excited to go to work and learn along with my kiddos. We hear a lot about the pressures of teaching, but, man, it's a wild, exhilarating ride! So check out some of my favorite moments! Click the photo to link to the original post for info about each project. |
STEM-Infusing the Elementary Classroom is Now Available!Includes:
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