Currently, I am a student at Lehigh University, where I am in the process of earning my K-12 Principal Certification. For the current class that I am attending, one of my assignments was to lead the class “in a brief (no more than 20-minute) professional dialogue regarding a topic of [my] choice that relates to the principalship or to instructional areas within K-12 schools.” My presentation took place last Wednesday night, and it focused on creativity in the classroom.
Inquiry-Based Learning
Math Common Core Presentation
For about the past three years I have served as one of the fourth grade representatives on my school district’s Math Curriculum Committee. The committee initially assembled in order to assist in the selection and implementation of a new math series that would be used across the district. However, we had a curveball thrown our way when Pennsylvania adopted the Common Core State Standards. It was at this point in time that the committee turned its attention to this drastic change, and the way in which we would utilize professional development to familiarize all teachers with these new standards and practices.
As part of the professional development process, I recently presented on Common Core Mathematics to all of the fourth grade teachers in my district. The presentation lasted for approximately 2.5 hours, and it took place on my district’s fall in service day. The majority of the content focused on how inquiry-based mathematics could be taught, and not so much the new fourth grade documents (pacing guide, curriculum, etc.) that will be rolled out within the next year or so. Presenting all of the information in one session would have been overwhelming for all parties involved. Also, in order to truly emphasize the pedagogical shift that must take place, I strongly felt that it was best to first focus on how to teach before reviewing what to teach.
Here is a brief outline of what took place over the 2.5 hours:
Faculty Meeting and The Marshmallow Challenge
I was originally introduced to The Marshmallow Challenge when I was in Scottsdale, Arizona for the Apple Distinguished Educator 2011 Summer Institute. My team emerged the victors, not because of me, but due to a certain physics teacher who also happened to be a former graduate student of Harvard University. Since this time, I have performed the Marshmallow Challenge with all of my fourth grade classes, both at the beginning of the school year and again at the end of the year.
Last week, my principal asked me to conduct the Marshmallow Challenge with the entire staff at a faculty meeting. First, the teachers were divided into groups of six, according to where they were sitting. Each group was given a yard of masking tape and a paper bag that contained: 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of string, 1 marshmallow, and 1 pair of scissors. Then, with their materials, the groups were given 18 minutes in order to build the tallest freestanding structure possible, and the marshmallow needed to be at the top. Some more specific rules included:
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Student Guest Post: Technology Day and The Marshmallow Challenge
The week before school started Mr. Cooper had a technology day for his students. Some of the fun things we learned about are how to make an iMovie on our iPods and transfer it to the MacBooks at school. He had us go into groups and come up with our own ideas for the movie. Most of the movies turned out to be very funny. My group’s movie was called “The Splinter”. The movie was about a girl who got a splinter and was very sad about this splinter. In the background there is a girl who keeps really getting hurt (fake of course) and has to keep going to the nurse. Creating an iMovie is fun and teaches us a lot of things such as, adding music and sound effects, adding titles and different backgrounds for titles. On technology day we enjoyed ourselves and made new friends.
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Project-Based Learning Professional Development
A handful of years ago, my school district began a project based learning (PBL) initiative and has since continued these efforts in the form of an initiative on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. As a result of the district placing their stamp of approval on these approaches to teaching and learning, I have witnessed a noticeable increase in the number of teachers who are promoting classroom projects, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative education.
This year, my school’s professional development committee decided to make PBL one of the main focuses of teacher learning, and I could not be happier. This is an initiative that I am helping to lead, along with one of the fifth grade teachers in my school. My colleague and I are teaching three sessions on PBL (two of which have already taken place). All sessions are exactly the same (more or less), and each teacher is required to attend one of the three sessions.
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Adobe Educators’ Choice Awards
Recently, my Pinball Wizard project was chosen as the Grand Prize winner for the Primary/Secondary Cross-Curricular category in the Adobe Education Exchange 2011 Educators’ Choice Awards. This is a contest that features innovative teaching and learning materials, which are created with the help of Adobe products. Many of the teachers in my district and students at my school helped to support me in this endeavor, and I cannot thank them enough. As a result of the contest, I have won a 15-inch MacBook Pro (which I am typing on right now) and the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection (which I am still waiting for in the mail). Also, after the contest, the PR manager from Adobe contacted me about doing an interview with one of their bloggers. The interview can be found here.
Below is a description of the Pinball Wizard project. This description was a part of my entry, along with the project’s website, student samples, and a video of students playing on their pinball machines.
Challenge Based Learning Presentation
My district starts off every school year with two days of staff professional development, which takes place at the building level. This year, my principal asked me to share with the other teachers what I had learned at this summer’s Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Summer Institute in Arizona. My presentation took place during the second day of our professional development, and it lasted for about an hour.