Collaboration Celebrations

Cross District Collaboration!

It is exciting to see what can happen when people put their resources together.

One of my visions as RI Teacher of the Year was to develop a system of cross-district collaborations. 

I believe it will expand our sense of community for both students and teachers and serve as a means to join our small state together and lead the way in STEAM education.

It is happening!

In reaching out to Environmental Educators, state partners, and individual experts in their fields, I keep hearing, "YES!" 

Everyone wants to play their part and support a cohesive community and expand what learning can look like.

We now have 7 districts that will participate in a cross-district Collaboration Celebration field trip. 

Both of the Outdoor Education Sites that I met with offered time, personnel, and their location to support this innovative idea.

These are Save the Bay in Providence

https://www.savebay.org/

 and the Audubon Society of RI, in Bristol.

https://asri.org/

Prior to the trip, classes will connect virtually.

Upon arriving at the location, students will meet and connect in person with an icebreaker activity. 

Then, thanks to the donation of time of artists, scientists, and engineers, students will learn in their mixed group, comprised of students from different district. They will work at different stations throughout the day and learn from experts!

This is all happening on April 3 and April 10.

Stay tuned!!

Golden Apple Awards: January

The Golden Apple Awards are a great opportunity to showcase the heart and innovation that run the classrooms of RI.

Today's awards were no different.

Often operating behind the scenes, avoiding the limelight and working diligently, special education teachers can be the magic that shifts a child's life.

Our first stop was to surprise Patricia Kilsey, of Lincoln High School, who works to help transition adult learners as they move into society. One of her students shared that she's the "best teacher" and she helps students develop life skills and links students with work options. Thank you for valuing each of our children and ensuring that others do too!

Her huge family was there to help surprise and honor her achievements.







The second taping today was also a special education teacher. Many of Keri Bettencourts 's students at Jenks Middle School in Pawtucket are non-verbal.

However, as one parent wrote, "she finds a way to communicate with each one." Families recounted how secure they felt, knowing when they brought their children to school they were under the care of Ms. Bettencourt.

















Our final stop was Mrs. Yessenia Rodriguez, of Southside Charter Elementary School, Providence.  "Miss Yessenia" was clear about the importance of love and kindness in teaching her children. It is clear that they also feel this, as they hugged and celebrated to honor their teacher.








This classroom is a looping classroom, so students have been able to develop and continue this bond for 3 years! The students have created pledges, raps, and music on how to Choose Love when confronted with difficulty and how to deal with bullies. This safe environment where each child is seen and valued allows for deeper learning. Another unique feature of this school is that it has a comfort dog, trained and used to calm children (and adults no doubt) when necessary. In fact, the camera crew came back the next day to do a feature on the dog and its role in the school culture.

I am honored to be able to witness the work that is happening each day in the state of RI and be inspired to share these unsung heroes making a difference in children's lives each day!

Keynote Speech: STEM Talks

“The Importance of STEAM Education”

Keynote Speech: STEM Talks RI, November, 2018

A wonderful night and a hearty thank you to TIMES 2 Institute for inviting me to speak as the keynote speaker in the first of their series, STEM Talks.

Bodies weaving in and out, spinning, arms lifting up, hands opening, bodies frozen in place. 

Repeat. 

This is how we started. 

Participants experienced the joy of interpretive dance, as they took the challenge of demonstrating different parts of the water cycle in small groups.

The audience, comprised of pre-service teachers, veteran teachers, scientists, engineers, and community members, practiced their assigned processes (evaporation, transpiration, etc.), then performed for other groups as the other groups inferred their topic by the representation of the scientific concept through body movement. 

The importance of “A,” the Arts, in STEAM education is vital in order to be able to reach ALL students. It is necessary for future engineers and scientists to expand their sense of models that can communicate to the general public. It also will ensure that those who choose different careers are scientifically literate, enabling them to make informed decisions, and be actively engaged in their world. 

In order to pull this Science Dance Party off, I needed help. Not being a professional dancer myself, I used collaboration to build and implement this strategy.  Thanks to First-Works, who arranged for Israeli choreography, Rachel Erdos, to come into my classroom, I personally experienced the steps of turning content into motion. Thus began a new classroom opportunity to learn and share ideas—the interpretative dance.

This element of risk taking is essential if we are to further our own abilities as educators and expand our repertoire of skills in order to open the doors wider for students.

I shared my personal story of risk-taking as Science Communication Fellow on the exploration vessel, The Nautilus, and how it led to a transformation in my curriculum. 

My adventure at sea led me to learn about ocean exploration and underwater ROVs. This then led to attending a training in building and implementing small ROVs for classroom use. What started as an afterschool program, is now an integral part of our sixth grade curriculum and continues to expand. We’re currently looking at creating a collaborative competition in Rhode Island for students from multiple districts.  We have already integrated community members,  used the YMCA pool,  worked with engineers, and explored a nearby estuary with ROVs outfitted with cameras. 

Risk-taking can lead to failure.  However, it also leads us to innovation and success. 

Another speaker, Noah Jenkins, also spoke about failure. He shared his story of becoming an engineer.  Math was “always easy” for him and he never had the opportunity to struggle or fail in his academic career. Until grad school. It was at this point where he first had to struggle, and often revise his thinking, in order to be successful. He emphasized the need for this in early years of learning in order to fully embrace the idea of revisionary thinking and growth mindset.

The opportunity to struggle and revise our approach must be embedded in all grades. This can be done using pathways of STEAM, as we transform our classrooms into spaces for design, innovation, collaboration, and joy.