Blog Post 1 - Where I am right now with STEMS2 in my teaching

Where I Am Right Now With STEMS2 In My Teaching

     Wow, that is a loaded statement. As you know, I am starting a new teaching position in a new grade level (6th vs 7th & 8th) , at a new school (Kamehameha), with a new team of teachers. Needless to say, I have been overwhelmed, but I am taking things slowly as they come one day at a time step by step. 

     At Kamehameha, we hold protocol every morning. We greet the 6th graders with roll call in Hawaiian to each class before we begin with oli, mele, and pule. As teachers we must respond to their oli (chant) so I have been quickly trying my best to learn my response vs looking at my notes. Just as we needed to learn new things for our summer institute so I am trying to emulate all that we learned on our Big Island trip.

     Since I've only been with the haumana (students) for two weeks since we began a few weeks after DOE, I have not gotten into content as of yet. I have tried some STEMS2 like activities to get to know each other. We began with a paper table challenge to see how many math textbooks the students would be able to stack on their paper tables. They were only given an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardboard, 8 sheets of newspaper, and a foot of masking tape to start. If they needed additional supplies, they needed to justify their needs for an additional foot of tape and four more sheets of newspaper. I now know who my negotiators are! There was a student who when she could not get what she needed from me began to barter and trade with her classmates for what she needed! 

     So time had elapsed and it was time to test the tables. My first class came up and I got my expected results of 1-2 books being held up by their paper tables. Success! My next class was where I was utterly surprised by how many heavy mathematics textbooks were able to be held. Guesses? If you said 5, guess higher. 10 - higher. 15 - higher. They were able to carry 20 textbooks! The record was set and the rest of my classes tried to beat that, but 2nd place came in with only 14 textbooks.

     A few days later, our campus lost electricity power due to the storms so the paper airplane challenge ensued. I had gliders, cranes, and planes. What a fun activity. The students were quick to point out how they needed to figure out which wing span would give the best lift to their planes. As this was a last minute lesson due to the power outage, the students did not have time to test and re-test their planes, but in the future I will be looking at returning to this lesson to see what we can due to improve the distance that their planes were able to fly!