Blog Post 5 - What Makes A Strong STEMS Unit?

What should a STEMS unit look like? I think a STEMS Unit should be one that is first and foremost engaging to our students, relevant to the standards and benchmarks, and of course has our STEMS perspective rolled into it. The unit should be more than just scratching the surface of their core subjects, but should enable the students to delve deeper and ask those higher level questions. It should have the students thinking beyond what we cover in class and having them thinking "what else"? With Mathematics I am constantly telling my students, you don't stop using the Math skills you learned in previous grades it is the foundation of where we will be going. We need to use those skiils as stepping stones to be able to push ourselves further so we get the deeper meaning and fuller understandings. To get the students engaged, we need to have those hands on experiences where they are able to see the real-life appication and so they don't have to ask the question...when in life am I going to use this? The students need to see the relevance to their own lives because it is that personal connection that helps them to buy into what we are teaching them.

What kinds of experiences are students and teachers engaged in? Students and teachers are focused and learning off of each other. It is a space of give and take. We are sharing our own experiences and are relating it to our students so that they are able to make their own personal connections. Once that happens, they are able to take ownership of their learning and they are able to put value in it. It is no longer just a field trip, but a learning journey that pulls everything that was taught together. It is not just a guest speaker, but a specialist within their field that is willing to share their expertise with our students. It no longer just getting up and being active, but having hands on activities where we are totally emersed in the activity and we're able to see things through a new learning lense.  Once we have these types of experiences, we are then able to have the conversations with our students and these discussions that are student driven versus teacher driven.

How long is a unit that allows space and time for such experiences? I think how long a unit is will vary from unit to unit and from subject to subject. Typically a unit will be dependent on whatever content I am trying to cover. This unit can then be broken down into smaller lessons. As for the amount of time it takes that is another variable in the equation. Each class period is normally one lesson within the unit as I have seventy-five minute periods. I believe there needs to be that flexibility to allow the time and space needed to have these experiences.

What qualities and/or characteristics should be present in all STEMS units? Of course with everything that has been said thusfar, there has to be the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics part of STEMS along with the Social Studies and Sense of Place. As teachers, we are no longer acting alone, but should be working hand in hand with our teammates and having these interdisciplinary units where the students see the relevance across every subject of their education. We need to have resources available for our students to get that deeper knowledge so we can stop just scratching the surface. Every class will be different in what they get out of the unit because of what their input into the unit. We are no longer able to teach the same thing year in and year out because education is constantly changing and reinventing itself and becoming more relevant to us as teacher and of course as learners.

Blog Post 4 - A Look Back at Quarter 1

     As I was starting at a new school in a new grade level with a new team, I had a lot on my plate at the beginning of the school year. I had big plans, but fear eventually crept in and made me doubt that I would be able to accomplish everything that I wanted to. Needless to say, I am pleased with the outcome of my first quarter with the esception of accomplishing a STEMS project every quarter I am on point of where I want to be. The only reason our quarter 1 STEMS project was delayed was due to the overly wet weather on the windward side of the Island and the director thinking of safety first! Hopefully you will be able to hear about our trip to Papahana Kuaola in a later blog post.

     The huge adjustment for me was the Hawaiian Language and learning the many oli, mele, and pule that my haumana are all familiar with. As a team, we have a Piko Wehena every morning and a Piko Panina every afternoon. The morning consists of a oli, pule, and mele while the afternoon closes the day with Oli Mahalo. In the beginning, I felt bad that I had to oli my return to the students by looking at the words. One day, as the haumana began their oli I realized that I was the only kumu there! My social studies kumu had a substitute for the day and my English Kumu was running late! The realization hit me that I would be saying the response to the oli all alone. As the haumana finished, they looked at me with smiles in their eyes and I slowly, but surely got through the response! At the end, the students cheered and gave me a round of applause. Their support got me through it. It has been very rewarding to hear the confidence in their voices as they call out their oli and pule. Even their Hawaiian language kumu has remarked at the difference in the beginning of the year where the the students would just recite the words to now when it is said with feeling and reverence.

     The next huge thing has been switching from teaching 7th and 8th graders to teaching 6th graders. I didnʻt think that it would be too much of a difference and I began the year by pushing them just as I would my incoming 7th graders. The good thing is that most of these students have been with each other either from kindergarden or 4th grade with a handful entering in 5th and 6th grade. This enabled them to understand ahead of time what was expected of them and they had no problems falling into line of what I expected of them. The first day, I could feel their apprehension in the class as they waited to see how I would be as a teacher. I was quickly able to calm their nerves as walking outside my sandal wedge broke and I went flying down onto the concrete...nothing like having the teacher fall to calm the nerves of the whole class! We instantly bonded as they all came to my rescue.

     

     One thing that I took from our cohort experience over the summer was having the sudents doing an "I Am Poem". I tweaked it just a little so that the "I Am Poem" had to deal with a mathematics topic. The students chose various Math related topics from Pi, Golden Ratio, Geometry, Patterns, and Symmetry, to various Mathemeticians such as Einstein, Plato, Archimedes, and Newton, just to name a few. They had the opportunity to research their topic as it was also to be the cover of their interactive notebooks (INB). They enjoyed the research and their INBʻs were beautifully done and presented to their classmates. Their oral presentations on their "I Am Poems" were also well done. I wish you all could have been there to see and hear their final results.

     We have had our ups and downs and yes I have even had a few students cry not to mention my own tears spilt at home. There is still a lot I want to do with these students as we find our individual sense of place and have a variety of place-based learning to guide us. I am happy to say that our class has finally gotten into our routine and that our STEMS projects are planned for each quarter. I have even gotten my team to combine with me so that these projects will be interdisciplinary units. The support from parents, my team, administration, students, and of course my STEMS cohort has been extraordinary. Each has lent a hand to the success of this first quarter. It has not been perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction, with the steps to follow being that much easier to take.