September 30

We had a science team meeting today. I wrote down some of the things I was wondering about:
•What is the ‘Lean Process’?
•How did I miss what Jeanne asked us to bring to the meeting?
•Trace redesign? What is that? In house.
•“Our context has changed” Interesting. I think we're in the middle of more (new STEM interest).
•Where can I find Steve’s alignment of VAST with the Iowa Core?
•Could there be a computer program that hyperlinks each kit to Iowa Core in such a way that it would ‘load’ all the Iowa Core present and missing when each kit is chosen, thereby showing what they have and what they lack after all their kits are considered as part of the curriculum?
•Who is North Linn? (I found out...Coggan, Troy Mills, Walker)
•What is a ‘development director’? (Sue Russ, North Linn Middle School Staff)
•Moodle course...should I take this?
•What kind of data could I collect on EIE?
•What if the science team took the Strengths Training 2.0 and identified their personal strengths, and then their various tasks were labeled with the strengths needed for those tasks and they guided each other toward tasks that utilized their strengths?
•Should our visitor from Science Writing Heuristic come to FOSS kit trainings?
•What did they mean by some being the ‘control’ and some being treatment
•I see an ongoing problem with districts being allowed to go without the ‘why’ behind their curriculum (like Lone Tree opting out of their training…and Mount Vernon not having science consultants involved in their new science curriculum initiative. Should the state be doing something to guide this process?
•What is IES? (I found out...This is a grant).
•Research grant could partner with Lawrence Hall.
•Ask Lori for her code on the Fossmap assessment tool.
•What is the research on self-contained vs departmentalization in the elementary school?
•You were going to ask Julie if there was a team Google calendar?

I went through my most pressing questions with Erica, who patiently answered them. I sometimes feel like an ant at a huge picnic and I'm just getting the tiniest piece of what is there, but it is still 1000 times my size and I'm determined to get it.

Today is Stacey's last day. The science team is caught between taking up what she usually does and advocating for replacing her position. I think they all behaved professionally in this delicate situation. I sure hope they don't get overstretched. In my thirst for quality I dread making quality yield to quantity.

September 29

Today as I drove to work I had a feeling that it was a magical day. The music on the radio paired with the birds in the air and the fog curtains opening up to me on the ground set the stage for a perfect day.

Yukiko, last year's Teacher in Residence, came at 8:30. She was very easy to relate to, and knew my questions before they were even all the way out of my mouth. I didn't even know how to word them, and she knew what I was looking for. She showed me where to find some of the key materials I needed. We went into full thinking mode the second she got there and I picked her brain all the way up till noon, when we were to be at the 33rd Avenue building for lunch to meet with the other TIR's and Erica. There I got to meet Lori, the first TIR, and Susan, the second. They were all easy to talk to and had the passion for science that I love to be around. Erica had great moderator skills, which is always a plus in a meeting because it moves when it should move and it pauses for discussion when appropriate, it has meaning and it's meaning is not that a 'meeting occurred', but that there is meaning in what occurred at the meeting.

Some of the things I learned were that there are only 2 EIE kits for the EIE units (except for 2, and one of those has 1 and the other has none). The EIE kits are one of the most important things I need to learn about. Yukiko had a suggestion that I use my district as a place to learn a kit. Since the ELP teacher shows some interest, she thinks I should help teach it so I can get familiar with one before I train anyone. This way she can get trained at the same time I'm learning, and my district wouldn't have to pay for the kit because I'd be learning on it. My district would be getting something out of me being in this position, and it is a win/win. (Tell me what you think....Jeanne and Erica).

I went home feeling like one of the luckiest people on earth...getting to work with such professional and wise people with such great purpose. It was a magical day, indeed. And when I got home my husband called from the country club. He'd gotten a hole in one!

September 28

I had a good day getting organized for tomorrow. I get to meet all of the previous teachers-in-residence, and I wanted to use my time well with Yukiko so I made a list of my questions and a pile of my documents. She's going to meet me over here at 6th Street first.

I made contact with Susan Noreuil from Coe, who is in charge of Coe's Science Olympiad Tournament. I wanted to get a website to which I could refer people (and I want to give these brochures to the TIR's in hopes of getting them to the right people tomorrow). I also left a message with Sara Larkin to set up our schedule for working together (EIE for the Braille program).

Jeanne suggested reading Strengths 2.0, so I did that Sunday, and learned that my strengths are these:

Strategic
Ideation
Connectedness
Maximizer
Intellection

It is my hope that I build upon these strengths as a TIR and use them to my potential. In the if I am ever in charge of mentoring, teaching, or leading, I would like to know the strengths of those with whom I am working so I can maximize their potential. It is the way I teach students and it is also the way I'd like to lead adults. I do believe we have a lot of strengths that won't be identified or labeled that I don't want to miss out on by focusing too narrowly, however. It is a great place to start, though.

September 27

Today I went to the second day of a FOSS kit training. It was Earth History. Erica and Christopher taught it. There were only three other students so I tried extra hard to be an active participant to make things more interactive (it's hard enough to have lots of people and most won't talk or take a risk). I learned a lot about Earth History, and about the vertical articulation of the FOSS kits. I really love Earth History. One thing I wish was in the presentations was career link information so we'd remind teachers to connect that to their science teaching to foster a passion for careers in science.

Sept. 23, 2010

Today I met with Jeanne and Erica about the VAST website toolkits. Jeanne gave me a background on how the toolkits began, and then gave me a list of things she'd like me to do to improve the toolkits. I'm honored to do that, because it is a worthy cause which directly improves instruction, and I'm thrilled that I get to learn from Jeanne and Erica. They're both really quality science thinkers, and any time spent with them is time I get to improve my own knowledge. It was a great meeting and I believe that I understand what I am charged to do. I also felt 'listened to' when I had ideas, which makes me feel even more fired up to do things, because I feel like what I have to offer matters.

I didn't feel well at all today, which slowed me down a bit this afternoon. I did get some work done, and stuck it out until 4:30 (which wasn't easy to do with my head pounding). I feel like I did my best. I continue to try to get organized so that I can be effective and efficient. I collected information on science conferences I'll be attending, contacts I need to keep track of, registration materials and organized the toolkit notes. I also installed a printer so that I could print in the other building. I have needed to do that several times and couldn't.

Sept. 22

Yesterday I didn't write in my Blog because I got home very late after a Smart Board class. The gals teaching the class were amazing. They had obviously used the Smart Boards a lot as well as knowing the technology because of their automaticity in the use of them. I can see that teachers would need a lot of practice time to be able to use a Smart Board effectively in the classroom, but with that expertise would come some great lessons that would hold the interest of students in the 21st century. This is no time in the world to be afraid or unwilling to grow with technology. It's exciting, fun, efficient and amazing.

Today I went to a class about General Education Intervention Plans. I like being kept up to date on what is going on in education. I was disappointed that none of my district was there except for De Wagner. That kind of initiative will take administrative support. I hope they are going to another session of it. I like the fact that people are becoming more aware of individual needs and differences in the classroom.

This afternoon I learned a lot about filling out forms. Grant Wood has some serious protocol for going to classes or events. The science team has a lot of events scheduled for October. I think it will be an exciting month!!! I've never been to any science conferences, and I get to go to 3, plus the Washington DC Science Expo. I'm feeling very fortunate!! I had chances to go to some exciting things when I did my National Boards, and I did go to state events, but I didn't have the money to go to some of the bigger things. It is my hope that these experiences will guide me to the role meant for me, whatever that may be.

Sept. 20, 2010

Today I left at 6:15 to get to Washington, Iowa for Christopher's in-service. They began with an all-staff meeting at the high school. The curriculum director told them that they'd be working on curriculum, and then the superintendent told a football story and they were done with that. Then they broke out into curricular areas and we drove to the Jr. High to work on science curriculum. Christopher gave an overview of the Iowa Core and the purpose of standards (he did a really good job) and then they had time to write in their standards and benchmarks.

I left somewhere around noon and went back to Grant Wood where I worked on my list of things to do. These included going to Human Resources to fix my name spelling problem, working on a draft of the e-mail to change the Nov.4 to 8 meeting (and sending it to Jim for approval) and talking to Jeanne about budget, calendar, going to Kansas, Des Moines and Ames for meetings and training EIE. I put the figures for grant money onto the OSO site.

Tomorrow I will go at noon and work till 7:30 (I'm going to a Smart Board class).
I'm looking forward to learning about that.

Sept. 19, 2010

Today I've been reading various websites on STEM. I'm trying to become more familiar with all the parts to the Corridor STEM initiative. I hadn't realized that the Mother-Daughter TEA that they were talking about at the CSI-OSO meeting stood for Mother Daughter TEA (Technology Engineering Aptitude) Workshop. That makes more sense to me now!! I can't seem to find the site Jeff Weld was talking about that listed the sites of this event here in eastern Iowa. I looked in my OSO minutes and didn't catch that date for the minutes (maybe I had better tape record the meeting).

I'm interested to interact with those at Washington District tomorrow. I'll have to leave early to get there by 8!!

I'm very excited about the book study we're doing. http://www.mindomo.com/edit.htm?m=821e0a820523475ba62da923f4d035c1

Sept. 17, 2010

On this day I was very nervous about a teleconference that I was doing without Erica, and I knew it was important to her. I went over the EIE information. As I was doing this, Jim Thornton called on the phone and asked me what I was thinking about the exhibits we would be discussing. We seemed to be on the same page and hung up and then it was time for the teleconference. I called in, and discussed with those going to Washington what exhibits we were interested in taking with us. It was decided that we would take all of the exhibits. We pinned down what we were wearing, what we were giving away and what we would use for banners. This was going to be an amazing adventure.

After this phone call, Phyllis came in and I talked to her about Mount Vernon's science program, and Christopher came in and we talked about Washington School District. We would be going on Monday back to Washington for curriculum work on Monday. I asked Christopher some questions about the GW map and made a plan for how I could know where people worked better by making a visual. Christopher left and Erica came in. She'd evidently e-mailed me and I didn't realize it...so she had different thoughts about what I would do with my morning. I may need to keep my Outlook open on my desktop (wonder if I can make it 'ding' when I get a message). My MSN has a delayed inbox for some reason. We went to a meeting with Stacey on the OSO Website. I learned some ways to update it and how to keep the calendar up to date. Next week I plan to spend some time working on that.

I am hoping to get the ELP teacher in Mount Vernon interested in doing an EIE kit. I can't think of a more appropriate activity to do with students eager to challenge themselves and though I wish all the kids could do the activities, any kids doing them is a plus.

I think being new is overwhelming sometimes. I need to feel good at something this weekend.

September 16, 2010

This morning I'm watching a video conferencing meeting between several AEA's together talking about a class they had led in the summer. They were sharing feedback, discussing participant performance on defined outcomes, technology and a course offering in the fall. There were 9 participants who were science consultants; How they offered the course, how many hours to offer it (evening or Saturday or summer) was a discussion. There is not money to release teachers during the school day. I'm learning about how tricky it is to get teacher training in. These consultants are enthusiastic about helping the teachers out. They also are discussing how to get the math teachers to work with the science teachers on STEM activities; They are coming up with a plan to spread the class out so the teachers don't feel like they're using up all their Saturdays They came up with four Saturdays (Dec.4,Jan.29, Feb.26, and April 16) to offer the course. They will begin the process now of reserving rooms and making final preparations.

After this video conference, we had another video conference on a possible book study. It was decided that they would,indeed, have a book study using two books called Taking Science to School and Ready, Set, Science. These two books were chosen because they were used to write the new National Science Standards that are coming out.

I spent a lot of time on the EIE kits today. I've been in contact with an ELP teacher that I think might like to use them. I need to find out more about how much they cost to check out and how they get trained.

Sept 15, 2010

I received an e-mail this morning from a teacher in Mount Vernon thanking me for putting their FOSS kit questions into a packet that kindergarten could more easily use.   I connected with some of the other kindergarten teachers last night and told them that was coming. I love using technology to make classroom work more efficient.

This morning I worked on things like understanding where the EIE kit we were working on fit into the curriculum, what the pedagogy behind it was and how I could articulate that to the committee deciding which activity would be the best to represent at the National Science Expo.   I also brought up a science curriculum question I had to Erica and Julie that I needed help understanding in order to solve in my mind how the FOSS kits worked into a science curriculum and how Grant Wood works with a district to guide them in the curriculum review process. The probes were new to me. I have so much to learn, and I am really hoping that Mount Vernon uses Grant Wood as it goes through their curriculum cycles. They are reviewing their science curriculum this year.

I went to Washington, Iowa this afternoon with Christopher to learn about the process of getting ready for an in-service which is Monday and also to align the science to the Iowa Core. I was really impressed with the principal there because he spoke of studying the curriculum in more depth than some do, and had a good understanding of science (he had been a science teacher, so that is a big reason why).  I got to meet Nancy Clawson, who is one of my Grant Sites, and it was especially nice to see her in this role, because I could see how she values 21st century skills, and how they integrate literacy, and how they work as a science team in Washington. She was impressive.  Christopher has a soothing voice and a calm manner that carries his wisdom into a meeting in a way that would be appreciated if I were the district needing his help.  He taught me about how to stay in the role of Grant Wood and how to help without being intrusive. I like the way both Christopher and Erica explain things to me. They are both very gracious in helping me (which is so humbling). I am very, very fortunate. 

September 14, 2010

Today I went to the Wood and Paper kit training for FOSS kits. This unit is designed for kindergarten. They had all kinds of hands-on activities.  I was most impressed with the way they showed different kinds of woods, and after showing them particle board and pressed sandwich board they actually made some!  The materials in the kit even included strainers so that they could get the wood shavings wet to see how they would behave when wet.  I'm pretty sure there are adults out there that don't understand how these are made, and the kindergartners will be able to use the understandings gained from this kit to build even further understandings as they see things that they now have a place to attach in their brains. Veneer, and wooden puzzles, and wooden toys will all look different to them now.   They no longer make paper in this kit, but we talked about how that can be done so the teachers can easily extend the learning to include that.


The teachers were wishing they had a packet and I offered to make it if they wanted me to, so I made them a packet of the things they requested be put together as such. I e-mailed it to the ones that wanted it (which was all of them).  This can be put in the toolkit when I learn how to work on it.

I'm back at 6th street this afternoon since we got out of the workshop working on my 'to do' list. I took a calendar to Janine's office and ran off a list of the EIE kits for my notebook.

I made a record of what VAST kits Mount Vernon uses and what grades check them out. I sent this list to the Gifted and Talented teacher in Mount Vernon along with the EIE kits that compliment each unit in case she might like to use those for ELP activities. I also sent her a link to the YouTube video of Erica, Jim and me doing the "Catching the Wind" activity to give her an idea of what they are like.

Mount Vernon

I received a nice thank you e-mail from one of the teachers in Mount Vernon.  When I went to the training they were attending last week (Water) I noticed that they wanted a booklet like the one Cedar Rapids had available so they didn't have to hand out each activity.  I went to the FOSS website and did a 'print screen' on each page and pasted them into a Power Point in order, and made a journal page (lined) to go in between each one, and made a cover. They have LCD projectors, so they can even show the Power Point one page per activity as they direct the students.   I love helping people be more efficient in the classroom. I know the value of that from the other side.  I also made a story starter called, "My Life as a Drop of Water" so the kids would have a venue for applying their knowledge of the water cycle through creative writing.

Sept.13, 2010

Today I went to one of the FOSS kit trainings called "Balance and Motion".  This kit was aimed at 2nd grade, and it was very interesting to hear the differences between how the second grade kit is different than the middle school kit I listened to last week on Environments.  The kit was amazing, and included work with balancing, spinning, and rolling.  The work with physics at such a young age not only gives students a great beginning in thinking of the physical world, but also sparks their interest in science (it was really fun). The trainers did a great job and I learned more about the FOSS curriculum. 

Erica and I met on Skype later on, and  we worked on the Google  Site for OSO.  I also sent a letter out of the OSO minutes from the Sept. 8 meeting. 

I spent Sunday getting my work more organized so I could understand better what I'm doing.  Organization is really important when you're new to everything!!  I need to think in a whole new way (from that of teaching in the classroom) and there is a learning curve here for knowing what I'm doing.  I'm so not used to being lost.  I have so much to read and understand.