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Successfully Empowering Students as an Equity Team

At a recent academic seminar, my principal asked us to reflect and share on a success we had experienced. I chose to share about how our student equity team was started. My idea for a student equity team started after I had attended professional development on racial equity in education. I first attended a racial equity training in our district called Taking It Up. This inspired me to continue to grow and be challenged in this area so I participated in the week-long  Coaching for Educational Equity experience. While I was there I made a goal to establish a student equity team at my school. As an adult, I knew I could work to make changes to our system but I wanted our students to be empowered to resist oppression. I was not exactly sure how to start a student equity team, especially in an elementary school. There was not a model for one in our district. I had discussed this idea with my administrator and he agreed that we should try it. I recruited a staff member of color to help m
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Robotics and Math

This blog entry was authored in collaboration with 6th-grade students exploring the connection between robotics and mathematics. Robotics makes math fascinating. Using robotics creates amazing opportunities to learn about geometry, measurement, and data. An example of learning about measurement is programming the robot motor to run for 3 seconds, stop for 3 seconds, and then run again for 3 seconds. To measure the accuracy of this program, we timed ten trials. We compiled the data and then analyzed it for the mode, median, mean and range. Learning about these mathematical ideas from data that we generated made the data more meaningful to us. This program also taught us about the importance of attending to precision. Initially, we incorrectly thought the program would always run for 9 seconds, but we found out something interesting. After 10 trials we realized that there was variance in how long the program ran. Another massive mathematical idea that we have learned through roboti
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Making a Makerspace

Two years ago, I wrote a blog post about defining a makerspace .  I have read books, blog posts and Twitter posts about what makes a makerspace. And what did I learn... it's really up to the people that inhabit the space. In that spirit, I made a sketch note about what I have learned through my experience with creating a space for students to make. I have also included the best inspiration, my students building, creating, experimenting and making all summer long. My next big adventure in makerspaces is to integrate making all year long.
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Growing Learners

“Knee high by the 4th of July,” is the way to know if your corn is going to yield a corp. Our corn is more than knee and thriving despite all of the chaos of construction surrounding it. It continues to grow right next to the chain-link fence that guards the trucks and heavy machines that will alter the school campus. The corn isn’t the only thing growing at McKinney. Inside the building, students are growing their math, reading skills and engineering skills. Each day brings new opportunities to the students. I am so proud of the work they are doing. This is the 5th year of this program and I see students challenging themselves in ways they haven’t done in previous years. Students are using Epic to research ideas and things they want to build. They are brave enough to try out the Makey, Makey and problem solve on their own how to make it work. They are asking questions, advocating for help and expanding their knowledge all while having fun. Our garden is growing and so are our s
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Lego Construction Zone

How many teachers get to use Gorilla Glue at work? My office manager is always shaking her head at the receipts I submit for reimbursement. She has given up making sense of what I am buying but she knows the kids are enjoying it. My latest project involved a limited number of items (18 large Lego baseplates, Gorilla glue and a caulk gun) and a lot of STEM integration. I started by asking a group of 5th-grade math students, how many Lego baseplates we could fit on a wall? These questions were followed up with how much would that cost and what are some compelling reasons for putting Lego baseplates on a wall? The students had to find the answers to these questions by doing research and writing persuasive statements. I had given them a budget of $300 for the project. They created Google slide presentations to convince our principal and custodian that this was a really good idea. (The students didn't know that they had agreed with the idea.) Our custodian did have some concerns ab
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No Lights, No Problem

Year 5 of the McKinney Summer Program started today. I was anticipating some complications and changes because of the large construction project on our campus and the loss of the hard-wired computer lab. I was not planning on a completely dark library and makerspace. Thankfully, the students and staff were able to adapt and we pulled off a great first day. We were able to use other parts of our building for the summer program. Our old computer lab would not have been much help today since it was also in the area without lights. The transition to using Chromebooks made today much easier since we could roll the cart to another part of the building. I truly appreciate my staff members which included some Americorps Members who are new to McKinney. Everyone pitched in to make the day a success. Thankfully, the district electrician came to solve the light problem so tomorrow will have a much smoother start. Legos are always a hit! All the students wanted to show off their creations.
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What's Next?

Recently I was interviewed by our Superintendent for a video about community support of schools. His final question to me was, "What is next for McKinney?" My answer was that I want to continue connecting our students to our community. The support we have received from our community has been very generous. We have received substantial donations from First Tech Credit Union and the Hillsboro Schools Foundation that have made it possible to bring STEM curriculum into our school. Volunteers from Qorvo engage our students in learning both in the classroom and in our after school program. There is a banner that hangs in the front of the school that displays the names of the many organizations that support our school. We could not offer so many opportunities to our students without the support of our community. I want to continue to grow these relationships so that our students will thrive.
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