Apr 11

Involving students in our microgravity flight

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Going Weightless, NASA, Students

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Janelle Patch Contest 2This summer, I will be completing a microgravity experience flight with NASA’s Teaching from Space office. As my teammates and I prepare for our flight, we are involving students in as much of the process as possible. They are helping us to develop our experiment procedures and are collecting our ground based data.

Another way students could get involved is in our patch design contest. Students from all five of our schools submitted designs for the contest. We narrowed it down to the top two per school for our ten finalists. Voting is now open to help select our final patch design. Please vote in our poll to help decide which patch design will be made and worn on our flight suits. Feel free to share the poll with students and colleagues. We’d love as many votes as possible as we try to identify the winning patch. Thank you!

 

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Mar 24

Just call me “Mom”

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Students

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This year, I’ve had several students think that it is fun to call me “Mom.” It started pretty early in the school year with one student, and then it spread to several. At first it was funny, then annoying for a bit, and now I’ve realized something. Sometimes, students call you mom because they wish you were their mom. After discovering something about a student that broke my heart this week, it’s changed my perspective on being called mom by students. Now, I realize that many of my students call me mom because it’s funny, but some do because they need a stable influence. So if it makes you feel better, you can just call me mom.

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The poster to the right is from my dear friend, Krissy. If you click on it, it will take you to her Facebook page. If you need to be inspired, I suggest you start following her!

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Mar 19

Basketball lessons

Categories:

Dare Mighty Things, Students

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This is a follow up to yesterday’s post. Today, I played in the student-faculty basketball game. I was completely overwhelmed with the support my students showed me both during the day, at the game, and afterwards. I was the only teacher with a personal cheering section and signs. I am humbled by the strength of relationships I have forged with students this year. I am pretty sure I am one of the luckiest teachers ever. I am not sure how well I am inspiring my students, but they never stop inspiring me!

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Mar 18

Passion and inspiration

Categories:

Dare Mighty Things, Experiences, Students

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See the picture book sitting next to my whiteboard? Completely unplanned!

See the picture book sitting next to my whiteboard? Completely unplanned!

Everyday my goal is to inspire my students to find their passion. Now, of course, I really hope their passion will be science! This year, I have also been encouraging my students (and myself) to Dare Mighty Things. Sometimes, the mighty thing you dare may not seem that significant, but it can be a big deal to kids.

Every year, we have a student-faculty basketball game where the student basketball team players take on the faculty a as Relay for Life fundraiser. I’ve never participated before. I’ve never even watched the game before. However, I decided to let my students decide for me this year. By a very wide margin, playing basketball won the poll over being a cheerleader and watching from the bleachers. I’ve gotten great advice from students on what to do, and my fans are already helping me get ready. Every teacher gets a nickname for the game. I asked that mine be space related, so I am now Janelle “Out of This World” Wilson. Seems fitting! One of my students wrote it on the board last week. Tomorrow at the game, students are planning to bring signs to cheer me on!

Playing basketball is not my passion but inspiring kids to reach outside of their comfort zone and try something knew certainly is. By leading through example, I find I am the one being inspired. It’s just another reason to keep daring mighty things!

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Mar 17

When discussions lead to an unexpected understanding

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Experiences

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The other day, we were discussing the movement of the sun-Earth-moon system. As we were reviewing the ways the Earth and moon move as part of the system, I mentioned that the sun rotates. Evidently, this was a new concept for some of my students. From there, and I cannot even remember how, our discussion moved to the size of the solar system, galaxy, and universe.

Most of my students had no idea of the scale of the universe. We looked at a photograph from the Hubble Ultra Deep field and talked about how it was from a small section of the visible sky. We discussed the number of stars in our own galaxy and how many galaxies there could be in the universe. By the end of our unplanned discussion, students realized how tiny the Earth is in the grand scope of things. One student even mentioned that by seeing the size of the universe, she now sees how unlikely it is we are the only planet with life.

I love those days when a discussion takes an unexpected course. It’s exciting to share information with students and watch them draw their own conclusions and come to understandings. Plus, the universe really is amazing!

Hubble Ultra Deep Field from hubblesite.org

Hubble Ultra Deep Field from hubblesite.org

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Mar 14

Reinventing school

Categories:

Classroom

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22 Front of Class

It’s time to reinvent school!

For a while now, I’ve been dreaming of learning experiences that are different than the traditional “old-school” methods. I’ve even thought about making it a goal to start my own school that doesn’t feel like normal school at  some point in the future. Basically, I love school, but the experience of school needs to change.

Imagine being offered the opportunity to reform part of a school day to look how you want it. Flexible, integrated, project based, relaxed. Well, that’s what is happening! Our cluster high school has a program called CDAT (Center for Design And Technology). It is such an amazing program that doesn’t feel like school. It feels like an open environment workplace. It’s okay to get up, move around, discuss, brainstorm, interact. In the program, they integrate science, language arts, technology, and health/PE or another elective. Students love it. I had a chance to visit a couple of weeks ago.

A colleague and I wrote a proposal to bring a similar program to our school, and we have been given the green light to start development of our program. I am so excited! I get to reinvent school right where I am. I will be sharing more about this journey as we start nailing down details. We’ll be looking for community partners as well.

I can’t believe I get to reinvent school!

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Feb 24

Two interesting summer opportunities for teachers

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Summer

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I am always amazed how many opportunities are available for teachers. There are a couple I wanted to share with you.

The first is Honeywell’s Green Boot Camp. This program is for middle school teachers of any content area who are interested in bringing green education into your class room. The program is June 24-28 in San Diego. Honeywell pays for the program, travel, accommodations and meals. The application deadline is March 15. I am also planning to apply for this program. Honeywell really knows how to treat teachers well, and I know it will be a great program. If you are a middle school educator, I encourage you to apply.

The second opportunity is the Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology sponsored by the AARL, the national association for Amateur Radio. This is a four-day expenses paid trip that will be held in two location: July 8-11 in Newington, CT and July 15-18 in Rocklin, CA. The application deadline is May 15. A friend of mine did this workshop last summer, and she learned a lot. She also told me that you get a lot of stuff to take home. If you do much with electronics, radio, and satellite contacts, this would be a cool workshop to apply for!

I know one of the hardest things with opportunities for teachers is finding them. Do you know of any awesome opportunities for teachers this summer? Please share!

 

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