Tag - amazing teachers
September 16, 2011
Very few teachers have teaching assistants who don’t ask for lunch breaks. Most won’t work for free either. Ted Gamble, a 3rd grade teacher at Meredith Hill Elementary School in Auburn, Washington, may have the most unique aides in his class.
They don’t ask for lunch breaks because they don’t eat or breathe.
No need to interview and hire these teaching assistants. Mr. Gamble has built his own. Meet the THX family, Silver Rocket and Ion Dauphin. They assist in the classroom by taking attendance, reading stories, giving spelling and math tests, making announcements and reminding students of important events. They also make cool sound effects and play music when prompted.
The robots can get a little bossy at times, but the students don’t mind.
Mr. Gamble designed and built the robots with help from laptops donated by Pixar, The Seattle Times, Washington State and Warehouser.
All of the robots have names and special talents, although Mr. Gamble says they aren’t robots in the true sense. They are constructed from materials and made to look like robots. The faux robots have speakers built into them that are connected to laptops running sound effects,
…
Continue Reading…
February 9, 2011
Triscia is a high school math teacher from New York City who recently moved to The Netherlands. She began her career as a high school biology and chemistry teacher. In moving to Holland, she has reconnected with her true passion – science.
As Triscia works to learn Dutch and find her way in the school system, she offers free science demonstration lessons. She collaborates with the classroom teacher before to create a lesson plan, incorporate learning strategies and discuss the connections they need to continue with after the demo.
She wrote me recently to share some pictures of a demonstration lesson she gave to a class of 6 to 9 year olds in a Montessori school. Triscia taught a lesson about elements, molecules and states of matter. Triscia says the children were focused for over three hours. When their teacher tried to stop the lesson to give the children their break, they screamed, “No! We want to learn!”
Science is addicting in any language if it is taught with enthusiasm and hands-on lessons.
A special thank you to Triscia for writing us and sharing her story.
April 19, 2010
Donna Kaufman is a first grade teacher at Louisa May Alcott School. She goes above and beyond to not only bring science into her Chicago classroom, but into a classroom in Zambia, South Africa.
Zambia is located in central South Africa and is home to the spectacular Victoria Falls, game reserves and diverse wildlife.
Donna sponsors a child in Zambia through an organization called Spark Ventures. Spark Ventures partners with organizations around the world to help vulnerable children achieve their potential.
Through sponsorships the students are able to receive free education (since education is not free), free school supplies, medical check-ups, and hot meals every weekday all year. This is typically the only meal they have each day.
Donna’s sponsored child attends Hope Community, a school that serves grades 1-7 and has 9 teachers.
In February, the executive director and program director for Spark traveled to Zambia and brought classroom exchange materials. Donna’s students made a big book about Chicago landmarks and a book that described snow. A teacher translated the books from English to Bemba, which is the language the students speak.
Chicagoans are very familiar with snow, but the
…
Continue Reading…
October 28, 2008
Once a year, Education students at Northwestern University, in Minnesota, get the opportunity to make a huge mess and learn a lot about making teaching exciting along the way. Spangler Science Ambassador, Lisa Schoneman normally teaches Kindergarten at Halverson Elementary in Albert Lea, Minnesota… but once a year she packs up her science tricks and heads to Northwestern to give pre-service teachers a chance to learn how to be amazing.
“The teachers get really excited about learning and usually bring what they learn from the workshop into the classroom and share the ideas with their cooperative teachers, where they are completing their field hours,” says Schoneman about her workshops.
This year, the university students learned about everything from color mixing to that infamous Mentos and Diet Coke Geyser. And, yes, they made a huge mess… but had a lot of fun… in the process.
Continue Reading…
July 19, 2006
What do you call 102 teachers gathered together who are crazy about space science? Teacher Space Camp. I often write about my search for “amazing teachers” – teachers who truly inspire students to want to learn. Last week I paid a return visit to the U.S. Rocket & Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama where I met another group of amazing teachers who really make learning fun. My training was sponsored in part by the Boeing Corporation who also sponsored the entire group of teachers. Katrine Balch is the Director of Education Programs and her staff does an amazing job of hosting some of the best teachers on the planet. The goal of the week-long program is to provide teachers with hands-on training in the space sciences… plus so much more. When I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, a group of teachers was busy building model rockets while another group conducted experiments with plants in space. My workshop on Thursday focused on best practices and strategies for integrating more science with reading, writing and math… and ways to make science even more fun in the classroom.
Sure, I always enjoy conducting teacher trainings, but this workshop was especially fun for me because
…
Continue Reading…
