Pat Hooker's Influence In Early Childhood Education

Samantha Light, grade 1 teacher at St. Juans catholic elementary in Toronto, Ontario noticed that her students learn better when they use technology, such as iPads. Light wants to make learning more enjoyable not only for her students, but kids everywhere, as she thinks it will make students want to participate in their teachers lessons more.

Misty has incorporated many types of technology into her 6th grade classroom. Her students use Edmodo and Google Apps daily to collaborate and create projects. Misty continually teaches and reminds her students how to be digital citizens that respect others and cite sources when used. She also uses a plethora of websites that students can access from home or school to practice skills. Misty knows how to advance student achievement by maximizing technology as a formative assessment tool so she knows where each of her students are in their learning and what skills need to be retaught.

The Board of Education for the Rowan Salisbury Schools are fully aware of how twenty-first century technologies can affect the manner in which our teachers teach and our students learn. It is the goal of the district to provide a safe and nurturing atmosphere that is technologically rich. Providing every student and employee with access to these tools is meant to enhance and improve the learning experience that will ultimately improve the academic achievements of all of our students. The use of the District’s resources are not a right, but come with responsibilities for proper care and use of all district owned technology. The Board also reserves the right to place restrictions on the proper care and use of its devices.

Education in classrooms are getting a different twist these days. In order to get kids more engaged at learning, teachers are trying to figure out ways to get then interested. With a handful of technology available that can distract kids from learning, teachers are using that same technology as a tool for learning.

From my very first observation I could tell that technology played a huge role in Ms. Felder-Way’s classroom. She found ways to integrate technology into almost every lesson. All of the students were assigned Chromebooks which were purchased by the district. In the classroom there was a SMART Board, two desktop

An aspect of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization, is that the teams must contribute to their community. The team has spread FIRST to all of the major middle schools and afterschool programs in the district. This wide range of service has allowed me to help the children in the community and the students on the Choctaw High School Robotics Team. I have been capable of teaching the students new ways of building their robots and helping them through their programs. FIRST embodies the vision of community rather than just competing with robots. The organization wants us to spread Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to anyone who wants to listen, and robotics has allowed me to help as well.

The differing personalities of the two co-founders of STEM Academy at Union High School, Melody Gao and I were essential to the success of our organization. In my sophomore year of high school, I founded a club called STEM Academy with my close friend, Melody, to promote science to elementary school students ranging from kindergarten to 5th graders. It was created as a fairly female dominated club because we wanted young girls to see role models and let them know it’s normal for girls to be interested and good at science. We started our first year volunteering at our nearest elementary school, with approximately 60 students attending, by conducting two to three experiments or demonstrations within a two-hour block. By our senior year, we had

Team 967’s annual Linn-Mar Homecoming Parade appearances allow people of our area cities to see what is possible through STEM. Not only does Team 967 impact young children and students, but also parents and elder parade-goers who have not been exposed to FIRST. The Iron Lions also host an event known as Robo-Thanksgiving, where we serve dinner to residents of a nearby assisted living home. Now in the team’s fourth year of hosting this event, many members of Team 967 consider this outreach activity to be their favorite. One final outreach event affecting crowds on a statewide scale is the Iron Lions’ yearly Iowa State Fair demonstration. For 20 minutes, the Iron Lions share a stage with other FRC teams from around Iowa to share what we do through FIRST to hundreds of bystanders. This collaboration, most recently shared with Team Neutrino, FRC Team 3928, is an unparalleled opportunity to reach and inspire a wide variety of people and portray the difference that can be made with STEM, not only mechanically, but

I observed Mrs. McLendon teaching a 7th grade ELA class. While observing this class I saw both technological integration and paper-pencil assignments, and whole class assignments. I was asked to help students work through MobyMax reading lessons on individual chrome book laptops. While using this program the students took quizzes, read passages, participated in placement tests, and completed daily challenges. If a student completed an assignment then the program rewarded them with either a short education based game or they received tickets. After they completed their MobyMax assignments I was asked to write out their vocabulary words on the white board in both print and cursive. The students were instructed to copy the terms and look-up the

... I almost feel like a real teacher!... I felt anxious as the children all stared at me… So I began by reciting the alphabet” (Hansen 127,128). Because their supposed teacher has not arrived yet, Patsy had to step up and teach the others about English language arts as a substitute.

Community outreach is vital to our team’s success. Considering how little STEM is seen in our school district and community, it’s significant to share information about the FIRST program. One of our goals is to make ourselves more known around town. Another one of our values is trying to help others, we try our best to have utmost integrity with anyone and everyone. One of FIRST’s

It is my distinct honor to recommend Dr. B. J. Worthington as Excellence in STEM Leadership Award. Seven years ago, I crossed paths with Dr. Worthington and during this time he was an acquaintance, therefore, I did not recognize what a visionary, passionate, and committed person he was until I was introduced to Moore Magnet Elementary and STEM. From day one, Dr. Worthington envisioned how STEM should unfold inside of our school. Therefore, we had multiple meetings, made plans for implementation, and STEM to succeed, as our school transitioned from a Math and Science school as Moore Magnet transformed of a STEM school. We remain proud of our school and continue to reflect on the journey as we transitioned into this wall-to-wall STEM school.

This scene is what teachers want to happen, their class passing well while having fun at the same time. Technology can help both ways for kids, teachers and the school.

As an Eagle Scout member of the Boy Scouts of America, I have the privilege to contribute to the community by teaching younger Cub Scouts social, technical, and leadership skills to improve their lives. Over the summer of 2016, I had the opportunity to serve as a senior instructor for our local Resident Camp. During that time, I worked with younger scouts to teach them about the field of STEM, particularly engineering. Most importantly, the students had a fun time learning about the sciences which inspired them to open up to additional careers available to them.

In Cathy Davidson’s, “Classroom Makeover”, Davidson analyzes and elucidates upon the faults she observes in the American education system. Davidson uses her own experiences in the education system to explore alternate methods of teaching that would cater to the strengths of a greater population of students. For instance, Davidson introduces an iPod experiment that she conducted at Duke University, in which she gave all first-year students free iPods to use in class. Expectedly, the upper-classmen were annoyed that they were not given iPods also and therefore, Davidson allowed upper-classmen to take part in the iPod experiment if they were able to have one of their professors implement the integration of the iPod in their class. In this way, she describes how the freshman at Duke University were able to enhance their educational experience by the integration of technology in the classroom and the upperclassmen were able to use iPods as an incentive to creatively persuade their professors in various classes to integrate this technology. Similarly, Davidson introduces the case of a middle school student as well as a teacher who introduced games in her classroom to teach lessons, as a means of illustrating that intelligence can be demonstrated in ways other than excelling in the traditional evaluations. Consequently, she believes that the current education paradigm does not benefit unique individuals and that the education system must change in order to aid everyone, and not