On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
Sunrise to sunset with a group of committed educators is fantastic. That's what my first day at the SLATE Conference was all about. I went to several wonderful sessions, but I just need to write this out to reflect on my experience today. Keynote Today's Keynote was by Kevin Honeycutt and it was officially titled Trends, Tactics, and Tools for 21st Century Learning. That sounds like a pretty broad title. It was an epic that Kevin carried of with true inspiration. Kevin reminded us that we as educators cannot be secret geniuses. His call to us as educators was to share our stories. It's this kind of presentation that makes me feel think, "what stories do I have that compare to these? Am I failing my students by not removing the ceiling on their learning?" It's the kind of speech that can inspire while making one feel extremely inadequate. But these would never really be my stories. These are the stories of my students. Have I really bee