Burst of Steam

Since my last posting I have had a burst of steam ...

 a burst to get me moving to finish up lots of things that will lead me to success.

The unexpected (or maybe UNWANTED) snow storm on St. Patrick's day led to a day off from school.  Of course, I had chosen not to listen to the weather forecast, so I did not bring home school work to complete in case of a day off.  So much time to use... What should I do?

I chose to use the time to complete Chapter 5, the final chapter of my Capstone project.  Amy promised I would enjoy writing the chapter.  I will not go as far as to say I "enjoyed" the writing, but having the opportunity to use an unexpected day off for the completion of the paper certainly took some of the stress off me.  After submitting the paper, I now just have some tweeking of the abstract and some editing of my favorite - APA style.

One of the best parts of getting this project done was that I could use it as an example for my FCCLA students who spent last weekend scrambling to get their projects completed for the Spring Leadership Conference.  I don't know how they did it, but all projects were completed, made it to conference and they were presented in professional manner.  Our students did well, with five students qualifying for National Competition this summer in San Antonio.  I am so proud of them, and I know that I will be able to help them edit and tweek their projects for national competition.  

They Powered Up with FCCLA so they can SOAR to nationals!

STEAMED and Delicious!

Since this past weekend ended the Lunar New Year, I celebrated with Chinese.

Steaming is a centuries old method of cooking, that integrates water and heat to cook food to perfection.  The use of bamboo to create a steamer is an ingenious way to utilize the plentiful natural resource of bamboo.  Ask anyone who has planted a stand of bamboo how quickly it grows and takes over.  Technology that still works perfectly today!

How does this possibly relate to my capstone project?

This week I worked diligently to pull the intervention elements of my curriculum into one easy to navigate site.  I choose using a Google site as we are becoming a very Google centric school; offering an easy way for my class to share the information.  There will be a link to this site on my teacher webpage.

The basics; like the method of cooking demonstrated above, are focused on the elements of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) within the field of Family & Consumer Science.  Using some very basic tools, I feel that I can introduce the students to the connection their core subjects have to life.  The basic site offers the opportunity to add more content; as it becomes more relevant to the curriculum and the needs of the students.

A benefit of this site; it is very much like the steamer, it can be multi-layered, offering lots of product in one very easy to handle container.  As I completed the site, I immediately thought of additional tabs and pages that could be added, increasing the amount of material available to the students.

I must say, I have managed to get out of my fog of the previous week, and am moving forward towards a delicious end product.

STEAM or is it just FOG?

As I was driving to school one morning last fall I had to stop and photograph the moon with the early morning fog.  I remembered this sight as I feel I am in a fog with the end of this capstone project.  Although the fog seemed to overwhelm me this past weekend, there is the glimmer of clearing in a light blue sky.
I will try to remember this as I gather all of the tools that I am using as intervention in the teaching of Family & Consumer Science from the perspective of STEAM.

Last week saw me try to organize the variety of projects that my students have experienced this school year. The biggest frustration came as I committed such a rookie mistake as not SAVING the document after spending hours organizing as well as attaching documents incorrectly. I guess I really took too much down time during the break!  The silver lining is that after re-writing, I can claim a better understanding of what I am really accomplishing in my classroom.  The next goal is to finish creating the Google Site for a depository of the project assignments, tutorials, videos and informational text that can easily be accessed by my students.

I must say I was slightly depressed after the end of this past marking period.  It seemed so disjointed with the holidays and snow disturbances, that I am not sure if the students truly gained as much as they could.  My goal is with my new group of students to focus on the positives, searching for the one or two students who truly find the connections of all things STEAM into the world of Family & Consumer Science.

It's a New Year!

  

On January 31 millions of people around the world will be celebrating the Lunar New Year - the year of the Horse.  Since my new year on January 1 started out like a blur, I think I will take a "do over" and begin the new year this weekend.

My first start of the New Year began with a resolution to limit my "sarcasm" - needless to say it was a true, unmitigated failure!  Maybe it lasted 24 hours! Sad, but True :(

So my new, New Years Resolution is to complete this Capstone project with a positive attitude, believing that my students truly get the intersections of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics within the curriculum of Family and Consumer Science.

It has been a difficult marking period, with many breaks in learning as snow days, half days and holidays have broken up any real flow.  A few more days, and a formative evaluation will show me if my students truly grasped the concepts.  I must say their sewing projects were well designed; most figured out the relationship of engineering, planning and the process.  So tomorrow we begin the evaluation - I know they will show their understanding (this is not sarcasm!)  Thursday we will create our New Years meal - Fried Rice; a blending of Asian - American Cuisine.

So speaking of Fried Rice - FCCLA is selling Seasoned Rice Packets to benefit Share Our Strength:No Child Hungry campaign.  $5 donation and you to can make Fried Rice with my "famous" recipe.  I deliver to my followers as Southern Regional and South Jersey.

This is a shameless plug!

Happy New Year - The Year of the Horse!  
Let the work begin... or at least continue.

Power

I feel quite empowered today... it could be from my singular focus on STEAM and its relationship to everything that I teach.  

Today I had the honor of being present at the Board of Director's meeting for Tinius Olsen Testing Machines: my family's business that has been STEAMING along since 1880.  A business that has helped shape the consumer manufacturing business in all areas of life; from the strength of concrete, the strength of re-bar, to how thin plastics can get; we even make a machine to test the strength of a stuffed animal's eye?  As I participated in the meeting I could not help but note that when I am teaching life skills to my 8th grade class I am helping them learn how to make life choices that have been simultaneously affected by some great engineering ideas that came out of our companies products.  So much more is available to them to make wise decisions with than when G-GPop Olsen began the business.  The connection to FCS is Strong!  Wonder if we can manufacture a machine to test that strength!

Now back to the research paper - I was inspired during the meeting to finish up the few points - formatting the table of contents and writing the abstract. Having the opportunity to share my paper with my cousins, getting their feedback and support, gave me the push I needed to write what I thought would be difficult - an abstract that was concise.  It's great to have family support!  To paraphrase my cuz - The boardroom table seems to have become the new dining room table - a place of support!  The day certainly helped confirm to me the importance a family has on the development of productive citizens, and why Family & Consumer Science continues to be viable in our educational environment.  It certainly did not hurt when my cousins overwhelmingly supported my supposition of the connection of FACS to STEM... this is a STEM business, looking at all times for a workforce that can think creatively to solve the problems of tomorrow.

Spent about two hours working on the two.  I feel so much more comfortable with the aspects of Word that I was not familiar with.  Practice certainly helps as I worked to get it together during the week.  Thanks to Karl for helping me with changing the Header, and Carolyn for the pointers on Word..

Revisions may be needed, but I am sure I will manage those.

Power surge

As we come towards the end of this semester I feel I can finally start checking off all the commitments that I have made. 

NJEA presentations - check

FCCLA Fall leadership competition - check

Pre-assessments - check

Post-assessment - 1 down, 2 to go

Writing the paper - almost a check

This week I spent two hours writing my methods and procedures with minimal revisions.  I also spent two hours writing my reflection of the needs assessment.  I am feeling comfortable with my subject.

All that is left now is to: 

1. Finish the Literature review - goal is to have it done prior to Turkey day!

2.  Begin Cover page and table of contents.  This should be a challenge, isn't this why we hire editors?

I continue to advocate for FCS as a piece of STEM/STEAM education.  By taking an administrator to the FCCLA Fall Conference I was able to show her what FCS really encompasses.  Her eyes were opened and I think that there can only be positive results, time will tell. 

The success the students experienced as they brought home gold medals from competition gives me joy and thanks!

Change takes time, but STEAM, like water can change the geography of our environment.

Blocked.. Clogged and somewhat congested

This week seems to be moving quickly without my full participation. It seems that since our week off for the convention I have been moving in one speed ... slow and somewhat stumped.  The work just keeps on coming; marking period ends, grades need to be entered, DC trip needs to be chaperoned, and next thing you know it is FCCLA Fall Leadership Conference and Competition.  So in the middle of coming back from DC completely congested and feeling very much sub-par I need to motivate 30 some students to complete a variety of competition projects. Banners, Lamps, Child Care Projects, Cupcakes and Display units and dresses are all needed to be completed and perfected.

 It is exciting to see the enthusiasm these students have, and they don't seem too concerned that they will need to be at school by 6 AM on a Monday Morning.  When I get frustrated I remind myself that this is why we do the job.  Watching them work as teams to create within the guidelines given shows how they understand the concept of engineering.  Tonight they gave me the list of resources needed to make the cupcake display - PVC pipe, Electric Drill, Duct Tape, L-brackets, foam board - They have the idea and the plan; hopefully it will work when it comes together!  I have a huge smile on my face because I see the connection directly to my STEAM initiative within a FCS curriculum.

As for my project; I wish I was moving as quickly.  The four hours of writing Chapter four seemed to go smoothly.  I still get all confused with the APA guidelines and I am grateful for Amy's gentle nudging on the comments. I certainly hope I finally get it under control by the time the paper is completed.  It really does not surprise me that I have difficulty with the guidelines - I never was one to follow the rules!
I am trying to wrap my head around the Methods and Procedure Plan (chapter 3).  As I outline it I am concerned it is too large to be completed in a 45 day cycle.  I need to focus on the use of technology and am going to be working hard to create methods of flipped learning experiences that will enable students to be hands-on in a project based environment.  Hopefully my ideas can transfer onto paper.  This may become the one time I need an extension.

Needed: STEAMing cafe

          Week in Review

This week saw the paper coming together.  After completing the Literature Review, I spent several hours working on the learner context and the Goals and Objectives.  Just like in IDD, I seem to have a problem recognizing the differences of the goals and objectives.  Hopefully after the re-write I have it down.

The result of the pre-assessment measured how students recognized the relationship between FCS and STEAM education.  The assessment showed that students understood the relationship between FCS and mathematics, but that they had a harder time identifying how science and engineering related to FCS.

This week was certainly one steeped in coffee consumption.  On top of all the elements of the paper coming together, the marking period ended, SGO post assessments were given and I needed to administer the first of the post assessments for the capstone project.  Just keep the coffee coming, I can get through all this work.

As to the hours I have spent - I have lost track.  So much of what I am doing for my capstone are related to the workshops I am presenting, I just keep working.  I even seem to find new literature to review ... It seems that there is even a study that has linked to The process of creating crafts to the increase of patent awards.  This study has just been published through the University of Michigan.  A Young Picasso or Beethoven  could be the next Edison. I am sure there is a way I can use this in my paper - it confirms what I have always believed.

Currently being brought before the House of Representatives is a bill that would add Art to STEM education for STEAM,  There needs to be more signatures, so if you are so inclined, help those of us who really see the interdisciplinary links between STEM and the Arts get it focused in our educational goals.
STEM to STEAM Petition

So now I think I need a cup of coffee... maybe I'll get a chance to relax with one this week as I put together my NJEA convention presentations.