Testimonials:

We are truly thankful for the support and generous donation to get our Trout in the Classroom grant approved by the PVSD Foundation.  While exploring various new initiatives, we were drawn to hands-on experience, a broad range of learning outcomes, and real-world application that our idea would include, but finding funding for a startup our program would be challenging.  In bringing this idea to the Foundation, they were so positive and encouraging throughout the process.  We couldn’t help but smile and laugh as we shared our excitement with them regarding the positive impact that we felt like this would have for us, our classrooms, and our community.  The Foundation’s support went towards the purchase of an aquarium tank, and many necessary pieces of equipment that will help us raise trout over the course of the school year.  As students learn about watersheds, water quality, ecosystems, habitats, and other content, we’ll make plans to release our trout into our local Perkiomen Creek later this year.  We look forward to the setup of the tank later this fall, the egg delivery in January, and all of the learning and excitement that will come through this school year, and hopefully the years to come!  We can’t speak highly enough of the positive, welcoming, and supportive team that we have in working with the PVSD Foundation!

We have also started introducing the pets in small groups, especially with younger students. It has tied in beautifully with our “getting along” unit, where we talk about fairness, meaning everyone gets what they need.

A student worked alongside his paraprofessional in a quieter space with the pet and remained engaged in the lesson, completed his work, and followed along with the group instruction. It was really powerful to see him remain connected to the learning while also getting what he needed to feel calm and supported.

In a kindergarten classroom, a student who was feeling very overwhelmed was able to recognize and verbalize that he needed to calm down, which is something that is not typical for him. After spending time with the pet, he was able to regulate and rejoin the class, even participating in the group activity.

I attended the Open SciEd training on Wednesday and then went back on Saturday to walk through the Expo. On Wednesday, OpenSciEd trainers led us through the activities for one of the third-grade units.  As a group, we questioned, discussed, and investigated the fruits offered on our school lunch menu, where they are grown on a world map, made conclusions on the climate/growing season, etc. It was a wonderful opportunity to be fully immersed in the concept of phenomena, which is the new method of teaching science, and explore the unit through both the eyes of the student as well as the teacher.  It was extremely helpful!

I just wanted to say that it was an amazing experience and opportunity to go. The experience validated the challenges and struggles that I was starting to see with STEELS but offered amazing insights into how to handle these challenges and how to work through them as well. I went to many sessions that shared valuable ideas when it comes to STEELS.

One session I went to dealt with the what, why, and how of STEELS. This session described the shift from the old standards and dealt with the new methods of teaching STEELS Standards. This session really described the reasoning behind the shift, which is to allow students to build a deeper understanding of concepts and topics in their own way. Another session that I attended demonstrated the STEELS process by doing a hands-on lesson. I, the student, was able to work through the process and was able to ask questions about the struggles that the presenters have faced. This gave me many amazing ideas on how to implement and perform the new style of teaching.

A third session that I went to talked about how STEELS can be impacted by what students already think they know. We looked at different probing questions that allowed students to put down what they originally believe based off of their background and how we can use that to see a shift in understanding. I actually purchased the book with those probes and I plan on implementing them next year as an introduction to new topics or units.

The final session that was of great interest was STEELS Notebooking. The presenters shared how student’s notebooks were adjusted to fit STEELS and how they use composition books to keep students’ ideas organized.

Overall, this was an amazing opportunity, and I want to thank the Foundation for providing this opportunity. I have faced many challenges, and I was happy to hear I was not alone, but I learned so much from these sessions that will help me overcome those challenges.

Some of my highlights were the sessions with Paul Andersen and his practical approaches to helping teachers embrace STEELS aligned teaching structures and what that really means in a classroom daily. I also participated in a school leaders network session with NSTA that led to great conversation and connections with school leaders all over the country along with learning about updates to NSTA and their online offerings we can use for free.That kind of networking and learning from others is a real benefit to these large national conference for me. I was also able to get my hands on a lot of the different resources we have been curious about to know what we might want to explore further.  Thanks so much for doing this!

I have taken a student on a walk and allowed a minute at each of the sensory walls as a reward for calming down.