Business and Pleasure
This week I am working with the WSU STEM-LIT program to prepare for an exciting program to be used at our school to incorporate more project-based learning in the classroom. In preparation for a workshop with students in August, teachers are getting our hands on the materials, literally and figuratively, to make the magic happen. Thus far we’ve had a paper tower building contest, a catapult crafting competition, and are currently in the midst of crystal growing.
Science, math, engineering, and other content support teachers from two middle schools are giving up two weeks of their summer breaks to get these projects lined up for the fall. As the local media storm fires up over one legislator’s commentary on what teachers do with their time, I can’t help but look around the room at the intensive work continuing long after that last bell rang.
On the fun side of summer, the trivia team of which I am a member, won the spring tournament and now have a reserved seat at our venue. Tonight we had to know the Animaniacs theme song, which country first mandated the use of “black boxes” on aircraft, and the recipe for play dough. Trivia night is a time for me to enjoy knowing about a wide variety of things, not just math and science in which I am usually entrenched throughout the year. Teachers are generally pretty good at trivia; “knowing” is a big part of our business. That said, tonight’s trivia notes from my fellow teacher look like an odd grocery list and mine involve a truck speeding toward a levitating orange on a sunny day.
