Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

December 21, 2018 By Leave a Comment

 

This post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders sharing their stories as STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway winners. These real-world experiences shed light on how an individual PTA planned and hosted their event with lessons learned and practical advice.

 

Our local PTA had a problem: We needed a way to get our teachers involved in our PTA events. Thankfully, we heard about the National PTA STEM + Families Game Nights and thought it presented a perfect opportunity! We were fortunate to win a bundle of ~50 ThinkFun games during the 2017-2018 school year.

Our goal for the school year was to get our school community out and interacting, and winning the games was a perfect opportunity to have a fun, low-cost community night. This game night was definitely a winner and we’ll be hosting it again this year! Here are a few of the biggest lessons we learned.

Getting Teachers Excited Gets Students Excited

We believe one of the best decisions we made about running the event was asking our teachers to sign up to run the games. The teachers who participated learned the game prior to the event and ran the tables to teach the participants how to play. In exchange, the teachers received a classroom set (four copies) of the game they chose. Teachers also encouraged their kids to come to the event to play games.

Event Marketing

In addition to event marketing via teacher excitement, we advertised the event by sending home flyers and creating huge colorful dice and large dominoes out of donated boxes. These large colorful game props caught the eye of parents as they dropped their kids off and served as a great reminder as the event approached.

Attendance, Prizes and Favorites

Overall, we had around 250 people in attendance at the event. It was very fulfilling and encouraging to see the full room at the event. Families moved from table to table to play games—if kids got bored they could move on, and if they were having fun they could play the same game all night! All event participants (adults and children) filled out an event survey and the surveys filled out by the children were used as a drawing entry to win the extra games. There were a few favorite games among our attendees—Clue Master, Gravity Maze, and Math Dice. The enthusiasm of the teachers running the tables definitely drove the interest levels in the games!

Overall Costs

For the event, we chose to offer pizza slices and water for sale. Our overall costs were recovered through families buying the pizza and water, but we did overbuy pizzas and were giving away whole pizzas by the end of the night.

Conclusions

Fun PTA events don’t need to be extravagant or complicated. Often a simple event can be the most fun. Remember that along the way there can be hiccups like extra pizza remaining or that a few game pieces go missing, but one of the most important parts of running a successful PTA event is the feeling that the participants walk away with afterward—a feeling of being included and supported in a vibrant, diverse, and active community.

Take Action

Continue reading the series here:

 

Family Game Night, Anyone? With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

http://onevoice.pta.org/family-game-night-anyone-with-stem-families-thinkfun-game-night/

 

Member Growth, Huge Turnout With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

http://onevoice.pta.org/member-growth-huge-turnout-with-stem-families-thinkfun-game-night/

 

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

http://onevoice.pta.org/creating-lasting-memories-with-stem-families-thinkfun-game-night/

 

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

http://onevoice.pta.org/parents-and-kids-join-forces-with-stem-families-thinkfun-game-night/

About the Guest Contributor, Amy Jorde: Amy Jorde is the PTA President at Pearl Zanker Elementary School in Milpitas, California.

Disclosure: ThinkFun is a Supporting Sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of the 2017-2018 STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway and received a bundle of ThinkFun games. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are his/her own.

 

 

Filed Under: Every Child in Focus, Family Engagement, General, Slider Tagged With: , ,

Member Growth, Huge Turnout With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

December 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment

This post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders sharing their stories as STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway winners. These real-world experiences shed light on how an individual PTA planned and hosted their event with lessons learned and practical advice.

 

Did you know that games are good for motor skills, help our kids solve problems, can lead students to get better grades, and promote family bonding? That’s why at Cedargrove PTA, we are proud to host three Family Game Nights every year, which we think are unforgettable for everybody.

Family Game Nights give students and parents the opportunity to test out some of today’s most popular games without having to purchase them while wondering if they will even enjoy them. It also brings together many families and helps our local PTA grow relationships in the community as everyone takes turns, shares, and plays games with each other. These game nights also help parents understand and support what their children are doing at school.

Our tradition of hosting these game nights made Cedargrove PTA a great candidate to host a National PTA STEM + Families ThinkFun Family Game Night. Our PTA already had a team in place to coordinate with the school staff. Our librarian organized and marketed the event, a PTA volunteer made flyers to send home and to post on the school boards, and the principal added the game night event to the school’s marquee and made calls. We posted on the school website and on the PTA Facebook page, had a PTA Newsletter “Charger Chat” to advertise the event and had teachers send letters to parents reminding them how important it is for students to attend Family Game Night events.

To get familiar with the new ThinkFun games we were going to play at our event, we first had a ThinkFun game activity with our Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) students to test out the games and get feedback. This experience gave us the idea to reach out to the local high school students to see if they could volunteer as facilitators during our event—giving them community service hours, too.

The night of the event, our PTA, librarian, and teachers set up tables to do hands-on math, reading, and  science activities. We had 14 stations with each game labeled. When students entered, they had to sign to get a passport. They also got a raffle ticket for a chance to win some incredible prizes and if they completed their passports, they got another raffle ticket.

Being welcoming and inclusive is an important value within our PTA; everybody is welcome to attend our events! We were so happy that parents, grandparents, tutors, teachers, and students all showed up. Attendance for this event was significantly higher because we added new games and gave away some amazing prizes courtesy of ThinkFun.

We always ask for donations to sponsor our Family Nights because our budget for these events is small. Asking for community donations is also a great way for us to build our PTA’s reputation in the community—local businesses are now aware that we host these Family Game Nights and can help us spread the word.

Family Game Nights are great opportunity to increase your PTA’s membership too. We set up a membership table at each event with useful information about how our PTA is contributing to the school. We also gave away a few small prizes for just the parents who joined PTA that night.

Our ThinkFun Family Game Night turned out to be an amazing event where every member of the family was able to bond together while playing STEM board games.

Take Action

Continue reading the series here:

Family Game Night, Anyone? With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Family Game Night, Anyone? With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

About the Guest Contributor, Yesy Reyes: Yesy Reyes is the PTA President at Cedargrove Elementary School in Covina, California.

Disclosure: ThinkFun is a Supporting Sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of the 2017-2018 STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway and received a bundle of ThinkFun games. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are his/her own.

 

 

Filed Under: Education News, Family Engagement, Slider Tagged With: ,

Family Game Night, Anyone? With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

December 17, 2018 By Leave a Comment

This post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders sharing their stories as STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway winners. These real-world experiences shed light on how an individual PTA planned and hosted their event with lessons learned and practical advice.

 

Curtsinger Elementary School PTA had a problem. We wanted to give our families bonding time and grow our membership, but it was becoming harder to grab families’ attention for evening programs. So, we sent out a quick survey to our families. We discovered a desire for more info about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). But how could we make that fun for kids? The National PTA had the answer. We saw an opportunity for a ThinkFun Game Night grant, so we applied and thankfully received 48 games.

Our local PTA members got together with the school librarian and counselor and came up with a plan to cater to all our students, Kindergarten to fifth-grade. To entice more families to come, we announced six STEM game giveaways. Then, our counselor contacted the high school to recruit student volunteers to help facilitate the game stations. We divided the gym into sections and created game stations for each grade level. We were ready to have some good old-fashioned fun.

Or so we thought! We had such an overwhelming turnout that the librarian had to provide additional board games to ensure that all students were engaged. We were so pleased to give our families the STEM programming they desperately wanted.

As the night progressed, it was a little chaotic with most of us not knowing how to play the new games, but thankfully we had several math and science teachers there playing and learning the games with students. In the end it was perfect, because we gave all the games to the library and the teachers could check out the games at any point throughout the rest of the year.

One of the teachers stated, “I cannot say enough great things about the programs you bring to our school. I can tell that you put a lot of thought into the programs, making sure that they are educational, yet fun, and most of all engaging for the students.”

In addition to the ThinkFun Family Game Night programming, we were also able to incorporate a parent education night during the event. Our guest speaker gave us practical tools to handle the stresses in today’s society and upcoming standardized tests. We had a great response from parents saying they had no idea they were adding stress to their kiddos and they were grateful for the tips and words of encouragement.

So, this all being said, get creative with your event! This didn’t cost us a dime! Will we do another Game Night? Absolutely! This year we are adding a sponsor from our community that has fun coding games for the kids. If you’re going big…why not have real Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots?

Take Action

Continue reading the series here:

Member Growth, Huge Turnout With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Member Growth, Huge Turnout With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

About the Guest Contributor, Aliina Plunk: Aliina Plunk is the PTA President at Curtsinger Elementary School in Frisco, Texas.

Disclosure: ThinkFun is a Supporting Sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of the 2017-2018 STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway and received a bundle of ThinkFun games. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are his/her own.

Filed Under: Every Child in Focus, Family Engagement, General, Slider Tagged With:

March2Success: FREE College Test Prep + More

September 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment

High school students have a lot on their plates these days. Having to re-take an SAT or ACT test due to a low score shouldn’t be one of them. March2Success, a free online, interactive program created to enhance ACT, SAT and standardized test performance can help better prepare your students for important exams. From high school science, math and verbal skills to college readiness and planning tips, this online resource has the tools and information students need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

The U.S. Army-sponsored March2Success program features curriculum designed by Peterson’s and the College Options Foundation. It offers a full prep course for the ACT and SAT to complement ACT and SAT full-length practice tests and provides cutting-edge assessment capabilities and education content in an easy-to-use, self-paced format that is available 24/7. In addition to practice tests, March2Success offers a variety of study materials such as flashcards, lessons and interactive video games to make the program user friendly for many learning styles.

For students interested in a career in healthcare, March2Success recently added full-length practice tests for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), the Dental Admissions Test (DAT) and several nursing tests, making March2Success an even more valuable resource for students.

Also new this year, March2Success now offers health and wellness resources to improve the health and fitness of students and their families. The Army’s Performance Triad focuses on creating and sustaining healthy behaviors of sleep, activity and nutrition; because peak mental performance, just like optimal physical performance, is important to the U.S. Army and our nation.

Parents and teachers can use March2Success to monitor students’ progress toward their goals, view frequency of site use, and have the option to manage their students as individuals or groups. Teachers can conveniently group students by the classes they teach, grade levels or student needs.

The U.S. Army is fully committed to strengthening the education resources for our Nation’s youth and this program is the first step.  Using March2Success requires no obligation to the U.S. Army. To start using March2Success, visit march2success.com or watch this video to learn more.

Jose A. “Tony” Castillo is Education Chief for U. S. Army Recruiting Command.  In his role he oversees several outreach initiatives and promotes Army education resources designed to help young people explore various career paths and succeed in their post-secondary future – as professionals and as citizens.

Filed Under: Education News, Slider Tagged With: , , ,

STEM Nights Bring Families and Experts Together to Learn about Science

January 30, 2018 By Leave a Comment

Just like children don’t stop learning when the final bell rings, great teaching doesn’t stop at the end of the school day. Across the country, teachers, parents, and community members are coming together more and more frequently to host STEM nights to get families thinking about science, technology, engineering and math through interactive, hands-on, engaging activities.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is proud to support many dedicated teachers who plan and lead STEM nights at their schools. Michelle Estrada, a kindergarten teacher at Desert Hills Elementary in Las Cruses, N.M. has been hosting STEM nights in her community for seven years.

She is a recipient of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), the nation’s highest honors for K-12 STEM teachers, which NSF administers on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

As a Presidential Awardee in 2010, Michelle was invited to Washington, D.C., to take part in the National Recognition Events, received a signed certificate from the President and left with a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation. When she returned to New Mexico, her experience as an awardee motivated her to continue to improve her teaching, seek out new resources for her students, and engage her local community in more collaborative and effective ways than ever before.

Sensational Science Night

In 2009, Michelle applied for the Toyota Tapestry grant,  a partnership between Toyota and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) that provided annual grants to science teachers across the United States. Her proposal focused on the Rio Grande, which cuts right through Las Cruces, less than ten miles away from Desert Hills Elementary. She planned a collaborative and immersive series of events for her kindergarten class composed of field experiences, hands-on activities, demonstrations by local scientists and community educators, inquiry-based experiments, and a variety of cross-curricular studies. She was awarded $10,000 to fund her project, and Sensational Science Night was born.

At the first Sensational Science Night, 30 expert-volunteers from the community came to share their knowledge and inspire students and parents to be more curious about science. Since then, the event has more than tripled in size: in 2016, 30 organizations were represented by over 100 expert-volunteers, and more than 400 participants flooded the halls of Desert Hills Elementary. They all spent their evening exploring, designing, and thinking critically with one another.

STEM Nights are unparalleled opportunities to engage the community with the local—or even national—scientific community, and let students know what it looks like to be a scientist in practice. At Michelle’s event, students were able to interact with pharmaceutical students from the University of New Mexico, chemical engineering students from New Mexico State University, local museum curators with displays from their traveling collections, local firefighters teaching fire safety and fire science, and a local Astronomy organization which provided telescopes for student use.

The National Honor Society chapter of a local high school took over an entire wing of the school and facilitated hands-on activities, launching paper rockets, creating bouncy balls and making ice cream in a bag. Michelle didn’t stop at inviting the local science community—she invited local food trucks which offered dinner options on the school grounds, donating a percentage of their sales to fund scholarships for Camp Invention, a STEM summer program at Desert Hills Elementary.

Over the years, Michelle says the name of the event has changed to keep up with its popularity. Once Sensational Science Night, the moniker shifted to Sensational STEM Night, and this year morphed again into Magnificent Sensational STEAM Night (reflecting her decision to include the arts). We’re excited to see what it will be called in 2018.

To learn about how you can honor great teachers in your community with a PAEMST nomination, please visit our website at paemst.org. Nominations for K-6 grade STEM teachers are currently open.

For resources on how to host a STEM night at your school, check out National PTA’s new STEM + Families webpage.

Dr. Nafeesa H. Owens is a Program Director of Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching Program Lead at the National Science Foundation.

Filed Under: Education News, Slider Tagged With: , , ,

Mathnasium + PTA: Helping Your Child Succeed

November 4, 2016 By Leave a Comment

 becky-mcdaniels-image-with-a

(Sponsored Post) 

Across the nation, Mathnasium’s neighborhood math experts are working with PTA’s parent leaders toward a common goal—building stronger communities through quality education! Becky McDaniels, owner of Mathnasium of Brandon, Fla.—and a dedicated PTA member for over two decades—is a great example of this collaboration.

“PTA does so much for teachers and schools, and I wanted to be a part of it and make a difference,” Becky recalled.

As a mom and former teacher at public, private and charter schools, Becky’s worn many a PTA hat. She’s served on her local unit’s board, penned newsletters, driven fundraising initiatives from the ground level, bridged the gap between parents and educators as teacher liaison and served on event committees.

Mathnasium’s collaboration with National PTA through the STEM + Families initiative provided yet another avenue for Becky to show support once her children left school and she transitioned out of classroom teaching.

Now a business owner and STEM advocate, Becky’s math expertise takes center stage. Whether she’s presenting at PTA meetings, engaging families through fun in-school math nights or contributing to fundraising efforts, Becky’s clearly in her element. Many years after her first PTA meeting, she still finds it incredibly fulfilling to see a large scale project come to fruition and glows happily with every “thank you” she receives.

Colleen Horan Green, PTSA vice president at Randall Middle School, offered one such “thank you” to Becky. “Mathnasium of Brandon sought us out and became actively involved in supporting our events,” Colleen recalled.

“Now we are working together to create a seminar to help parents like me support our children in seventh-grade math. As a PTSA member, I’m looking at our common goals and filling the needs with Mathnasium.”

“The fact that Mathnasium exists is wonderful,” Colleen added. “They provide so many resources at any level, work in tandem with the curriculum, reach out to teachers and help us better serve our students. It’s more than just a partnership; they really do go above and beyond to understand needs at every school.”

For Becky and her team, the future brings more school sponsorships and fundraising as they host the Mathnasium TriMathlon the weekend of November 5 and 6. Mathnasium donates money to schools for every student who participates in this fun, free math competition. Find the event nearest you and help raise funds for your PTA!

Damaris Candano-Hodas is the Marketing Communications Coordinator at Mathnasium Learning Centers.

Mathnasium is a Proud National Sponsor of PTA and was invited to contribute a blog post as a benefit of this relationship. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product or service. No endorsement of Mathnasium is implied. Learn more at PTA.org/Sponsors.

Filed Under: General, Money Matters Tagged With: , ,

#PTA4STEM Thought Leaders Meeting

April 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment

stem meetingOn March 22, National PTA and Bayer USA Foundation convened industry leaders, educators, association and corporate executives, government officials and family engagement researchers to launch National PTA’s STEM Initiative.

STEM has been a hot topic in education over the past few years. Nearly 8.6 million science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs represented 6.2 percent of U.S. employment in May 2015. In addition, the Administration has made significant strides to close the access and equity gaps in STEM education.

So what does this mean for us and your local PTAs? Family engagement is essential to strengthen STEM education and help all children realize their fullest potential, and we are here to support student success in STEM. National PTA’s STEM Initiative aims to model what effective family engagement looks like in STEM by engaging entire families in STEM activities.

A recent survey commissioned by Bayer underscores the importance of family engagement to STEM education. Key findings from the survey include:

  • Parents are most likely to say that they play the biggest role in stimulating their child’s interest in science (46%), followed closely by teachers (44%).
  • Nearly one-third (31%) of parents don’t feel confident enough in their scientific knowledge to help their children engage in hands-on science activities.
  • Almost one-third (32%) of teachers say parent support or involvement at home would be most helpful in increasing hands-on science learning experiences.

The STEM Thought Leaders Meeting was filled with innovation and excitement—participants broke out into groups and brainstormed on the concept of “What is STEM?” and talked about effective family engagement STEM practices at school.

What does family engagement in STEM look like for you? Comment below. Check out our Storify and presentation to see what happened at STEM Thought Leaders event.

Filed Under: General, Slider Tagged With: ,

How Robots are Teaching STEM to a New Generation

April 7, 2016 By Leave a Comment

STEM(Sponsored Post)

When it comes to getting kids interested in STEM learning, there’s one word that works every time—robots.

In fact, the potential for robots is so promising to help draw student interest in STEM, that robots have been given their own week. This year, April 2-10 is National Robotics Week, which in addition to celebrating the U.S. as a global robotics leader, is raising awareness among educators, parents and children about the benefits of incorporating a robotics curriculum.

And while the idea of using robots in the classroom may have seem farfetched a few years ago, a growing number of affordable robot kits for students are entering the market. This makes robots a more realistic option for many schools and educational programs.

Here at the Sylvan Learning Center I oversee in Lafayette, La., we started offering two levels of robotics classes for grades 2-4 and 4-6 in 2014, shortly after Sylvan added the concept in its national curriculum.

The robots are so popular that it’s often difficult to get students to stop working on them once class is over. And while they are fun for the kids, they are truly educational. Designing and building programmable robots bring to life math, physics and engineering concepts.

Students as young as 7 are introduced to the amazing world of robotics by building and programming robots and engaging in friendly competitions using LEGO® bricks and award-winning software. Once a concept is introduced, the students begin to create and program complex robots with friends while learning problem-solving skills and engineering concepts. Kids are soon making calculations and gaining exposure to computational thinking on their own accord. They’re also learning programming skills as they command their bots to move!

The robots can be designed in the form of familiar objects such as animals, people and vehicles as well as more abstract concepts purpose-built for the task.

We find this engagement really encourages students who may have otherwise previously been intimidated or uninterested in STEM subjects. Given the tremendous educational and career opportunities that will be available to these children as they grow older, it is critical we use all the tools we have in order to reach them.

Sylvan is a financial sponsor of PTA as Member Benefit Provider.

Christy Sharon, a former grade school and high school teacher, has been executive director of the Sylvan Learning Center in Lafayette, La. since 1997.

 

Filed Under: Education News, General, Slider Tagged With: , , ,

Gender Bias Still Holds Girls Back in STEM

March 17, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Monica Nicolau ProfileWomen have historically been responsible for some of the greatest achievements in science, technology, engineering and math—from the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge to writing the first computer code. Unfortunately, women’s accomplishments have been limited by gender bias that persists today—even among well-intentioned parents and educators.

With Women’s History Month being celebrated now in March, this is a great opportunity to both honor women’s achievements in STEM as well as reflect on how we start eliminating these biases.

Without a doubt, our attitudes toward equal opportunity among the sexes have come a long way in recent decades. However, many parents and educators still let traditional gender stereotypes influence the way they treat girls. In fact, one survey found that parents were more likely to discuss an acting career than a STEM career with their daughters by a 2-to-1 margin.

Providing girls with positive exposure to STEM fields from an early age is critical if we want to keep them interested in the subject. A recent study by the Girl Scouts of America Research Institute found that girls who knew someone working in the STEM field, or who were exposed to STEM activities, were more likely to have an interest in STEM.

This is something I can personally relate to. My fondest memories about growing up are the Saturdays I spent with my father, a marine engineer, at his office. He designed complex electrical systems that kept some of the world’s most massive ships humming. This early exposure was enough for me to develop an interest in STEM that eventually propelled me into software engineering.

Unfortunately, gender bias means many girls do not receive the exposure that I did. This has resulted in a workforce where women only make up a quarter of STEM employees, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce—a figure that has been shrinking in recent years. In high-demand, growing fields like computer science and software engineering, women make up even lower percentages.

The first step to solving the problem begins with awareness. We must first be aware that these biases continue to exist at home and in the classroom and understand their impact. We must also pay close attention to our own actions and reflect on the ways we interact with and evaluate girls and determine what unconscious signals we might be sending.

When we do this, we may notice patterns in our own behavior that we may have been unaware of. Once we identify these patterns, we can begin working to change them and ensure the girls are equally encouraged when it comes to pursuing STEM.

It benefits us all when both halves of the human population are working to solve the biggest challenges in fields like computer science, physics, environmental engineering and medicine.

Monica Nicolau is chief technology officer for Sylvan Learning. Prior to Sylvan, Ms. Nicolau worked at Micros Systems, Inc., now Oracle Hospitality, where she held a variety of roles, including director of software engineering. She earned her master’s degree in computer science at Johns Hopkins University.

Filed Under: General, Slider Tagged With: ,

Parent-Teacher Partnership Results in Trip to the White House

March 3, 2016 By 1 Comment

STEm-NSF“There are so many great teachers out there that need to be recognized,” says former local Virginia PTA president Christie Olsen. A few years ago, Christie took her own advice and nominated her twin daughters’ teacher, Stephanie Chlebus, for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). Stephanie went on to become the 2012 PAEMST awardee for mathematics in Virginia, for which she received a certificate signed by the President, a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a trip for two to Washington, D.C., where she met President Obama.

“Stephanie is unique as a teacher, in that she makes every single one of her students feel like they are just as good as the next student in mathematics,” explains Christie, who was able to see this first hand with her daughters. “She’s always willing to provide more challenges for students that are excelling, while using her talents to find innovative ways to teach the kids that might not be getting it.”

Building Partnerships and Keeping Communication Open

As we all know, the relationship between parent and teacher is an important one. Christie nominated her daughters’ teacher, Stephanie, for the PAEMST award because she had built a partnership with her. To do this, according to Christie, there must be trust between all parties that everyone (parent, teacher, administrator, etc.) is acting in the best interest of the child. Once that is established, open communication is the best way to build the parent-teacher partnership. “One party can’t shut out the other. It just won’t work,” Christie advises.

On the other end, as the teacher, Stephanie has instituted several initiatives to foster collaboration between herself and the parents of her students. She emails parents every week to give them an idea of the objectives and content that will be taught in the upcoming days. This enables parents to have deeper conversations with their children about what’s going on in the classroom and what they’re learning each day. She also engages parents and families with several events, such as family math game night and parent Academy night.

What’s Stephanie’s advice for parents who are thinking about getting more involved in the PTA or volunteering in their child’s classroom? “Do it!” She stresses, though, to remember that every teacher is different. While some teachers may be dying for volunteers, other teachers may not be comfortable (or are not allowed) to have parent volunteers in the classroom. She suggests you offer your help and give the teacher the opportunity to tell you what they need. Like Christie, she stresses the importance of open communication.

Stephanie also points out that without the support of the PTA at her school, she wouldn’t have been able to put on the events that families love. “A strong PTA that supports its teachers, results in teachers who can run more initiatives to help its students,” she adds.

Recognizing Teachers for Outstanding Work

The importance of being nominated for PAEMST by a parent was not lost on Stephanie. “I know my colleagues see me working day in and day out to make learning relevant to students, but to have that come across to a parent through her children’s love and desire for math meant the world to me,” she shares. “Having a parent nominate me for PAEMST was the biggest compliment I can receive as a teacher.”

Both Stephanie and Christie note that parents can be involved in recognizing great teachers. Stephanie says that several parents pulled together student quotes for her PAEMST application, which helped give her application a personal touch. Christie suggests nominating the exceptional teachers in your school for awards like PAEMST.

“Any way you can recognize a great teacher for being great, or motivate them to keep doing a great job, is essential. It’s a great loss when outstanding teachers get disillusioned and leave the profession. Even if they don’t apply, and it’s just a nomination, you are still recognizing that they are going above and beyond for their students.”

Learn more about PAEMST and how to nominate a great teacher in your child’s life by April 1.

 

Dr. Nafeesa Owens is the program lead to the Presidential Awards for Excellence for Mathematics and Science Teaching program at the National Science Foundation. Most importantly, she is the mother of twin boys who are in kindergarten and is a local PTA member.

Filed Under: Education News, Every Child in Focus, Family Engagement Tagged With: ,
Newer Posts »