In March 2017, two teachers from St. Malachy School got to represent our E2SP program at the National Science Teachers Association Conference. The following blog is a guest post written by them as they reflect on the experience. Want to learn more about our education programs for students and teachers? Click here.
We are Science Teacher Leaders at St. Malachy School and part of the Early Elementary Science Partnership (E2SP) initiative sponsored by The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, The Field Museum, Northwestern, and Big Shoulders. We were thrilled to be invited to present with the E2SP team at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference in Los Angeles at the end of March.
Our first day of the conference, we attended the Elementary Extravaganza. The event is held in a large hall and there are teachers from all over the country and world showcasing science activities. There were so many exciting things to see: for our personal use and to share with the other teachers in the building. Then we went to the vendor hall where we saw even more great ideas and items to enhance our science program. The workshops we attended further energized us for future plans for our school.
Our presentation was on using protocols to enhance science professional learning communities (aka-making science meetings helpful). We have had great success getting teachers to participate in our monthly meetings due to our use of the protocols we have learned from E2SP. After a brief introduction to the program and our school, we actually led a protocol with workshop attendees. The feedback from the participants was so positive. We left with almost as many ideas from the lively discussions.
We are so grateful to Big Shoulders for sponsoring our travel and E2SP for including us in the presentation. We came back with so many great ideas for our school. Patti was so excited, she wrote a proposal to do her own presentation next year in Atlanta: who wants to join her?
Patti Taylor and Kaylyn Wardrip
St. Malachy School
Leave a Reply