Over 60 Madera Head Start Teachers and administrators gathered for a day of STEM training. The room was filled with excitement, building blocks, a mountain of recycled materials to be used in engineering design challenges, low-cost technology and tools, STEM-based children’s literature, and more. Teachers were introduced to the foundational principles of STEM education including teaching via inquiry, designing lessons that engage and empower students, incorporating 21st-century skills within all STEM-based lessons, and incorporating real-world STEM challenges for young children. During the day-long training, teachers were introduced to using low-cost, meaningful technology mathematical and scientific tools, using the outdoors to teach STEM practices and content, building dimensional structures, patterns, shapes, ramp science, tinkering, block building, journaling, and incorporating STEM-based children’s literature within STEM explorations and centers. The teachers were engaged throughout the session, experiencing the beauty and power of STEM education like their young students. I am grateful to be providing ongoing STEM teacher training for Madera Head Start, it takes time and quality professional staff development experiences for educators to truly feel confident to implement STEM learning experiences within their own classrooms. I am excited to see what takes place during the 2019-2020 school year in Madera Head Start Classrooms, the teachers and administrators have truly embraced STEM education. Check out the following video below which gives you a birds-eye view of two different days of STEM training conducted for Madera Head Start Teachers. More ongoing training to take place in February of 2020.
Tag: headstart
Early Childhood Teachers Introduced to STEM Practices and Content
In early Spring I traveled to beautiful Sunnyside Washington to introduce early childhood teachers of Inspire Development Centers to STEM practices and content. During the two day STEM training 50 School Readiness Liaison and Early Head Start Teachers were introduced to foundational principles of STEM education and content appropriate for early childhood classrooms. The second day of training introduced the School Readiness Liaison Teachers to STEM explorations that can be incorporated in Family STEM programs and at home. Throughout the two-day training teachers were actively engaged in conducting inquiry-based STEM explorations from building with recycled materials to conducting STEM explorations outside, water science, incorporating affordable and meaningful technology, incorporating children’s literature within STEM lessons, journaling for preschoolers, and more. It was a great group of dedicated educators who will go onto share what they learned during the training with their students and their parents, making a positive impact on the children of the Migrant Workers and the community. Check out some of the photos taken during the two training.