Summer Workshop Plans

Hands-On Science In Seattle Public Schools, K-5 2001 Summer Workshop Summary

How long do your workshops last?

The Lead Ieacher Institute was a two-day institute.

How many teachers do you involve in your workshops?

We had thirty teachers attending the workshop. Twenty-four from Seattle and six from Stanwood-Camano, a district that will begin to lease units from our warehouse.

What are your major goals for your workshops in terms of content and pedagogy?

The goals for the workshop are:

• To help lead teachers prepare to take over initial use workships for the science units we use in our adoption.
• To experience inquiry through a designated activity.
• To help lead teachers learn and strengthen their facilitation skills.
• For science resource teachers to model these facilitation skills throughout the workshop.
• To help lead teachers understand the potential diverse nature of their audience and how to to work with this diviersity.
• to help lead teachers know how to interpret feedback they will recieve from this diverse audience.
• For science resoruce teachers to provide content and pedigogy of inquiry-based science specific to the unit being addressed.
• To provide time for lead teachers to plan and develop a lession for an initial use workshop based on the information given.
• To provide support for the lead teachers so that they incorporate and practice using the facilitation skills in their presentations.
• To provide time for each lead teacher to present a lesson from the unit s/he will work on.
• For the science resource teahcers to provide concrete, constructive criticism and coaching based on the participants' presentations.
• To build a sense of team and comeraderie among the participants.

Are you offering professional development on specific curricula that you are hoping will be used in the classroom? If so, which curricula are you using?

In this workshop the focus is on the units from our district adoption. They are as follows:

Kindergarten
Wood-FOSS
Fabric-FOSS
Animals 2x2-FOSS

First Grade
Weather-STC
Balls and Ramps-Insights
Organisms-FOSS

Second Grade
Balance and Weighing-STC
Liquids-Insights
Soils-STC

Third Grade
Rocks and Minerals-STC
Sound-STC
Plant Growth and Development-STC

Fourth Grade
Circuits and Pathways-Insights
Food Chemistry-STC
Ecosystems-STC

Fifth Grade
Land and Water-STC
Models and Designs-FOSS
Microworlds-STC

JUNE LEAD TEACHER INSTITUTE

8:30-8:45 Welcome to Institute
A district, state, and national perspective of where we are in science - Project Director

8:45-9:15 Team Bonding Activity
(Change 3 Things; defining momenty; What significant change has occurred in our thinking, behavior or instruction that has resulted from your involvement in Inquiry-based Science) - Science
Resource Teacher (SRT)

9:15-9:30 Continuum of Lead Teacher growth in responsibilities - SRT

9:30-10:00 Team Bonding
(personal feelings, excitement and fears/concerns) - SRT

10:00-10:15 Break

10:15-11:15 Guided Inquiry Activity
(Sound: Variables of string and the effects on pitch and volume - SRT
[eye contact, pair2] This is an activity that Joseph and Awnie brought back from the Exploratorium.

11:15-12:00 Reflection on Facilitation Compnonents exhibited in Sound Inquiry
Activity - SRT [Think-pair-share] Use the components template

12:00-12:15 Announcements for the afternoon - SRT

12:15-1:00 Lunch

1:00-3:20 Work with Science Resource Teacher on upcoming Initial Use workshops
(The SRTs actually typed up a script of what would be said at each point. The Lead Teachers really appreciated this. They began to prepare a lesson for the Initial Use that they would present to their group the next day.)

3:20-3:30 Closing and feedback forms - SRT

SECOND DAY

8:30-8:50 Overview of the day and respond to feedback from yesterday - SRT
Add to charts any new excitements and Fears/Concerns/Questions (They had brainstormed and charted them the day before.)

8:50-9:50 Facilitator - Audience Interaction - SRT
Groups of Four brainstorm about types of teachers they may encounter during Intitial Use classes. Chart or present in any way they want
As large group, categorize main groups as titles on poster post-its List strategies to deal positively with personality types
Reflect on results of Facilitator attitude and interaction with difficult adult learners (Chart-go-round for added comments.)

9:50-10:05 Break

10:05-10:50 Workshops and Evaluations - SRT Share and discuss in whole group
We share opposing opinions/feedback from the same class(es)
Share the natural tendency to focus on the few negative statements
Share how to diffuse feedback and make it useful to the facilitator and the rest of the class (formative assessment)
Discuss what the numbers are for and what they really mean

10:50-11:30 Additional Ideas - SRTs
Strategies from Robert Garmston and Bruce Wellman (Adaptive Schools)

11:30-12:15 Lunch

12:15-3:20 Work with SRTs on upcoming Initial Use workshops
(about 30 minutes to make final preparations) Lead Teachers present a lesson to another grade level group (K& 1, 2&3, 4 and 5 were separate groups because of their size being larger)

3:20-3:30 Final Words - SRTs and Project Director