<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="" text=""> <div class="moz-cite-prefix"> I appreciate your reaching out to me. I don't feel I'm as plugged into the school as you suggest, but I'll ramble on a bit for you. ☺ Regarding STEM… When I first heard about it I was skeptical, thinking it was just the new buzzword to market the school with. Having now learned about the major pushes into the classrooms, by attending the first couple STEM meetings the teachers have monthly with Ms. Miller after school, I'm more upbeat about the STEM effort. I like the idea of emphasizing process in addition to traditional knowledge acquisition. Since it's so increasingly easy to find answers (online), I think the STEM design process being exercised in classrooms can be a great way to improve student skills that will really pay off down the road. I like that the STEM design process emphasizes that designing is fun, but only the beginning, that failure is a normal part of getting things done, that you'll be spending a lot of time reiterating on a solution and that is not wasting time, that these things are hard and perseverance is essential. I don't think the school is there yet; I see a lot of "art projects", one off "designs" that are celebrated for existing, but haven't really challenged the students to create things they hadn't imagined to begin with. Okay, I'm getting off the PTA track and onto the administration/teacher side that I don't have any influence over… I'm really not familiar with all that the PTA is doing related to the STEM push. I have volunteered a couple times for the (K-2) STEM Club (I don't think PTA), and my take is there is a lot of going through the motions. With the student/mentor ratio they have, I'm not sure much learning is going on. For kids who are already "get" the STEM design process, there's the possibility of growth through exercise, but for many (most?), I don't know how much learning is happening. For many, I really think they need one-on-one, look them in the eye, don't let them be lazy, see if you can get them on board, mentoring would need to happen; otherwise, they're just having craft time. Science night I know is PTA. I've always worried it's too much of a carnival, more entertainment that inspiring. I love that it happens at all though, the wider community participation, the whole school coming together, the parent involvement. I just think it would be fun if the kids had to walk away with a little more knowledge too. There's an email I can dig up I sent a couple years ago speaking to it. I don't mean to get grumpy about science night—I love science, have volunteered to do demonstrations, am totally impressed with what the community puts together, and don't know exactly how to improve it in the way I'd like—I just don't want to let go of the feeling that we should work to keep our eye on the ball, that we put on Science Night not to just for the oohs, ahs, and giggles, but to really help kids see the world around them in a new way (that will also make standardized test answers more intuitive). Egg drop is another one I can get grumpy on. Maybe it's just because I'm only hanging out with the younger grades, but I worry about the lack of depth in the investigations. I've gotten the impression there is no discussion of what might be going on with their designs, no discussion of forces or energy or structure, that might help the kids make educated guesses and not just a random walk through possibilities (or more commonly, just repeat what other kids are doing). As you can see, I like to think kids can "get" a lot more if we just expose them to it. Do it to them young while they're sponges. Then when they're older and doing the rigorous learning, it will all seem familiar. I like to imaging, especially at a STEM school, exposing kids to real modern science, not the simplified models of 25 years ago (we've come a long way!). Okay, I'm getting off track again… I also don't have a good sense of the motivations of the volunteers. I imagine many volunteer for the kinds of efforts they themselves enjoy. If that's the case, people aren't interchangeable resources that can be allocated where ever need be—canceling one effort doesn't mean you've freed those volunteers to work on another effort (they might not want to do the other effort). Okay, let me think of thinks that I imagine are valuable, that really serve the kids and give them a leg up. <ul> <li>Math mornings (tutoring)</li> <li>Science Night (potentially)</li> <li>More special interest clubs: Coding, Garden?, STEM (possibility), Girls on the Run, … </li> </ul> Things that aren't very impactful educationally for our kids… <ul> <li>Wonderful Wednesday, I just don't know the teacher sentiment well enough. Does it reinvigorate them? Is there a noticeable classroom enthusiasm following those Wednesdays? Are good teachers choosing not to leave the school because they're reminding of the extra love we have for them trough our offering of food? I don't know. It does seem to be a stressor on parents though.</li> <li>AR/Reading Carnival. The incentives seem all wrong to really move the peg on reading activity in the school (what I understand its intention is). Kids' parents save some bucks if they choose to if the kid reads enough? Too abstract. I can't imagine any kid reading more because they're thinking about an event at the end of the year that they probably participate in regardless of their reading choices.</li> </ul> I don't know. Another opportunity I've wondered about is getting kids involved with some of these things. Having them (not exclusively of course), doing things like making posters for an event, or running the school store, or collecting media and designing the yearbook, or soliciting the community for something. I know, that stuff is volunteer burdensome, but I think there's a lot of educations to be had from some students there. We'll see if I can apply the idea with my own kids (I hear the work load get pretty significant for older students). To be done for now, I think some things to keep in mind are that we're here to help our children. Every time we're taking on tasks for the school, we should be thinking about how it actually changes students' school experience. Sometimes I wonder if parents did nothing but simply assist in the classroom, if that would be volunteer energy best spent. Sorry I'm just rambling off topic here, I think maybe a conversation sometime would be better. Maybe that's happening at the Board meetings. I'm sorry to have been missing the last few. Thank you for stepping up to be PTA president—I like what I'm seeing! ☺ On 12/03/2014 06:36 AM, Kristie McMahan wrote: </div> <blockquote cite="mid:BAY181-W8123626AC429EAEFEE96728E7B0@phx.gbl" type="cite"> <meta http-equiv="Context-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <div dir="ltr">Hi Dave, I want to put together a survey to send to all parents and teachers to get input/feedback as to how we should dedicate our resources/volunteers in the 2015-2016 school year. With so much emphasis being placed on the STEM certification, my gut tells me that we need to shift our budget next year to allocate more resources and money towards supporting the program, which means we will need to eliminate some other programs. Since you are so involved with the school and STEM program, I really would like to get your opinion as to which programs you feel are the most beneficial to the Sagamore students and teachers and which ones may be able to be cut back or eliminated. I don't expect for you to spend more than 5 minutes on this. Just off the top of your head, what are your thoughts? This will help me develop the survey. If you don't have time, I certainly understand, but I value your input/thoughts/suggestions as I hope to suggest some changes that will better utilize the resources of the PTA to benefit our children. Thanks Dave! Kristie </div> </blockquote> </body> </html>