Documentation

Professional Development 2012-2013
I participated in several professional development trainings, workshops, and courses that have helped improve my classroom practice, foundation knowledge, and brought new activities to my classroom. The common goals of the PD have been to better reach a diverse group of learners, make stronger connections to the real world, and to better integrate Common Core ELA and Math into my classroom practice.

The Pre-AP workshop focused on integrating inquiry-based activities into our science classrooms. Working with a trainer, a science department colleague, and teachers from across the region, five days of activities, planning, sharing, and discussing brought several activities to my classroom. I began the school year using the Inquiry Cube activity with all of my science students, from low skill 9th grade RSP9 to my college credit PHY103 students. Inquiry Cube Activity This Inquiry Cube activity provided a great foundation to develop the concepts of evidence and observation and differentiate them from inference. Students enjoyed the activity overall, but were challenged by the level of critical thinking required. Pre-AP PD Certificate
 * ===College Board Pre-AP 5 day workshop "Strategies for Science Vertical Team"===

The three day GIS Educator's conference was followed by the professional user's conference and provided many excellent workshop sessions that focused on using geospatial lessons, activities, projects, and mapping activities in the classroom. I was also a presenter at this conference, sharing work done previously with my RSP9 students using My World GIS software. I extended my skills in using some of the newer web-based GIS tools and found new activities for my classroom.
 * ===**ESRI International Educational GIS User's Conference, San Diego July 2012**===

Three days of science focused workshops, presentations, and hands-on experiences provided high quality professional development. HHMI provided DVDs and curriculum to explore plate tectonics in a highly engaging format which I implemented into RSP9 in May. Other earthquake resources and hands-on activities from IRIS were used in this unit as well, all from the NSTA conference sessions.
 * ===NSTA National Science Teachers Association Conference, San Antonio April 2013===

Most important from this conference was the opportunity to attend sessions that focused on differentiated learning, supporting high needs students in the science classroom, and incorporating the Common Core in the high school science classroom. Complete curriculum units designed for a wide range of students were brought home for use next year as well as a powerful set of virtual lab (with virtual microscope) activities to be used next year. NSTA is the richest opportunity for PD growth as a science teacher with thousands of workshops to select from over the four day conference. I also presented two sessions at this conference highlighting activities from the past few years that I have used with my RSP9 students focusing on geospatial tools to explore the environment.

I completed a semester long calculus course during the Spring 2013 semester to make stronger calculus concept connections for my physics students. The applications of real world situations, described/modeled with calculus, provide a richer learning experience for my developing physics students. This supports my goal of making a stronger connection to math skills and the real world as well as raising the level of thinking and analysis for my PHY103 & PHY104 college physics students.
 * ===Calculus Math108 - 4 semester hours===

PD Hours //(beyond the school day)//
Pre-AP workshop 30 hours ESRI GIS workshops 16 hours NSTA (12 hours total) 4 hours on Saturday Math108 4 semester hours of credit (60 hours)

Other hours related to the Entergy MST grant 2012-2013 //(beyond the school day)//

 * Student Journaling** - purchasing journals (1.5 hours August 12), researching use of daily journals in science (3 hours Aug 2012)


 * Procedural thinking and Robotics Unit** - Researching robotics products (Sept & Oct 2012 5 hours), researching LOGO software and activities for middle school & high school level (10 hours Jan, Feb, & March 2013), developing procedural thinking activities (5 hours March 2013), purchasing supplies for activities (1.5 hours March 2013), purchasing equipment, books, and other resources for robotics (3 hours Feb 2013), purchasing batteries & storage for robotics (1.5 hours March 2013), downloading, installing, & organizing Lego robotics related activity files and software onto computers (10 hours minimum March- April 2013)


 * Plate Tectonics -** Purchasing and making materials for earth models (7 hours April 2013), researching and downloading iPad apps to support plate tectonics and earthquakes unit (2 hours April 2013)


 * iPad Integration -** Researching strategies for single iPad use in the classroom (?? hours over the school year), downloading and evaluating iPad apps: LOGO Draw, Cato's Hike, Science 360, Toontastic, Coaster Physics, HHMI's Earth Viewer, Build a Bird, Cardio Teach (EKG), Seismometer, iSiesmograph, and other productivity apps.

A parent of a Hannibal physics student nominated me for this award based on the work done to support students through my physics wiki and other extra efforts beyond the school day. Forty teachers from across Senator Ritchie's district were acknowledged and awarded $500 for classroom technology and tools.
 * Senator Patty Ritchie Excellence in Teaching Award 2013 [[file:145477380-Senator-Patty-Ritchie-Excellence-in-Teaching-Award-2013.pdf]]**

Professional Development 2011-2012
Below is a list of the professional development completed this past school year that has supported the Entergy MST grant related work.

__Course 4 - Turn Your CLassroom Digital- Putting Your Course Online (25 hrs) __ Participants will learn how to create their own online course from start to finish. Participants will get an overview of online teaching models, learning management systems, instructional design models, Web 2.0 collaborative tools and online assessments. Participants will then put all the pieces together and create their online course in a free learning management system.
 * ===NASA Technology Integration Certificate===

//This final capstone project course finished the four course certificate strand.//
This course was valuable to refresh my skills, terminology, and make more precise connections to myphysics students' math background knowledge and the application of skills in physics context. Another course that has been very helpful in makingconnections between the applied math in physics and math skills already learned or in the process of developing in my students.
 * //**College Algebra and Trigonometry** (Math104 cayuga Community College 3 semester hours- summer 2011)//
 * //**Pre-Calculus** (Math 106 Cayuga Community College Cayuga Community College 4 semester hours- Fall 2011//

Completed NYSED Math 7-12 professional certification requirements and CST exam fall 2011
__Course 1: How to represent and interpret one dimensionadata__ (25 hours) Feb/March 2012 __Course 2: Observations, experiments, and two dimensional variables__ (20 hours) April/May 2012 Both of these courses have provided the opportunity to develop STEM based statistics skills to incorporate statistical concepts in the science classroom. Activities completed have helped me become more confident in introducing some statistical analysis in data collection for labs for next fall and provided some tested activities that relate NASA Space data, real world applications, physics, and statistics that will be great for both physics and RSP9 in the fall.
 * ===NASA Stem Statistics 1 & 2 //(Part of a three course certificate strand through Georgia Tech)//===

__Course 1: What is project based inquiry learning?__ (25 hours) March/April 2012 __Course 2: Creating a PBIL experience__ (20 hours) May 2012 The PBIL coursework has truly provided a shift in perspective as a teacher. I am developing an extended climate change unit through these courses to be used next fall with my RSP9 students. It will incorporate NASA data along with other high quality resources and incorporate a variety of GIS tools to learn about climate change related concepts. I am very excited about the shift in my thinking about hands on minds on experiences for my challenged learners.
 * ===NASA Problem Based Inquiry Learning 1 & 2 //(Part of a four course certificate strand through Georgia Tech)//===

**Professional Development 2010-2011**
Below is a list of professional development that I have completed this year that has helped support my work on the Entergy MST grant.
 * ====**NASA ePDN Technology Integration Courses:**====

__Course 2 – Advanced Podcasts - Vodcasts (20 hrs.)__
In this course participants will use audio and video editing tools to create new content for vodcasts that can be used in classroom lessons. Serial vodcasts will be created to present material in short increments. __Course 3 – 3D Visualization (20 hrs)__ Learn how to use 3D Visualization tools to create models of complex objects. Bring visual creations to your students and teach them how math, science, and communication skills are vital in bringing ideas from imagination to reality. Engineering design process skills are used to refine objects from initial concept to final design. NASA ePDN Advanced Podcasting & Vodcasting course Nov-Dec 2010 20 hours ceu NASA ePDN 3D Simulations course April 2011 20 hours ceu

Thanks to the PD sessions with Carol Blunt White, student data became quite interesting to me this year. I enrolled in an undergraduate level Statistics course to help me better understand data and analysis. It was extremely interesting and has been helpful in understanding reports and artices that talk about student learning, assessment, and evaluation data.
 * **Mathematical Statistics** (Math127 Herkimer CC) Spring 2011 3 semester hours


 * **NASA eyes on Earth NSTA Webinar (1.5 hrs) [[file:NASA’s Eyes on the E.pdf]]**
 * **NOAA and NIMS Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill and Estuarian Health NSTA Webinar** (1.5 hrs) [[file:The Deepwater Horizo(2).pdf]]