Goals for a New School Year

As I continue into my third year as a digital learning coach for the Tustin Unified School District, I   am reflecting on what worked and what needs to be changed to make this year more successful than the last. There are three main areas of growth that I would like to see this school year as I continue to help STEAM, STEM, and science teachers move into next generation teaching models.

Growing the TUSD Robotics League

Leading the TUSD Robotics League and  has turned into passion project of mine. By the end of March last year, we completed 1 scrimmage and 3 competitions with 12 middle school teams. Each competition became closer to the expectations required to be considered an official VEX competition and this year we are planning on becoming official. 

We have also invited our three high schools to join the league and began an elementary robotics

program over the summer during the TPSF Summer Academy.  We plan on hosting four MS/ HS competitions, three open to teams outside of our district, and sending some kids to the state championships. Hopefully the following year we will host elementary VEX IQ competitions, but I do 

not want to get ahead of myself quite yet. My main goal is to continue to find teachers who are willing to become robotics coaches and mentor and support both teachers and students at all levels K-12.

But, finding teachers to do this is difficult! The level of commitment to be a robotics coach is daunting and many believe requires programming and building skills. Although this helps, many of the coaches still do not know how to program robots, the names of the VEX parts, or how to assemble them together. The students are exceptional at figuring out how to build and program their robots on their own. We train one team of four students from each middle school over summer for four weeks, but the students are resourceful at troubleshooting and finding video tutorials to go much further than what we provide for them.

This past summer, I taught 15 high school students to become mentors and volunteers for the league. They supported the elementary and middle school  students as they built robots for the upcoming VEX games of the season, and unknowingly became more proficient in robotics themselves. I am going to put together a presentation for the STEM Symposium in Anaheim this October to share about this program and how we are building high school leaders to support and grow the robotics league.

More Reflection

Reflection is vital to learning for teachers, students, and coaches. I seem to get so caught up in the day to day during the school year that reflection becomes a second priority to meeting with administrators or teachers, observing lessons, designing curriculum, and running the robotics league. My goal is to set up a more structure system of reflection for the year.

Personally, I need to set aside time to blog every week!  Although asking a teacher to blog on top of their busy schedules is futile, I will begin the year by asking. Why not try? However, more likely,  I will send them a quick question or two in a Google Form after we meet each week. In the past, I was not as consistent with this expectation and often recorded teacher reflections as they answered questions in a shared Google Doc journal to save them time. This year, I want to push the teachers to not only reflect themselves but to more often include student reflection as an evaluative strategy in their classroom.

Connecting Teachers and Curriculum

My final goal is to create a website, using the Haiku LMS platform that we use in TUSD, to connect the science, STEM, and STEAM teachers. I want to curate a site where the lessons I have created with fellows and other project-based and inquiry-based lessons created by other teachers are displayed to be shared out with all in the district. I also want to provide a picture, name and subjects taught of all the teachers so they feel more connected and willing to share their lesson ideas. TUSD has come a long way in the past two years since beaming a 1:1 district and hopefully this year it will really be noticeable among the science, STEM, and STEAM teachers.

I wish all educators a good start to their school year and hope that you reach the goals you set for yourself as I will try my best to accomplish mine. Good luck to all!

First Official TUSD Robotics Competitions

Pioneer Team won first official TUSD Robotics competition.

On January 15, 2015, we had our very first, official competition at Pioneer Middle School. We had an outstanding showing of support from administrators, parents, and teachers as our twelve teams battled for the winning title of this inaugural event. The home team won this first competition and were featured in the OC Register and other local articles. The energy at the competition was electric and all  who walked in were amazed with the excitement and engagement of our 87 students.




Lesson #1: Reach Out for Help
The first lesson learned is that I can not do this alone. Students at the home site help me set up the room with a table for each team and the game field. The district Tech Coordinator, Mr. Kerr, helps to set up the projector and Apple TV to stream the event using the video camera on an iPad. We have found that it is best to project the game onto a screen since it can become difficult to see what is happening on the field. A teacher from Foothill High School, Mr. Farr, helps me referee, inspect the robots, and provide feedback to each team about how to better meet criteria and constraints. We also have a high school student who provides last minute support with programming and troubleshooting during the first hour and helps us referee during the competition. And of course, the Tustin Public Schools Foundation provides the financial support to help purchase t-shirts, busses to get all of our students to the competition, and the summer program that kick starts the season for every school site. It is my goal to better recognize the efforts of all who are involved in the opening ceremony. I am very grateful for the support from the people of TUSD and TPSF.

Lesson #2: Explain the Rules
The VEX game "Skyrise" has complicated rules to explain the scoring of points. I used this presentation to help explain the rules to the audience and to clarify the rules to the teams. It was not until an outside competition at Lutheran High School of Orange County that we fully understood every aspect of the scoring system. Attending these types of competitions are vital to understanding the VEX way of doing things.

Lesson #3: Introduce the Coaches and Teams

TEAM B from Columbus Tustin surprised me
the most on their growth and progress.

It is important to recognize each individual team and coach since they all work so hard to prepare for every competition. The robotics season is long, July to March, and the coaches especially can become overwhelmed with the time commitment. At the start of each competition, we introduce every team and a spokesperson explains the changes and innovations they have made to their robot since their last competition. The coaches are also individually introduced and students cheer their teachers who have sacrificed time and energy to provide this opportunity for their students. We could not do this without the coaches!

Former Pioneer champions congratulating the
Orchard Hills Team on their victory after an intense final match!

On February 10, 2015, we had our second, in-district competition and the growth of each team was unbelievable. One of the Orchard Hills teams won this competition and every team has renewed confidence and determination that they too can win the next one. Students and coaches are so excited that one coach has asked if we can extend the season until April! However, I need to make sure that everybody has a break and that we have a defined season length. But, this is a good sign that we are really building something exciting that will impact and influence these students long after they leave middle school.