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Participation in STEM-specific professional learning is a particular strength at Woodland Forrest. We actively pursue opportunities to learn and grow as an institution and as a faculty. Our principal believes that to be an effective instructional leader, he has to participate in his own professional development, be well versed in STEM practices, and stay abreast of current research. He was part of the original World of Work (W.O.W) cohort in Tuscaloosa City Schools in 2018, a professional learning experience that has impacted and informed our STEM journey to date. Currently, he is enrolled in an AMSTI coaching cohort to further enhance the connection between our science and math practices. While these are examples of the administration's commitment to continuous growth, they are also indicative of the entire faculty’s approach to STEM learning. AMSTI, Project Wild, and School Yard Roots all continuously work with and train our teachers, PreK through 5th grade, in science, math, and technology. From this foundation of professional development, our teachers pursue specific areas of interest to focus and hone their STEM-related skills with the understanding that there is a turn around component inherent in the knowledge they will gain. A regular practice at Woodland Forrest is teacher-led professional development in which faculty members channel their interest to serve as facilitators in the transmission of new instructional strategies and tools. An example of this was when several of our teachers enrolled in the Science Writing Heuristic program and then led sessions on this teaching approach for colleagues. When a few of our teachers had the desire to achieve Google Certification, they became in-house “experts,” capable of leading teachers in the design and execution of digital instruction as the pandemic forced us into virtual learning.
While we want teachers to pursue areas in STEM specific to their individual interests, we have embedded formalized structures of professional development to support our continuous cycle of STEM learning. Each year, we send teachers to the University of Alabama to work with Dr. Gray and Code.Org to develop their programming skills. When they return to campus, they are tasked with teaching, training, and mentoring peers in current coding practices. Tuscaloosa City Schools also has an initiative called “TCS Grad Codes” in which Woodland Forrest sends a teacher from each grade level every year to get trained in robotics. These teachers then serve as grade level leads in the integration of robotics in additional content areas. Every summer, a group of our teachers attends the Alabama Educational Technology Conference, again, with the implication being that they will present their newly acquired skills and ideas to the entire faculty. Perhaps one of the processes we are most proud of is our badging system; wherein, teachers achieve formalized recognition when they implement STEM practices and utilize STEM tools. The badges serve as tangible celebratory markers for their professional growth in STEM areas.
Our approach to STEM-specific professional learning has put us in the unique position of becoming an incubator of sorts for the Tuscaloosa City School System and the University of Alabama. TCS routinely utilizes Woodland Forrest to pilot new programs and practices and is currently running a teacher computational thinking cohort on our campus. The University of Alabama has long since realized that Woodland Forrest is an ideal environment in which to fulfill their outreach requirements, conduct research projects, and train their teacher candidates.
Science Writing Heuristic
Science Writing Heuristic
The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) was offered to our 3rd-5th grade teachers. It was a 3 year program that focused on how to promote science instruction through the use of language, argument, and dialogic interaction. The program had success in Iowa so they started another group in Alabama. Woodland Forrest was invited to participate and had 6 teachers participate in the professional development. Teachers learned how to use big ideas and phenomena to increase dialogic interactions. Through these increased dialogic interactions, SWH taught teachers that students can take control of their own learning not just in science but in all subjects. This training helped teachers become a guide as students learned to ask questions, make claims, negotiate claims with peers by using evidence, and design and conduct their own experiments and research based on questions. These skills transferred to our students’ ability to summarize their new learning and their current understanding. Students kept track of their questions, claims, evidence, results, research, and summaries in their science notebooks, just like real scientists.
The 6 teachers that participated in this training used their new understanding of best practices to teach the WF teachers who were not in the training. Outside of the local school level, 2 of our teachers began working closely with the leaders of SWH and now present at PD sessions for Iowa and Alabama educators. One of these teachers continues to record model lessons for leaders to use to assist new teachers in the PD.
Badging
The Woodland Forrest badging system was started in 2019 by our tech coach and tech team. The badging system was created because as a team, we knew we were working towards becoming a STEM school but we also knew we had room to grow. Our hope was that the badges would serve as an acknowledgment of the hard work teachers were putting in each day and encourage more “buy-in.” Fortunately, our teachers did “buy-in” to the process and the badging system continues at the Forrest. Teachers can earn badges for integration, using different tech tools in lessons, planning with coaches, using resources, modeling lessons, and more. The STEM leadership team acknowledges the work teachers put in by awarding the badges at faculty and team meetings. Teachers post their badges outside their classroom door so that they are visible and others in the building can know who to reach out to if they need “expert” help with a specific idea.
Project Wild
As a Discovering Alabama Model School and a national Green Ribbon School, Woodland Forrest has a heavy focus on the environment. Project Wild is a professional development that equipped our teachers with the resources and knowledge necessary to incorporate our 2 pond areas, garden, and nature trail. All of our teachers attended the training. There was a Growing Up Wild session for K-2 teachers and a Project Wild session for 3-5 teachers. Our special education teachers participated in both training sessions. Teachers were given lesson books and taught how to integrate those lessons into their core curriculum. For example, K-2 teachers learned how to teach the life cycle of a butterfly through integrating symmetry, informational writing, reactions, and art. Our 3-5 teachers learned how to run a pollination simulation while integrating graphs, compare and contrast writing, and reading connections. While each grade band has its own set of lessons, the lessons are easily differentiated to work across grade bands. Our second grade team, in particular, was able to take the 3-5 pollination lesson and incorporate it into their curriculum with the help of the STEM coordinator and math coach. This training is done every few years at Woodland Forrest to ensure that teachers who are new to the building are trained on how to best use the resources available.
Computational Thinking
This year, the University of Alabama (UA) partnered with Tuscaloosa City Schools (TCS) to offer a computational thinking professional development with an additional focus on culturally responsive teaching. UA and TCS chose Woodland Forrest to pilot this PD based on our teachers being highly trained and versed in integrating robotics and coding in curriculum and having done meaningful work with diversity. A teacher from every grade level and our STEM coordinator participated in the training. Teachers met with the TCS tech coaches and the UA team twice a semester, plus a total of 4 classroom observations. During the face-to-face meetings teachers learned how to read and use the DLCS standards, how to integrate the DLCS standards in curriculum, use new tools, confront bias, and how to incorporate culturally responsive practices. Teachers also had the opportunity in each meeting to plan an integrated lesson that included DLCS standards. To not overwhelm teachers, they were asked to plan what would be a normal week of instruction and then go back and find opportunities for subject and DLCS integration. Teachers, tech coaches, and UA members then offered feedback on the planned lessons. At the end of each session, teachers could schedule a date for observation of that lesson or another. This year's teachers will serve as mentors for the next cohort that goes through the training.
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