Bringing the community into the classroom

I have not always been a teacher.  I came to teaching from a round about life.  I taught Kindergarten forever ago when I was in graduate school getting my Master's in Counseling.  I didn't think of it as something I was really doing for my career, I was just enjoying working with children while I went to school at night.  I didn't have a teaching certificate and you didn't need one back then to teach Kindergarten.  After I finished my Master's Degree I worked in the counseling field and eventually moved into the business world.  Mixed in there I also had four daughters and stayed home with them for several years.  The business world had its benefits for sure, but I sure did miss feeling like I was doing something that was helping my community in some way.  I learned a lot about networking, partnerships, and the importance of knowing what the "real world" is like.  I believe that all of these things help me to be a better teacher today.  Working at UT Elementary, we have a natural partnership with what we call "Big UT" (and most of the world just calls the University of Texas).  This is extremely helpful in many ways, but the one I want to talk about today is how it can help with actual teaching in the school day.

Being a STEAM teacher, I need to have skills in many different areas.  It would be best if I were an expert in all of these areas, but that's not possible.  I do, however, know people who are experts in these areas.  I like to say I know a little about a lot of things and I know people who can fill in the gaps.  I call my personal network my real life Google.  I know who I can call to teach me or directly teach the class about just about any subject.  My best resource for this other than the University is the Thinkery.  They are project experts and ready to help anytime.  We have developed a STEAM curriculum together (more on that later); designed both after school and in-school Robotics programs; they taught me Scratch and how to use it in the classroom; given me supplies... the list is endless.  I also work with Architects in Schools, city planners, local web designers, local programmers, local scientists, and engineers.  I think that these community members add so much value to our class.  They can teach much more in depth than I can and they bring authentic learning into the class as well.  Students can see how the concepts they learn in my class are actually done in the real world.  It's fun to watch them light up with possibilities.  It takes time to cultivate these relationships with partners outside of the school, but it is well worth it.  I highly encourage you to think about your network and how those people might fit into your classroom.

Those of you who also do this, please share with me what tips you have to pass along.