Check Yourself Before You TECH Yourself!!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

My design class with STEM will have my students building tangible things through technology. I want it my where students can learn with projects instead of the traditional way of teaching. This way students are learning to work collaboratively and learning how to problem solve with one another.

If I had to describe my students with two words, those two words would be curious and entertaining.

My students want to know about the world we live in. I tell them about stories and the news and I can see that they want to know more about the world outside of their neighborhood. Teaching in Humboldt Park most of the kids don't get a chance to see what's outside of this Chicago neighborhood. I'm hoping with this future computer lab and the design class they'll be inspired to explore the world around us and maybe even one day solve our global problems through STEM. My kids are also entertaining. A lot of my students are talented in various ways. A lot of them dance, sing, play instruments, act, write, ect. They're all filled with ideas and creativity. The possibilities of them enhancing their talents with technology would be tremendous for their skills and their confidence. In addition, I know there are students who will find out their talent is in something technology based.

My Project

The Promethean Interactive Whiteboard would be used every single day in my class. It would definitely improve student engagement and in turn it would turn learning into an actual experience. With these authentic and genuine experiences students, or anybody really, retain the most knowledge. A big part of my design class will be the process of designing and prototyping. This is where the 3D printer comes into the picture. Wouldn't it be great to have actual tangible prototypes? Let's say students are designing a new jungle gym for our school. They can design a smaller prototype that's to scale with the 3D printer and see if it would meet the requirements or if they need to go back to the drawing board and redesign. It'll have kids experiencing what happens in engineering jobs. Again, the 3D printer, like the Promethean Interactive Whiteboard, would be a tool to make learning an actual authentic and genuine experience.

My goal is to create an inspiring and welcoming place for students to explore their world through STEM.

I want to create one of the best learning environments not only in my school, but all of Chicago. I want this room to bleed creativity and inspire kids to take what they've learned academically and use it beyond the classroom. This goal of mine is to inspire my students of minority to take on an occupation involving STEM. I want them to apply it to the world around them.