2020 PAEMST Spotlight: Tina Nicpan Brown
Tina Nicpan Brown teaches Fifth Grade at Lincoln Elementary in the Wenatchee School District
This week we’re spotlighting Washington’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST) finalists, who will go on to be considered for the national award. Check out the rest of our PAEMST Spotlight interview series here.
As an elementary teacher, how do you integrate science into other subjects?
I am passionate about making Science my focus in all lessons. My instructional design begins with a Science standard and then I begin incorporating Reading, Writing, Math and Social Studies standards. My third instructional layer is to incorporate engineering, art, technology and inclusionary practices. By looking at my instructional designs in layers, I am better able to tap into individual student curiosities and experiences. The final layer is to involve the community with field experiences, career connections and expert interviews.
In my 20 years as an educator, I have found that students lose so much of their natural curiosity because traditional teaching focuses on teaching subjects separately and by skill and not by making connections to the students’ everyday lives.
What has surprised you about teaching during a pandemic?
Being an educator during a pandemic has been both exciting and stressful. I am teaching this school year at the Wenatchee School District’s first K-8 virtual academy. This has allowed me to use my professional development around 1:1 device instruction, being a coach for educators around STEM implementation and incorporating more tactile instruction. Building and maintaining relationships with families and students has been more important than ever. Open communication has provided flexibility for instruction, assignment completion and accommodations. There is choice in communication as well, Family Zoom Meetings, phone calls, Remind messages and emails allow families to communicate with their preferred form and at their most convenient time.
What surprises me the most is that it has taken a pandemic for choices in learning to become available to students and families. Digital Instruction is not the best way for all students to learn but it is an option that some students find themselves thriving within. The same is true for educators. Regardless of the form of instruction, I have seen the importance of addressing everyday stressors, celebrating academic strengths and establishing relationships that are built on trust.
Is there a distance learning lesson that you are particularly proud of?
Incorporating all learning styles into my instruction is important to me, especially during remote learning. This past Spring, I wanted to make sure my students stayed motivated and engaged as we were all learning how to navigate distance learning. I applied for a grant and received funds to purchase 31 mushroom growing kits. These kits became instructional materials and personal pets. Students engaged in lessons about mushroom types, growing conditions, how they support a food chain and different ways cultures use mushrooms as ingredients. Each day students had something to show and talk about. We all were able to relate to conditions of growth and care. We problem solved together when someone’s mushroom didn’t grow and even begged for ideas on how to get our mushrooms to grow as big as one classmate. These mushrooms were more than just a material for our science lessons, they became the glue that held our fragile classroom together. In the end, everyone had a success crop and worked with their families to try new recipes or ways to incorporate their mushrooms into family favorites. This led to a digital cookbook with photographs for everyone to enjoy. These 31 mushroom kits provided emotional and academic support when we all needed it the most.
What will you do differently in your classroom when we return to “normal?”
I am not sure what “normal” may be when students are able to return to what was known as a traditional classroom. Honestly, many would say I never taught in a “normal” setting. I do hope that if I return to a 4 walled classroom with students for 7 hours a day that I will be able to meet the needs of all my students. I will encourage administrators to recognize the learning needs that students have outside the traditional setting. I will offer more choice and voice to families on how and when their students obtain their academic knowledge. Communication tools will include more than one way and one day. However, I do hope to be part of the Wenatchee Internet Academy and support the school’s mission of providing quality online education in a safe learning environment by supporting students’ social and emotional learning by providing flexible access to curriculum and learning.
What advice would you give to parents or caregivers who want to incorporate more science into their elementary students’ lives?
My advice to families and caregivers is to let go of the traditional science education that they may have participated in when in school themselves. Science needs to be experienced. People need to interact with problems and ask questions about what is around them in order to create solutions.
Get kids outside. Travel to new places in your own community and beyond. Look around and ask questions about why something may be in a certain place. Encourage conversations around how people decided to build or create that “thing” in that specific place. Talk about their personal impact on the environment they live in and the ripple effect it has on the community.
Adults need to help restore the natural curiosity of their students. One of the most fascinating ways to eliminate the fear of asking questions is to see how students respond to this question, What is technology? Listen as they start to name all the “devices” they interact with on a daily basis. Then stop and say, what about your shoe? Once kids start to realize that technology is anything that was created to solve a problem, they start to recognize all the “science” around them.
What experiences do you think best prepared you for the past year?
The experiences that prepared me for teaching during a pandemic in a virtual setting had nothing to do with my training or experiences as an educator. As soon as I was told that most of the country would be going virtual, I sat down and made a list of concerns I had as a mother. My daughter was an active third grader in her school and I felt my heart sink as I thought about how to explain to her that she was going to have to stay at home. My husband is a flight paramedic and as a family we were well aware of the current health crisis but did not discuss the impact on our community. My list of concerns included social interactions, academic progress, independent learning, screen time and emotional well being. I took a breath and immediately began to address my parental concerns as an educator.
I knew that I would need to build strong relationships with my students and their families. I needed to ensure that they trusted me with their academics and emotional well being. I would need to provide time for student interactions and safe times to share concerns and talk about what was happening in our world. That is what I would want for my child. A safe, honest, open virtual environment that was the foundation of her continued academic success.
Who have you been following or reading from a science perspective in the past year? Any other publications, blogs, etc. that you would recommend?
My favorite way to strengthen my practice is by interacting with individuals within my community. Conversations with organizations, individuals and families have given me the biggest opportunity to strengthen my practice.
Planning with colleagues across the state is another resource I draw from. I am a State Science Fellow and look forward to discussing best science practices with educators across the state who work with different age levels of students. Ambitious Science Teaching is a resource we use at our meetings to dig deeper into our instructional practice. I love using current and relevant phenomena to engage my students and using Ambitious Science Teaching as a guide, leads me to local and national news resources, current environmental struggles and conversation starters among my circle of colleagues.
But the most powerful resource I have relied on this school year has been my daughter. Watching her struggles as a virtual learner, a member of a quarantined household and a child with limited face to face social interactions, gives me the ability to see what my students may experience after they close our Zoom classroom.
The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) is the highest recognition that a kindergarten through 12th grade science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and/or computer science teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States. Awardees will be announced this spring.
