My Favorite Two Days of Summer

Each summer since 2011, I have had the privilege of planning and organizing the REMAST Summer Conference. The REMAST Scholarship Program is funded by the National Science Foundation—it provides ‘scholarships’ to SDSU students majoring in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics seeking Teaching Certification. For each semester the student receives the 'scholarship' the student is required to teach for one year in a high-need district. Since NSF funded the REMAST in 2007, our program has done the following:

•  Awarded $895,000 to 60 undergraduate science & math majors;
• 56 scholars have graduated with teaching certification in math or science; 3 dropped out of REMAST; 1 is still enrolled in REMAST;
• 44 of 56 (78.5%) are either teaching or involved in some aspect of education (counseling, administration, Dept of Education); and
• 4 of 56 (7.1%) are enrolled full-time in a graduate program.

Yes, these numbers are very impressive, but even more impressive are the REMAST alumni. It is hard to explain so I will give some personal anecdotes:

•  one teaches all the high school science courses and has started a Family Science Night in her school district to get elementary students excited about science;
• one has a morning bus route, drives bus for the basketball team, serves as FCCLA advisor, and does statistics for all of the home basketball games;
• one teaches on an Indian Reservation and posted this on FB recently, “Five years ago they made me question why I ever thought I could be a teacher. Today they walked across the stage and made me proud to have known each and every one of them. I’ll remember all the laughter and headaches they have brought to me over the years and continue to pray for their happiness and success;”
• one had a nickname for the students in her classroom--this year it was Baumbach’s Blue Baracudas;
• one helps students with math during the lunch hour, coaches MathCounts, and is starting a XC team;
• one took a long-term sub as an elementary music teacher and then incorporated science by having the students learn how to identify songbirds; and
• one has 5 preps, 2 student clubs, coaches grade girls basketball, and teaches her students how to make hexamexaflexagons (hexaflexagons out of tortillas).

Now you get the picture—these are dedicated math and science teachers who have learned that the key to being a successful teacher is building relationships with their students!  I don’t take credit for that—they have that quality all on their own and I suspect that they all had it before being involved in the REMAST program. I can take credit for organizing and planning the conference and bringing them together each year—and it truly is my favorite two days of summer!

This year we had Joy Kirr as our keynote speaker—we talked about grading, what does a grade mean, what should be included in a grade, and how we can make small shifts in our classrooms to have a big impact on our students.  Most of the REMAST alumni already get that!  They now just have specific ideas that they can use.  In addition, we had Sara VanDerWerf explain how to do Stand and Talks—I am excited to try that in my classroom this year. One of our alumni talked about how to create a Family Science Night, several people shared favorite lessons and technology, and Mark Iverson showed us how he uses 3D printing in his middle school classroom. And I created a Straw Bridge Building activity that needs lots of improvements, which we learned during the activity.

I think that Joy Kirr said it best when she emailed me and thanked me and said, “What a stellar group of educators you've got here - I felt both humbled and inspired by them!”  These two days of summer always remind me why I do what I do and why I love it! It IS about building relationships and I model that with the REMAST group every day.