First- and-second-grade teacher Kevin Goodwin ’ s research project asked what happens when a student is given the chance to be a teacher .
He and his second graders discussed what it means to be a teacher . The students interviewed their student teacher , Preena Patel . They made lesson plans and shared them with Patel for her feedback before refining the lessons further , then reflected on their observations in one-on-one interviews with Goodwin .
“ You really start to assess yourself as a teacher as you watch your own students teach ,” says Goodwin . “ It takes a lot of self-control to not help out too much with the lessons and allow the kids to make mistakes that they can genuinely learn from . I learned the value of letting kids reflect on their work and giving them a chance to try things over again . I learned that kids really enjoy teaching each other , although they understand that it can be incredibly difficult and incredibly fun at the same time .” ■
Technology coordinator Josh Keebler ’ s research question was how to adapt technology integration at Falk . Due to a lack of time , he wanted to retool and streamline his process for responding to tech help requests from faculty and staff .
“ With the help of supervisors ,” Keebler says , “ we methodically identified aspects of my job that could be reorganized and developed while troubleshooting roadblocks .” This allowed him time to conduct additional research into what was underlying the number of help tickets he received and how to streamline the tech help request process .
By tweaking how he addressed help tickets and preemptively supporting teachers , Keebler observed a 17 % decrease in help tickets . ■
First- and-second-grade teacher Katie Spence asked how she could make social and emotional learning more visible and explicit in her classroom .
To pursue the answer to that question , she used techniques like concept mapping , puppet shows , and book talks , with research coordinator Katrina Bartow Jacobs taking notes . Spence also noted how kids referred to socialemotional learning lessons in their daily interactions and written work . ■
Kindergarten teacher Colleen Lataille set out to investigate the question of how children sense what their bodies need and how teachers might help them to express those needs .
She researched the best ways to talk about nutrition with children and developed units on nutrition and embodiment , exploring how children talk about feeling hungry or full .
She learned that children know more than we give them credit for and cited one child ’ s analogy comparing hunger and satiety to a glass of water : The glass can be full without overflowing . Lataille plans to continue teaching units on nutrition and embodiment , integrating the two to explore with children how we feel in our bodies when it comes to hunger and thirst as well as to tiredness and sickness . ■
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