Tomorrow, I get to meet a new group of Teacher Ed students and their parents. Each year I wonder
how I will ever relay to them the enriching activities we will be doing all year. It seems that we always hit the ground running, and when have a chance to breathe, we are surprised at all of the experiences we have had.
That's what I love about the CAPS experience. Each day brings the possibility of something new. Some of our best projects have come out of last minute ideas or business partner requests. If I had turned them down because of my place in the year's curriculum, the students would never have had those memories.
I started with the CAPS crew nine years ago. I have seen other members of our founding team leave CAPS and have seen others come on board. Each year is different and yet just as interesting as the one before.
As I reflect back, I think of some of our most exciting projects. Arcademics (www.arcademics.com) was a great partner. After working on a project with two of our Teacher Ed students and a Filmmaking student, they hired all three students who worked for them through their college careers. The Teacher Ed students would create math lessons, and the Filmmaking student would put them into video form and then send them to Arcademics for review before they were added to their children's educational games website.
We also have had great projects with Sprint, AMC, TapTeach, BrainPOP, Microsoft, other schools and districts, and many, many others. The students are learning not only the traditional classroom management and pedagogy but are also learning very professional skills as they make their way through the processes needed to complete these projects.
This year, we are working with Real World Scholars and need to have our product idea ready to launch on September 5. The students will be researching and building their presentation The Gig Gang Theory for Greenbush Educator Technology Conferences in Girard and Eudora, Kansas, as well as for the Regional Educators Rising Conference at Mid America Nazarene University.
And so...it sounds like we are once again hitting the ground running. To our alumni, we wish you a fantastic year of teaching or a fantastic year at college. To our returning and new CAPS Teacher Education students, I will see you soon!
