Is There Summer on the Equator?

 Greetings Sinclair Families!

I hope you have had a safe, healthy, and wonderful summer. I spent several weeks teaching computer programming, physical computing, and robotics to middle school students. It was a wonderful experience, but I have to say it REALLY made me miss my elementary age students. (Middle school teachers are a special group with a special set of skills that I must confess that I do not have.) 

The undoubted highlight of my summer was my time in the Galapagos Islands. This experience was supported by Fund for Teachers, a Houston-based non-profit that makes grants to K-12 educators for self-designed professional learning. The expedition my wife Kimberly Boyce and I made to the Galapagos was about deepening our understanding of the National Geographic Learning Framework and their GeoInquiry process. Elements of this fellowship will be incorporated into a number of learning units throughout this coming year, across the grade levels. You can read about our travels on our blog: Tortoise and the Finch and on our Instagram: Tortoise_Finch. 

There is still, of course, a bit of uncertainty about how this year will look in the STEM Lab. That said, I am so excited to have all of the students in person and hopefully with more opportunities to collaborate on projects. There were so many activities that have become staples of the STEM Lab that it was not possible to do because of the various health and safety protocols in place. Students missed out on Robo-mouse, cardboard arcade, Makey Makey, and Raspberry Pi, just to name a few. 

The Magnet Team will continue with our practice of sending weekly messages through Living Tree. These should arrive by Sunday evening from the Magnet teacher whose class your child will be visiting that week. If you have questions for any of the Magnet teachers, please use their Houston ISD email rather than Living Tree. We check our email several times each day, but we do not visit Living Tree with the same regularity. 

I am looking forward to a great year. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.