Had a great day at the 2016 WA STEM Summit in Redmond, WA, at the Microsoft Conference Center! I put together my Tweets from the day along with a small assortment of the many Tweets that flowed!
We started the day with an amazing breakfast and some great speakers (Tweets from the morning are at the end/bottom of the following Storify. The top Tweets are from the end of the day.) Among the morning speakers was an amazing keynote that got us fired up by Dr. Ainissa Ramirez and a question and answer session by one of our own WA state legislators, Senator Christine Rolfes.
We then had some breakout sessions to choose from. The choices were Computer Science, Career Connected Learning, Early Math, Science & Engineering, STEM Post-Secondary Education & Training, and Women & Girls in STEM. I chose Science & Engineering first then Career Connected Learning after an amazing lunch. I was not disappointed.
Before the second breakout session we were presented with a treat, a chance to hear from our new State Superintendent-Elect Chris Reykdal and the 2017 WA State Teacher of the Year, Camille Jones! It was great! Something our new Superintendent of Public Instruction said stuck with me and I’m hopeful it will start to undo an obsessive compulsion with standardized testing as the main way to assess student growth:
Under ESSA @chrisreykdal says looking to reward districts that assess students in other ways than standardized tests! #csd49 #waSTEMsummit
— Alfonso Gonzalez (@educatoral) November 29, 2016
Finally, the day ended with remarks by our Governor, Jay Inslee, and an inspirational talk by former SeaHawk Ricardo Lockette! What a great close to an awesome day! Thank you WA STEM! This was my second year attending and I’m glad the WEA sent me!
