A Letter to Adrienne Gagnon

Dear Ms. Gagnon,

I wanted to thank you again for your workshop on Saturday at the Promising Practices Conference.
I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. It was both informative and interesting.  As I stated to you on Saturday, I am a middle school science teacher in an urban school. Next year the new Science Standards will be rolled out for the state. STEM will be a part of our new curriculum. Your presentation gave me a few good ideas as to how I could implement small STEM projects into my curriculum right away. I am also interested in the "Tool Kit" that you are creating. I would love for my school to have access to one when they are available. 

 Student lead projects that can benefit the community is an awesome idea. However I also liked the idea of building a community within a school. Communication skills and collaborating with others are being honed in this program but I was excited that you are teaching persistence as well. Students are learning to "fail forward" to learn from their mistakes and make it better. This is what science is all about. Students that can work through this in an environment where they feel safe and supported is key.

I was wondering about your students. Do they ever come into other schools to speak with  students about the work they are doing? If they do I would be interested in arranging for them to come a speak in my classroom.

I was inspired by what I heard on Saturday and since then I have gone on your website. I appreciate the work that you are doing with urban youth. I am especially happy to see how many girls that are participating in your program. I am very interested in volunteering my time. You had said that you were looking for ad visors. I would be  happy to work in any capacity with your organization.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Mary Colannino
Hugh B. Bain Middle School
Cranston RI 02911