My name is Laura Cropper and I am the Elementary STEM Coach. I am a lover of technology and STEM.
I graduated from Lebanon Valley College in 2003 as a dual major in Elementary Education and Special Education. I also have my master’s from Wilkes University in Early Childhood Literacy. I will finish my second master’s this spring, also from Wilkes, in Instructional Media (Integrating Technology). I plan to start working on a new program through Wilkes this summer; I will be collaborating with them and Discovery Education to gain my STEM Letter of Endorsement. I have had teaching experience in a variety of grade levels, ranging from first to third grade, allowing me to integrate different forms of technology first hand. In addition, I have worked with special education students in the regular education classroom setting, giving me the opportunity to use assistive technology. Likewise, this school year was the first year I was the elementary Instructional Facilitator for Science. During my short time period in this position, I have worked with elementary teachers from all grade levels to realign our curriculum to common core standards and ensure that we are covering necessary tested materials in the intermediate grades. In addition, I have worked with my colleagues on placing our curriculum in the program C-MAP so that all teachers, new or veteran, can have access to it.
Over the summer I had the pleasure of being selected to attend PULSE 2.0, a two-week course offered by IU13. PULSE 2.0 was a partnership to understand and lead STEM education. In addition to the two-week course, we also have attended multiple professional development opportunities throughout this school year. My goal has been to take what I have learned and implement STEM at the elementary level, ensuring that it has genuine connections to what we are learning across the curriculum. Continuing my professional development and sharing information with my fellow colleagues is important to me. I have had the opportunity to attend and teach several technology inservices at Manheim Central School District. Specifically, I was selected to attend a Schoology Train the Trainer several summers ago, then instructed, and followed up with staff. I also have been trained and use ActivInspire on a daily basis to deliver quality instruction. Likewise, I present a tech tip at monthly faculty meetings and follow up with teachers to insure proper implementation. Pad Chats is another monthly professional development that myself and another teacher lead to help teachers select grade and developmentally appropriate apps for their classrooms and show them how to properly integrate them into the curriculum across all content areas.
In addition to my graduate work, technology conferences are a great resources to get new information to bring back to my classroom and colleagues. I have attended many local conferences including the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE & C), Elementary Technology Conference (ETC) at IU13, and iPad Summit at IU 15. In addition, I was selected to present about iPads at both the ETC and iPad Summit this past fall. I was also nominated as a Keystone Technology Innovator. This school year I have focused on attending professional development opportunities in the area of science and STEM. Recently, I attend a session at IU13 hosted by Discovery Education and one that focused on the Engineering by Design Process. Our school district has also had a focus on LDC in the recent years. As the Instructional Facilitator for Science, I attended LDC: Mini Tasks Design in Science to help support our intermediate science teachers. I have also written several grants to help get more technology into my classroom, as well as other classrooms. I recently co-wrote a grant with another teacher and was awarded $30,000 to equip select classrooms in grades 1-4 with iPads. This included writing the grant, allotting for necessary materials and training, as well as keeping track of finances and preparing reports for McFee.
My goal is to help teachers and students grow through the use of technology and implementation of STEM into current curriculum.