Collaboration is key for many scientific endeavors, and an opportunity for growth for teachers. Here’s how two preschool teachers, both with a science outlook but from opposite coasts, came to present a workshop together.   A writer of The Early Years column in  Science and Children, I (Peggy) yearn for a larger community of like-minded early childhood educators. Many of the classroom teachers I get to work with have so many duties that they are very happy to “leave the science to someone else” most of the time. When teachers contribute to the Teacher’s Picks section of the column, I get a glimpse into another teacher’s classroom and the broadening experience of collaboration as I look at resources from another’s viewpoint.
Marie Faust Evitt contributed a “Teacher’s Picks” list of resources and in our discussions we found out that we are living parallel lives, teaching preschool, excited about doing science with young children, and writing about it. A year of email conversation later we decided to learn more from each other by presenting together.
What I’ve learned from Marie:

• West coast children also love to explore varied materials.
• Plastic rain gutters are indispensable classroom equipment.
• Playing “air soccer” by waving cardboard sheets to blow packing peanuts across a table is learning through play.
• Doing science activities in a BIG way is meaningful to children and worth teachers’ time and effort.

Join one of the NSTA lists, group e-mail discussions that allow members to exchange information in a peer-to-peer forum, to benefit from being part of a science-teaching interested community. Newbies asking questions are welcomed, gentle direction is offered to veteran teachers and beginners alike as we try out our ideas and refine our science and education thinking within the community.
Peggy