Deerfield Elementary Teacher Attends Mickelson ExxonMobil Academy

Katherine Suender, an art teacher at Deerfield Elementary in the Avondale School District, participated in the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy in Jersey City, NJ, from July 21-26, according to a district spokesperson. 

The Avondale School District includes parts of Rochester Hills, Troy, Auburn Hills and Bloomfield Township.

Suender has integrated science lessons into her students' art projects and was one of 200 teachers—including the only public school teacher from Michigan—invited to participate in the academy. Suender also had a chance to meet the academy's namesake, pro golfer Phil Mickelson. 

The Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy is a one-week, all-expense-paid intensive professional development program for third through fifth-grade teachers started in 2005 that aims to provide educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to motivate students to pursue careers in math and science. 

Since its inception, more than 3,600 teachers from across the United States have attended the academy. Teachers are selected from an application reviewed by a panel of teachers from the National Science Teachers Association (NTSA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Collectively, the panel selects the 100 teachers to participate in the academy. 

“It was an honor to be chosen to participate in the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy,” Suender said. “I am eager for the school year to begin to get back to the classroom and implement the skills developed at the academy to help our students learn and succeed, particularly in the areas of math and science. I also look forward to sharing the lessons learned at the academy with my colleagues in the Avondale District.”

According to the academy, the curriculum for the week is designed with science as the driver for content and mathematics as the tool for learning the science. Current math and science standards are used to define grade appropriate content. The science concepts discussed include motion and forces, action/reaction and Newton’s second and third laws. The math topics discussed support the science topics and included graphing on a coordinate plane, linear growth, measurement, estimation and data collection.