Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

What is it like being in a STEM teacher group coaching program? Is this even a thing? What does this even mean? What happens during our time together? What do you even do when you're in a program like this one? Well, in today's episode, I'm gonna be sharing with you about a teacher who is in my STEM group coaching program who is a lot like you. This teacher is in charge of creating her entire program from scratch for their STEM after-school program that runs for kindergarten through 5th grade. She's not only in charge of the curriculum but also figuring out the structure for her students and even how to use the materials and what materials to purchase. Sound familiar to your story? It was all very similar to what I went through as a former classroom teacher jumping into a K through 5 STEM space. A big thing that wasn't happening in her role was having the support to bounce ideas off of other teachers And find out what she was doing that was working really well. And also, what are some areas that she can grow in to build the program of her dreams? This teacher had taught in her position for about a year, and she was ready for the next steps and to be a part of a space to really figure all the things out and not be so alone in this position. In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of this teacher and Where they were at, the needs that we targeted, and ultimately, the successes that she had in our STEM teacher group coaching program. If you are listening to this episode live as it comes out, today is the last day for you to claim your special podcast listener bonus.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:27]:

The doors to my STEM into fall group coaching are officially open, and I would love to have you inside. You can get $500 off the level 2 group coaching program for just being a podcast listener, And if you put in that code STEM into fall, all one word, no spaces, you will get your special bonus Where you will be in a community of like-minded teachers to target specific needs, refine your year-long plan, and figure out the next steps of where your program is going. Make sure to jump on this. Spots are limited, and I would love to support you in our special special community. And you can grab that at nammeeredith.com/stem into fall. And don't forget to put in that code STEM into fall for your special bonus. I recently ended my first Cohort of teachers in my STEM into summer group coaching program, and it was such a special experience. You know how you will never forget your 1st class of students or even your 1st year teaching STEM? That's what this program was like for me being the coach of this program, and it was just an honor to be in this community of like-minded teachers to see what it's like inside of their classrooms from afar, but also really target and look at the things that they are needing in their programs And work together to fill in those gaps and also play upon the successes that they were already having. Today, we are zoning in on one of the teachers who is in my STEM into summer group coaching program Who had amazing things going on already and wanted to take their program to the next level.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:24]:

This teacher was in charge of their k through 5 STEM after-school program and had taught in this position for about a year. So, she already had a feel for what it could look like in her program and tested out a lot of things through trial and error, which I know most to best do in that position. That's definitely what I was doing when I started my 1st year in k through 5 STEM and figured out the lessons that worked really well for her program and then things that weren't such a great fit. What's interesting about her role is that she teaches one grade level 1 at a time. So if she's teaching 3rd grade, she is 3rd grade at one time, 5th grade at one time, and so on. But it is after-school, so the kids might have different times when they come in and out, especially when they're leaving for the day, and she definitely needed things that would work well for that structure so that students could be independent when she's talking to parents or kids are leaving and that projects would actually carry on throughout the weeks in a nondisruptive way? Before taking my group coaching program, This teacher actually attended my K through 2 STEM planning workshop and then eventually my 3 through 5 STEM planning workshop And sought great success. So much so she even implemented the stations that were in my K through 2 STEM planning workshop In her after-school program and loved it so much. Her kids were totally engaged. She even said that they had a movie going on in the background, but the kids were so into the stations that were going on that they just turned off the video, it wasn't even needed. That was a tool that was used before to help calm the kids down, But the projects and the structure of the STEM stations worked so well that she knew she needed more for her program. I was so excited to talk to this teacher to see where they were at and how this could be something that we could grow upon. And there were more things that we discovered during our time together.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:33]:

This teacher was also interested in having different themes to plan all of her content around because that seemed to be something that her students really loved, and also a really fun way to plan. You know that I am the queen of themes. I love a good theme. And I'm even here recording this podcast wearing a robot shirt with a matching headband? I love all of that stuff. So, she was definitely talking to the right person because I love planning in a theme. So, at the beginning of the program, the 1st month in my group coaching is really a self-led part of the process. Now, the awesome thing about technology is I'm able to meet with all of you in other places all over the world. But at this time, I'm not flying into your classrooms.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:24]:

So we started off our whole group coaching program with a live kickoff Call to get to know one another and also what the structure of the whole group coaching program will be and figuring out a common time where we would meet. I also talked about in this call how each teacher would be conducting their own lesson plan audit and supply inventory using the templates and guides that I created that are in this group coaching program. I actually don't have them anywhere else but are in this group coaching program. And what teachers were to do is to really sit down with what are the lessons they have already taught. They've taught STEM for at least a year, But what are the lessons they have already taught? How have those been structured throughout the year? What grade levels? And mapping those out from the get go. And it's okay that not everything was complete. I really just wanted to see a big picture of where we were starting at and where we were headed. The teachers in this group, not just the teacher I'm gonna be talking about, but the teachers in the group were all encouraged to also put in their plans What are potential lessons they want to teach, and at what time of the year? That was also helpful. Good. Because if they had something in mind they really wanted to teach, then that could be something that we could plan forward with.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:45]:

So that 1st month teachers had time to create this lesson audit and then alongside that is is they actually had a supply inventory. So again, going through all of the supplies that they had available in their space, How much of each items? And also categorizing that as well. This was really helpful to understand, oh, These are the materials that you are using, that you are planning with. Here are some materials that you have on hand but haven't made any lessons yet for, so let's do that? And, also, what are some materials that you might want in the future? So, again, this first Samantha is really setting that foundation of what does the program currently look like and how are we going to grow from there. Once the teachers in my group were finished with their lesson plan audit and their supply inventory, they were able to submit it to me for feedback. And I loved this so much. I really appreciated the detail that the teachers put into their inventories And their supply their lesson audits, and I really got a real clear picture of what their program is like so far? And I did give video feedback. It'll so much easier than typing, but I was able to give video feedback and See some things and trends of what they had going on, what should we keep and build upon, and then how could we create alignment with everybody's year long plans? Not all of them were the same, but there were some areas where we could actually plan together based on some gaps that were in their programs or things that they wanted to work on? And also I have the big picture of seeing all of their supplies? So putting that all together when it came to the future planning of our sessions.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:41]:

This teacher that I'm talking about in this episode had an amazing start to their year long plan. They really had a strong coding unit and did a really great job using materials that were accessible to their students And also appropriate for their grade level. That is a huge challenge in itself really understanding what tools Should I be using for which grade? And this teacher was already doing an amazing job using the these materials. I also noticed in the lesson audit, there were some materials that she hadn't used quite yet and that was something that I wanted to Keep in mind, especially the Makey Makeys, which if you haven't heard of Makey Makeys before, it's basically this little controller that you hook of different electronic components? And you hook that up to your computer. And when those components are touching things that are conductive, It can produce an action like making a sound on the computer or making something jump. So super cool tool. How totally recommend using that. But I kept that in my back of my mind where she had a great bank of those but hadn't quite used those yet.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:55]:

And that was something that we eventually worked on. I also noticed this teacher did a really great job incorporating robotics, coding, and technology into her lessons, but I also realize that there were some times that Makerspace could be a great fit for her program, especially with the layout of your program Where we know funding is really tricky, but Makerspace is one of those things that it can be pretty low cost to get started. And those projects can last for a long time, but they could be quick as well. Also, when I met with this teacher, they really wanted to implement more of those STEM stations for K through 2. Because they saw the amazing success that they already had with the ones that they had implemented in their space And also with the flow of their classroom where the kids are leaving at different points, STEM stations were a great way where students could keep working and not be as disrupted with the amazing work that they were doing. She was also curious about how she could implement STEM stations with her older students, and that is something I haven't talked a whole lot about on this podcast, but it is something that I did when I first got started in my STEM space where I did move out of that just based on my program, it wasn't a good fit. But definitely for hers when it came to, again, that structure, that was something that she really wanted to do for her older students as well. In terms of materials, again, she had great materials to work with, which was such a benefit. And this was awesome to see, okay, here are the materials that you had.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:37]:

And then, what are some ways that we can grow your materials where they could be used by many grade levels? And when we got into the grant writing, we had a plan going forward knowing that here are the materials she had to work with and also what types of lessons she was going to have. And that helped us again with that grant writing later on. So, what were these teachers' successes during this group coaching program? Well, this Teacher was able to create a well thought out year long plan of the lessons that she was already teaching in her program she was able to visually map those out and also map out new lessons that she wanted to try, which was so exciting. She did have really great lessons and just didn't need that structure so that she could see, oh, okay, Here's where, and I'm teaching this coding unit. Maybe I can add in Makerspace here or maybe I could add this here. So, even putting all of those ideas in an organized structure was a definite game changer for her. Not only that, I was able to see, okay, here are those holes and here's our things that we can work together in our program to help you build those up. Back to them makey makeies, we were able to create a common lesson in our entire group coaching program.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:02]:

The other teachers under program also had Makey Makeys, but we were able to create a unit where we could use those Makey Makeys in a Makerspace lesson. And this one was so much fun. I actually had a makey makey myself. So for part of our call, we actually all had our makey makeys at home, and we went through the guiding process That's where we actually set up our makey makies, talked about an intro lesson that we could do with our students. We did the intro lesson ourselves, And then we also created a way where these makey makies could be added into a Makerspace project that went into an overall collaboratively planned ocean units? This ocean unit was really cool because this teacher really wanted to have themed lessons, So we took that idea of oceans k through 5 and created a whole Makerspace unit for k through 5. So for k through 2, we did map out some STEM stations that students can rotate through, and we created a bank of 4 STEM stations. And then if these stations were repeated, we also created some extensions that could go along with it. And this teacher implemented those right away. She even found some animals, ocean animals from Dollar Tree and added those to one of the STEM stations.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:23]:

As you said, The kids were having so much fun with that. We even created Makerspace lessons that could be carried on for one day or multiple days depending on the teacher settings? Again, this was a collaborative unit that we wrote together during our group coaching sessions. And then from there, we even took one of those Makerspace lessons for 4th 5th grade and had created an extension with the makey makeies. And then even from there, it was so much fun. We had so much fun with this unit. We created a choice board that 2nd through 5th grade could use that were related to ocean resources that could be used as an extension, as stem stations, or even as sub plans? So it was again so much fun. We were gathering all these ideas and resources throughout our times together and created this well thought out unit together? Our teachers didn't have to do this alone, and we even had a chat going on where we could share resources in there. And when we came together for our live calls, we are prepared and ready to go.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:30]:

This teacher also got the Lego spike essential kits, the Lego Education SPIKE essential kits? And these are an amazing kit by the way. I highly recommend them And she was starting to implement those with her students, but wasn't sure how to use it where with all the grade levels since she didn't have enough kits where each grade level could be working on it at the same time? So that was something we did plan into her structure where she could use that kit at specific Times they could still do certain lessons, but their tool might be modified with that Lego kit which was a really great asset for her. Also, once that year long plan was mapped out, this teacher had some really cool ideas when it came to different lessons she wanted to try. She really wanted to do a unit in February for black history month and different black inventors, so we created different ideas where she could use robotics And have the students learn about different inventors and also thought of different cool Makerspace and 7 story lessons that could connect to this unit? This teacher also was really interested in stop motion animation which I Absolutely love. It's a very fun unit to teach. And fun fact about stop motion, all of the work happens in front of the camera, not behind. It's a lot easier than you might think. In another one of our sessions, we actually played around with the stop motion animation technology And talked about different units in different ways that that could be used in the classroom setting where it could be a small little task Or something bigger as well? I feel so privileged that I had the opportunity to work with this teacher in my STEM into summer group coaching program And this teacher already had great skills as a teacher and had a great program in mind but really needed that community and that extra push to continue for her to keep her going and even think about STEM lessons in a different way? If this experience sounds like something that you would absolutely love to jump in on, the doors are open to my stem into fall 2023 group coaching program? I would love to have like minded teachers like you who Has taught their program for a little bit of time, but you definitely need that community to really think through those lessons together And also have somebody on the side who can see where your lessons are at, what is your year look like, what are the supplies you are hoping for, And how can we grow it from there? Spots are limited in this group coaching program, but I would absolutely love to have you, and you can jump in on that at NaomiMeredith.com/STEMintofall.