Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

 

All right, so thank you everyone for being here today. This is a really, really special episode and when I’m creating lessons, I always know that the lessons work for my students with trial and error. They’ve been taught a lot of times and I post it in my shop.

 

I post about it on social media, but I don’t always hear how it’s going with your own students. And I know you guys are using them to say, thank you, whatever, but I don’t always hear all the details. And so this episode is really special because especially if you’re watching the video version, there’s a lot of us here on this interview.

 

So I’m going to have everybody introduce themselves and we’ll get into about STEM lessons and how things that I’ve created are being used in other classrooms. So I’ll call on each of you and you guys can introduce yourselves really quick. All right, how about Jenny? You want to go first? Hi, my name is Jenny Bradley.

 

This is my 15th year in education, second year as an elementary STEAM teacher. Prior to teaching STEAM, I taught fourth grade for 10 years. And then I was a digital learning coach for three years, supporting staff and students in integrating and using technology and meaningful ways in their classroom to enhance instruction, increase engagement for students.

 

And now I’m in the STEAM position, which was really exciting. Awesome. Thank you.

 

Mary, do you want to go? Sure. Yes. I’m Mary Linneman and I teach STEAM at Conway Elementary in Ladue School District, which is in Missouri.

 

We’re all in the same district. And this is, yeah, also my second year teaching STEAM. The program started last year.

 

And then prior to that, I was teaching third grade at the same school for nine years. So it’s been a great transition. Awesome.

 

Miranda? Yeah, I’m Miranda Berry. And as I mentioned, I’m also a STEAM specialist here at O’Bottom Elementary in Ladue. And I have been in education for 11 years.

 

The last two years, counting this year, was in STEAM. And I really have that primary focus. So I’ve taught kindergarten, I’ve taught first grade, and I’ve taught second grade.

 

And so really that primary focus. And then, yeah, we have just been having so much fun with the STEAM program. But yeah, it’s a little bit about me.

 

All right, Christina? Hi, I’m Christina Lotus. This is my 22nd year in education. I started in Francis Howell at Central Elementary and was a classroom teacher for 16 years, teaching third, fourth, and fifth grade.

 

Then I came over to Ladue and was in kind of a coaching role, digital learning coach, for about four years. And then this is my second year teaching STEAM at Spady Elementary. I love.

 

So if any of you listening, you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m just getting into STEAM or STEM. Everyone has a background in education and teaching. So that plays a really big role in what you’re doing.

 

And these ladies know each other. So they’re not just random teachers that just popped in on this interview. They all know each other.

 

And Jenny reached out about what, we’ll get into it as well. But so what, like, how do you guys know each other? So does someone want to explain that? Sure. Yeah.

 

So we’re all in the same district. So our district has four elementary schools, and they are all K-4. And so we’re all just at the elementary schools.

 

And the STEAM program was started in our district last year. So I mean, before we had the STEAM class, teachers were just encouraged to do it in their classrooms, to integrate it into their lessons. And that was challenging, of course, for all of the things that are already on classroom teachers plates.

 

And so then we started the STEAM program, and we all got hired at our respective buildings. And then we just started working really closely together. And some of us worked closely together before this.

 

I know Jenny and Christina had a similar role before the STEAM position, if you guys wanted to mention that. Yeah. So Christina and I were digital learning coaches here in Lidu School District prior to teaching STEAM.

 

So we collaborated and worked closely together often. For some of those years, Christina was between two buildings. I was between the other two buildings.

 

But we would still plan and work together and talk about different strategies for supporting our staffs, for supporting our students. We also planned STEAM days across all four of our elementary buildings. So planning different makerspace and robotics challenges for our students to participate in, and a really fun, just full day of STEAM.

 

Awesome. This is like not the main focus of this podcast, but having people to collaborate, especially since most STEM or STEAM teachers are the only ones in their buildings, finding people to collaborate is such a blessing if you’re in the same district, because those district initiatives you can chat about together. But there are people who are teaching these programs might be in a smaller school.

 

So even reaching across districts can be really helpful. But having a team can really make it a lot easier, especially if you’re so used to being a classroom teacher back in the day, you have a team, you’re used to that collaboration, it can really definitely make a difference. But that’s a side note, because we’re going to actually get into building up your STEM program, which the collaboration is a part of that.

 

And thinking about this, since it is a newer thing in your district, which I’m so excited, that’s actually great to hear that your district is excited about STEM and STEAM and sees the value in it, because I hear the opposite, but a lot of programs get cut. So it’s great that this is getting started. But thinking of that, what struggles were you finding when building up your STEAM program in your district? Because it was so new, you have all these different backgrounds, but knowing you’re in this role, what were those struggles you’re finding when building them up? Christina? Yeah, when we reflect back, they can kind of fit into like three categories.

 

So we’ll kind of go through those. Role definition was one, content creation, and then budget. I’ll kind of hit on those three.

 

So as Jenny kind of expanded on, we had come from like a digital learning coach position. We also had instructional coaches. And as we evolved as a district, and kind of were going a different direction and wanted to have a STEAM specialist that were more, we focused more on like our time with students, you know, so support directly with students.

 

So we were transitioning from more of a position that supported teachers to more interaction with students. So we wanted to have a smooth transition with that. So we kind of like listed out all the things that we did and thought about what made the most sense to keep as a STEAM specialist role.

 

And so we decided to focus on like our student broadcasts and supporting teachers with technology integration. And then of course our STEAM lessons with our specials rotation. Then we kind of looked at all of the other things that were on there and collaborated with our district administration, our admin assistants, and our content leads, and kind of redistributed everything so that every area was still supported.

 

And once we got to that point, that was awesome. And then we’re like, okay, let’s focus on our content. What are we going to teach with STEAM? And wow, that really became overwhelming very fast.

 

We started kind of looking over all these programs that were developed, but none of them really matched our vision. And a lot of them had a high price tag. So to kind of like commit to a program that was ready to go with all that money, we were looking for something that had a good mix of like robotics, makerspace challenges, student creativity, just open-ended projects, some coding, some 3D printing.

 

We kind of wanted all of that. We also wanted to tie in some science concepts, but we didn’t want that to be the base of our foundation. We wanted to support what teachers were already doing, not replacing it and give students a chance to dive deeper into some of these areas.

 

So not to jump too far ahead, Naomi, but your resource pack was kind of like, yes, this is what we’re looking for. So that was when we found that, that took a huge weight off and we knew we could use, we have used a lot of your lessons as like, you know, not just a starting point, but we’ve adapted several of those and it just really took the pressure off. So then, you know, we have the budget.

 

We were also navigating first starting out. We didn’t really know where the money would be coming from or how much we would have. So we kind of took a conservative approach.

 

We were very lucky to have a lot of resources already that we wanted to utilize so that we didn’t have to buy all new. And a lot of your lessons kind of tied into a lot stuff we already had to. So looking back, you know, we had those huge hurdles, but we’re kind of at a place now where we’re continuing to develop.

 

We think we’re creating something that’s sustainable and just really excited about what we have. Yeah. I’d like to make sure that’s so exciting.

 

I, because what you’re saying, like, well, it’s overwhelming. There’s all this stuff we have to teach. Like it’s not just building, it’s robotics, it’s coding, it’s 3D printing.

 

It’s all of this stuff that you have to fit in. And you also don’t see the same kids every single day. So how can you have that high level learning and everything that you touched upon, but still make it meaningful? And that was exactly my thoughts when I had my space because I had a brand new classroom and zero curriculum.

 

So I had a background in as a classroom teacher, and I know exactly where you’re coming from. You’re like, I didn’t have a budget to buy curriculums. They’re like, here you go.

 

Good luck. I’m like, well, don’t tempt me with a good time. I will figure it out.

 

So that’s really great that, and I’m so glad that my lessons could help you. And we’ll get more into that, like help you find what you were needing based on the materials that you already have and then grow from there. And maybe, I don’t know if you guys have seen this too, based on having your kids for a couple of years now, adapting those lessons based on their skillset also comes into play.

 

Like, oh, the first year we really had to work on some basics. Next year, highlight those basics. But now we can get deeper into those projects and see that progression of learning, which is definitely what I was envisioning when I’m creating things.

 

Like, okay, this is where they’re starting, but here’s how it will grow throughout the years and they can practice those skills. So that’s so exciting to hear. I was like, oh my gosh, you guys.

 

So you mentioned it a little bit, Christina, but Jenny, how did you find my resources and decide that it would be a great fit for you and what you were looking for? Christina mentioned it a little bit, but I think there’s more onto that side. Yeah. So like Christina said, we were pretty overwhelmed.

 

We found out that our district was developing the STEAM program. I think it was maybe end of March. It was sometime in spring.

 

And so this would have been like two springs ago. And we were like, okay, we have to come up with an entire scope and sequence and curriculum, kindergarten through fourth grade by the time we start next school year. And so, again, we’re very fortunate to work in a district that provides us with a lot of resources, a lot of support.

 

So they gave us full days of curriculum writing and planning at the end of that school year and a few days over the summer to meet just the four of us so we could really dig in and develop our curriculum. So in the midst of feeling overwhelmed that spring, I was like, there has to be some resources out there. We’re not the first ones to create a STEAM program at the elementary level.

 

So I started doing a little bit of research online and I have listened to some educational podcasts before and that were really helpful, especially going into a digital learning coach position. And I found your podcast and I was like, oh, this sounds great. I started scrolling through the names of your episodes.

 

And I think it was the first episode was like, I’m a new STEAM teacher. Oh my gosh, it’s speaking to me. So I started listening to it and I was like, okay, this is already helping me to take a deep breath, calm down a little bit.

 

We can do this. And I shared it with our team and I was like, okay, you guys got to listen to Naomi’s podcast. I think it’ll really help give us a starting point and just to help us feel less overwhelmed.

 

Even getting into like your classroom management episodes, your makerspace episodes of how to utilize tools from your podcast. After listening to a few episodes, I continued researching and looking through some of your resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. And like Christina said, a lot of your material already aligned so well with the resources that we have in our district.

 

I think it was your year at a glance or your scope and sequence that I found. And I was looking through it month by month for each grade level. And I was like, okay, you mentioned Sphero Bolts, you mentioned Lego Robotics, you mentioned all these resources that we have access to.

 

And I was like, I think this can really help give us a good starting place without feeling so overwhelmed. One other thing that we were kind of getting stuck on was at this point in the planning, do we need to make sure that we’re aligning with our NGSS science standards or certain math standards, things like that. And I saw that you already had a lot of that connected on your year at a glance.

 

So we’re so appreciative of your resources for really helping to take some of that pressure off and giving us a starting point for developing this program in our district. I’m so glad. You’re welcome.

 

Yeah. And it’s hard too, because every district has different things they’re looking for, the time you have with kids. And yes, you mentioned the standards.

 

It actually kind of helps keep your program good. You’re like, hey, I actually teach standards, you guys. It’s not just a free for all in here.

 

But yeah, when I’ve created everything, it’s so hard creating it, but at the same time, I know other people are feeling the same way as me. I knew that from the beginning. I knew that, but I don’t want to just keep this to myself.

 

If this is going to help somebody else and their students, because it is a lot and it’s overwhelming, but it’s also really fun. If I can help someone else, I’m going to do the work regardless. I had to, you guys do too.

 

But no, that’s exactly why sharing all this, I’m here, I’m with you, I get it, I’m doing it, I understand. And it’s so exciting that it did take that pressure off and you can connect the things that you guys have a vision for, but also have a good starting point to keep moving forward for sure. Also, side note, Jenny, I love seeing my engineering design process poster in the background.

 

That’s so exciting, seeing that hang up like, oh, I know that poster. I know it. So along with that, Miranda, could you tell us some of the successes of your program? And I’m sure you guys chatted about this before, you might see similar things.

 

And what do you love most about it? So tell us all. Yeah, so I mean, we could probably do one episode just on like the successes truly of like, what has come from this last year, because we’ve had so many wins over the last year when this program started. And just like, as they’ve said, just developing it, we felt like we caught like momentum and like we were feeling good about it.

 

And so some of the units specifically that you created that really stuck out to us and that we enjoyed, and the kids really enjoyed and just really took off was the STEM survival camp, which was elite, you know, like the kids loved it, especially the timing of it, like the fall season right about now, and kids are camping, we have, I feel like a lot of kids that enjoy outdoors and enjoy the camp. And so that was a hit. We also love the 3D printing unit, which I’m speaking for myself, I have zero clue how to 3D print.

 

I think I can speak for a lot of us. And so that was amazing. And I like you said, you’re going through it together, like as newbies.

 

And so and a lot of kids were as well. And then your digital citizenship unit, which we take pride in here at Ladue. We want kids to, you know, be safe digital citizens when they’re online and using technology.

 

And then your Maker Month and our systems unit. And so with that STEAM survival, I still have, I brought them, I brought them down, some projects that kids kept. Oh my gosh, look at that little, it’s a, for those of you listening, it’s a shelter.

 

Oh wait, no, that’s Protect the Food. Protect the Food challenge. Yes.

 

And so the kids that maybe didn’t want to take it home, or I was like, please let me keep some to showcase like all the amazing work. But yeah, so that was really good. And I, like I said, I feel like it really tied into a lot of students’ interest in the camping background.

 

And even just like with the Protect the Food and Cross the Bridge and then the Game from the Land. I mean, we could have probably spent a month or two on Game from the Land, girls. I think we talk about it all the time.

 

Like we plan so far in advance for the kids, just because we want them to go deep with it and not just surface level with a lot of those things. So they loved it. And they were just incredibly proud with things that they created.

 

And then your 3D printing series was a lifesaver because I had no idea. I feel like it was very new in our world. And thankfully a lot of kids were starting to dabble in it too.

 

So they actually taught us, which is amazing. And they know a lot of things that maybe we didn’t. And so it was just so fun.

 

And by the end of the unit, we also explored Tinkercad and that is the app that we use to design and like have, especially the older grades, second, third and fourth, they really got to just explore. And we kind of just said, have fun and figure things out. And so they got to design some things and then they eventually printed those things.

 

And then kindergarten and first, we learned about that Tinkercad process. We actually dabbled in Keynote because I feel like they’re very similar in a sense of creating and just more age appropriate for that piece. And then they also got to take home a key chain that was 3D printed and design.

 

And so they loved it. I mean, they just the idea of something being 3D printed and they get to keep it and it is their own. So that was really cool.

 

Gosh, I could go on, but there’s Seesaw. Oh my gosh, Seesaw. So we still use Seesaw to this day.

 

We just really appreciate the connections in every single lesson and every single unit, every grade had a Seesaw connection where they could use it to reflect or use it to upload their work or whatever, maybe or collaborate with other classmates. I think it was also cool for us as teachers to just go through the journals and see what they were creating if we weren’t able to see them that day. Because we have used Seesaw in our district before during COVID.

 

So there’s some strong feelings there about Seesaw, but we’re really hoping that with us using it with all K through 4 students that teachers will receive the value again. And there’s so many amazing updates since COVID and the dashboard is so easy to access. And so we’re really excited to continue to explore that and just have a way for kids to have a digital portfolio online, kind of like a cloud, iCloud based system where they can always keep their things and parents essentially will be able to see those things across their tenure at Ulbonnum.

 

And then I feel like our main finale, so one of our big successes here at WODU was last spring and really it started like last fall, ladies, I believe. Our Director of Technology, Dr. Patricia Brown, had this vision and she’s very much woven in with the STEAM world as well, like with us. She loves technology, loves integration, loves integrating it.

 

She was a Technology Director here, or Technology Coordinator at Ulbonnum. So I kind of worked alongside of her years and years ago, but she wanted to put on this STEAM Fest night. And so we started collaborating very early on.

 

She gathered a lot of students and staff members that really also saw the value in this work. And so we created a STEAM Fest night. It was back in April.

 

And so some of the things that happened was it was just for one night, which I feel like, again, it could be across a week in reality, just because of how much content was in there. But we had it for one evening and our entire community, WODU community, and really outside of WODU, it wasn’t really like if you didn’t go to WODU, you couldn’t go. Like everyone was invited to come, friends, family.

 

If you’re at your friend’s house that night, you could come with them. And so it was jam-packed with just STEAM. I mean, it just like oozed STEAM everywhere you went.

 

And so we had different zones, and there were six zones. And some of those zones entailed AI and digital intelligence, the maker zone, which me and Christina led, that was really fun, like the building and designing. We had the computational thinking zone, which is more like logic and game power, the exploration zone, scientific discovery, creative arts zone, and then a future pathway zone.

 

And what was still very unique is that we also had outside vendors that correlated to this field or any of those fields that could come in and just share the knowledge and share their career fields of like, this is possible. This is what you are very interested in. Like, this is what it can look like in the real world.

 

And so it was a huge hit. And I feel like the timing wasn’t just a coincidence. I feel like this was like a buildup of we want to create this program.

 

And then we have done it for the past year. And then almost like an exclamation mark with STEAM Fest. And it was our first year doing it.

 

And it was just so fun. And yeah, it was a huge hit. And we still talk about it to this day.

 

And we are currently in the planning for STEAM Fest 2 in April of this spring. And so we’re very excited to continue that work and just spread the wealth of all things STEAM. And so those are some successes.

 

I feel like we could talk about it way more. But those are just some of the fun like successes and wins of this year. Like we had way more wins than we had, you know, necessarily failures.

 

But even in those failures, there come wins. And so yeah, it’s been it’s been fun. A lot of wins.

 

Yeah, you guys are done a lot in two years. Sorry to interrupt, but I feel like Christina and Miranda have to share their STEAM Fashion Runway show that appeared at STEAM Fest. Because yeah, this was Christina’s baby.

 

This was her idea. Yeah. I’ve always loved the idea of just making things with recycled materials.

 

And like even as kids, my sister and I were bored one day. And we’re like, let’s make some outfits out of, you know, this cardboard and stuff. And we did a whole little fashion show thing.

 

And then we brought it to our cousins. We had a yearly tradition where we met at a cabin. And my aunt was always like, no screens, no TVs.

 

So at least one of the days we’d have this. We called it a trash fashion show at the time. But I rebranded it to the Recycled Runway to bring to Ladue.

 

And so we had any students, some students could sign up ahead of time saying that they’d make their outfits at home. We had a stage set up. We had music.

 

We announced them. They got to strut across the stage wearing their creation. We also had a room, a makerspace area at STEAM Fest where students could come in and make their outfits there on the fly.

 

And they got to be a part of the show too. Of course, every year one of something you come away with ideas of how you want to do it differently the next year. So we’re looking forward to bringing it back.

 

And that was so fun to see that come big picture there. So you are going to do the runway again? Yeah. Okay, good.

 

Recycled Runway. I mean, we were on a high, literally. And there was just so many kids that, like Christina mentioned, they could come and do it there.

 

Or they could plan a month or so in advance. And there were so many kids that developed and created their costume there. And we thought, oh my gosh, is it going to be enough time? Plenty of time.

 

And so it was just, yeah, it was a hit. Thanks to Christina’s wonderful idea. They’re going to start making their costumes now.

 

You guys are planning the event. They’re at home making their costumes. So you’re going to have like over the years, like all these, like you’ll see the progression of the costume that they’ll look forward to.

 

That’s so cute. I’m going to come. It’s in on April at the STEAM Showcase.

 

It’s amazing. And it sounds like your guys’ district, like because they are starting this program, it just sounds like they’re very supportive. And I can feel your energy off of the screen.

 

And you all are excited about it. Also, you wanting to do this podcast is like a big deal. It’s scary to do a podcast.

 

I don’t know. Maybe I’m not. I’m not too scary.

 

But I just love how your guys’ leadership, and that can be a huge impact in what you’re doing, is they know, okay, we’re starting from scratch. And we trust you as teachers to make those decisions and build this program. And you guys are working together.

 

You’re trusting each other. And the kids can feel it too. And it just, it’s a really cool trickle effect.

 

And I can just tell that you guys are like in a dream environment. And you are all in different schools. But you’re really trying to have like these really meaningful experiences for kids and using your skills in meaningful ways.

 

And in turn, these amazing outcomes. And kids are excited about what you’re doing. Like kids love STEM anyway.

 

But it’s scary for them too to be in a creative space and trying those hard things they’ve never tried before. For sure, they haven’t done STEM Survival Camp because I made that up. So like all these different experiences, and you’re providing these spaces that they’re excited about it.

 

And they want to try new things. And they can’t wait for the next year. So I really like, it’s so awesome to hear that.

 

And like having that STEAM showcase is such a great way to celebrate all the work that you guys are doing. Because I mean, you’re doing it for the kids. We know we’re as teachers, we’re doing it for the kids, but also a space that they can celebrate the creativity and the hard work and they can look forward to it.

 

So I love that’s like a tradition, becoming a tradition in your district. To finish this off, Mary, if there are teachers on the fence about investing in my resources, what would you say to them? Well, it’s clearly worked out so well for us. I mean, like I think Christina and Jenny said at the beginning, when we were in those beginning stages of creating our own curriculum, it was so overwhelming, so stressful.

 

I’m just like, where do we start? You know, we had different outlines that we were kind of drafting and we didn’t know which one would be best if one was better than the other. And we were looking at all these options online. And so finding your bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers, and then when we got that, we just felt like it was a huge weight off our shoulders.

 

I mean, it was just, we were ready to just dive into it. There was, it’s like just hundreds of things in there that we could look through and kind of pick out. And I mean, the lessons that you create, they are just like ready to go.

 

You can pretty much teach them how it is if you have the materials. But we spent a lot of time kind of adapting them, making them our own, kind of creating our own slides and our own seesaws to go with them, just like using what you had started. And so we, yeah, we’ve gotten into a really great groove with planning those.

 

And we just liked how there was choices for the different grade levels for every unit. I think it was the, yeah, the digital STEM planner that you created that was, that kind of had, every month had a different theme, and then each theme had lessons for each grade. And so we just kind of looked through to think, you know, which one will be best for year one last year.

 

And now, now that we’re in year two, we’re kind of picking different ones to cycle in there. So it’s, you know, different things that they’re getting. And the kids just love it.

 

I mean, they just eat it up. Like every day, they’re so excited to see what we’re doing. You know, they get, they get most excited about the flashy things like the robotics and they, they always come into STEAM class.

 

You know, I always have kids that come in, are we doing robotics today or 3D printing? It’s like, no, we’re going to do something. And then they just get so excited about whatever it is that we’re doing. And so, yeah, I just think that we have the best job.