Naomi Meredith  00:00

Part of the fun of teaching elementary STEM is you have a lot of autonomy within your position, especially if you are the only teacher in you're building teaching STEM. It's a lot of fun to think of new ideas and implement them in your classroom. However, it can get quite isolating and lonely being the only person who is implementing all these cool ideas in your building. Likewise, maybe you're a classroom teacher who is implementing STEM and innovative ideas, and you might feel a bit alone because you're the only one who's ready to jump in and try all of these new ideas. I totally understand, and I have been in both of those positions. So you might be wondering, how can I connect with like-minded teachers who get what you are doing and keep that momentum going? In this episode, I will be sharing with you three ways to build your STEM online community that are easy to implement but also that will bring you a lot of value. 

Naomi Meredith  01:04

At the time of this episode that it's being released, it is this springtime, and you might be thinking, “Well, it's too late to start a community.” I actually don't think so. I know that springtime can be very overwhelming, but spring is actually an awesome time of year to actually try new things. Instead of just kicking back and relaxing for the end of the year, it's actually really fun to try new things, not only with your students but for yourself. Then in the summer, you can relax, you can refresh, and think of how you can keep that going into the new school year. So when it comes to building your STEM online community and connecting with teachers who are like-minded like you, these are things that I have definitely done, and they have brought so much value to me and made me feel less alone in the STEM space. 

Naomi Meredith  01:04

The first way to build your STEM online community is to build a virtual PLC. My definition of PLC is a professional learning community. You may even have heard it as PLM, your professional learning network, or other names that are very similar. When I first got started in this K through five STEM position, I was brand new to the district, brand new to the building, and brand new to the position with a limited amount of materials and zero curriculum. I was the only actual STEM teacher in my building, so I needed to reach out to people who had similar positions to me in my district. Luckily, there were a few others, and I got connected with them. They were other STEM teachers whose students would feed into our neighboring middle school or one that was nearby or the neighboring high school. So it was really good to connect with teachers who are in similar positions. We had similar schedules, and we could talk about different things, whether it was lesson planning or behavior management ideas. We would talk about how we can have our student learning outcomes and do some grading, which I do have a past episode about that, and how to create student learning outcomes for your students in STEM. But this has been so powerful in my growth as a STEM teacher and just having teachers that I can rely on. We meet about twice a month, and we have a day during, luckily, our planned time. We all have the same planned time. But you can even think about how you could do this after school or even just once a month. We just meet over zoom or Microsoft Teams or whatever we are using that year. But we meet virtually, and it's just been really awesome. Being able to connect with these teachers and, again, have these conversations that you probably would have if you had an actual team, but just not feeling so alone, especially since we are in the same district. Now if you don't have that luxury of being in the same district, this next tip might actually help you out in how you can build your professional learning community, and if you don't have anybody else who's doing the same thing as you. 

Naomi Meredith  02:59

And finally, the third way to build your STEM teacher community, to wrap it all up nicely, I would say in a pretty little bow, is my new upcoming STEM teacher bookshelf. Now, if you are not an avid reader, don't just shut off this podcast like don't worry about it. The whole goal of this is that we will have a book to base our conversations on each month. I'm very picky about the books that I have chosen, and for the time of year, I have picked them. Most of the ones during the school year have an audiobook companion, or they are very short, so it's not a big deal reading them. But if you are an avid reader during the school year, or that's just not where you're at yet, or you want to wait till this summer, you can definitely join this community. A big part of it is there's actually a private community of teachers where you will get to interact and talk about these topics that are discussed in the books. Again, if you read the book, it's really helpful. But if you don't, that's okay too because they're topics that we should be talking about anyway. It's a great chance for you to post questions, chat with each other, and even maybe connect with teachers where you could meet virtually. But not only that, but inside this community, we will have monthly live zoom calls, where you can see each other's faces, and I will be in their hosting. We, of course, will chat about the books, the themes, and the topics and get to know each other that way. So think of it like your virtual happy hour. I know that it's hard to meet up with teachers, but this will be a really fun time where we can chat and interact together. And, of course, there are prizes throughout the month. I love giving away presents and prizes. So there are some fun incentives, especially if you are among the first 50 people to join the membership. I have the prizes sitting at my back table you can see behind me in the video version of this, but I have some fun things I will be sending in the mail if you're a part of the first 50 who sign up. So it's a really great community. It'll constantly be growing and is just a great way for you to jump in and read a book together and have a guide that can guide your thinking and help you think about ways that you can grow in your STEM practice. Even when I was getting my masters in STEM leadership, that was something that I wish I had was more books to read. We had a lot of articles but not a lot of books. But just more of a real authentic community. Yes, I had to comment on people's posts, but I just wanted to have a community to chat with people and to connect and have these nerdy conversations about elementary STEM. So I thought I just wanted to create my own bookshelf. Have a membership and create my own community where people really want to be there. The cool thing is it's only nine bucks a month. So cheaper than what two coffees that you're already going to get on your way to work. My days are Mondays and Fridays. I like to start my week with little coffee treats, but super cheap, and you can jump on in and then, again, build up that STEM teacher community that you have been hoping for. You can have a safe space to build and bounce ideas off of one another. So if you are listening to this live, you can still get in on the waitlist, and that is Naomimeredith.com/bookclubwaitlist. If you're listening to this after April 1, so April 1 is when it opens, definitely jump in on that, and you can join in on this membership at Naomimeredith.com/stemteacherbookshelf. 

Naomi Meredith  03:00

The second way to build your STEM online community is to try jumping in on social media. Now if you're not a huge social media person, that's totally okay. You don't have to be posting all the time and doing all the things, but there are so many cool opportunities out there for you to connect with other teachers. So again, if you don't have other people who are in your district, maybe consider reaching out to other people on social media and see if you guys could connect that way. I do have a free Facebook community that you can jump in on. It's called the elementary STEM coach community, where you can connect with other teachers. I know that there are a ton of other Facebook groups that you can join that I am a part of as well. It's really awesome to hear from other people who have the same problems that I have faced, or the same successes, or just interesting questions I might not have ever thought of. So this is a really great way to connect. Maybe you've been doing this for a while, maybe you are a classroom teacher, or maybe you are going to be a STEM teacher this upcoming school year, so you definitely want to have some sort of community. You can also reach out to people on Instagram. My Instagram is @NaomiMeredith_, and I'm very active over there. I love it. I love chatting with teachers in my Instagram stories, my DMs, and my comments. You can reach out to me and other STEM teachers as well. Again, what I really love about Instagram, you don't have to be a huge poster yourself. But there are people who do post and share things that they're doing in their classroom. It's almost like having an interactive Pinterest board. So it's really fun to meet teachers that way. I've met a lot of teachers there, and a lot of them have actually been guests on this podcast because of Instagram, which is so awesome. So it just makes the whole world a lot smaller. Likewise, in other areas that are not as active, you can definitely check out Twitter. I know Twitter is a huge thing when it comes to STEM in tech, especially a lot of those ad tech companies. They're really active, usually on Twitter. Maybe even think about YouTube, or there are some YouTubers that you enjoy watching. You can comment and interact with them there. I do have a YouTube channel, and these podcast episodes are slowly being posted there. My channel also has helpful video tutorials to help you out in your classroom. So you could just check that out. It's Naomi Meredith_, the same handle as my Instagram, @NaomiMeredith_. So social media is so awesome, though it can be, of course, detrimental to our students. That's a whole other conversation. But when it comes to building up your teacher connections, it is an awesome place to go. 

Naomi Meredith  10:53

As a recap, here are the three ways that you can build your STEM online community. The first is building a virtual PLC. Next is to connect on social media and choose the platform that works best for you or try one you haven't tried before. And finally, join in on this brand new STEM teacher bookshelf membership that is made for you to connect, read and chat together every single day and meet live every month. Thank you so much again for being here. I am so happy with how this podcast has been going and just being able to connect with all of you and build my own network and also create something for you and other future things to help you feel successful and not alone. I totally understand where you are coming from, and that is why exactly why I am doing what I am doing to help you feel confident in your role and to be able to navigate this STEM space, not feeling alone but feeling excited and invigorated in a super fun role. I am definitely here to support you. So again, thank you so much for being here. Wherever you are listening and whenever you are listening, I am so proud of you and excited for you. I hope that I get to see you inside the STEM teacher bookshelf membership.