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.

 

Hello and happy to be back here for the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. We are here for a fresh and new season, getting ready to get ready for that new school year. Whether you listen to me in real time over the summer, or you save these episodes for when you’re ready to think about back to school time, no worries at all.

 

We are in this together. And if you are watching the video version of this, I am sitting on the bed of my hotel room. I just got done this morning with the ISTE Conference 2026 in Orlando.

 

My shirt says vacation vibes. Those are the vibes I am bringing before I head on home tomorrow. I am definitely sleeping in because conferences, especially like ISTE or any of those teacher conferences can definitely be overwhelming.

 

During the whole experience, it’s amazing. It’s fantastic. You’re gathering all this information.

 

You’re running into people that you wanted to see or making new friends. But then you get back to the hotel room or even just at the end of the whole trip and don’t even know where to begin. Where do you even start with the information and the pictures that you took and the swag that you got and all of the flyers? What do you do for this information? And I know for me, because I have a backpack full of stuff that I want to start all of it.

 

I want to do it all. I want to do all the cool things that I saw. And realistically, it’s not going to be that way.

 

But I do have a strategy that I have done after almost every conference I have been to, big or small. And I’ve been involved with teacher conferences in so many different ways, whether I presented, whether I’m just an attendee for IFSTEA. I was running social media for the EdTech company that I’ve been doing their social media since the end of 2023.

 

And if you want to know who, check out my Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. There are some hints and things on there for you. But I was doing that.

 

So I didn’t get the chance to attend sessions, but walk around, talk a lot to teachers, whether it’s wandering around the expo hall area, poster sessions, and all of that, or a lot of it was at the booth. And I guess I was filming things from time to time. But I was able to talk to teachers a lot more about the products, but really more so about teachers’ experiences.

 

And that was super, super amazing. Shout out to all the teachers who came and saw and found me or ran into me. That just absolutely blew my mind and made me tear up and made me cry in this hotel room, because I never know.

 

It was just really cool. It was really, really cool. Don’t make me tear up now.

 

Stop. Allergies. Anyway, but it was just like everybody has their unique stories, but there’s just a lot of common themes between things.

 

So again, ideas for podcast episodes. But thinking about, again, that information that you gathered, what do you do with it? So here’s what I have done. I’ve also been in charge of taking information back to my staff, and you might be one of those people too, or back to your admin.

 

What are you going to do with that information? So first of all, you have everything organized. And I have my stickiness here being organized, is thinking about, based on the conference and what you’ve learned, what are the things that you want to keep? So take out your year-long plan. Maybe you have it typed up.

 

Maybe it’s in your plan book. But take a peek at all of those things. Maybe highlight all the things you want to keep.

 

And honestly, you’re going to probably want to keep a lot more than you think. And that must make you feel good. There’s probably things you’ve seen at the conference, like, oh my gosh, this teacher does this as well.

 

Or, oh, this teacher and I use the same lesson. Like, that’s great. Like, we’re on the same page.

 

That probably makes you feel good. That happens, I feel, like, at a conference. You’re like, oh, okay.

 

Like, we’re doing the same thing. We’re in this together. I’m going to keep that lesson and move on from there.

 

And a lot of you who are listening teach more than one grade. So having a complete overhaul when you get back really is not sustainable. It’s not realistic.

 

And we’re going to get into what you can do. But really think about, oh, there’s a lot more things that I can keep. So that’s super great.

 

From there, there’s probably some things that you want to update. And so thinking about, okay, this lesson’s good. Standards are there.

 

The core concepts are there. But I can actually do this lesson a bit better based on some tools that I saw. So probably just having an update.

 

And the cool thing about all of my resources that are up in my TeachersPay Teacher Shop is anything that you purchase, you get forever updates as long as that product’s live and stuff up there. You also get access if it’s taken down. Anyway, it’s digital.

 

But the really cool thing is if I update it and put it in there, you get that. And I always post things that I have used with students, I’m currently using with students, or maybe I’ve re-taught it, and then I update it based on what I saw. So recently, I’ve had a lesson, Beagle the Unimaginary Friend, and super great story, cute STEM and Stories connection where I had it.

 

They’re learning about magnetism and creating their unimaginary friend, which goes along with the story, and how magnets, what things are magnetic and not. Still in that lesson, but I also added on a 3D printing component because since making that lesson, I have more skills and training and experience about 3D printing and how to do this with kids. And so I didn’t even get rid of all of that.

 

Even just updating the look is great. But I’ve added in that 3D printing component. And funny enough, I actually had a teacher come up and tell me at this conference, she did that part.

 

She has done that lesson with 3D printing. So just take a peek because you might have some of those lessons, maybe you haven’t taught in a little while, or maybe you’re like, eh, it was okay. Based on your conference experience, are there things that you can update? And you probably have a bunch.

 

So don’t do a whole overhaul. Start with one and then go from there. And finally, and I’m saying finally, for a reason, is thinking about the things you want to try new, do two or three things to start.

 

And the new could be just how you’re teaching it. I’m sure there’s so many ways, like a strategy that you have learned, something you want to try, that could be the new thing. But also, maybe it’s a new tool.

 

So again, kind of back to that update. I’m thinking more of something brand new you’ve never used before. Maybe your school’s purchasing it, maybe you’re borrowing it from another teacher.

 

But that could be that new thing that you focus on. Because I feel like if you’re doing 5 million things at once, and I’m going to a different conference for learning about things for myself. And I’m guilty of this, that I want to do all the new things.

 

But if I really am focusing on like two to three, get really good at it, and feel comfortable about it. If I can teach somebody else about it, then I’m like, all right, I feel good. It’s not even new anymore.

 

Then you can move on, look at your list of things you learned, and then try that. So I know you’re going to want to do all the things, everything you saw in the vendor hall, everything you saw, that is up and coming that you should be on top of it, focus on one to two things, it will be okay, you are doing your best. Even adding one thing is a big deal.

 

That’s what other jobs do that? Yes, they do. But I feel like teachers are trying new things all the time. You’re trying way more.

 

So give yourself some grace. Don’t feel like you have to do it all. And I would love to hear about your experience and what you’re actually trying.

 

So feel free to send any questions my way by way of email or on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. And I am so excited to be back and more episodes to come. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the elementary STEM coach podcast.

 

I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith calm to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K through five STEM resources. Any questions you have needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.