Naomi Meredith  00:00

Summer break is around the corner, and I bet the last thing you want to do is think about back to school. Before you pack up and head out for a couple of months, there are a couple of things that you can do now that will help you be prepared for the dreaded or exciting back to school. Something that I like to tell myself is I like to thank past Naomi, so when I do things that sets myself up for future Naomi, I always thank my past self, and I know it's a silly thing to do, but it's just kind of fun, because you're like, “Oh, thanks, Past Naomi for doing this.” So you want to be in that situation as well, doing things now at the end of the school year that can prep you for back to school. So here are three things that you can do now in your STEM space, so you can thank your past self later. 

Naomi Meredith  01:25

If you are listening to this episode live, there are a few days left to join into my STEM into summer group coaching program. During our 16 weeks together, starting in June 2023, you will take an audit of your lesson plans and all of the materials that you have in your space, get feedback, and that will set us up for our time together to prep you for your whole STEM year long plan. And the lessons that will be unique to your space, have audio access to me and also weekly calls with the other members in the group so that you don't have to feel alone like you're on an island. And you can feel successful going into the STEM school year. You can get a special 25% off discount for being a podcast listener. When you go to check out make sure to use this code STEMSUMMERPOD. I would love to be your STEM coach in your back pocket and help you this summer. So make sure you jump in on that before the doors close. And you can access that at Naomimeredith.com/stemintosummer. 

Naomi Meredith  02:34

It is a little bit weird thinking about back to school when it is end of school, and you're barely keeping your head afloat not to mention all of the crazy things that are happening outside of the school year. I totally get it, listen to me recording this podcast now. I'm actually pretty calm when it comes to the school stuff. But all of the things outside of school, my wedding coming up, I don't know why we picked June eighth as our wedding date now that it's almost here. But here we are. But thinking about back to school, it's not so bad. And these are some things that are actually really easy to implement, that actually take up a lot of time when it comes to back to school with all the meetings and all the things and all the planning. So if you do these things now, going into the school year, or even if you are going to do some things over the summer, it isn't going to be that bad. So trust me on this one. 

Naomi Meredith  03:27

The first thing that you can do now to prep for your STEM back to school is have a supply refresh the last month of school. I actually like to do a whole Makerspace unit to actually help clean out all of my Makerspace supplies. So I like to do my STEM-musement Park lessons, which you can find in my TPT shop. Those are slowly being added and updated. But a really, really fun unit for end of school year or even back to school year. But it is a great time to do those Makerspace lessons where kids are actually using the supplies in your classroom. Of course not unlimited, but you're using those things. So then you can actually restock with maybe things that you have on hand. You maybe can ask for donations if classroom teachers or even parents are doing a spring cleaning, but then you can get everything organized and restocked for your back to school. Also thinking about spring cleaning, a lot of classroom teachers might be getting rid of supplies that can be of great help to you. Maybe there is a new science curriculum that is going to be added in the upcoming school year and those older supplies that still work just fine are no longer needed. So this is a great time to do some hallway shopping to see if there's anything that can be added to your space for free. In turn, you might need to go through your items as well. Are there things that you haven't used in a while or come to find out it's actually meant for older students or maybe even way younger students? Can you get rid of those things, either donating or even just throwing away. Also, are there things that are broken? Are there things that are under warranty, or you need to contact the company to get a placement? I know it's a little bit annoying to do this at the end of the year. But trust me, when it comes to back to school, you're not going to want to be doing this, especially when it comes to the items you need to contact the companies for. The end of the school year is really great because for them, they're not as busy right now. And so you probably can get the replacement a lot quicker that way. I've done this where there are some microphones in teachers classrooms, there were a few that weren't working. I did this at the end of the year, and I actually had them send the replacement to my house, which was no big deal for them, they did not mind. And then when it was back to school time, I could take them into school. So just a little tip for you there. Also, you could collect unwanted supplies. Sometimes there are those donations of supplies by parents, or even when the classroom teachers have all the students supplies, they have the community supplies, and they sometimes don't always give that back to the students. So this is a great way if there's teachers who are trying to get rid of those things like extra crayons, glue sticks, colored pencils, there's a cool time for you to restock your items as Well. Then you can even re label some things, I have some great editable labels for your Makerspace for your entire space, that have pictures and words that you can give a refresh. And then maybe if you even have empty drawers, you know what you're going to put in there. So this is a great time to reorganize, I always always do this at the end of the school year. And I always feel so good coming back to back to school. And this is one less thing that I have to worry about when it comes to your supply inventory. Also think about making a list of the things that you might want to purchase or knowing you have a budget coming up or there's going to be grant opportunities, you can start making lists of that. In the STEM into summer group coaching program, I actually have a whole template for you to use, that will make inventory your supplies a whole lot easier. So you could see what you have what you might want to purchase. And then also this will help you set you up for success when it comes to your lesson planning and the types of lessons that you might want to do in the future. 

Naomi Meredith  07:14

The second thing that you can do at the end of the school year to help set you up for success for back to school is to reflect on your lessons, maybe you are going to be a STEM teacher and you already have some ideas brewing, write those down, try to get those organized by grade level. Maybe you've already taught STEM for a while reflect on the lessons, what has worked Well. What do you need to get rid of? What do you need to modify? Could you add this for a higher grade or a lower grade? Really reflect on those lessons. What standards are you using? How long did it take to do a lesson? So really going through this process while it's fresh in your mind, when you actually are diving into this lesson planning whether it is over the summer, or just certain points throughout the school year, you're not trying to wrack your memory like oh, what did I do? How did this lesson go? Do it now while it's fresh. And again, I have a template for you that will make this easier with drop down menus, having this in a digital space for you, where you can sort it out by grade level have those content themes have those standards all in one place. So then when you are modifying your year long plan, you have everything ready to go. And you can get that in my STEM into summer group coaching program. 

Naomi Meredith  08:32

And finally, something to do at the end of the year to help you for back to school year and really beyond is build your STEM community. Right in this moment. What kind of STEM community do you have? Is your community a one way street? Are you just accessing all of these free resources out there, but you're not really having that chance where you can actually interact with people and know their names and really build that connection. So here are some suggestions that I have for you to really start building your sound community, you could do one of these things, or really, you could do all of them. A good way to get started is to see if there are other teachers in your district who have a similar position to you. This will help you feel less alone as an island and especially if they're in your district. You can talk about district wide initiatives and that can be really helpful, especially if there are things that are being pushed out to all of the STEM teachers, you guys can have that camaraderie so maybe me over the summer, have some adult drinks have some coffee. That way you guys can get to know each other and then hit the ground running when it comes into the school year. Likewise, see if there are any conferences that you can attend. I love conferences so much. In fact, I am part of a board for a local conference here in Colorado InnEdCO which I have a whole episode about it. You don't have to live in Colorado to attend, but I talk all about that in that past episode. I love this conference so much, and how valued that I feel as an educator, that I'm getting married and then going to the conference and then going on my honeymoon. That's how much I love it and just love innovative education, I can't get away with that, even with my wedding coming up. So think about if there's any in person conferences that you can attend, because really talking with teachers, and being surrounded by people who speak I have an air quotations, your own language is really, really powerful. Also, if you want some digital ways to interact, which is super powerful as well find me on Instagram  @NaomiMeredith_. I am there to chat and help be your cheerleader along the way, and help you find the resources that you need to be successful. Likewise, we have our growing community of the STEM teacher bookshelf membership, where we have some awesome books that we will be reading this summer, that will give you more some ideas to help you with your planning. We have coming up in June and vent to learn. And all of these books, by the way, have a guide that I have put together. So I read all of the books, I make a guide to help you capture your thinking. So we have An Event to Learn in June. And then we have a Makerspaces in Schools for July. And then there's some other cool ones coming up. And you also get all of the past reading guides as well. So you have all of that questions weekly where you guys can chat and connect with each other. And then we also have a monthly live call where we can communicate. And then if you are looking for something deeper, where you really want that feedback, you really want to talk with me one on one and also other teachers who are ready to dive in and take their lesson planning to the next level. There are a few spots open in the seventh to summer group coaching program, where guests we have the STEM teacher bookshelf, where we're talking about the books and related themes. But this is where we actually can get hands on into your lesson planning where you don't feel alone and really create the thing of your dreams and build a program that will be stable, and have the systems and routines that you are looking for. 

Naomi Meredith  12:11

As a recap, here are the three things that you can do now at the end of the school year to prep yourself for the back to school when it comes to STEM. First, we talked about having a whole supply refresh. Next is reflecting on your lessons. And third is building up your STEM community. I hope that you had an awesome school year or whatever you ended up teaching and that you were hopefully giving time to yourself this summer to relax. But if you feel like you need to do school stuff, too. That's okay. Do what's best for you spend some time outside, go on a walk, do all the fun things. And I'm excited to support you throughout the summer. We will still have episodes this summer, maybe even a little longer because I know you'll have time. But there's some fun things planned for you this summer. And I can't wait to support you in all of the various ways. Thank you so much again for listening to this podcast can't believe we are already in the nine days for the episodes, which is super amazing. And I can't wait for the next 90 episodes whatever they may be.