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3 STEM Teacher Systems You Need to Start Now [Back to School Series] [ep.174]

3 STEM Teacher Systems You Need to Start Now [Back to School Series] [ep.174]

Check out the full episode about STEM teacher systems:

 

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Watch the video episode here!

Episode Summary

How can you actually get it all done and keep track of everything as a STEM teacher? I'm sharing my tried-and-true systems and hacks to help you stay on top of your busy schedule as a STEM teacher. Balancing the demands of teaching, meetings, and other responsibilities can be overwhelming, but with the right strategies, you can maximize your productivity and keep track of everything that needs to be done.

From managing emails and using Google Calendar to setting timers for yourself and your students, these simple yet effective techniques have helped me stay organized both in the classroom and in my small business. I hope you find these tips helpful and encourage you to try them out in your own routine!

Key Takeaways:

  • Email Management:
    • Install the email app on your phone but set notifications for specific times of the day.
    • Organize emails into folders for easy reference and keep your inbox clutter-free.
  • Google Calendar:
    • Input all your class schedules, school events, and personal tasks in your Google Calendar.
    • Utilize reoccurring tasks for routine activities and sync your calendar with your devices for seamless reminders.
  • Task Tracking:
    • Use a simple notebook for daily task lists, highlighting completed tasks to visually track progress.
    • Re-write unfinished tasks each day to stay on top of your to-do list.
  • Timer Hacks:
    • Set timers on your watch for student activities and personal breaks to keep your day running smoothly.
    • Use classroomscreen.com for visual timers during class activities.
  • Staying Productive:
    • Create systems that work for you, like organizing emails, using digital calendars, and setting timers, to reduce mental load and increase efficiency.

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

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.

You're teaching hundreds of kids a day. You have before school duties, after school clubs, lesson meetings, staff meetings, all the things that comes with being a teacher in general, and it is still busy being a STEM teacher. How can you keep track of it all and maximize your work time and also all of those little tasks throughout each and every day? I'm going to be sharing with you my systems and hacks that I use religiously as a teacher and also as a small business owner.

They might seem very simple, but they work very, very well, and it has helped me stay productive and keep track of all the many things that are going on each day. I hope you are liking this short episode format. They're really fun for me to record a little bit hard because I just want to talk and talk and talk, but I hope that you are getting a lot out of it.

So let me know, write a review or send me a message on Instagram. I would love to hear how you're liking this new format. The first thing that really helps me stay on top of things is the way that I manage my emails.

And this might sound counterintuitive what I'm going to explain. But hear me out. This is what I do.

I actually do have the email apps on my phone. As a classroom teacher, I actually did not because I felt like you got a lot more parent emails in that way. But when I became a STEM teacher, I actually got the app on my phone.

And what the first thing that I did was I switched my email notifications to only turn on at a certain time of the day during the week, and then turn off. So I believe I had my email turn on from six to 4pm. I still got emails outside of those times, but I wasn't notified.

And I really want to go in and check unless there's something really, really, really important I need to keep track of. Otherwise, I wouldn't get those notifications. This is also really helpful too.

Because if you're on vacation, you can just delete that email app, but then you can have to resign in and do all the things I would just go in put myself like turn off notifications completely during those longer breaks and easy as that. Like I said, you can check when you need to. I also will check my emails all day and respond all day.

And I know most people are totally against that they need to be in the moment and everything. I am a busy person on the go, I will respond to you as soon as I can. And I will move that message that goes along with my second tip into a folder.

I hardly delete messages in my email, if there's spam, sure. But I have folders for everything, everything. When I was teaching every single grade level had their own folder, every single project, every type of event, or there's a district folder, there was a school folder, I have folders for everything.

Because then everything was sorted and organized, my inbox usually has about 10 to 15 emails in there. Because those are things that I am working on projects. And then when I'm finished, I will move it into the folder.

So I know everyone has different systems, maybe they never delete anything or never move any emails. For me, that's visually crazy. And so I answer emails all throughout the day.

During that work time, I answer on my phone, if it's a longer email, I will sit down and respond. But this works very, very well, because I hardly ever, as a teacher sit down and just answer emails all day. That is not what I would do, I would answer them on the go, and then move on to the next thing.

And when I get to school, I had more time for lesson planning, which is what you really want to be doing. Next is how I use my Google Calendar. This is also something I am very obsessed about.

And it actually makes sense. Because as a kid, I was obsessed about getting a new planner every school year. And I love a good planner, I'm more into notebooks for writing checklists down for tasks.

This is another side tip, I actually use a blank notebook. For my daily tasks, I write down everything that's in my head, I need to get done. And then if I finish them, I will highlight them.

So I know what it is. But visually, I know it's finished, but I can see what I finished. And then each day, I will rewrite the tasks I didn't get done and write down any fresh ones.

So that way, I don't have a million sticky notes going on. But that's just like a little hack. I don't use a paper planner anymore, I am obsessed about my Google Calendar.

What I will do is I will sit down and type in every single schedule that I have with my students. So what is my daily schedule, my Wednesdays were always different than Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, the times would change because we had an early release day. So I would sit down, it's easier on your computer.

If you do this, by the way, I would sit down, I would put in all the times for all of my grade levels. And then you can even put in ending dates, you can delete certain dates so that you actually don't have anything going on. Again, during a break, it looks like a break, I would put in all of my schedules.

And then I also would put in the school calendar. So days off all of that, those all went in my Google Calendar, and I made sure to put it in my school account. So anything that was school related went into my school Google Calendar.

Now this goes along with the emails thing, if there was ever an event or something happening at school or a field trip, there was a time change, a class is gone, I immediately go into my Google Calendar, make the change to that date. Because even with reoccurring dates in Google Calendar, you can actually change specific things and it will ask you do you want to change all of them, or just one of them, I would go in and change it and then put that email where it needs to go. So you're like double dipping our school actually used Outlook, which I'm not a personal fan.

I know you can connect your calendars and stuff that way. But I prefer Google Calendar because I would have my school Google Calendar. And then I have my personal Google Calendar and then also my business Google Calendar.

But on your phone, that's really cool is you can actually see all of your calendars at once and go from there. So I still do the same thing and put every single thing in my Google Calendar. And that is how I keep track of everything.

Something new that I'm really obsessed with are new to me is the tasks. So I'm really bad at doing laundry. This is like something about me I'm really, really, really bad at, I don't do it, don't put it away, I don't stay on top of it.

But something with me with laundry is I can handle one load a day. And so with those things that you should be washing every so often, like the towels I wash every week, I couldn't remember when I did the towels. So I actually put in reoccurring tasks in my Google Calendar.

So they don't take over as events, they can happen anytime. If you schedule an event on that day, they don't override each other. But I actually put in reoccurring tasks in my Google Calendar.

So I know on this day, I do towels, and I can check it off. And then the task will repeat every week. So if you have that going on in your STEM classroom, there's things that you have a hard time remembering, but you know, you need to do it, the tasks are really helpful, because it's just a visual checklist.

And you can see it all in there in your calendar, especially if there's a deadline for something, and it will keep popping up, it'll move each day, if you don't go in and check it off, it will move on to your next day, like pay credit cards need to do that. So those are really, really helpful. But again, I'm very, very obsessed about my Google Calendar.

And I even figured out how to link all my Google calendars, you link it to your phone. So I have an iPhone, and it talks to my watch. So all of my events for the day pop up on my watch.

This is the same with my school schedule with kids. So then I knew exactly when things were happening. I didn't have to go to my computer, it was all right there for me.

It's either my phone is on my watch. And I it was just one less thing I had to worry about because I set that system up in place. And finally, the last system and hack that I like to use to help with my productivity as a STEM teacher is using timers.

I use timers with students and I use them for myself as a human as a teacher. As you can tell, I can forget things and there's a lot going on. And especially reading the clock and being in the moment and managing the projects and who's in the bathroom and this fight and then who's cutting somebody's hair with the scissors.

The last thing I am worrying about is checking the time on the clock. I've always want to watch teaching. But I just have a hard time just I'm just really in the moment.

That's really what it is. And so what I will do is as students, I send them off to work. So I have my mini lesson, all that I'm not worried about the time.

Because I always can get it done really, really quick. Unless there is a stern talking to my mini lessons are short, five to eight minutes, eight minutes of them teaching them a new tech tool. But when I send the kids off to work, I immediately again, I go to my watch, but I immediately my watch set a timer for when I want them to clean up.

So I, depending on the class, it's five to 10 minutes, some need 10, some need five, some need three, some are really quick. But I will set a timer for myself. So then my watch will buzz when I want them to clean up.

Depending on the class, I will actually put up a timer for the students. The timer for the students on the screen might not match what is on my watch. It might be the same, it might be different.

If it's station rotations, it wouldn't be the same because they're at their station shorter. Or sometimes I will like put a timer, you have two more minutes left. Again, it really depends on the class.

But I have the master timer on my watch. And then the one on the screen for the students is whatever I need them to be timed for what I want them to do. Are you going to do this job for five minutes, after the timer goes off, you're going to switch.

So see what I mean how their timer wouldn't match mine. That's what I mean by that. My favorite timer to use that doesn't have scary sounds is classroom screen.com. This is not sponsored, I am obsessed.

It has a little clock and timer widget you can put up. You can also put images and embed Google Slides and stuff everywhere. So you can literally have a million things on your screen.

That is for that lesson. So that is how I like to hack timers. I use timers.

This is so crazy. I depending on the class, I only had five minutes or 10 minutes in between classes. And I need to go to the bathroom or I needed to go get some water or whatever and make some copies.

My passing time would start I would set a timer on my watch. I knew I had that much time before my next class would start. I actually kept my door closed in between classes for safety issues.

But also a class couldn't just appear in my room five minutes early, I'm busy, I have things to do that was a boundary I would set, which I do have an episode about setting boundaries, which boundaries are very, very important as a teacher. But I would set timers like that I set timers for myself like this all the time. Sounds like an advertisement for Apple Watch.

It's not you can set a timer lots of different ways. But this is going to help you again, it's those little things you don't have to think about anymore, but help you stay productive. So funny enough, these are all different hacks that I like to use using technology.

And I'm wondering if any of you use those same types of things. Let me know, send me a DM, I hope that this was helpful for you. And if you haven't already, before you move on to your day, make sure to go and review this podcast, write something that you're loving about it.

We are getting up to 180 episodes. And I know I don't have 180 reviews. So I would love to see what you think of the podcast.

If you've been a longtime listener, first time writer, let me know. And thank you so much. I hope you're having a wonderful back to school and I will see you in the next episode.

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.

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Check out this playlist on Spotify I put together with all the episodes related to Back to school! 

 

 

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

STEM celebrations

Your STEM Celebrations from the 2023-2024 School Year [ep.160]

Your STEM Celebrations from the 2023-2024 School Year [ep.160]

STEM celebrations

Check out the full episode on Your STEM Celebrations from the 2023-2024 School Year:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Another school year has come to an end, and you may be thinking about all the things that went wrong and what you want to change and fix for the next school year. Instead of focusing on what you could have done differently or what you want to change for the next school year, I want you to think about your amazing accomplishments this school year. In today’s episode, we are talking about your STEM celebrations for the 2023-2024 school year. I’m also sharing what I accomplished this past year. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • STEM celebrations teachers shared with me
  • My STEM celebrations for this past year

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

You made it through the school year, and it is time to celebrate. I know it can be really easy to think about the things that didn't go well, and you wanna reflect and change that. Keep doing those things. But let's take a moment and think about all of the amazing things that you have accomplished in STEM, both big and small. In this episode, I am actually going to be sharing with you those accomplishments that you shared with me. And at the end, I'm gonna give you an update of what I have been up to this past school year as well. 


Naomi Meredith [00:00:52]:

What can be a little bit tricky when hosting a podcast is figuring out a way to connect with all of you out there. And it's always kind of awkward, but not anymore, we're 160 plus episodes in, where I'm in my office looking right at my phone, talking to myself, but I really am envisioning all of you and how we can connect and bring this podcast to life in different ways. So, I'm always thinking of new ideas to engage you, get you excited, and involve you in this show because, ultimately, it's helping you and your students. And so I asked over on social media in a couple of different places, mostly on Instagram, at NaomiMeredith_, what accomplishments have you had this school year? And I loved hearing these answers. It's just really cool to hear what you have done and make that STEM world a bit smaller. And so I want to share with you those things.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:13]:

Thank you so much for responding. You all should be so proud of yourselves. These were some really awesome accomplishments.STEM is not easy to teach. It's so much fun, but it's a lot. And so, again, definitely be proud of your hard work. If you didn't submit something, maybe you have something in common with the people out there, but I still want you to celebrate as well. Atlibbyd said, and she was talking with me in my Instagram stories, and they were also chatting in the DMs, that 3 of her students entered a design competition and won.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:50]:

So she actually sent me some pictures and all that. I'm not gonna post those because it's of her students. But we were chatting for a bit, and it was so cool because she and her students actually got to work with a professional designer and a design student in Detroit. And then they actually are going to be making their prototypes. I'm assuming for them, so for the kids. And then on June 3rd, so coming up that should be coming up. Yep. Coming up, there is a ceremony where they will actually get to find out if they placed gold, silver, or bronze for their design.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:26]:

So that is so amazing. And, hey, way way to go to find that opportunity for your kids. That's awesome. Joey M had a great success. He was able to host his 1st carnival-themed family STEAM night. And, again, putting on an event, when you guys do all this extra stuff, I know how it is, it's a lot of work to get all the details and make sure it flows well. And so he sent, he had posted a picture, and it was really cool. It was like a really cool booth as well.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:56]:

Along those same lines, Leah V also was able to host their 1st school-wide cardboard carnival, and their 600-plus students played the games that their 5th graders made. So, what a cool way for students to share their work. Heather A also started STEM fairy tales with her preschool by implementing stations. And I know that STEM with the younger kids can be a great challenge. And so, one of the books we talked about in my STEM teacher bookshelf that we had is about STEM with the younger kids. So, way to go for you, Heather. Kelly from Mathematically Enthused which she has been on this podcast, so make sure to check out her episode, and we'll link that for you. She won a prize for their lab doing a Science Buddies challenge.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:53]:

She said that we've done it for 3 years, but it's the 1st year we entered our finished work. Then we took the prize money and put it towards LEGO Education Kits for next year. That what a cool way to win money for your school, and then you actually can put the money back into your program. That's awesome. Like, your STEM work actually helped out your program. That's a cool, full circle moment. Teaching fun in room 221. Oh, that rhymes when you read it out loud.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:22]:

That's so cute. Just her, she said just the students being introduced to a new way of thinking and how to solve problems. Also, how quickly they took anything coding related and how good they are at it. That is definitely a huge accomplishment. Having your students have a growth mindset in the projects that you're doing, it's, that is a huge challenge in itself, and I have seen it in my own program when I first started in the k through 5 STEM and also with the work that I'm doing in the community, kids who aren't exposed to these opportunities really, really struggle. I had an idea for an episode about that today, but that is definitely a huge accomplishment. All of these are. These are so great.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:06]:

Kim Koffler said I survived my 1st year of teaching elementary STEAM. Yes. Yes. You deserve all the adult milkshakes. I'm not afraid of coding anymore. Thanks for your podcast and the lesson ideas. You are so welcome. I'm so glad that you listened, and I can help you through that STEM journey.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:29]:

Alright. That wondrous teacher said, our school's opening a Makerspace this year. Students have been helping out by putting it together, and they also got funded by their school PTA. It's so exciting. And that is so exciting because it's so good to hear that there are programs that are getting up and started. They're not all getting shut down. I do see that a lot. But that is so good to hear that your school is supportive of this upcoming program, and can't wait to hear how it goes this next school year.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:01]:

Sarah from Miss Gigi Voucher said, and, Sarah, I don't know. Did I say your last name right? I hope I did. We talk all the time, but I hope I said your last name right. She said a big win for her was staying more consistent with units, doing our egg drop. Did any survive? Her first computer science night and the best was having a student dressed up as an astronaut for the solar eclipse. That is so, so cute. I love how they got all themed out. That's absolutely adorable.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:35]:

Thank you so much to those of you again for responding and bravely putting it out there on the Internet. I know you all did amazing things this school year, so definitely celebrate yourself. Do something not school-related. I mentioned adult milkshakes. That was something that I and my teammates would use as code when we wanted to go out after school and hang out, and we could talk about it. We actually didn't even say adult milkshakes. We just said milkshakes. Milk and cookies sometimes.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:04]:

That's how we would, like, say we wanted to hang out in front of the kids. So here's a little tip for you. Okay. Along the lines of celebrations, I said that I would update you with what I have been up to this school year. Back in episode 108, I actually talked about my journey in education. So, actually, how I got into teaching, what it was like for me being a classroom teacher for 6 years, being in then switching into the k through 5 STEM role for 5 years, and then what I was thinking about beyond the classroom. So I recorded that episode almost exactly a year ago, so you can hear that. I recommend watching it because I actually have a lot of pictures that I overlaid in that video.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:50]:

So that's actually a really fun video to watch. If you haven't seen it, it's on my YouTube channel. There's a tab that says podcast, so most episodes are actually recorded in video format. But I talked about my journey in that, and so a lot of you have been messaging me over the past few months or asking questions. What have you been doing? Yes. I'm not in a traditional STEM classroom, so I do talk about that in that episode. However, it's because I really am so passionate about elementary STEM that I knew I needed to get STEM out into the world in an even bigger way. And so that has really been my mission. A lot of things have been going on, a lot of testing things out and all these things.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:35]:

So, I wanted to share with you what I have been up to, and these are definitely an accomplishment. I forgot some of the things I actually had done. I'm like, oh, yeah. That was this year. Because I'm the kind of person I'm like, okay. I got it done. Awesome. What is the next thing I need to do? So here is what I have been up to.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:55]:

So, in June, let's backtrack a little bit. In May, I ended my K through 5 STEM teaching position and knew that I wouldn't be returning. That was the whole thing. And then I got married in June, and so we had a wonderful wedding. We had a 20-day honeymoon in Europe. That was absolutely amazing, and then back to the grind coming back. And so once we came back, I kicked off officially my STEM into Summer group coaching program where I worked with teachers who were thoughtfully planning out their year, having an audit of their curriculum and their materials, and creating cohesive lessons for their K through 5 STEM programs. So that was so much fun.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:36]:

That was such a motivating thing to come back to and really jump right in. I'm not hosting that group coaching this summer. However, I do have an event coming up in July that will revolve around STEM planning that I haven't done before, so keep an eye out for that. And then, moving into the fall, I was really okay. I really wanted to work on those collaborations and connections. So I started reaching out, finding different opportunities and started up with a few different contract roles that I was playing around with, and that were all centered around elementary STEM. One of them, I actually got to teach LEGO education kits for a few months for a program, and that was super easy because I already had done these in my classroom. So, that was a really cool opportunity to be around kids.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:28]:

I had a different set of kids every day, every single day at the after school time. We did those LEGO Education Kids, and I also had the chance to coach teachers and give them strategies on how to work with kids, along with writing curriculum for a different LEGO education kit. So there's a whole different, thing using my skills in elementary sem during that contract time. I also connected with We Are Teachers and started creating video content with them centered around science experiments and STEM experiences. So you can check out their YouTube channel. It's really fun because I get to write the scripts and figure out how I want to film it, and then they do all the editing and make it so pretty. So, that's been really fun working with them on various projects. Likewise, I also started other local STEM teaching, and it's at a local roller skating rink where I actually teach an hour of STEM field trips.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:28]:

So the schools actually book with the roller skating rink. They pick 1 of 10 STEM lessons that are already created, and I go in, teach for an hour, and teach the lesson. It's, like, a 100-ish kids at a time by myself. Sometimes, I have support from the teachers. Usually, I don't. So it's me managing 100 kids or doing some basic science and STEM lessons together, and then I leave. I actually don't stay for the rest of the field trip. I am if you're watching the video, I have my hand under my chin.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:57]:

I am the talent, LOL. But it's super fun. It's a fun mix-up in my day just to get out of the house and, again, teach some kids. And a lot of schools out there actually do not have STEM, and I can actually tell with them out without telling me. So again, it is so important to have these opportunities for kids, and I'm so glad that I get to teach them. And I know I'm doing a good job because that is what I love and I'm passionate about, so that has been really, really fun. This was like a crazy time. Like, it's all kinda all happened at the same time, and a lot of these are actually still going on right now.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:34]:

Some are, some contracts are done, but some are still continuing to go. I actually had a school district in New York reach out and ask me to write a differentiated K through 5 STEM curriculum for their STEAM Saturdays. And so that was really cool taking the projects that they kind of had it had in mind, sometimes creating new projects, but actually creating lessons where they are building background knowledge. What is the science behind it? Why are you doing this project? How can this connect together? Creating and pulling extra resources to make it an actual meaningful lesson. So we're really hoping that that's funded through a grant. So we're really hoping that, more can get funded for this program, and I will continue doing the work with them. Also, with curriculum, I know you're like, how do I do management? I don't know you guys. When I look at this, I don't know how I did this.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:29]:

But that, again, is my personality. Definitely working on my K through 5, 7 year long plan, making updates and changes to that, and thinking about how to best serve you in those ways. So, with my resources and recommending those, so really diving into my curriculum on the side. And then I also, was reached out to by one of my favorite ad tech companies. You might be able to guess who it is, but they reached out to me, and I've been running their social media since November. And so that's been really, really fun. Again, serving teachers with a product I am very passionate about and absolutely believe in that should be used with students. It does involve some coding, but it's something that I really, really love, and it's actually one of the first stem products that I ever used as a classroom teacher.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:24]:

And so it really is this full circle moment that I am actually helping share this product and showcasing it in a way that really is meaningful, and I really believe it works well in the classroom. So, that is a fun daily thing that I get to work on. Once the new year came around again, a lot of these projects were still going on. I also launched, a couple of workshops, and one of them actually was in the fall. But I launched a couple of workshops for you to help you with those extra things you might want to try. So I first launched my seller school-wide news workshop where I give you every single thing that I use to set up my prerecorded daily news that I did at my school. And I loved hearing the emails that you guys said, oh my gosh. I did this at my school.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:16]:

Thank you so much. We actually have news that is meaningful, and I love the systems and processes. So that's all set up for you. You can still jump in on it. All of my workshops are actually available at any time, even after I go live. So that is really helpful, something you might wanna explore this summer. Likewise, I also launched a workshop for you guys about setting up your own STEM career day. So taking you through the whole process, I saved every single email when I set that up for my school, and getting real experts into your school in front of kids and getting them excited about the possibilities in STEM.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:53]:

Along with that, that led to the launch of my kid podcast. I still have this one, the elementary STEM coach, but I also have a podcast for kids, the STEM Career Quest podcast, where I interview these experts in STEM fields to help inspire kids to what they wanna be when they grow up and hear these amazing and outstanding people who are so intelligent and really want to inspire kids. So 2 episodes come out in a month, and there are also extra resources inside of the club that you can make the experience come to life even more. This spring, while all these contract things were going, I also started branching out into pushing out my own programs into the local community. So, I started teaching STEM sessions at one of my favorite local coffee shops. I absolutely think they're all about bringing in community, so I've been doing those types of sessions. And then I'm working with and talking with other local programs and other locations and schools so that I can bring STEM into those schools, especially locations that don't have it. And so that's really awesome where I get to influence more kids in the community with things that I may or may not have taught before, but get them excited about how they can problem solve and explore the world in new ways.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:15]:

So that is a snapshot of what I've been up to. There are many other things. Feel free to ask me questions and DM me. I'm so excited for what is to come. I hope this time next year, there are some things I really am manifesting. I would love a Makerspace mobile, and I'm not lying about that. I would love to have my own Makerspace mobile. But there are so many cool things that I'm really trying to stay involved in STEM, teaching kids in different ways and making sure that I'm making an impact in this space by helping you, but really helping ultimately our future in STEM.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:50]:

Thanks so much for following along in this fun episode, and I will chat with you soon.

STEM celebrations

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

would you rather STEM teacher

Would You Rather? – STEM Teacher Edition [ep.137]

Would You Rather? STEM Teacher Edition [ep.137]

would you rather STEM teacher

Check out the full episode on Would You Rather? STEM Teacher Edition:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

This time of year is such a busy time for STEM teachers, so I decided to do something fun in today's episode. Today we're playing Would You Rather STEM Teacher edition. A while back on Instagram, I asked you all to vote on these would you rather questions. So today, I'm sharing the results and my answers to the questions.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The Would You Rather STEM teacher edition questions I asked on Instagram
  • The results of the Instagram poll
  • My answers to these questions

Resources Mentioned:

 

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:


It's a busy time of year, and I have a fun episode and game that we are going to play together, and it is Would You Rather STEM edition. Get ready to think of your answers and laugh along with me with these STEM specific questions. And some of them are a lot harder than you think. For this episode, I knew I wanted to do something fun for this time of year.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:03]:


I love sprinkling in these fun and more personal episodes. It is so much fun for me, and I knew I wanted to do something really cool during the holidays when this airs. And it popped into my head one day when I was walking my dog, Frederick, just like everything I plan, it pops into my head when I'm walking him. And I thought, oh, it would be so fun to play a would you rather game and get all of your responses and then share them on the podcast. This is what I do. I just, like, think of stuff, and I say we should, and then I just do it. A while back, I actually asked the questions. I came up with some STEM specific questions for this would you rather game, and I did post them on Instagram.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:55]:


And 50 of you answered and played along with me, and it was so Funny reading the messages that you guys would write to me after you would vote. Like, a lot of you would vote, and then you're like, I'm not sure what to say or, Oh, that was a hard one or, oh, I need to change my answer. It's not what I thought. Or you guys would just send me emojis about the questions. And so this is so much fun to put together and I wanted to release this episode even sooner because I knew it would be a lot of fun to record and see the final results. And I was even sharing the final results with my teacher honey, which one of the fun episodes that I did is I interviewed him the week of our wedding, so you can actually listen to that interview. There's no video. I told him we won't do video, But he actually was laughing at the answers, and he teaches high school Spanish and so completely different than the world of elementary STEM.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:55]:


But he was laughing. He thought they were pretty funny. I asked him if he would vote, and he said no. So, at least he listened to the questions, which is props to him. That's good. So what I'm gonna do for this episode is I have a handful of questions, and I'm gonna read them. And I want you to think about your answer. How would you answer this? And maybe if you did play, is it the same answer at this time of year? Think about your answer.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:23]:


I'm going to share the results, And then I'm gonna share with you my answer and probably some side comments or stories that I have related to all of these because all of them, while I was writing them, I was making myself laugh, and that's a daily thing for me. I do all sorts of stuff to make myself laugh. So let's get into these fun would you rather STEM teacher questions. Alright. The first one is, would you rather have unlimited tape or hot glue? Really think about it here. Unlimited tape or hot glue? They will get progressively harder, by the way. Alright. So 79% of you said you would like unlimited tape, and 21% of you would like unlimited glue.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:12]:


And some of you are messaging me, is it any kind of glue? Yes. Unlimited glue of anything. I would also agree on the tape, and I talk about my tape love, hate relationship very much here on this podcast. And one trick that I figured out actually during COVID was creating baby tape rolls, And I have a couple videos if you scroll way back, in my feed on Instagram, but baby tape rolls are essentially a baby version of a big tape roll. So what you do is you take the amount of tape that you want students to use, like, a couple of feet, And then you wrap it on a popsicle stick around itself, and it doesn't lose its stickiness, and students can save their baby tape roll for future projects. You do have to teach the kids how to rip the tape, and also the younger kids like to squish the tape in their hands. I'm like, no. Don't do that.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:11]:


Like, I can't I can't fix it. So baby tape rolls are my thing. I called them baby tape rolls, and it's something that actually stuck after COVID because we weren't allowed to share materials. So I'm really, really fast at making baby tape rolls, and you can actually see me, like, Do it, like, mindlessly. I have a 1 Instagram reel where it's, like, explaining STEM teaching through Taylor Swift songs. And in one of them, I'm actually making baby tape rolls because I've made probably thousands of them. So, I definitely would go for unlimited tape because I swear the kids eat tape more than they eat pencils. Alright.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:50]:


Second question, would you rather have Your classroom magically clean itself every day or plug in all of your devices each day. Magically clean itself or plug in your devices each day. 85% of you would like a magically clean classroom every day, and that left The 15% of you would like the plug in devices. I would pick the plug in devices. My room, I actually would keep pretty clean, and people would know that about me. I'm not like a scrub kinda clean, like, get on my hands and knees, like, scrub stuff. But I'm actually very, very, very organized, and so I didn't have an issue with having, like, a super messy classroom, and I made my students clean and Do all of that. So I really hate the plug in in devices.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:49]:


I think it's so annoying, especially if you were teaching all the kids in the school and then you have shared devices. It is one of the most annoying things. I hate it. Like, You develop, I swear, you develop these pet peeves as a STEM teacher that you never thought you would have before. Definitely developed pet peeves when I came into the K through 5 STEM space. 1 was plugging in devices, and another one was when Kids would come into my room, and the first thing they would ask me is, what are we doing today? And my response was, I'm gonna tell the whole class at the same time. So plug in devices is what I would choose for that question. Alright.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:29]:


Next question. Would you rather teach August kindergartners or May 5th graders. August kindergartners or May 5th graders? And I got the most comments on this one. This one, you guys cannot The side. So here's the results on this one. For kindergarten, 47% of you said You would teach August kindergartners, and that left the remaining 53% of you who would teach May 5th graders. And I would say both are very, very comparable, and those results make sense to me. I would rather teach August kindergartners.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:15]:


I love the little ones. I was so close to getting my degree in early childhood, but went a different pathway, thought there'd be more opportunities in elementary. I actually did teach at a preschool and college, and I just love that age group. If you hear squeaking, by the way, that is little Frederick, who is acting like a toddler and wants me to play with him right now. So he keeps throwing toys at my feet. But I would definitely teach August kindergartners. May 5th graders are so annoying. No.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:47]:


Like, I would take a little kindergartner who pees their pants any day over a stinky 5th grader in May. Alright. Next question. Would you rather go on a field trip with Miss Frizzle or have an in house field trip with Bill Nye, the science guy? I told you the questions are going to get progressively harder. Alright. 46% of you said Bill Nye, and 54% of you said Miss Frizzle, and I feel the same way. I am so torn on this question.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:29]:


I'm obsessed with Bill, and I loved that show as a kid, and I want him on my podcast. And I have reached out through Instagram before and didn't get a response, which he has so many followers. It probably was in the, the hidden messages. So I need to try a different avenue know, because ever since I started this podcast, I've wanted Bill Nye on this show. I think it would be amazing. It'd be a childhood dream. I've told my Students, I want them on the show.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:00]:


I have been manifesting Bill Nye to be a guest on the Elementary STEM Coach podcast. So go, like, at him on Instagram. Go message him. Tell him to be a guest because that would be an absolute blast to have him on this show. But on the flip side, Miss Frizzle's not real now. I guess Bill Nye is not real. He's a person playing. Well, Bill Nye is no.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:22]:


Bill Nye is real. That's his real name, But he, like, plays kind of a character. Anyway, miss Frizzle's a cartoon, and I'm talking about the original Miss Frizzle. Okay? Not the new one, but the new one's good. I was Miss Frizzle for Halloween 1 year, so I was Miss Frizzle, and Frederick was Liz, the lizard. I found a little lizard costume, and we dressed up as them for 1 Halloween. And I also had my 1st keynote speech. It was all based on lessons from Miss Frizzle, which is episode 100.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:57]:


You can hear my 1st keynote speech that I did for Wonder Workshop. So I took a lot of lessons from her, and her field trips would be pretty cool, but also I think really scary when she does the field trips where she's really, really tiny. So I would take Bill and I probably a little bit more over miss Frizzle because, like, that's a little bit dangerous. And also okay. Question. Would you rather go on a field trip where Miss Frizzle by yourself, or would you wanna go on a field trip with Miss Rosalynn all the kids, because some of those kids are freaking whiny. What's what's his name? Ralphie or Ronald or something? The one with the orange hair and glasses is So whiny and so annoying. He he I'll take his spot.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:39]:


You know what? I'll go with the kids, but he has to stay back. Like, he can't come. That kid's so annoying. So Bill Nye for me, but Miss Frizzle a close second. Alright. Last question. Would you rather teach year long STEM on topics you're unfamiliar with, but have unlimited resources. Okay? So, this is a little confusing.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:06]:


Or teach your favorite stem topic with minimal resources. So we have Unlimited resources, but you're teaching stuff you've never taught before, or limited resources and you know what you're gonna teach. That one's pretty hard. Unlimited, but you don't know what you're gonna teach. Limited, you do know what you're gonna teach. And here for this one, I thought it was interesting. So 61% of you said you would rather teach unlimited resources with unfamiliar topics. And then 39% of you said you'd rather teach familiar lessons with limited resources.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:45]:


And I feel like I've been in kind of both situations. Now I wasn't with unlimited resources when I taught Stan. But when I first got started, I had a really big budget and I don't know why. So I was really lucky and was able build up my program and trial these materials and, in turn, give my students a lot of experiences, but also I remember those and can share those with you. And a lot of us who are in the STEM space don't know anything we're teaching, and so I think I would be, like, the majority on this question, I would definitely want the unlimited resources and don't know what I'm teaching, but I like that open ended, like, What if, what could we do, what are the possibilities? That's why I like Miss Frizzle, but, I definitely thrive in those types of environments. And when I feel really restricted, I can actually do a lot with limited materials, but if I'm teaching the same thing over and over and over and over again, I get really, really bored. I think partly why I got a little bored teaching 3rd grade because it's the same topics every year, but that's just my personality. I like keeping it up and make it get fresh.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:54]:


So that's definitely a hard question, though, because I can definitely see the other side. Alright. Well, that is it for this fun Would You Rather game. If you liked it, send me a DM. If you're watching the video, put it in the comments below. But I love doing these fun episodes, sprinkling them in for you. Thank you so much for playing along and voting on Instagram when I posted these. And, also, for those of you who are listening along with me wherever you're at, I know you were playing along too, and you were thinking of your answers.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:26]:


And I appreciate you guys so much, and I can't wait to do more fun episodes like this and keep bringing in All of those fun STEM concepts for you in the new year.

would you rather STEM teacher

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

Behind the Scenes: Inside a STEM Coaching Session-Part 2 [ep.95]

Behind the Scenes: Inside a STEM Coaching Session-Part 2 [ep. 95]

Check out the full episode on Behind the Scenes: Inside a STEM Coaching Session-Part 2:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Today’s episode is another behind the scenes inside the STEM Into Summer Group Coaching Program. In this session, I am coaching Miranda B., who teaches pre-K through 5th grade STEM. Miranda sees students twice a week and teaches all of the pre-K through 5th grade students in her school. I know that many of you will be able to relate to Miranda’s story. During this STEM coaching session, we looked at what Miranda is currently doing in her STEM classroom and discussed what’s working and not working. I also shared some strategies she can implement to simplify her current processes, and we talked through her goals for the upcoming school year and how I can best support her in achieving those goals.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Miranda’s STEM teacher journey
  • The lessons she’s currently implementing in her STEM classroom
  • Strategies I recommended to help simplify Miranda’s STEM lessons and structure
  • The level of support I provide each teacher that joins the STEM Into Summer Group Coaching Program

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

The elementary STEM coach podcast is almost a year old and this coach is coming out of the podcast and is here to personally help you. Well, this podcast is a great resource to help you learn and grow on the go. There are times when you need more personalized attention. What does it actually mean to have a STEM coaching session with me, Naomi? Well, I'm taking you behind the scenes in part two of this type of episode, where I actually recorded another coaching session with a teacher in the STEM Into Summer Group Coaching Program. As one of the bonuses in this group coaching program, you receive a free one on one 30 minute video coaching call with me, where we get to know one another, your STEM program, and the goals that you have for it to set you up for success for back to school. If you go back to Episode 93, you can hear a different coaching session that I had with a member of my program. In this session, I'm talking with Miranda and she teaches pre K through fifth grade STEM in her building. She teaches two days a week and sees all the students in her school within those two days. I know many of you listening can relate since you also see the whole school within a week. This is a very common schedule. Miranda has many years of experience teaching and is in fact retired but found this awesome STEM role. She has a few great units already in place that were really successful, but wants to nail down her whole year long plan so that it can go smoothly, and she can adjust as needed. She has also noticed that her students have been needing support in specific tech skills and wants to integrate that content into her curriculum. Together, Miranda and I set up a plan of action of next steps to take now and what to expect going into the STEM Into Summer group coaching program. During this session, I'm sure you're going to find similarities in her program and the struggles that she is facing to what you're experiencing in your STEM space. If you're interested in joining forces with me and other teachers who are building their STEM programs, there's still a few spots available, you can jump in at Naomimeredith.com/stemintosummer, our kickoff call was recorded for June and you can still catch up and access all the pre-work you'll need to complete as you set up the foundation that will build up your success for July through September. Likewise, if you are unsure about this program, and if it's a right fit for you, let's talk about it face-to-face. Schedule a free live call with me at Naomimeredith.com/call spots are limited in June, but more times will open up in July. Now let's get into this coaching session. 


Naomi Meredith  02:45

I'm so glad that you signed up. I remember I saw your email when I was driving to the airport and it pops up on my watch. Like, oh my gosh, I'm so happy to work with you this summer. 


Miranda B.  03:29

Yeah, me too. I'm excited.


Naomi Meredith  03:31

Yeah. So remind me your schedule. So you teach STEM twice a week. All the kids in this school. So you have small class sizes. 


Miranda B.  03:39

Only once a week, I only see them once a week. 


Naomi Meredith  03:42

You see them once a week, but you teach twice a week.


Miranda B.  03:45

I teach two days. Yeah. 


Naomi Meredith  03:46

Okay. 


Miranda B.  03:46

Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And yeah, I see preschool, Kindergarten, fourth and second on one day, and the other day is first grade, third, and fifth.


Naomi Meredith  03:57

Okay. And then you just got that which and then you see him again. You said there's one of each class, right one of each grade level. Yes. That's so crazy. So how did it go? So last year was your first year so you're telling me a little bit when we were talking? So it was your first year in STEM, but you have tons of teaching experience? You kind of mentioned a little bit but what were you doing with your lesson plans before like what were you doing for lesson plans? Are you picking and choosing or were you making your own? 


Miranda B.  04:28

I was doing a lot of like storybook STEM because that's what I was used to doing from the library. Yeah, because that's what I did in the library. I did a lot of yours like I looked at your year long plan. I did a lot of those. I would do some Carly and Adam lessons. I did some vivify STEM lessons at the beginning of the year they have some really good like icebreaker kind of lessons. I just did those but yeah, I mean, I had some units like we did a 3D printing unit where everybody except preschool and Kindergarten did that district As Kindergarten doesn't have one on one, everyone brings their own devices. They are okay to bring from home. But yeah, Kindergarten and preschool, so they couldn't do it. But everybody else did a 3D print. We did coding, like in December, we did Hour of Code, but I did for the whole month. Yeah. We did a lot of tinker with the older kids. And then we did doodle 3D with the younger kids. Different coding. Let's see we did robot's. I don't know how many dashes we have.


Naomi Meredith  05:29

I saw one hiding back there yesterday.


Miranda B.  05:33

Because Maverick was afraid of it. Yeah. And it was going on. So I had to pick it up. I had it sitting behind me. And I had to pick it up because he was afraid of it. I brought it home for my niece, because I watched my niece this week. And so she wanted me to bring it home so she could play with it. 


Naomi Meredith  05:47

Oh, cute. 


Miranda B.  05:49

But yeah, now he's down here asleep. And I'm like, where to go? Yeah, he was afraid of it growling.


Naomi Meredith  05:55

I don't know why dogs don't like that. 


Miranda B.  05:56

No, they don't like it. I have code and go mice, those. So we do that for robotics. I have some oh, what are they called? What are the ones that follow the lines?


Naomi Meredith  06:10

Ozobots. 


Miranda B.  06:11

We have Ozobots I have I think six? Six of those. That's kind of about all we have for robotics things. So I did those units. And then the rest of the year was just kind of yeah.


Naomi Meredith  06:24

Would you say? So? Like when you did 3D printing or your robotics? Just an hour? Could you do with everyone? For your 3D printing and robotics? Did you do that all the same month? Or did you break it up throughout the year?


Miranda B.  06:38

At the same time. 


Naomi Meredith  06:39

Okay. 


Miranda B.  06:40

So everybody was doing 3D printing. They were doing different projects. 


Naomi Meredith  06:44

Yeah. 


Miranda B.  06:44

But they were all doing the same. It was all 3D printing. Yeah. 


Naomi Meredith  06:48

So that's good. And then do you think it took about a month for all of those? 


Miranda B.  06:55

Yeah. Because I didn't see them  like, even my like, so K-2 I just see 30 minutes a week. So you know, it took us, you know, a week or about a week just to learn how to use it one time. And next time, they kind of played around and started on it. And then you know, so yeah. And then yeah, about a month for that.


Naomi Meredith  07:14

Okay. Well, that's good. I mean, and once we take a deep dive into that tonight, with our live call, you're gonna organize all the lessons that you did. And if you hear me typing, I'm typing what you're saying. So and I have my screen to the side, but we'll you'll organize everything based on what you did. So this won't necessarily be the year long plan, but really auditing what you've done so far. And the types of units because it sounds like you have like good units and they were successful. Did you feel like the times that you did like the 3D printing, the robotics, the Hour of Code, did you how did it feel compared to like the hodgepodge? 


Miranda B.  07:56

Much better! 


Naomi Meredith  07:56

 Okay. 


Miranda B.  07:57

It's been nearly the time on lesson planning, because I know where it's going. 


Naomi Meredith  08:01

Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Okay, good, that's good, okay, so that when that will set up your rest of the year like that, too.


Miranda B.  08:07

That'd be great. Because I do want to include, like something I do want to put to Makerspace in because we're going to use that query, because I got approved to use that. So we're going to do that. I want to put that in there. And I also need to put my kids have no computer literacy, like they don't drop down menus, they don't know how to copy and paste, they don't know how to do those things. So I want to do that at the beginning of the year. So we're not gonna have so much of our time when we're doing our units, trying to figure out how to copy and paste. 


Naomi Meredith  08:35

Yep, that is something that my first year in STEM, I definitely had to do that. I only saw the kids three days a week and we did a lot more computer literacy based things just based on the same thing you're saying. And I normally don't do STEM stations for my older kids anymore. But that was something that I started implementing is I would do some stations and one of the stations was me. So like when you're a classroom teacher, you have them rotate through and one can be you and just teaching those skills so it's not chaotic, and everyone's like, “I can't, that's hard!”


Miranda B.  09:16

That's what I hear. And I'm going around to every single person trying to show them Okay, here it is. Here it is. Yeah, and I even have a to make things easier for them to find links. I made a Weebly. 


Naomi Meredith  09:26

Oh, good. 


Miranda B.  09:27

And then I've made on that Weebly, we have a oh, what's it called? But I have all my links. Hold on, what's it called? Oh, a Symbaloo. So I made a Symbaloo with all their links. So once they bookmarked that, Weebly page, then it popped up with all their links, so they don't have to search for them. So that does help and they are getting better. They were getting better at that even good. There's a finding that they'd say, Oh, I didn't bookmark it. I'm like, Yes, you got there. This YEAH. OKAY. Good, teach them how to bookmark. Bookmark that. So I would like to have a lesson to, you know, some lessons that use those skills. Not only not just okay, let's let's type something and copy and paste, you know? Yes, I'm purposeful using those things.


Naomi Meredith  10:18

Yeah, we can definitely do that. What do um, do they use Google Docs? I have a couple of questions. What platforms do they use like Google Docs, PowerPoint? And are all their devices the same? Or are they all different? 


Miranda B.  10:32

Most of them are Chromebooks. But I do have a few kids that have a apple, whatever it is. 


Naomi Meredith  10:39

Oh, really?


Miranda B.  10:41

So yeah, because they all buy their own devices. So some parents buy what? I don't even know the word I'm looking for. Because I don't have one.


Naomi Meredith  10:49

Like the MacBook Air?


Miranda B.  10:51

Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So yeah, they have expensive computers, but most of them have either a Google Chromebook or PC or just a regular PC. Okay. I just got a couple kids that that have the apple.


Naomi Meredith  11:05

And then are you guys allowed to use Google Docs or anything? Do they have accounts?


Miranda B.  11:10

We have Google Classrooms. Yeah. 


Naomi Meredith  11:11

Okay. Yeah. 


Miranda B.  11:12

Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  11:13

Okay. So you do that's good. That'll help too. I do have some scavenger hunts for Google that I can give you can use. But it really it actually teaches them the actual tools of how to do things. Yeah, so there's a Google Docs one, and then you could do Google Slides. I'm thinking probably this first year, you might be doing a lot more of the same skills, or your older kids might move through a little faster, kind of creating that base. And then, as we do it, yeah.


Miranda B.  11:49

Yes, yeah. Sometimes my fourth and fifth graders were having issues. And I talked to my principal, and she said, that would be great if he would do that. Because I think just a lot of times the classroom teachers don't have time. 


Naomi Meredith  12:03

Yeah. Yeah. 


Miranda B.  12:05

But I'm thinking they're wasting all their time going to every single student doing it for them.


Naomi Meredith  12:10

Yes. Yes, exactly.


Miranda B.  12:13

I know when they get in here, they look at me like I'm talking a foreign language, “right click, copy.”


Naomi Meredith  12:18

Yes. Yeah, I know. But that's something for, we don't have to plan the lessons quite yet. But something as it's coming to your mind, throughout the month, I would make a list of the tech skills, and maybe you already have one, make a list of those skills you really want them to work on or things you've struggled with. And I can take a look at it to like give my suggestions like, oh, make sure you add this. And we can even talk about like how to teach those tech lessons. Because yes, like, it's just like with any tool, like when you're using Dash or 3D printing, all those things, you're teaching them, here's how to use the tool if they've never used it before. Okay, now we're going to like implement this in our authentic way.


Naomi Meredith  12:19

Right? Yeah. And I think that's why the 3D printing like took it took the whole month, because like the first couple of weeks, in the month, it was, here's what it is, here's how we use it, they kind of played around with it, then we got to the stuff we were actually going to do with it.


Naomi Meredith  13:21

Yup, you're gonna be so excited when you do 3D printing this year, because the kids are gonna be better at it. 


Miranda B.  13:27

Yes, I'm hoping. 


Naomi Meredith  13:29

No, they will. Well, if I like try like this, this, what you're saying is very, very, very common in a good way. Like, you're teaching those foundations. And then this year, you're not going to have to teach as much of the tech skills and you're going to have more kids, oh, I can help you with this, I can help you with this. So you're doing the right thing. You're doing awesome already.


Miranda B.  13:50

It is nice when the other kids go, oh, I figured that out, I can show you how to do that. I'm like great, you go!


Naomi Meredith  13:55

Yup! That is so okay, if you read this month's book for the STEM teacher bookshelf, the book Invent to Learn, you're really gonna like it. You can buy it on Kindle too. And then the reading guide is there. It's a little cheaper on Kindle. But there's a whole chapter about giving kids ownership and letting them be leaders and doing what you're doing is exactly what we want kids to do. Because we're the facilitator of their learning. And so that book talks about that in there. And there's also some really cool ideas. Just different things you can do in your class, but there's a really good chapter about that in that book that I think you'll really like. Okay, um, so making a list of the tech skills you want kids to know. Do you ever use so you use the links your Weebly and Symbaloo Oh, do you use like when they're planning out projects? Do you do digital forms of research or anything like that?


Miranda B.  14:59

Yeah. Like I put it in their Google Classroom, and I usually have an Epic collection I've made for them that they can do some research from or that they can watch. Yeah. 


Naomi Meredith  15:11

Okay. 


Miranda B.  15:12

And what I'd really like, and then I don't know what to do with it, I'd really like to have something that was really quick at the beginning of class that just introduces kind of, you know, a little quick little video or something for them to watch to sit to just introduce them to what we're going to do. Yeah, I mean, yes, instead of me saying, here's what we're gonna do today.


Naomi Meredith  15:32

Yeah, I do that. 


Miranda B.  15:34

It sparks their interest.


Naomi Meredith  15:36

Yes, I do that for most of my lessons. And it's like two full days. So extra interest, but also frees you up for a second to gather your material. So quick video to introduce so yeah, I have some suggestions. Um, so when we're planning out your lessons, so maybe the video is yeah, like building background knowledge, like, SciShow kids? Have you used that? Use that a lot? 


Miranda B.  16:05

Yeah. Yeah, I've used that quite a bit. 


Naomi Meredith  16:07

Mm hmm. But purposely planning that. So having that all ready. 


Miranda B.  16:11

Yes. Right. 


Naomi Meredith  16:12

That's we're gonna do.


Miranda B.  16:13

Because when I do my lesson plans, I do you know, and Google Docs, I have all my links right there for every day and pull that up, and it goes up onto the TV.


Naomi Meredith  16:23

Perfect. Yeah. So you already have great structure in place. So I'm excited to fill in the holes with you. And we don't have to get rid of everything you've done. Like even your storybook STEM, based on the lessons that you're doing, that still could be a really good unit to do with the kids. If you enjoy, you don't have to get rid of everything. 


Miranda B.  16:45

We don't have a librarian. So um, that's kind of my passion because I did that for 11 years. Yeah. So I like to do a lot of books introduced. And sometimes it's a book that we introduce, you know, it doesn't have to always be a video or it could be a book that I read or watch because there's no library. So if I don't have the book, yeah, I just find the YouTube link.


Naomi Meredith  17:08

Oh, yeah. I there's nothing wrong with that. I do that.


Miranda B.  17:11

I have bought a ton of books, but that gets expensive. 


Naomi Meredith  17:14

Yep. 


Miranda B.  17:15

So we watch the YouTube videos quite a bit, but I like to use that too. And I like to do storybooks more like with my little Kindergarteners, more so than with the because just STEM is hard for them. I guess it's hard for me. It's hard for them.


Naomi Meredith  17:31

Yes. Yeah. 


Miranda B.  17:32

I can make it meaningful, I guess. 


Naomi Meredith  17:33

Yes. And making those connections. Do you when you're thinking about your little kids, what is the structure? Because you do have a little less time, which isn't bad. How does the day go? Do you do whole group stations? What do you normally do with?


Miranda B.  17:51

I have only done whole group. I have STEM stations. I've watched you know several of your things. And I would like to do more stations. Yeah. My problem is I share my STEM room. We have a huge STEM room, but I share it with our high school STEM teacher. I have kind of the front of the room is my area. The back end is his area. And so but when on days, I'm not there, his kids sit at my tables too. Oh, yeah. So I can't leave things out. Now, I can from Tuesday to Wednesday. Yes, but I can't leave them on Wednesday for the next week. Yes. So I kind of struggle with that a little bit. He tries to if I come in, he's like, “Guys, remember Mrs. B. is here today? You can't be at her table. She's got to get stuff.” And I do have 30 minutes before I have kids. I have to be there at 1130. I don't have kids until 12. Okay, so I do have time to set up. Yeah, leave it set up. 


Naomi Meredith  18:45

I have the same issue in my K through five STEM class because I had fifth, fourth, and third in the morning, then lunch and then first, Kinder, and second. And I actually didn't leave up my STEM station. So the way that I planned it was like super minimal materials. And then you know, those fabric cubes from like IKEA. I actually put all the materials in those and there was a clip with the instructions on the box. And then the box would go on the table. So like during that quick video, I could go around in like five minutes and go put the box where I want their station in the classroom. And then all the materials were in there. 


Miranda B.  19:23

Oh, that's a good idea. 


Naomi Meredith  19:24

Yeah. 


Miranda B.  19:25

I thought about buying those trays. You know, they're like, have a lid on them to keep everything in like for each table. I have five tables because we don't have any more than 18 kids. So I have 20. I just have five tables. So I thought if I could get those for each table and all their stuff is at that in that table even if we're not doing a station, whatever supplies it is they need and that way I have it ready and I don't have to have that left out. I can just put it on my cart.


Naomi Meredith  19:54

Yes.


Miranda B.  19:54

I have, you know and then put it out. 


Naomi Meredith  19:56

Yeah, that'll help prepare. Yeah. So thinking it through our lessons, it sounds like to like systems like that will help because of your I mean, everyone has limited time, but systems to help with, like cleanup and just like more efficiency. And that's you probably saw that too with your units. Like when you're doing a whole unit, if you're doing robotics, all your robots are out, and then you're ready to go. And you're not switching from Makerspace, to robotics, and to computers. And so that will help. But even just thinking through like the process of like the supplies, we can work on that too. And I think STEM stations with your little kids, since you, you can do up to station you kind of plan out for and then the kids have time to go to two for the week. And then they can go to two more than next week. So you're not double planning, you already have the force setup. And I was telling the other the other teacher in our group that you can do the station's again, like you can, they might I've done that before in a week. So you haven't once a week. So you could do four stations to the first week to the next week, and then do them again. Or maybe you switch out something but it's like the same materials. But okay, we were doing the sun, moon and stars, and now we're going to really focus on the moon or on or something with that one. So that way, you're not like scrambling every single time. You know what you're counting on. And the kids do really Well with stations, especially when you have 18 kids.


Miranda B.  21:32

Yeah, so you don't think like nine kids at a station? That's not too many.


Naomi Meredith  21:39

I think that's a little bit too many. I would do 4 or 5.


Miranda B.  21:44

So you're saying have four stations set up and they only go to two? 


Naomi Meredith  21:48

Yeah.


Miranda B.  21:48

I gotcha. So yeah, they would have like, you know, four, five at each.


Naomi Meredith  21:52

Yeah. Yeah. 


Naomi Meredith  21:53

So then, I can put on the TV who's at what? 


Naomi Meredith  21:57

Yep. 


Miranda B.  21:57

And then I could just rotate them. Okay.


Naomi Meredith  21:59

Yeah. And then one of your stations could be a teacher led station. So even with a younger kid, I do that a lot, too. I still do that. With the little kids. Like one of this. I plan the stations with STEM. So science, technology, engineering and math station. And a lot of times with the technology station, I'll be there. So maybe I'm showing them something and see saw, like how to use certain tools or even using epic books like how to get to the collection? Or will do their 3d print? I am. Do you have iPads access with them or anything?


Miranda B.  22:38

I just have some iPads they have, but they don't bring them to STEM because they're only four in their classroom. Yeah, but just okay. Yeah. So they don't bring him to STEM.


Naomi Meredith  22:50

But just having a few would work out for a station. Yeah, if you only have a few and then they're used to that in their classroom. So then even talking with that might be something to I don't know, if you have access, but even asking, thinking back to those text skills, you can already see what the older kids what you want them to know and what you've seen, especially with your teaching experience, but maybe to even seeing what the Kindergarten teachers are hoping for when it comes to technology since I know they don't use as much. And that's pretty common. But doesn't mean you don't have to. Do they use seesaw? Do you now? 


Miranda B.  23:34

I don't think they do. Okay. I don't think so. I think everything they have. Yeah, we have a blog every week that we post to on what? in their classroom. I just have to post once a week. Like, one week I do Kindergarten the next week. The next week? I do. That's why I just have to post once a week. Now for every class. Yeah. So but yeah, we put pictures or videos in there. That way, are overloaded. Yeah, they get one special update a week like, Okay, we haven't organized like music is this week or first grade STEM is next week for first grade. You don't I mean?


Naomi Meredith  24:13

That's good. I like that. That's a really good system your school has. That way parents aren't getting five specials emails, every Yes, yeah. Yeah. Um, Well, even if Yeah, so I would ask the pre K Kinder teachers, what types of technology they use with their students. And if they don't, I mean, that's a great opportunity for them to use it in STEM. It just, I've had that happen with my younger classes, especially since COVID. They've been using less technology. But it's still important for them, because if we're exposing them, they're not on their iPad the whole time, but we're exposing them so then when they are in those older grades, they're not scared of using things and they can problem solve. So that would be helpful to know or even if you just want to check out got their newsletters? And then if they don't, there's still a lot of things that we can do. Yeah. And that would be a great opportunity in STEM for them. Yes, yeah. That'd be really good. Is there anything else like so you really want those units? So thinking about Makerspace? Just refining those units? I'm even thinking about the structure of your younger students. Is there anything else you really want to work on when we work together this summer?


Miranda B.  25:30

I don't think I mean, that's it just having some some units on, you know, so I know where I'm going from the beginning of the month to the end of the month. And I'm getting all those skills that they need. We kind of just used I mean, I don't have a curriculum. So I've been just using like the NGSS standard. Because I asked her upper school STEM teacher, he goes, Oh, that's just what I use. So, and she did tell me to go ahead, and I can start putting my plans into like their Google Drive. So she goes if you leave, the next person isn't starting from scratch, like you've had to.


Naomi Meredith  26:01

Okay, yeah, really put those standards anywhere else. Yeah. I know they're in there. Yes. So that'll be good. You'll like in this. So this template, when you're auditing, you can actually list those out. And then when we create the year long plan, you'll have them there. So even though you know them in your head, then you can see if you're even overlapping things. The I use the NGSS as Well, because usually, I mean, I heard Texas is getting STEM standards. But other than that, we're Yeah, no one else. No one else. Yeah. But at least you're using standards, because yeah, sadly, not all STEM teachers do. But um, I think that will help you just visualize, Are there standards that I'm missing. And if you are missing some, then that can help us plan units, then give you some inspiration, oh, here's how we could teach this type of standard anyway. So I'm just even just visually seeing it out there. So you're not like recreating, again, what you're doing, but just seeing what you have already can help us fill in those holes of what we can do for the kids. But yeah, awesome. Well, it sounds like okay, aside from what we're going to talk about tonight, so the biggest thing is to think about those tech skills that you really want kids to know, or even less out what you've seen with the kids. And then same with kinder and pre K, asking or saying what types of technology they use, or don't use or are hoping to use. Okay, that could be a chance that you're not necessarily co teaching, but it could be a good way to expose them to stuff that classroom teachers might end up using anyway. Okay, which really helps. I know, classroom teachers, like thank you so much for showing them epic!


Miranda B.  27:50

Digital citizenship too. I'm going to incorporate that this year, just because they have it in the classroom, but they don't get to it very often. Yes. So I do want to do digital citizenship unit at the beginning of the year, and I thought that might be a good one to kind of put those tech skills into your one. Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  28:08

Okay. Well, we can make that first unit digital citizenship anyway. Um, there's a lot of great stuff out there. Do you use common sense media at all? 


Miranda B.  28:18

Yeah, okay. That's what I've used. That's what I've used before when I was in the library. 


Naomi Meredith  28:22

Yeah. So that can be your first unit. I do digital citizenship, my second unit. And this is just based on preference. I used to do it first. But then I realized I needed to do more team building and getting accustomed to my space. So I did it as my second unit.


Miranda B.  28:41

And that's okay with me, because I do like those getting to know you, even though I know most of the kids because there's not that many. We did have several new kids starting next year, but just getting them, you know, used to bring in a new grade level. And so I do like that those community building kind of things at the beginning of the year.


Naomi Meredith  29:01

Yes. Okay. So we have community building first, and then we'll do digital citizenship computer literacy next and then we can go from there, maybe Makerspace you put that in and that's that's actually the layout I do. Or you could do this storybook STEM slash Makerspace it could be a combo but yeah, I'm excited yeah, you already have great stuff already do unit so awesome. Like your first year but you were doing STEM already in the library. 


Miranda B.  29:31

And I was doing a lot just with books like we have the Show Me nominees like the picture books, you know, 12 picture books, they could add picture books for the and so we always had a STEM activity to go with every one of those. Oh, wow. And then whatever else I was doing, I would come up with a STEM lesson. 


Naomi Meredith  29:49

Yeah, that book. Perfect. Yeah, so don't get rid of any of this stuff. We're just gonna organize it and fill in some holes and even thinking about Now that you've had the kids is going into your second year, what are things that you can do that are even a little bit more challenging now that they have that exposure with you then are like okay, now we can get into this next thing. Oh, now you're ready for this. What are some things we could write a grant for? and enhance this space to?


Miranda B.  30:18

Yeah. Oh, I did get I had a parent give me $1,000 to lego.com got $1,000 worth of new Legos. Oh, Well, all the Legos are in your room and the cart you ordered to put a ball in his in your room next week and kind of sort it all and


Naomi Meredith  30:35

yeah, let me know what LEGO is. Good. That's so good. You're gonna have to show me what you have. Okay. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for you that I was gonna ask you if you had Legos. 


Miranda B.  30:48

So I didn't. See I do a LEGO club after school. Yeah. And so we just didn't have a ton and bought some but oh, we have a ton. Now. She said this mom said you were always telling the kids Oh, I don't have any more of those bullet kind of blocks, you know, oh, we don't have enough. And so she gave us two $500 gift cards to lego.com


Naomi Meredith  31:07

Oh my gosh, that is so awesome.


Miranda B.  31:10

Yeah, I was so excited. Yeah, LEGO club over the summer. Good summer school. And we're doing a storybook STEM. Yeah. And then we're doing a LEGO. It's Imagine your story. Why would we take a fairy tale? And then they have to kind of build something about the fairy tale, solve a problem with Legos.


Naomi Meredith  31:31

Yeah. Oh, that's so good. Yay. And that'll be fun, too. Because then you can play with all the like, see what you have and be like us?


Miranda B.  31:40

Yeah, yeah, email me she because our limit was 18 kids. She goes, you know, your your LEGO classes filled up really fast. I had two parents asked if they could please come. Would you want to increase it to 20? Kids? Oh, no. Like she goes, I'll see if I can get you to help her because usually over 15 kids, they get us a helper 


Naomi Meredith  31:57

Cool. I love your school's philosophy. Like everything that we're talking about for everything that you hope for teaching is like what you have in your position.


Miranda B.  32:09

Oh, I know. It's It's so different from when I was in public school. Yeah. That's to be the professionals. They don't tell us what we were supposed to do. They trust to know, she's like, you're the expert in this. You do what you think is best?


Naomi Meredith  32:22

Ah, that's that's how it should be. Or should be? Yes. Ah, I'm so glad you found this school. And you just still seem very excited about it and passionate, which I love


Miranda B.  32:33

  1. My husband loves this. He's like, You are so happy when you're talking about what you're doing with those kids. Oh, my God, they make you happy.


Naomi Meredith  32:39

Ah, that's so good. Well, any questions for me? I'll see you tonight as well in our live call and show you all the templates and everything that'll help you get organized. But anything else from me right now that you're wondering? 


Miranda B.  32:56

I don't think so. 


Naomi Meredith  32:57

Awesome. Okay. Well, let me know. And I'll see you tonight. And you'll have access to talk with me. And yeah, I think you have a really great base. And I'm excited to like fill in everything. It's kind of like a big puzzle. Just like filling in what do we have. 


Miranda B.  33:12

Yeah, it'll be awesome. 


Naomi Meredith  33:14

And then thinking about all the cool lessons that you'll start doing. Yay. Well, thank you so much, Miranda for your time and enjoy your afternoon. 


Miranda B.  33:26

All right, you too. 


Naomi Meredith  33:28

I'll see you later. Bye. 


Naomi Meredith  33:31

I am so excited to work with Miranda this summer. She already has a great start for her program. And there's so much room for streamlining lessons in her space so that the days she has with students are an absolute success. If you're interested in having a one-to-one coaching call like this one and support throughout the summer to build up your program. Join us. There are only a few spots left at Naomimeredith.com/stemintosummer.

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

married to a STEM teacher

What It’s Like to be Married to a STEM Teacher [ep.94]

What It's Like to be Married to a STEM Teacher [ep.94]

married to a STEM teacher

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Episode Summary

You’ve heard me talk about my Teacher Honey on this podcast many times. Well, today, he is a guest on the podcast. Today’s episode is even more special because it is airing on the day of our wedding. In this episode, my Teacher Honey shares what it’s like to be married to a STEM teacher. We also discuss how we met, our engagement, the differences in our teaching jobs, and so much more. This was such a fun episode to commemorate this special occasion.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • What it’s like for my Teacher Honey to be married to a STEM teacher
  • Our dating and engagement stories
  • The differences between our teaching jobs

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

You've heard me mention him here on this podcast before but my Teacher Honey, aka my fiance, is my special guest on today's episode. Well, what is extra special about today's episode is that this is being released the day that we are getting married, June 8, 2023. So if you're listening to this after that date, we are officially married and he's officially my husband. Unlike me, he's not into the podcasting and social media thing. So be sweet on him. I thought that this would be a fun episode behind the scenes of what it's like being with me, and what he's very into. This is a fun mix it up episode that I think you'll enjoy and more so for me to document a fun memory for us. 


Naomi Meredith  01:18

We'll welcome Eric, my teacher, honey to the podcast. I hardly ever use your first name. So they know you're like this secret mystery person. 


Eric  01:32

Perfect. 


Naomi Meredith  01:34

And this is your first and probably your last podcast interview. 


Eric  01:39

Absolutely. 


Eric  01:42

Well, thanks for doing this. And we have a little Frederick, we don't have video of this. But Frederick is actually sitting in the middle of us. Whenever we're together, Frederick insists he has to be in the middle. So he's not in one lap or the other. He's sitting here with a blanket, cuddling up. Poor little guy. So for those of you who don't know, my teacher, honey is actually a teacher. I'm not just saying that he's a teacher honey, because I'm a teacher. Now he really is a teacher. And he teaches high school Spanish, which is entirely different than elementary STEM. And when we first met, which we'll get into in a second, I was a third grade teacher at the time. So he's seen my whole transition from me being a classroom teacher to a STEM teacher, business owner the whole time, but that's really grown as well. And so that's so much fun for you. You get you see all the behind the scenes every day. My office when I'm when I first claimed this room as my office, I was like hey, can you can you hang up a shelf for me? And you're like, sure and then what is my office now. 


Eric  02:51

Then she took the doors out to the closet and removed the bed and yeah, now it's it's a whole it's a whole something.


Naomi Meredith  02:59

And it's like not girly at all right? Oh my god. Yeah. Oh, you like my pillow? What does my pillow say? Oh, babe cave. 


Eric  03:06

Yeah, it's definitely a babe cave. 


Naomi Meredith  03:12

Okay, so people are probably want to know. So this is behind the scenes. There's a little bit of STEM but not really. So Eric, how did we meet?


Eric  03:20

We met at Top Golf with a mutual teacher friend's birthday party, actually. And so yeah, we were we were playing golf and…


Naomi Meredith  03:30

But you were playing golf?


Eric  03:31

Yeah. You tried to play golf. Yeah. And we just it was just a natural, like, birthday party. Kinda. No, no, no app, no. Weird first aid. It was just kind of natural.


Naomi Meredith  03:44

Well, and he was so funny, because like we didn't we were not actually set up. It wasn't a setup that I know of. 


Eric  03:51

No, no, it wasn't a setup. 


Naomi Meredith  03:53

And so when it was my turn to hit the golf ball, now, I was a car girl in college. I never played golf, and never had any desire to so it was my turn to hit. Eric would just sit in this chair. Every time it was my turn. He would sit there and just start giggling at me.


Eric  04:10

You're not very good. 


Naomi Meredith  04:11

I know. And then find out later that you're a golf coach. And you gave me a zero pointers? Yeah, I'm sorry. You're not that sorry. So we've been together ever since which the whole teaching world I know was mostly Behera teachers. We've just known each other and so it was a good, good little connection and our wedding will be mostly teachers. What did our DJ say about with teachers?


Eric  04:40

They like to have the most fun as soon as summer comes? Yeah, so.


Naomi Meredith  04:44

Our DJ is super excited to to have our wedding. He's so cute. He's such a he's gonna be a good DJ, which we're recording this like three days before our wedding. So this was pretty fun. That's how much time we have on our hands for recording In your podcasts were not stressed at all. Okay, so then how how did you propose or should I say how I thought you're gonna propose?


Eric  05:12

Well, the fake one. Yeah. Oh, the first time I guess we were in Costa Rica, just on vacation. I think it was just summertime. So there was no expiration date. And we just were enjoying enjoying the beach and in Costa Rica. And so we had a lot of rain a couple days before, and it was our last night. And if you don't all Costa Rica around that time, it's like exactly like six o'clock or 610. The sun goes down. It's on the ocean. And it's like unbelievable sunsets every single night, as long as it's not raining. So we got some wine walked down there. was going to get dinner. Yeah. And for some reason, she thought because we had wine and there was a sunset, just stop. We were dressed up for dinner. So she thought I was going to propose. I don't know why she thought that photographer. Yeah. And so then a photographer, you know, just a random person on the beach, want to take our pictures, like, oh, sunsets calm, and let's get pictures of you. And I, of course, said no, we're good.


Naomi Meredith  06:18

Oh my gosh, in my head. I didn't say this out loud. In my head. I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is all part of the plan. He knows I want pictures, especially for Instagram. He knows I want pictures. I have to say yes. Like he set this up.


Eric  06:32

I said no. And that she went and found her and said, yes, we'll do it. And as I like taking pictures as much as I do in podcast. It's not the most fun. So. So we go through his photo shoot. It's super awkward for him. Yeah, it's so and then she's like, upset with me because I didn't propose.


Naomi Meredith  06:54

Well, I didn't I wasn't upset that night with I've said that night. No, but afterwards. Yes. Yeah. When we got back, were talking to friends about it. And then I just like tell you, I thought you're gonna propose me like, I don't even have the rain or anything. Like I wasn't even planning on it was all made up in her head. It was all made up. So I will post one of one or two those pictures and the links to the show notes for this because it's they're cute pictures are kind of awkward. There's one that's really cute. Okay, so that's the fake proposal. So that was like six months before you actually proposed. Yes. And so how did you actually prep? 


Eric  07:33

So then we went on a cruise, and we traveled quite a bit. So we went on a cruise for Christmas. We did it the year before and we loved it. That's only two cruises we've ever been on. No, that was our first cruise nose or silicone. Now, it was our first.


Eric  07:48

Yeah, it was our first cruise.


Eric  07:50

Yeah. And so we were two friends. And so I thought this would be perfect. I could do it i Christmas. You know, we're in the Bahamas, that sort of thing. Her two friends are there so they can like pictures of it all. And so yeah, we were just at our fancy dinner and had asked Astra friends to take a picture of us. And they they got their phones out. And then while they're getting their phones out, I just just popped the question. And he like freaked out. I had no idea what was going on. And then we find out that night that her friend Dot COVID. And this was in the middle of Congo. This is like, what was it? 2020?


Naomi Meredith  08:30

No, 2021


Eric  08:34

The boats just opened back up. You couldn't go on a cruise forever. And so then we got quarantined for 36 hours or something in our room until our COVID tests came back, which was a nightmare. And so yeah, we spent a whole entire day


Naomi Meredith  08:50

And we snuck out of our rooms too.


Eric  08:53

Well, yeah. Because we celebrated that night. It was Christmas dinner was probably I don't know, like, five, six o'clock at night when it happened. And we were out till I don't know one or two in the morning, maybe. And then we got a phone call saying we have to quarantine but we weren't exactly in the right state of mind to focus on that. And so yeah, we woke up and like we were hungry, like what did they say last night but to stay in our rooms when how do we get breakfast so we just got breakfast, and then they call us over the loudspeaker on the entire boat. I mean, a cruise has 6000 people. And they're they by name. They told us to get back to our room. And we had to sit there for a full nother day in that small little room. They do break room service all time but there was a long day.


Naomi Meredith  09:38

Yeah, I learned how to make towel animals. And we got free Wi Fi that day with her which was horrible. We actually were able to tell her family and so we got engaged. Yeah, that's good. But they found out and then like the whole rest of the trip was fine. Like we got to celebrate and to always go.


Eric  09:56

It's still good trip even though we're quarantine for that day and a half.


Naomi Meredith  09:59

Yeah like, are you sure you want to still marry me? Are you sure you'll like this? Like the true test get engaged and then get locked up for 36 hours?


Eric  10:10

In a very small room. No windows. No windows? Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  10:13

And bad Wi Fi. Yeah. It's good. And now here we are, here's our wedding day that you're listening to this in Colorado. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. Okay, so switching gears. So you're a high school teacher, and for a long time have been an elementary teacher. So based on your whole high school experience, like I know, meeting me was a big shock when it came to the elementary world. Like I would tell you things coming home, especially I had a really, really, really hard class when I taught third grade. But I Kate would come home and you would be so shocked. Like, that's what it's like in elementary. And I know, during COVID When we had to teach online, you actually got to see firsthand what it's like teaching elementary in high school, you would walk by my door, and I was teaching Kindergarten, you're like, What is going on in there? Like, my voice is all high. And I'm like reading a book or something like why in the world, but what would you think is the biggest difference between our teaching jobs so high school Spanish, verse K through five STEM?


Eric  11:29

I mean, it's not it's not even the same job. It's night and day. Like, they're so different. And to be honest, I don't know how elementary school teachers do it. i There's no way. I mean, I guess there are pluses and minuses like, they don't have to grade hundreds and hundreds of essays and tests. But to be with like, 25 little guys like that. All day, every day. I don't see how they do it is there's no there's no way I could you know, clean up bloody noses. 


Naomi Meredith  11:59

Or like tell them who was responsible the bathroom? You know, like, say, Go get your extra change of clothes. Let me wipe your face with a baby wipe. Oh,


Eric  12:09

No, you said kids trying to get high in the bathroom. Oh, that's good. Our bathroom issues are different. That's good. We do different stuff.


Naomi Meredith  12:18

Yeah, Well, elementary. Yeah, it is different. And you see a little bit too like with a neighbor, our neighbor, kids, I like to make them little STEM activities. And it's a lot more like even when I show you some of the STEM stuff. You're like that is way more than what I do for Spanish. Oh, yeah.


Eric  12:38

Yeah. So lessons you come up with are like way, way more creative. And like, they look way nicer than what I make.


Naomi Meredith  12:45

You've been stories like you write good stories. Yeah, I'm like, wow, you wrote,


Eric  12:49

But you make them all like, pretty? 


Naomi Meredith  12:52

Yes. Well, that's just how I am. We're sitting here at my table right now. And there's wedding stuff all over the table. And I've been making stuff on the computer for it. So Eric's a good fit for me because he if there's two of us in this relationship, like me, where I have, like all this creativity and all these ideas, Eric's very grounding for me, but you're very, very supportive. Thank you. Well, thank you. And here we are getting married. Okay. Okay, with that what has been the most surprising thing you've seen me do my business or something you're most proud of?


Eric  13:30

I just say like you built building, building like your little whatever we're gonna call this like, with your with Instagram and podcasts and your Teachers Pay Teachers and all they're like your business. It's not like one business. So it's like, so many different things that you do on like, from the ground up, like because you imagine you you know, money and you're ready to live the rest of your life buy or sell. Yeah, and you're you weren't gonna go to top golf because you didn't have any money. So like, you're Yeah, like, I can't even buy beer like it is. And so now you know, selling your townhome and making your business and then just not good enough where you you know, you're gonna retire from your teaching career and follow your business like to do that from like zero to nothing to where you're at now, which is like probably not even close to where you'll end up being you know, so I'm hoping so. So um, can we tie a very rich person, your business?


Naomi Meredith  14:34

Well, you're so supportive I made sale even when I first met you my business at the time. I don't know if you remember, but it was marvelous. Miss Meredith. And I gave you my business card is a really pretty picture of me and you would actually carry my business card with you do and then you had in your classroom still have in your closet? Somewhere? Yeah. And then I changed it because everyone kept calling me Veritas, which is confusing. Yeah, so that makes sense. So I just changed it to my name. But it was so sweet. Because ever since the beginning, you've actually I have always told your friends about me. And my business and your friends actually asked me about stuff too. And most of them are teachers. And I know that you're remember saying you're surprised like you had no idea. This was a whole thing like that, that you could actually do this. I had no idea about any of this. Yeah, like because high school teachers pay teacher's does it really?


Eric  15:30

Yeah. I've never heard of any of it before. So like a lot of it, too.


Naomi Meredith  15:34

I mean, I never knew I'd have a podcast either. Yeah. But all of this. Yeah, I had like inklings of it. But I like Thanks for noticing. Oh, that and even like, yeah, it's just really fun. And you know that I love doing it too. Like, I'm just very passionate about. Like, if I like if I really, really like something I really dive in if I really don't like doing something like cleaning the house. He never do. I know. He knows. So that's yes. That's really sad. Okay, so you've already mentioned we travel a lot, but and we have a very fun honeymoon planned. And we're going to Europe for a long time. And you're going through all that stuff before we started recording. So a lot of the time we like to go to zoos, aquariums and museums. And we both like to learn about the world and just learn about our surroundings. Learn just we are teachers at heart, we love to learn. We've done some really cool things that have influenced both our jobs and just help us be better people. So out of this list. So I've picked three places we've been to which one which STEM experience. Did you like them? No. So we have San Diego Zoo, we went there on Christmas Day, which is so funny, because we got engaged on a Christmas. So we have that one. So big, beautiful museum, it was raining. That one, we have the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and we've been twice. So we went one time when it was really, really cold. And we spent the whole day there. And we did. We each took a class at the same time. So I took a 3D printing class with all these little kids. And I was the only adult in there. And I told the instructors like I just want to learn how adults teach children 3D printing, and then you were doing like a video or something.


Eric  17:30

Yeah, you did something. Oh, it was on?


Naomi Meredith  17:34

Yeah. But it's not. I think it's not like about Colombia.


Eric  17:36

More was Yeah. Yeah. Cuba, Cuba, Cuba.


Naomi Meredith  17:41

Yeah. So you did that. And then we spend the whole day there. And then we went back again, because they had the art of the brick LEGO experience. And I really, really wanted to see that. I'm going to post some pictures of this, you guys. And then Okay, those are your two options. And then one more the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC. And there's so many of them. I just said General. So out of that list, which one of those three is your favorite STEM experience?


Eric  18:11

They're all good. I mean, the zoo zoo is unreal. You know, most people know of it. I've got one to a zoo my entire life as a kid like me. That's how my mom like, babysat. So one of the zoo every week. Again, I'm from Chicago. So the Museum of Science and Industry, I think is one of the best museums around. She couldn't believe it. Like, we literally spent like eight hours there. I mean, it's a whole day experience with a submarine exhibit. I mean, spend two hours does that they want to exhibit we probably did and we didn't go into it. But the Smithsonian museums, I mean, we it was three or four days just checking out museums. And we can we can go on to see for another week and see toy different stuff in Washington. Yeah. I mean, this is kinda like a loaded question while the Smithsonian so I mean, there's like 20 Some museums or whatever. So that's kind of beat out. Just you know, smaller. Yeah, museum or one zoo, you know, so I'd go Yeah, and Washington DC was the best.


Naomi Meredith  19:12

I know. He really really likes that trip. Oh, that was a Christmas trip to


Eric  19:16

Think so. Just because I have a small family center Zona near family is in Utah. We don't have any family out here. So we're just gonna travel.


Naomi Meredith  19:24

Yeah. And it's like, are we like quality time? We don't really buy gifts. Well, I buy you a little things here. But we don't like Nitro. Yeah, we try to gift. Yeah, we travel. So yeah, I liked that one. Yeah. Well, all those there.


Eric  19:40

They're all good. Yeah. But I mean, like, we can obviously go back to Washington and see a totally different experience. And that's the one one of the same things.


Naomi Meredith  19:49

It's been a whole week there. Yeah. I mean, it's good. And it's funny because he'll take a lot of pictures of things for your class or like, Oh, I could talk to my students about this. Or I even take care pictures like I go through my phone and you're like, don't upload these in our shared folder. But I like taking pictures of different exhibits or things that can inspire STEM projects or even when we went to meow wolf, the first that there was actually something a STEM thing in there. I don't know if you remember, but there was like this dinosaur thing and it had these ribs. And then you played the ribs like with a mallet and it made noise. Do you remember that? Yeah. And it was above your head. And that reminded me of this STEM thing called a Makey Makey. And you actually can connect it to things that are conducted and when you press it, it makes it sound. So reminded me of a STEM. So it's I'm always thinking about this stuff. Like Trust me, I relaxed, but it's always in the back of my mind when we're traveling. Especially zoos, aquariums, and what? Museums. So if you're ever stuck on ideas, head up to your local zoo. Okay, pop quiz. I hope you've had you too. What does STEM stand for?


Eric  21:06

That was easy. Science, technology, engineering and math


Naomi Meredith  21:10

Wrong. 


Eric  21:12

What? 


Naomi Meredith  21:12

It's right.


Eric  21:16

STEAM has art.


Naomi Meredith  21:22

Extra credit. Good job. Very good. He's smiling on that one. He's there fanning the whole time. And now he's smiling. Okay. Okay. Two more questions. Why do you think STEM is important for kids?


Eric  21:40

I mean, those are all areas that the world works on. But I think I think there's other stuff that's super important too. That's why, you know, I think STEM is awesome as like maybe a class but not just a school only focus on that I think the arts are important, or the performing arts, right? Fine Arts, I think PE is super important how to, like we are kids, in order to graduate have to learn how to swim, I'm going to talk about a life skill. So we I mean, there's so much more than just those four. But those four are obviously huge areas that you need to know, in most jobs, or just how how the world really functions with science and engineering and, and everything. You know, technology's obviously huge, and you need math to do most of those things. And even


Naomi Meredith  22:23

like those, like little skills that they work on, and you probably see this in your students they need to work on is being able to collaborate with each other. Critically, think through a problem not giving up the first time when it's hard, being able to persevere even thinking creatively through problems. Like even in your with your students, like Spanish assignments, even when they're creative with their writing assignments. It just like adds like another level of fun things.


Eric  22:51

The reason a lot of colleges want you to have high level math and high level world language is because it's that processing skill that you know, a lot of people have trouble with getting to the upper level math, and we're language because it's easy to pass, you know, algebra one, maybe geometry, Spanish one in Spanish, you are pretty easy to get through that to get through like Spanish four, and pre Calc and those upper level things. You have to be able to do a lot of problem solving and a lot of figuring out things even on a foreign language because there's so many things they don't know, but you can figure it out by the context and everything.


Naomi Meredith  23:27

I try to when we go get Mexican food, figure out the context. When we travel I do okay, do okay. I do okay. But by the end of the trip, I do better like you kind of pick up on a loss of just a week you can pick up a lot. Yeah. Which I mean, hence you studied abroad and learned a lot.. 


Eric  23:45

We try to go to places where they speak more Spanish and English. We try not to do the just to Cancun resort. We try to Costa Rica trips. A Spanish you know, Costa Rican resort? Yeah. Are they speak Spanish first English second.


Naomi Meredith  24:00

Let's go practice. test my skills can yours. Okay, so this is airing on our wedding day. So if people are listening to this, I'm putting out a pretty jazz so much fun. What is something you're most excited about?


Eric  24:20

Besides the actual marrying of you?


Naomi Meredith  24:24

Yes, you should be excited to marry me.


Eric  24:26

Oh, no, I think I think the food and wine is going to be unbelievable. We're at the winery. And so it's gonna get the food is so good there. And the wine is really good. I think that's gonna be great. You know? Having you know what not it's not a big one but having a lot of our friends there and family. It'll be it's gonna be a good day.


Naomi Meredith  24:46

Okay, you took mine so I'm so yeah, if you took mine away. We love this place because we've been going there every once a month every month since our wedding. Since a year ago yeah. Uh, what I'm also excited about is our video guestbook, and our DJ, our DJ, it's just so much fun and he has some fun games plans and different things for us to do. And we were talking with him and we have a video guestbook. And so instead of signing the globe that I originally had planned that will probably look horrible with people's signatures. I'm not doing that. Um, he his wife does a photo booth, and then we have a video guestbook, so people can leave messages throughout the night. So that we find the same people after Yeah, and to see their outfits and what they have to say, I'll probably be really cute at the beginning and then crazy towards the end. But I'll be really good. Yay. So finally, we're recording this we're fiance's. But then when this airs will be husband and wife. Excited exciting.


Eric  25:56

Kinda cheesy, but yeah,


Naomi Meredith  25:58

it's true, though. You've been engaged for a while? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. That's good. Yeah. Glad. Well, anything else you would like to share? I'm good. You did a good job. I got you to talk for about 30 minutes. So good job, Eric. Well, we probably won't ever hear from Eric again on this podcast to you guys. But he's always he's actually a big part of why this can happen. He was just very supportive and fast to record something after school or meet with the guest where it's later at night because the time zones and everything. He's a big supporter of why I can do all the things that I can do for you guys. He's just definitely, definitely believe in me and you. I appreciate everything that you do. Well, thank you so much. And yeah, you're good. You're good. You did a good job. Thank you. I will thank you so much, and I'll see you in the next episode as an official wife.

married to a STEM teacher

married to a STEM teacher

married to a STEM teacher

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

stem teacher struggle

3 Things I Struggled with Most as a STEM Teacher [ep.87]

3 Things I Struggled with Most as a STEM Teacher [ep.87]

stem teacher struggle

Check out the full episode on 3 Things I Struggled with Most as a STEM Teacher:  

 

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Episode Summary

I share a lot about the highs and some of the lows of being an elementary STEM teacher on my Instagram and here on the podcast.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing the three things I struggled with the most as a new STEM teacher. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The three things I struggled with the most as a new STEM teacher
  • How I navigated those struggles
  • Ways I can support you with navigating similar struggles

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

I know on my Instagram, you often see the highlight reel of all the good things that happen in my STEM space. I love to share these things with you to help you be encouraged as to what STEM can look like at the elementary level. Likewise, I definitely still share the not so pretty things, too, especially on my Instagram Stories, you can definitely see what I look like without makeup, all the messy things in my classroom. And with that being said, I am here to share the not so pretty things and three things that I struggled with the most when I first started as a K through five STEM teacher. 


Naomi Meredith  01:09

After being a classroom teacher for six years and jumping into the K-5 STEM space, where I didn't know any of the students or teachers, it made me feel like a brand new teacher all over again. Now luckily, in this situation, I had some experience under my belt. But there are also those things whenever you go into a brand new building, like what's the Wi-Fi password? Where's the staff bathroom? And how do I connect to the printers in the building? It's all those things you don't know, and it gets a little bit frustrating. And with that being said, I was literally thrown into this role, where not only would I be teaching all the kids in the school as a specialist teacher, but also being the manager of all the school-wide technology and also all the teachers when it came to co-planning and teaching to help them implement STEM technology and innovative practices. So leaving the classroom and into this big role was completely a big feat, not impossible, but definitely a lot of challenges. And so, speaking of the STEM role, specifically, here are the three major things that I struggled with the most. I think that you're actually going to be able to relate to them too. I always tell my students that I wasn't born knowing how to teach STEM, they weren't born knowing all the STEM things. And they always laugh at that. But it's true. Like I'm learning with you, I have to research everything. So it's okay if you're going into this role, or you're in this role. And you still don't know everything, I don't still know everything. But here are those three biggest struggles. 


Naomi Meredith  02:55

The first thing that I struggled with the most was understanding what each grade level knew and needed to learn. So like I said, this was a brand new school to me, I didn't know any of the students or the teachers. And I was really trying to figure out what they knew and didn't know, the students and also the teachers too when it comes down to it. So this is really, I mean, when it comes down to teaching, when you have a brand new class, you don't always know what everybody knows. That's just getting to know your students. This was definitely brought out at a bigger scale, having 500 plus kids, and even the fact to learning their names. I've never learned that many people's names at one time. So that was a huge thing. But even just being new to a building, I didn't even know what curriculum they were using. What practices are done in the classroom? I came from a school that was really big on training us as teachers to be better with our instruction and have high-level learning and teaching with the workshop model. I came into a building, I found out later that wasn't the case. So completely different. So that was a huge thing, just how students were learning in general. And also, my students had never had STEM before. And so, like, pretty much every single thing that I was doing with them was brand new. So I found out pretty quickly that everything was taking 10 times longer. And I couldn't get done with everything that I wanted. I have this big vision in my mind. I'm a big picture thinker. I can definitely work up to the details, but I can envision things very, very well. And then I can get it done to get up there. So I really had to understand the kids' starting point and really had to gradually build up to the program that I had dreamed of and created. I think in the episode, I can't remember when we recorded this, or we talked about it on the side, but when I did the interview with Jennifer Mahin when we were talking about grant writing, she saw the same thing that when she got first started, she had to start everybody kind of at the same spot when it came to materials because they didn't have any background in STEM. And I definitely had to do the same thing. Everyone was pretty much at that same level, I didn't have a need or have the money, necessarily, to buy everything I wanted. But also, the kids weren't ready for all of those things I wanted to buy. And we'll talk about that too because that was also a challenge as well. But I really had to gradually build up to the program that I had dreamed up and created. And this is something that my principal at the time, when I first got started, definitely talked about that. And she was super supportive in my program, at least my first principal was. If you really want to hear about how I built up to this program, just finished a grade level STEM series, and that's episodes 81 through 86, where I give you a snapshot of every grade level K through five and what I teach with them, and then a breakdown of their week and what we do. So definitely, through this time, I was nervous, I didn't know if things would work. I still feel that way when I teach brand new things. But when everything's brand new, I was not sure if it was going to work. How would we do this? How would we do that? I'm okay with failing. But it was just really, really stressful. But I can definitely say now that I am very confident that my lessons will work, even new ones. For the most part, I have that same structure, where I only have to do some adjustments. But the way that I plan and the way that I think things through now through my learning process is that I'm very confident that my lessons are going to work and also be adapted to each grade level. And in turn, has built up a whole year of lessons and curriculum that are planned out. So as students are going through my program, they have that progression of learning. And it's not discussed jointed and random things where oh my gosh, like, okay, we're doing this, we're doing that, everything has a nice flow to it, there's some organization, and they can definitely learn all of those skills. 


Naomi Meredith  07:19

The second thing that I really struggled with the most when stepping into this STEM teacher role was I didn't know what content themes to teach. So this goes along with the first one as well. But it is a little different, too. So I was a classroom teacher before, and I took every free training that I could, I didn't have a master's degree in STEM education I do now instead leadership. But at the time, I was taking as many trainings as I could for your paid, trying to piecemeal everything together, watching videos, when I could didn't have a mentor, just kind of figuring stuff out. Reading books, I had a little bit of background, but not really. I really knew enough, but not really. I don't know how they hired me. Maybe because I was willing to learn, you can listen to that story in episode one. But I really was trying to piece this all together. And luckily, there were other STEM teachers in my district that I could reach out to and connect with and just hear them talk about their experiences. And they had been doing this for a couple of years more than me was really, really helpful to wrap my mind around things. And I know that this is super fortunate for me, not everybody has another STEM teacher, another them that they can connect with. Maybe it's only a middle school teacher, which is similar but different. That could be helpful, too. But what was really, really helpful with my growth was connecting with other teachers who were in a similar role to me because, as I said, I didn't have a mentor. I didn't have anybody I could really ask besides a few teachers, which I was really thankful that I wish that I had somebody who was on the outside and could really guide me. And my district doesn't even have leadership like that they didn't really have that before. So just kind of figuring stuff out. And the leader in me had to figure it out. At the time, my district was providing training, so not necessarily a mentor, but they were getting some trainings and with some of the materials that we had in our classrooms or some things that they would give us and that happened all before COVID. So my first three years had some of that support. It was kind of inconsistent, but it was better than nothing. And then after COVID there was nothing so not really any support or anything like that. So really, I would say felt like an island, even within the five years have felt that still but I know that my lessons work and I'm confident. I've had even a middle school teacher, I chatted with her and after having my kids for five years, she can tell actually, she told me this: they know, the teachers know, especially the science and technology teachers know when there are kids who come from my school compared to the other schools in the theater, because my kids are able to critically think and they're creative. They're excited about doing projects, they have the stamina to do projects. And they try to rope in the other kids because they know what this can be. And she says it's super apparent because not actually all the schools in my district have STEM, it's actually the first thing to be cut in our elementary schools. But knowing that it took a while from going from, I don't know, anything to really researching and reading and finding out those best practices. So through this time, I definitely can say that I have a community of teachers that I can bounce ideas off of, and feel like that I'm a part of a group that understands exactly what I'm going through. And that's definitely huge. Because, think about it, you're the only adult in your room all day, I mean, you might have a pair of TAs here and there to help you with those students. But you're kind of in your own head, like everybody's there, all the kids are there, but you're kind of alone. So definitely through this whole time in this position, I've definitely been documenting everything, really thinking through and evaluating how things are going with students, and my lessons and how they're learning and even making connections with our classroom teachers. Classroom teachers tell me, Oh, they were like, so excited that their kids had some background knowledge about a topic. So when they're going into science, they could further that, which is really exciting. So learning those big content themes throughout the year. So thinking about robotics, Makerspace, coding, and all of that, it really helps having that community. So I could bounce ideas off of them and hearing what they're doing in their classroom or things that I definitely wanted to grow with. 


Naomi Meredith  12:09

The last thing that I really struggled with when I came into this K-5 STEM space, and this is a very common one, is I didn't know what to buy. So this was actually a huge shift in itself that as a classroom teacher, I had a very, very, very limited budget. And I mean, oftentimes you're given those materials, right? So you have those math manipulatives, or you have some books that you can read with the kids, there's not always a whole ton to buy. Of course there is, as a classroom teacher, I bought a whole lot. But it was so different being a K through five STEM teacher where I actually had to buy like really expensive stuff, and things that could be used over and over and over again. And that was like, Whoa, I did have actually a pretty decent budget my first year, and then it really dwindled after that. But I did not know where to start and what to buy and what would work. So when I came into my room, like I said, it wasn't STEM before it was technology, there was a few buckets of LEGO bricks and an old 3D printer. And there were some random materials that were better suited for middle school, which I ended up testing out with elementary, found out was better for the older kids, not impossible, just they weren't there yet, actually gave them to our middle school teachers. And they were really grateful for that. But like I said, I was given a decent budget. And I knew that I had to be strategic in my purchasing. So thinking about, yes, I have all this students in the school, but how can I really be strategic and what I buy? So I actually made a spreadsheet and took inventory of my whole space, and was really thinking about what are the consumable things that I needed in to replace the things that would get used up? What are some of those non-consumables that can be used over and over and over again, also, there's a huge shift with the primary and secondary. I didn't have anything for the little kids. And you've heard me talk about the little kids a lot. I love Kindergarten, they need a lot more when it comes to different types of activities. I didn't have anything for them at all, I didn't have crayons. So definitely thinking about what are those primary things that I needed, and also the secondary things. And from there, I definitely needed a mix of that high tech type of things. And also the low tech both have different importance. So really being strategic, I would spend so many hours researching and figuring this out, and really being thoughtful about how I would spend my money and also what did I really need now and what I need in the future. So I was able to create a budget plan for my current situation and for my future supplies, like my wish list for things in a five year timeframe. Of course, there's always things to buy, there's always that new thing or some updates or pieces that needed to be fixed. But I was able to find those resources. Even though my budget was small, after those five years, I was creative with my money. Often getting donations in various ways or grants were definitely a source of abundance in my classroom, and also connecting with other teachers in my building. So definitely not impossible, but definitely a strategic plan I really had to be thoughtful about and think about what the long-term could be instead of the day to day supplies. 


Naomi Meredith  15:41

As a recap, here are those main things that really were the biggest struggles for me when I came into the K-5 STEM classroom. First was understanding what each grade level knew and needed to learn. Next was also I didn't know what content themes to teach. So connecting that with what they need to know and what they need to learn. But also what are those big things and STEM I should be teaching. And then also, I didn't know what to pie. But like I said, these weren't things that kept me stuck. These are things that I was able to work through, and document and really come to a place where this is something whole thing with this podcast. The reason why this podcast is saved the elephant tree STEM coach is to be your coach and your guide. So you're not feeling alone, you might be listening to me in the car, or walking your dog or on your lunch break, maybe after school when you're cleaning up all of the cardboard scraps. So that is definitely the whole thing with this podcast is just making sense of all of this. So that you're not feeling and stuck in this place. Now, the podcast is definitely a great source. And I am so we are almost to 100 episodes, you guys, which is so insane to me. And we're not even quite a year old yet. But definitely just taking this podcast and bringing it to life where definitely I'm here to actually be your coach. And I am so excited about this new opportunity to really serve you even better. Because I don't want you to feel alone anymore, I definitely want you to feel successful. And in turn, your students can be successful too. So I am so excited to start my STEM into summer group coaching program, where we will have a awesome 16 weeks together where the first month will really be focused on your lesson plan and supply auditing, where I'll give you those templates to do that, and also provide you some feedback. And then from there, those next 12 weeks we'll have some live group coaching calls where you do get to have that community of teachers where we are talking about things to help us be successful, also have those replays in the form of video and a private podcast. So over those times throughout those live calls, you'll also get that audio connection with me one on one, where we get to chit chat through audio, and I get to guide you and really get to be your coach and literally be in your back pocket. So you're hearing this recording, but we actually all get to chat back and forth with each other. And the whole purpose of this time together is to create your customized and scaffolded STEM curriculum that works best for your unique situation, and also provides that engagement that you're looking for adaptable lesson plans for multi grades, some of you teach pre K to eighth grade. That's a huge span. To really think through a different type of unit for every single part of the year by yourself. It's definitely not impossible. But that's a whole lot to do on your own. And I would love to help you through that. And of course, creating those templates and outlines and resources that will support your planning. This is something that when I was co teaching in my building that teachers thoroughly enjoyed is they would have this idea they didn't know how to bring it to life. And I would sketch some some things out and be able to create something that they were envisioning. So having that support and having somebody to talk through those things is something that I thrive in and absolutely love. Also, when through this time you will also get some bonuses so you will get a free 30 minute one on one live coaching call with me so we can see each other face to face and set up that foundation so we can create something that works best for you. And that I know a lot of you have been waiting for this summer to sign up because I know readings the best time reading by the poles of us but you'll also get a free three months from June through August of the STEM teacher bookshelf. So you'll get access to those three new guides and also the past months that are in there. So This is definitely something I have envisioned, like I said, the big picture person that I am even envisioning just with the name of this podcast, the elementary sim coach and bringing the coaching to, which is so much fun, so exciting. So I only have 10 spots available. I wish I could serve all of you at once, but I only have 10 spots. So you definitely want to grab your spot now so that you don't miss out. And we will get started in June 2023. So you have until May 31, 2023, to sign up, which is not very much time you only have like a handful a couple of weeks to do that. So check it out at naomimeredith.com slash STEM into summer to claim your spot. And if you have any questions or if you are concerned about is this right for me, what what else does this entail? All those types of questions, definitely send me a DM at Naomi Meredith underscore on Instagram. Or you can also send me an email at contactnaomimeredith@gmail.com. And I would love to chat with you, but definitely bringing this podcast to life, the actual real life coaching that, yes, you can get all the ideas and tips and tricks for me, but it's different when it is specialized to you. So thank you so much again for being here, and I will chat with you soon.

stem teacher struggle

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

5th grade STEM curriculum

5th Grade STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series] [ep.86]

5th Grade STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series] [ep.86]

5th grade STEM curriculum

Check out the full episode on 5th Grade STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series]:  

 

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Episode Summary

Today’s episode is the final episode in the K-5 STEM series. In this episode, I give an overview of my 5th grade STEM curriculum. I share an overview of the 5th grade STEM curriculum, a breakdown of a week of 5th grade STEM curriculum, and the top three skills I believe every 5th grader should leave the STEM classroom with.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • An overview of my year long 5th grade STEM curriculum
  • A breakdown of how I structure a week of 5th grade STEM curriculum
  • The top 3 skills every 5th grader should leave the STEM classroom with

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

What should a fifth grade STEM curriculum look like? In this episode, I am breaking down exactly how to plan for your year when it comes to fifth grade, an example of what a week and a project can look like, and also, in my opinion, the top three things that a fifth grader should walk away from my STEM class knowing. This is part six of the six part series where I am doing this whole system for all the grade levels K through five. So you definitely want to make sure you go and check out all those episodes, because you can see the whole wide spectrum of things when it comes to planning STEM and K through five. Whether you are a STEM teacher, a classroom teacher who's implementing STEM, or any type of specialist who is also implementing STEM in their spaces, you're gonna walk away with a ton of useful information. 


Naomi Meredith  01:22

Like I mentioned in the intro, this is the last part of this series. I do love recording series, because I can get in the mindset and the zone when it comes to talking about this topic. So this has been a really great series when it comes to your planning. And this is actually by request. So I had a lot of you fill out my audience podcast survey way back in February of 2023. And there was so much interest when it comes to planning and what that actually looks like in K through five. So I heard you and I answered on this series. So when you guys respond to me, sometimes it takes me a while just based on what I have planned for the year. But I hear you and I love saying what you need, and how I can fill those needs for you whether it's me talking, or finding the right guests to talk about it. Now, when it comes to your needs, I just hosted a free live training, when it comes to actually planning out your full year. And what that looks like. If you missed out on the live training, have no fear, it was all recorded for you. And you can still jump in on that. So not only can you rewatch the video recording and see my lovely face, but a lot of you are here and listen to the audio of this podcast. So there's also a private podcast option that you will get once you sign up. So you can access this at Naomi meredith.com/maytraining. And I am here to support you along the way. And it's so exciting. This training was so much fun. And there was a lot of success in this. So you definitely don't want to miss out. So you if you're listening to this live, you only have until May 31, 2023, to access this training, and then it's going to disappear. So I would love for you to jump in on that. So you can feel successful when it comes to planning out your whole year and STEM a great time ending the school year or going into summer. So you can have some time to think through everything and how it will work best for you. I can safely say after teaching all the grades K through five, there are some that are my favorites when it comes to ages and some that are not my favorite. I love children. Regardless, don't get me wrong. There are some grades that are not my fave. And I would say for me personally fifth grade is pretty much up there next to first grade. I told you in the first grade episode, my thoughts about that. So go back and listen to that. Fifth grade, I love the content. I love being able to dive deeper with the kids. Their stamina on projects is incredible, especially when they are invested in things. But there's just some things about fifth grade again, the attitudes. Maybe I don't like the attitudes because I was one of those fifth graders with an attitude. I was very nice at school, just a little sassy at home. But there's just submit about that. And I don't do Well with that, because I'll give it right back to them. So maybe I would be a really good fifth grade teacher because I don't deal with that kind of stuff.


Naomi Meredith  04:22

But no, fifth grade is good, especially when I've had him for so long. We have a good relationship. And there's some things like hey, you know me, I know you were not doing this in here. So fifth grade is very interesting for me. Like I said, I like the content, the age is not one of my faves. So let's talk about what an overview of fifth grade can actually look like. Like I said, fifth grade lessons are actually really, really fun. So when I actually do my planning, I always start when I plan out my unit K through five. I actually start with third grade. I start in the middle because I know third grade really well. And then oftentimes I will flex all the way to get up to fifth grade. So a lot of times, I'll do third, fifth, fourth, and then do second K and one. So that's a lot of times what happens. So not always, sometimes I might think of a fifth grade lesson first. And then I have to pare things down. So here's how this actual year looks like for fifth grade. If you've been listening along to this whole series, it's fun that you can actually hear the progression of learning how it's gotten up to this point. So we first start off the year. And this actually is one of my favorite STEM survival camp lessons. And it is build the shelter challenge, because that is the number one thing that they do in the show alone. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and listen to episode four, because I talked all about STEM survival camp. So students are tasked with building a shelter that will withstand the elements that are different stations for them to test. And they have a little small prototype of what their shelter could look like. After that, we get into digital citizenship, and we talk about a topic that you might not think that you should talk to students about. But it's super important. And it's all about information privacy, how websites might be trying to trick you to get your information. So when you're thinking about the past lessons is digital citizenship, when we're talking about private and personal information. This is really about what our websites doing to try to get that information and how we can't fall for fake. This can be websites. But this can also be humans, different types of scams, and they're getting trickier and trickier, even text messages, I tell them about things that happen to me. But this is a really good topic that aligns with Google's Be Internet Awesome curriculum, which is free, or you might have also heard as Interland, but they actually have lessons that I like to teach in this unit. And students design a digital sticker that will be cut on cut out on our class Cricut machines that will represent how to stay safe online. So they have to get really thoughtful in their design. So it can be cut out Well and be used as an actual sticker. Then we go into our Maker month and all of our Earth Systems, K through five, and we get into that Makerspace. What's interesting about this fifth grade lesson is yes, they have Makerspace items, but a lot of the things that they are using in this project are things that can be reused over and over again. So think about that. When your projects, yes, you have Makerspace. But there are things that students can use and actually put back. So that's a little twist on this lesson. So we talk about chain reactions, and Rube Goldberg ecosystems where students research about different ecosystems. They're provided those resources, and then they have to create a Rube Goldberg machine to show the chain reaction when it comes to all of the living things in that environment. And their pathways can get super complicated depending on how many steps that they add. Then after that, we get into our sensational space, our video and audio production unit, which is a fun one. And this one also intrigues the fifth graders a whole lot because we talk about podcasting. Now there are a couple episodes that I really go into depth when it comes to podcasting with kids. In Episode 80, I actually interviewed Jerry Colbert, who is from the who's smarted podcast, and he gives his perspective on why podcasting is important. And then this lesson, specifically that I'm talking about is in Episode 65. So you can actually go back and listen to that one. Of course, it'll be linked in the show notes for you to check out. But for this unit, students actually designed their own short podcast, it's one to three minutes long, not very long when it comes to actual podcast. And you know, me, I like doing short projects, they can get all the things done, but jam packed in that tiny little project. So we actually go through the whole process of podcasting, which I'm also going to talk about when it comes to the breakdown of the week, then we end the year with our Hour of Code month. And by now students have had a lot of different experience when it comes to coding and feeling very proficient in their block coding. Now it depends on the grade, I will get into more of that JavaScript typing. So bitsbox is a great example of this. Or if it was my students need more practice, we will stick to that block coding and connect it using the Makey Makey, which is a system that there are little alligator clips that you clip on and it connects electricity. And when you touch the Eclipse or, or when you touch the item, it will then send the message to the computer and perform the code depending on it. So it's making that more interactive. So like I said, it will switch off with a year depending on my kids knowledge and experience and also the time that we have. But you can see from there that progression of learning when it comes to the coding. After that we dive into our winter robotics in January. And the lesson that we are jumping into is all about the identity Right now here in Colorado, my students really haven't heard about it yet are out. And you probably also sign out, have seen a theme with my lessons, I tried to make them more obscure because then they can't tell me they know everything about the lesson, they have to listen to me and learn because we're in school. So we learn about the idea to Rod and students are given a path of the identified race. And then they have to design a sled that their robot will pull through that pathway, and successfully complete the race through coding. After that, we will get into a 3D printing. And this is a more open ended design, when it comes to what they are creating. What has been really cool with my fifth graders, especially when it comes to their 3D printing is that their designs have really progressed over the years. So we are using that same platform when it comes to creation Tinkercad. So they're used to the platform by this point, if they've been with me, but the way that they are manipulating the shapes and putting things together or deconstructing things, so that they will print better is pretty amazing. So their challenge is how can they create an invention that will help the environment to either protect the resources, prevent the resources from being harmed, or even stop a problem all together. So this is really helping them bring that awareness and that empathy, which I even talked about in that fifth grade episode, why your fifth graders might not be engaged in STEM, but really thinking about others that are not themselves, whether it's their world around them, like their school world, or even bigger than that, and showing them all these problems out there. And what's pretty amazing in this project is they actually do care. They are, they do care of what's happening. So there's some pretty cool things that come out of that. After that, I jump into LEGO builds, and there is some state testing tagged during that spring season. And I talked about it in the third grade episode. But it's the LEGO spike essential kit, which is an excellent kit that I highly recommend. And it really differentiates first, first second through fifth grade. And we like I like to do the carnival games lessons in there. So students will build and actually code their design. And their code can get really sophisticated, again, re emphasizing having that circle, having that review of the skill and they can actually practice coding and figuring it out. So actually don't do a whole lot of pre teaching when it comes to coding. It's more of that. What are you now how are we going to apply it to this program. You can also fill in, of course, what LEGO education kits that you have, if you have your students for a while, I would actually say that the LEGO we do to point out when it comes to the actual building instructions, is quite simple. Now students can build and design on their own. But also the coding is pretty simple, too. So if you are able to level up your LEGO education kids, I would recommend that now in my opinion, the LEGO Mindstorms a little bit too complicated for fifth grade during a class time, I tried it three years in a row, even with a class that had a gifted and talented cluster. And just during that amount of time, it would just eating more time than what you have in a week. So you could do it as an after school club. But that's just based on my experience, just how complicated not too hard, but just how it's more involved when you're using that tool. If we have time, we then will get into stop motion animation, whether students are building physically or doing things digitally. And they are talking about all of Earth's spheres, sort of the hydrosphere, the biosphere, all of those spheres and what they are, how they connect together, and also how much water is on earth. So they create an animation to teach others about that. Then we end the year with our STEM-musement Park. And we talk about the different types of force and motion when it comes to also that potential and kinetic energy and students design their own roller coaster that a marble can travel through. And you might think that this is too simple, but these designs get very, very intricate and so much fun to see their creativity shine. And with me their last project that they end the year with. 


Naomi Meredith  14:08

Now you have an overall picture of what the year looks like. What does it look like when you break down that structure of the week? So I'm going to be breaking down that podcasting lesson if you want to hear more about it. There's an episode that is more in depth about this lesson because I think podcasting is a great skill to teach students. It's an awesome, awesome skill and it's not as hard as you think even recording this podcast. I don't think it's too hard. Now I do have somebody who helps me. Thanks, Andria. But I could do it on my own if I had to. So if you need more help when it comes to planning, I actually do have a workshop a three to five step planning workshop that is pre recorded. You can jump on in everything's there for you as soon as you sign up. So you can grab that at Naomimeredith.com/secondaryworkshop. Just like fourth grade fifth fifth grade. We can hit the ground running with these projects. And because the topics are so obscure, they really want to know what we're going to do and how we're going to get it done. So with this projects, we're learning all about light pollution, which is a type of pollution that they don't know about, and haven't heard about. I hadn't even heard about until my master's program, maybe you have, but that's where I'm at. So we actually before we even get into that learn actually more about what podcasts are some kids have an inkling of that not so much. I even show them my podcasts a little bit. And they're super amazed. And then also a lot of podcasts that are made for kids to give them inspiration. So we do that ask and imagining for that first day getting ideas of what a podcast is, and what it could be, then the second day, we move into the plan. And it's a little bit different, because they are planning out what their script is actually going to be like. So they take specific notes that are aligned to the standards. And then they take these notes to put it into their script and what they're actually going to say and who's going to say what, now a little bit different than my podcast, I do have an outline when I'm talking that I'm not typically reading word for word, what I'm saying, I'm looking at the camera the whole time. And so I look a little bit of a notes, but then I just start talking. But for kids, they need more guidance. So it's not taking away their creativity. It's setting up a base of what a podcast could be. And trust me, a lot of kids after this project end up creating their own podcasts on their own, but then they have a structure of having producing a really good podcast. So from there, the third, fourth and a little bit of the fifth students are recording and editing their podcasts. The podcasts are pretty short one to three minutes. Like I said, I like smaller projects because they can get everything done. But once they record, they can take out the parts they don't like they can rerecord the introduction, maybe they want a little bit of a song for intro music. So they really start experimenting of what a podcast could be. And the best part their favorite part, especially for a fifth grader, because they care about what other people think about them. Other kids their age, so they get about them is they post their podcast on our class seesaw. And then they listen to each other's work and give meaningful feedback, which again, we reiterate from what they've done in fourth grade. 


Naomi Meredith  17:24

So finally, when it comes to a fifth grader, what are the three things that I would want them to walk away my STEM class knowing. So in no particular order, here is what I have observed. And here's what I would hope for. So first is really being thoughtful and not rushing through their work, I see a lot of trends when it comes to first and fifth graders, that's probably why they're kind of my least favorite ages of kids. But they kind of do a lot of the same things. So I noticed that they like to rush through their work and just get it done to be done so they can sit and chat with their friends. So of course I need not giving a more work, but more thoughtful work. How can you modify this, you're not just checking the box off your list? How are you really thinking through this project and making it better. So that is something I'm always pushing to do with my first fifth graders, and they don't like it, but then they really secretly do and their projects turn out so much better. So that is something that I want my fifth graders to walk away with knowing next, this is actually a fun one for the upper grades is having projects that will show off their skills, and using things that they have learned throughout the years, not just here years. And having some of that choice, it is pretty neat saying kids will talk kids will actually bring up past projects, they'll say, remember when we did this, and I did this, and now I'm adding it to this project. That's actually pretty cool. As a STEM teacher, if you teach multiple grades, you don't always get that as a classroom teacher unless you've looped with them. So they're taking those skills that we learned. I even gave the example of the 3D printing projects, how they are using those skills along the years. So giving them opportunities to keep practicing those skills, and showing what they know is pretty awesome for these fifth graders. It's cool for them, but cool for me as a teacher. And the last thing that I would want my fifth graders walking away with is being able to share with a greater audience. And so yes, they have their classmates which are so important to them. But what are ways that we can share with the outside world? Maybe not for every project, but could we share a podcast with a another classroom? Could we share it with our book buddies who are in a younger grade and teach them about it? Can we have a STEM Maker Faire where we're sharing our projects, so just other ways where they're actually sharing with that greater world? This might even be in the form of an after school club or a competition that can also happen too, but Just really sharing getting out of their comfort zone and sharing their audience with the bigger world, which of course is great for any age, but they really start understanding it more when they are in fifth grade and beyond. 


Naomi Meredith  20:12

As a recap, here's what we talked about when it comes to your fifth grade STEM curriculum. First, we talked about the overview of the year and what your lessons could look like. Then we broke down the structure of the week of how it actually plans out for a typical project. Then I shared with you my top three things that I would hope a fifth grader could walk away from my STEM class knowing, of course, I'm always here to support you. So jump in on that live training when we talk about planning out your year more in detail. So by this point, it is recorded, but definitely still meaningful, you can watch the video or get the private podcast link, it'll just pop up in your podcast player, which is super cool. So that's pretty fun. But you can grab that at Naomi meredith.com/may, training all one word, no spaces. And also I have all of these lessons in my TPT shop already done for you. So if you don't want to spend all the time planning and researching and finding out all the things, I love this kind of stuff. And I love talking about it. And I love making them. So you can grab the whole year K through five all done for you. And there's a lot more things that are going to be updated in this next year, including how I can actually be teaching the lessons. So you definitely want to jump in on that now at the lowest price because that will definitely go up with all the updates. So you can grab that in my TPT shop, I have the full K through five STEM bundle, you can buy just fifth grade, you can even buy just three through five. So that's all in there for you. So if you want to save some time planning and start the year knowing everything's all done for you, then jump in on that. Of course I am here for you. That is the end of this series when not the end of this podcast. There's a lot more to talk about. So I can't wait for those other episodes and how I can help support you with your STEM planning.

5th grade STEM curriculum

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

STEM teacher interview

3 STEM Teacher Interview Tips [ep.79]

3 STEM Teacher Interview Tips [ep.79]

STEM teacher interview

Check out the full episode on 3 STEM Teacher Interview Tips:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Are you hoping to land a STEM position at your school? Maybe you’re wondering what are some important things that you need to consider when interviewing for a STEM position. In today's episode, I share three STEM teacher interview tips to keep in mind when you are preparing for a STEM teacher interview.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 tips for preparing for a STEM teacher interview
  • How to stand out in your interview
  • How my STEM teacher interview went

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Are you hoping to land a STEM position at your school? What are some important things that you need to keep in mind when interviewing for a STEM type position in our elementary schools? In today's episode, I'll be sharing with you three tips to keep in mind when you are prepping for that STEM teacher interview. Take it from me, I have been in your position before. I interviewed for a K through Five STEM job, and I got it. So let's jump into these STEM teacher interview tips. 


Listener Question  01:03

Hello, I hope you're having a good day. I'm actually just sending you a message because I have an interview on Monday for a STEM job. And I'm just wondering if you have any suggestions for me. I have been a teacher for 18 years. And I've always wanted to be a STEM teacher. And they just recently had a position that's coming open next year at my school first time we've ever had STEM. So I'm not really sure what kind of questions they are going to ask me. And I was just wondering if you could give me some advice.


Naomi Meredith  01:31

Great question from a fellow teacher. She must have been reading my mind because I actually had this episode planned for a while. I pushed it up on my content calendar because I'm sure she's not the only one who was wondering the same question. Before I landed my K through five STEM role, I taught second grade for two years at a title one school, which was actually the school that I student taught at, so then I landed a job the following year. Then I moved and needed a job that was a bit closer to where I was then living. So I interviewed and applied for a job in another district and ended up teaching third grade for four years. During that time, I was attending conferences, every free and paid training where I could learn innovative and creative practices that can enhance my teaching. From there, I would apply those things with my students. I had so much fun being a classroom teacher for six years, but I had that feeling in me that I wanted to make an even bigger impact. So I was looking at a neighboring district, and there was a K through Five STEM position that popped up at the time. I didn't really know anybody at this school. Later on, I applied and then ended up having a connection, which is pretty funny, because that actually happened when I got my third-grade job. But anyway, I applied for this position, and I interviewed for it. Long story short, I got the job. If you want to hear actually how the interview went, go back and listen all the way to Episode One. It might not be what you expect. Yes, I got the job, but my feelings about it are not what you expect. Anyway, I landed the job in this new to me district new to me position and a school with zero curriculum and limited supplies. So, of course, that is another story for another podcast episode, in which there are tons about lesson planning. 


Naomi Meredith  03:34

But you are here for those interview tips. So what should you keep in mind when you are prepping to be a STEM teacher and interviewing? More likely than not, a lot of you are probably coming from the classroom, you've been teaching for a while, and you're interested in this type of role. You think you're ready for it. So how do you interview for a position you haven't done before? So here are my top three tips when you're going into this type of interview. My first tip when prepping for a STEM teacher interview is to showcase your creativity. This is a highly creative role. I'm not saying to not apply if you're not creative, but it is super up in the air. Pretty much, I would say for most teachers I've talked to when they're in a STEM role for what you teach. So you have to be comfortable with being creative and trying new things. So definitely showcase that in your interview. It kind of makes sense to me with my journey with teaching over the years and even when I was in my undergrad getting my teaching degree. I love being creative, even if it's not STEM related. I am a very, very creative person, and so this is something I definitely showcased in my interview. Think about the lessons that you will teach as a STEM teacher. All lessons are creative, even the lessons when it comes to coding and robotics, every single lesson that is taught in my classroom is creative. So you definitely want to highlight that. Now a good thing to keep in mind is to think about the creative lessons that you have taught your students. So you probably are interested in this world because you probably are doing this type of stuff with your students anyway. So before an interview, just sit down and write down some of those creative things that you have done with kids. If you have taught a multitude of grades and just thinking about primary and secondary, think about projects that you have done with both of those grade levels. In a position like this one, it's very common, where you're going to be teaching a huge span of students, and you need to have those capabilities to be able to teach them all. So I taught second grade and third grade. But then I did a lot of afterschool clubs with older students, I did a Math Olympiad, a Battle of the Books, club science clubs. So if you haven't specifically taught that grade, maybe think about other ways that you have been involved with them. Or even think about the types of lessons that you would do with that age of students if you don't have any specific experience to talk about. 


Naomi Meredith  06:14

Next, to think about in your STEM teacher interview is to showcase your technology skills. I think I've mentioned this before, but not only am I our K through five STEM teacher, but I am our technology person full-time. So, I also had to showcase what are some ways that I am able to troubleshoot and problem-solve with technology, which, even if you're not the technology person, and that's not going to be part of your role, you need to know how to do this with technology. I didn't have somebody come in every single day that I've taught my students and say, “Hello, here's the technology you're going to teach as a STEM teacher. Here's exactly how to use it.” That's where I come in. That's why I'm doing this podcast and doing what I do. But for me, I didn't have that. So you might not have that either in your building at all times. Again, I'm here for you. But you need to showcase in your interview how you can problem solve, be creative with technology, and be willing to try new things. You're not going to know everything, and technology is always changing. Like I didn't know how to do 3D printing at all. I had a couple of 3D printers I troubleshooted. I did a lot of Googling, that is your best friend. So you definitely want to showcase that and think about, again, specific lessons that you have taught in your classroom when you have been using meaningful technology. I'm not talking about things like oh, my students typed on a Google Doc, oh, we use Google Classroom. Sure, great. But that's not very innovative. What is going to actually make you stand out? What are some cross-curricular lessons that you have taught when it comes to using technology? Bonus points if you are being creative. 


Naomi Meredith  07:57

Finally, the third thing to think about in your STEM teacher interview is to showcase your lesson planning skills. Back in episode 11, I talk about all the ways that I think classroom teachers make great STEM teachers. So definitely go back and listen to that because I think that's really going to help you when you're prepping for this interview or hopefully pitching yourself to have this type of job in your school or district. As I said before, most of you might not have interviewed for a job like this before or even have had this type of job, so it is scary. You don't really know what's going to be expected of you, and that's the creative part. It's really fun. But you do have the skills when it comes to lesson planning. If I wasn't a classroom teacher before becoming a K through five STEM teacher, I think I actually would have drowned when it comes to lesson planning. As I said, there was zero curriculum. Over the years, I have built a full K through five STEM year-long plan that is differentiated and leveled based on the ages of my students, you can grab the whole year-long plan at Naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan. But you coming into this interview, you don't need to have all of your STEM lessons figured out. You can have them, but you don't need them necessarily for this interview. So think about how you creatively lesson plan. See how all of this kind of goes together. Creativity, technology, the lesson planning standards are still important in STEM. There is a huge misconception out there that STEM is just throwing out cool toys and letting kids play with them. There is a ton of exploration in my class, but everything is very purposeful, and everything is aligned with standards. There is a big goal in mind. So yes, we do robots. Yes, we do that. But what is the purpose behind the robots? What is the task that we are going to complete? How are we integrating Common Core ELA and math standards? How are we adding in Mathematical Practices, the ISTE standards for students, the Engineering Design Process, your science standards? Don't just listen as I did. But really think about a lesson that you have done when you are integrating standards. Again, think about primary and secondary, but you have the skills of lesson planning, you're just going to be shifting to how to merge that all together for multiple grade levels. Also, how can you implement some tools that aren't always super common in the elementary classroom yet? 


Naomi Meredith  10:32

So as a recap, here are the three things that you need to keep in mind when you are tackling that STEM teacher interview. First, showcase your creativity. Next, showcase your technology skills. Third, showcase your lesson planning skills. Now, you might be wondering, what was the end result of that voice message that that teacher sent me? Here is what she emailed me back. So I actually sent her some interview questions, something that I had in my Google Drive. I sent them to her, and she emailed me back. I got the job, thanks for checking out your stuff. And just so you know, she has checked out my stuff. And she is actually a member of our STEM teacher bookshelf community and is collaborating with like-minded teachers like us. So a great place to join. Now, if you want to get in on these questions, I have them for you inside my STEM Teacher 101 Course. I have added a new module where there are 10 sample questions that, if I were interviewing people to be a STEM teacher, is probably what I would ask. These are probably some most common questions, or ones that are similar, that you would be asked. Not only are the questions inside of this STEM teacher 101 course, you actually will be able to hear me answer the questions. So I am taking on the role of a classroom teacher, so looking at my past self and how would I answer them coming into this type of interview. So you can get some ideas, hearing me talk, you might even have similar experiences, of course, make it personal to you. Let your personality shine, but I want to help you on this journey. That's why I do what I do. And definitely check that out. It's a great way for you to feel confident about this STEM teacher interview, and I am here right by your side. You can grab that at Naomi meredith.com/stemteacher101. And, of course, that is all linked in the show notes. Thank you so much. And let me know if you get that STEM interview. I can't wait to hear and have you as part of my big STEM community.

STEM teacher interview

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

STEM online community

3 Ways to Build Your STEM Online Community [ep.74]

3 Ways to Build Your STEM Online Community [ep.74]

STEM online community

Check out the full episode on 3 Ways to Build Your STEM Online Community:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Being a STEM teacher can sometimes feel lonely if you’re the only one in your building implementing and teaching STEM. It’s a lot of fun thinking of and implementing new STEM ideas in the classroom, but it would be nice to have a community of like-minded teachers to share these ideas with and who get what you experience as a STEM teacher. If you’re feeling alone as a STEM teacher, a STEM online community is what you need. In today’s episode, I share three ways to build your STEM online community.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 ways to build your STEM online community
  • My personal experience with these online communities 
  • Tips for creating and joining a STEM online community

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

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.

STEM online community

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

stem teacher boundaries

3 STEM Teacher Boundaries You Need Now [ep.56]

3 STEM Teacher Boundaries You Need Now [ep.56]

STEM teacher boundaries

Check out the full episode on 3 STEM Teacher Boundaries You Need Now:  

 

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Episode Summary

Stepping into a K through five STEM role is equally exciting and overwhelming. If you were a classroom teacher before, like I was, you were thrown into a whole bunch of new teacher responsibilities.

Without systems and boundaries, you can quickly drown in everything you have to do, and you might not get anything done. In this episode, I will share with you three STEM teacher boundaries that you need to start now to be productive and not overwhelmed.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 STEM teacher boundaries
  • Why each boundary is important
  • Tips for implementing each boundary

Resources Mentioned: 

 

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Stepping into a K through five STEM role is equal parts exciting and overwhelming. If you were a classroom teacher before, like I was, you were definitely thrown into a whole bunch of new teacher responsibilities. Without systems and  boundaries set in place, you can quickly drown in all of the things that you have to do, and you might not get anything done. In this episode, I will be sharing with you three STEM teacher boundaries that you need to start now, so you can be productive and not overwhelmed. 


Naomi Meredith  01:08

Before we jump in, I have a couple quick announcements for you. So the doors are open for my K-2 virtual STEM planning workshop where you can join me and other teachers live to create a unit plan for one of your primary student grades while also building up, like we're talking about in this episode, systems and routines to help you with your K-2 STEM planning. It can be very overwhelming planning for the younger students. But within this two-hour timeframe, you are going to be productive and be filled with so many ideas that you might have more than what the school year even has for you. So definitely check in the shownotes for the link. As I said, you can join live, and it will be recorded. So if you can't be there live, still join in that recording, which will be sent to you and you can work on it in your own time. So definitely worth a two-hour investment where you can set this up for you to be productive for the whole rest of the school year. Likewise, I have an upcoming STEM virtual book club that I would love for you to join. I know it can be a lot reading books as a teacher throughout the school year. But there's lots of ways that you can implement it throughout your day. I will even have pacing guides for the book that we will read that month. I'm not picking anything super huge anyway. But as a STEM teacher, you always need to continue to learn and promote a growth mindset in your own life and for your students. So what better way to do that with this book club. So the doors aren't open yet on that one. But make sure to check out the waitlist so you will be notified as soon as it's open. And we can start reading together or just join for the community part because we know in clubs you don't always read the book anyway. But it's good to have those discussions. So definitely want you to be a part of that this year. 


Naomi Meredith  03:02

I've talked a little bit here and there on this podcast about my role as a K through five STEM teacher. But as my first year in this role, it was a new position and district, so I had a lot of hats that I had to wear. On Mondays I would teach GT science. Yep, gifted and talented science to students who are identified in science. And then Mondays and Tuesdays the times I wasn't meeting with my group of students, then I would co-plan and co-teach with teachers in my building to help them implement STEM innovation into their regular instruction. Wednesday through Friday, I was part of the STEM specials rotation where I would see students K through five, my same six classes for those three days in a row. And then it would start all over again. On top of that I was, and I still am, the point of contact and technology person in the building. So there's no other person in her building, who's the tech person for troubleshooting. That's all me. And yes, all of these things I don't get paid extra for. So with the funding and who we have in our building, how I split the week with the specials rotation, I now teach K through five STEM and I am still the tech person. So with all of these different things, and I know as a teacher you have a whole lot of things going on too, so setting boundaries is super, super, super important no matter what your role is, because you really need to protect your time. I've said this before, teaching K through five STEM is like throwing a birthday party six times. It is a very high energy position, and you need to make every moment special and exciting for all the classes because STEM is important and you love it. I know you do, you're in this position. But you definitely need to have these boundaries in place so you can actually plan during your plan time. I hardly take work home and that is because I have a lot of boundaries and I use my plan time to plan. Now, if there's something I need to research and learn more about, sure, I'll do it over the weekend. But that's pretty rare. I'm not doing that very often. So when it comes to actual planning and work, I don't do it outside of school, I do things like this for you. And I gave you a thumbs up. This might sound really strict with the things I'm going to be sharing about. But just a little bit of insight about me, I grew up as being a yes person. I didn't have any boundaries. I just always said yes to things and then it just made me very anxious. I just thought, that's what nice people do. That's what a nice girl does. Well, I have been really growing in this area as a person. I'm being vulnerable on here. But setting boundaries is a good thing. It's taken me a long time to realize that, and not just in your job, but in life in general boundaries are okay. It's okay to say no, I'm not perfect at this. But I'm definitely going to be sharing these strategies that have really helped me, as a STEM teacher. Even as a teacher in the classroom, this is very helpful as well, where my boundaries in the workspace as a STEM teacher helped me to be successful, but also the people around me, it helps them be successful as well. I can't be in 10 million places at once, even though I tried to be in a lot of different ways. But setting these things up can really maximize your time and your space overall, and even just make this STEM teaching more enjoyable, which is the thing that we love the most. So here are the three boundaries that I use that I think you can do as well. 


Naomi Meredith  06:46

The first boundary to set in place is starting and ending your class on time. This one's hard and easy. There's a lot of tricks that I have for this one. But my reasoning for this is that you need to build respect for yourself. If you're not starting or ending on time, how can you expect the classroom teachers to bring their students to start and end on time? I of course make mistakes. There's times that I'm like, oh, no, I didn't realize it was a different schedule today. But overall, I'm pretty good at starting and ending on time. And yes, it does take time being in your space to understand the flow of the classroom and how you're going to set that up, which we talked about a lot in past episodes, specifically check out episode eight and 12, where I talked about management, behavior management and classroom management. Even thinking about the structure of your lessons that's going to help you with the time management in general, if your classroom feels like a hurricane every single day. Since there's no system, it will be hard to start and end on time. So really get that in place. Here are a few tricks that I do that for the students. I like them to visually see how much time they have to actually work. Just setting up a timer on the screen is extremely helpful. This will help them in the long run to to set up their own boundaries. So see how we're helping each other. I like to use classroom screen.com, my absolute favorite free online tool. You can buy the paid version, and I think it'll save all your screens. I don't 100% know, but I absolutely love it. And a fun new background pops up every day. For myself, even in conjunction with that classroom screen, I will set timers on my watch all day. I am always talking to my watch, like a spy kid, where I'm like, Hey, I'm not going to say it out loud, because my watch actually might do it, I'm wearing it. But I will tell my watch to set a certain number timers and it does on my hand. So that's really helpful for my class time. Also, for my transition time, I have five to 10 minutes and between classes, which I know is very lucky not everybody gets. But even for that transition time. As soon as the class leaves, I set a timer on my watch, which is going to help me with starting the next class on time. Likewise, I have set up in my Google Calendar. That is my preference. I think you can do this in Outlook, if that's the calendar you use. But I have set up a recurring event for my whole STEM schedule of when my plan time is when I see each class when my lunchtime is. So I have that set up in my calendar as a recurring event. So when you look at my calendar, it always looks like I have a lot going on. But I have it all set up connected to my watch where I have all the times pop up on my watch and I know my schedule for the day. I will even go in if we have a delayed start and change the time so the correct times will pop up so I'm not referring to an email and all of that. So this sounds very type A I have been type A in the past or qualities of either type A but I'm actually more of a B-plus kind of person. But there are some things that really help with that time management when it comes to the end. have class when students are all cleaned up and ready to go, I'm very thankful for this setup where my classroom is, but I actually have students line up in my hallway, this may or may not be an option for you. But the students are in the hallway and they are ready to go for their teacher. The classroom teachers don't like it when they're in the hallway very long, because they get start getting loud and noisy. I'm not I'm not going to manage that. So the classroom teachers will actually almost always show up on time, because they know I'm going to end on time and their kids are going to be in the hallway ready for them. So this has actually helped teachers finish up their playing time. I know playing time is precious, I was a classroom teacher to my time is equally as precious as well. Those in between times, I will have to use the restroom, get water be an actual human, set up something really quick for a transition, I might even need to talk to a student privately, or a teacher might have a question for me privately. So that little bit of time and not just sitting there with my feet up on the table will not be nice. But that's really important. I've worked at schools where specialist teachers who don't end on time, the classroom teachers will end up showing up late and it just creates this whole cycle. So build that trustworthiness, really starting to end on time. It's such a good boundary, it can be really hard, you will mess up, I still mess that. But overall, it's just a really good thing to set in place. 


Naomi Meredith  11:24

The next STEM teacher boundary is to own your email. I'm awesome. At my work email, I'm trying to get away better with my work email. I'm just figuring out how the common themes and everything. But with work email, I'm so good at it. This has always been a good hack for me. And I know email can be overwhelming, but own it, you can definitely own it and make it work for you. I really try to have at least 15 or less emails in my inbox. That means I'm constantly reading my emails when they pop up on my phone. I am hardly ever sitting down and answering emails during my plan time or when I get to school. I feel like that is a big waste of time. And a lot of the emails are things that are quick and that can be answered or just need like a one or two sentence reply. So I am reading my email all day. I know as a classroom teacher, that can be hard when you have parents who are emailing you. So that is definitely up to you. Maybe your school policy, you're not allowed to check your phone. But I am looking at my email all day I have a popup on my watch. I can't respond on my watch at this time. But I'm always reading it. And I'm always deleting emails, replying back and sorting them in folders. So I have a ton of different folders set up where I am organizing things constantly, so I can refer back to them when I need them. It is such a big pet peeve of mine when people don't read their emails, even if I don't answer right away. I read it. I read things right away. That also includes my work email, I'm reading it right away. Sometimes I need to think about the answer or do some research about it. But I read it all the way. And so that can be really frustrating to when I email and people ask me the same question. So oftentimes, I will reformat things that I have said before, in just a nice way. It's like kind of like will read your email. So be an adult on your email, read it. But definitely checking it throughout the day helps a time, it will give you back a lot of your plan time. Likewise, with that, I told you that I am the tech person. And so I will have teachers email me if they have a specific technology issue, I actually can answer them a lot quicker. And then if they come into my room and interrupt me when I'm teaching, I'm teaching just like they're teaching, I don't want to go and interrupt them. So an email can be way quicker, I can oftentimes take a screenshot of the solution. 


Naomi Meredith  13:44

Before reading an email I sent to another teacher who had a similar issue, I can type it out pretty fast. And so it's not as disturbing. Trust me, I'm not on my phone all day, I don't get that many emails. So don't picture I'm in my classroom. I'm on my phone constantly. But I'm just saying just answer them as they come. And it will help you with that technology management. I also like to send calendar invites, I have Outlook for my work email, but you can do this any Google calendar as well. But I like to send invites, if I am meeting with teachers one on one, because that way it will pop up in their calendar as well. I don't have to send a reminder email, it will do that for them. And also for me, I have it in my calendar as well. So then it can definitely keep me organized. So that's a nice hack as well. Finally, when it comes to emails that you are sending all the time, you're like, Ah, I send this all the time. I'm always saying the same thing like bring your devices to STEM in my classroom actually don't have a computer lab, the students actually bring their classroom devices and bring them to STEM. I've done that for the whole five years. I've been in this position and it's good for student responsibility of their devices. But if I know they're going to bring their devices for a unit I will actually set add up my emails to pre send for that unit the day before at 3pm. So if a teacher does happen to see it on a weekend, I don't expect them to, but it'll be in their inbox in the morning when they come into work. So they know students need to bring their devices. So it's nice to have these all set up and pre scheduled. So I'm not scrambling, oh, no, they need their computers or the classroom teacher is not scrambling. So that's really helpful as well. I will also do this for my after school clubs, I have a whole bunch of clubs that are going on and multiple groups. So I will sit down, yes, this takes some time. But then I don't have to go and think about it later. I will schedule reminder emails of when they are meeting that day, what time they need to be picked up. And so that is all set up for my whole rest of school year, I have my email scheduled all the way till the end of the school year. So that way, that's not an email, I have to think about, like I said, and it is all ready to go. Finally, with the email also set up notification timers. This is something that I have played around with on my phone, but I have my email setup on my phone where it will turn on notifications during the workday. And it will also turn off when the workday is over. It won't turn on during weekends, I will also manually turn it off when I have a day off of work, or if it's a holiday, because you'd want me to answering email outside of school. Yes, I'll answer during the day. But there's usually nothing that important that I need to be looking at and reading when I'm not at school. And if I'm staying on top of it, there's not much that's happening outside of school anyway. So that's just really protecting my time, you could even delete the app during holiday breaks if you want to. But that is your time. And I think that's super important. So play around with your notification settings, that can be really helpful. 


Naomi Meredith  16:50

The final boundary I have is for technology management. So if you are like me, you are the tech person or you collaborate with a tech person in your building. These are some strategies and boundaries that I have set up in my space and in my building, because there weren't any before. So this took a lot of work and growth mindset for me and for the classroom teachers as well, to make sure that we can be successful. So if you don't manage to type technology also listen in this might also actually help you with your classroom as well and how things are managed. Even though I am the designated technology person, STEM isn't and shouldn't be the only class in the building where students use technology. So there might be mixed opinions of this in your building. But this shouldn't be the only time they're using devices. We are living in a digital age and students should be interacting and using technology in different ways throughout the day. We do as teachers, we don't just use it to type a word document, althoughwe're hopefully using it as a creation tool and a teaching tool. And we have to teach our students that. So likewise, if teachers are using this in their classroom, they also have to learn how to troubleshoot and do all that this goes back to growth mindset. I didn't know any of this stuff, I knew little things here and there coming into this role, but I didn't even know the Wi Fi password for two weeks in this role. So there definitely is needs to be a growth mindset. I know you can't tell people that but also giving teachers the opportunity to troubleshoot on their own and try it and giving them the tools to be successful, will also help you out as well with the boundaries. 


Naomi Meredith  18:32

A couple of ways that I do this is I will talk to the staff at the beginning of the year of what my role is and ways that they can get support with technology help. So a lot of teachers who are new in the building don't even know what STEM is. So I'll even explain that and how that's different than a technology class. You might be lucky and work in a building where you have STEM and technology I know of teachers who've had that even to showing the difference between the two and how tools will be used in your space. So that will help teachers with their lesson planning. Also, I provide them a back to school technology checklist. I will link this in the show notes. It'll be completely free. So you can check it out, modify how you need it. But it is a digital checklists I'll send out a couple weeks before school starts. They can look at it when they need. But I will not only have a checklist of things they need to set up in their room on their teacher device for student accounts during that work week. But I will also link videos and helpful guides that will help them through that process if they don't know how to do it. Likewise, they really encourage us for you before me for the teachers to really help each other out. Often I will see teachers asked me a question but then their teammate just asked me the day before the same question I went in and help them so it really helps encourage them to talk to each other to problem solve the problem. Also, if you're in a similar position and even think about the technology that you have in your classroom, if there is not a system in place, set one up, out was in charge of assigning all of the devices in my school and when we became a one to one district, so that meant every student in our district would have a device that was assigned to them like a library book. And this change came maybe a few weeks before school started. And I was in charge of assigning all of them to 500 plus units by myself. So there was no system set in place. So that is something that I set up that is repeatable by me. Or if there was anybody else who was in my position or helping me with that would be so lovely if I had help, but that way that it could be repeatable as well. 


Naomi Meredith  20:35

So setting up this system for any tool that you're using in your classroom is really helpful so that others can understand the process as well. And it will help you wrap your mind around it. Also, any way that you can get students and teachers involved in the process. For us students will use the same device every year for four years, and then they'll get a new device. And so that means students end the school year their devices are in their cart, and then they have to go with them to the next grade. Well, that's a lot on one person to assign out. So what I'll do is, I'll put all of the carts in our library, and then teachers will come bring their classroom to the library to get their last year's device, after they've talked about digital citizenship and handling their device. And then they'll bring it back to the room and then I'll deliver the classroom cart. So that's a good incentive as well, because if they don't pick up their device, they won't have a cart that I can reassign. So it also gets that buy in as well, where it's also not all on me, but it's helping with that responsibility too. As a recap, here are the three STEM teacher boundaries that you can set up to really help maximize your time and your productivity. First, we talked about starting and ending your class on time. Next is owning your email. And finally setting up systems and routines when it comes to your technology management. Like I said before, setting up boundaries is okay and it can be hard at first finding things that will work for you. But in the long run if you are being consistent with yourself and consistent with others. It will really help preserve your time and get you to the part where you are teaching the kids doing what you love and making a big impact in your classroom. 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@gmail.com. Also make sure to check out my website Naomi meredith.com To see all the show notes from today's episode, and Chapman 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.

stem teacher boundaries

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!