Standard 2

Standard 2 - STEAM educators collaborate to develop, implement, and improve high quality STEAM learning activities. 

During 2017-2018 school year, teachers participated in professional development opportunities to enhance our STEAM understanding and knowledge by attending the Georgia STEM/STEAM Forum as well as the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. Continuing our growth and desire to effectively support the International Baccalaureate PYP through STEAM, grade level representatives and support team members attended Buck Institute's PBL World Conference in the summer of 2018. This conference was the foundation to creating interdisciplinary, high quality Project-Based Learning opportunities for all students. 

We have continued our desire to improve and grow by providing additional PBL support and planning opportunities during the summer through support APS STEAM leadership support. As well as, we have gone on to provide STEAM support and professional develop to other schools. A team presented at the 2019 Georgia STEM/STEAM Forum. In addition, a group of teachers and students presented at the GaETC student showcase in November 2019. 

The leadership and educators at Warren T. Jackson  place value on protected collaboration and planning time. Educators have common planning five days a week. One day is protected team planning and another day is when PLC team meetings with support staff (International Baccalaureate , STEAM, Gifted & Talented, Student Support Team) take place. 2nd grade through 5th grade have a common 40 minute lunch and planning time daily. By providing opportunities for our educators to collaborate with one another and have multiple check-in opportunities during their day, teachers are able to work together to plan and prepare for high quality STEAM learning activities. This also helps to provide high-quality consistent teaching across grade levels. 

During full-day professional development,  we are able to opt to provide in-house teacher driven professional development. Surveys are sent out asking for what trainings teachers feel they need and we look to meet those needs. This has given us the opportunity to provide collaboration and professional development in STEAM content specific areas such as the Fine Arts Georgia Standards of Excellence, engineering design process, project-based learning, and technology integration. 

To support the philosophy of our students becoming problem-solvers and innovators, we ourselves have formed a teacher WTJ Design Team. Through using the design process, we conduct empathy interviews, define a problem, ideate, prototype, and test ourselves ways to tackle school issues. An example of a previous design cycle was tackling common, quality assessments for our new reading program. As Warren T. Jackson has worked towards STEAM certification, it has become even more clear the importance of collaboration not just among grade levels but throughout the school and community. While interdisciplinary collaboration was already a strength, collaboration and cooperation have only improved.