Embedded Files
Dr. Arnold our Superintendent has worked with the leadership in our corporation to develop our strategic plan. This plan is posted in all buildings of our corporation. The STEM team was involved in this process. This plan is centered around becoming STEM certified. East Side has their own STEM team and we have met monthly since this process has started. We also have partnered with Equitable Education and Dr. Jeremy Eltz has met/planned with all of classroom teachers several times during this process. Our staff has embraced this goal and have worked hard to incorporate STEM into our classrooms.
We have reached out to our community and are continuing to build our list of community partners.
When we decided to pursue STEM Certification we decided to do so for the benefit our our students and our community. The U.S. Bureau of Statistics say; over the next 20 years, 80% of all jobs will require technical skills. With this knowledge it would be irresponsible for us not to enrich our students' education with these skills through STEM education.
Looking at the present job market, the number of unfilled STEM career openings is greater than the number of qualified graduates we are producing as a nation. Therefore it is in our student’s best interest to give them an early start through STEM education.
1.1 Decision-Making
1.1 Decision-Making
Dr. Arnold our Superintendent has worked with the leadership in our corporation to develop our strategic plan. This plan is posted in all buildings of our corporation. The STEM team was involved in this process. This plan is centered around becoming STEM certified. East Side has their own STEM team and we have met monthly since this process has started. We also have partnered with Equitable Education and Dr. Jeremy Eltz has met/planned with all of classroom teachers several times during this process.
100% of our teaching staff attends out monthly staff meetings. These meetings feature a wide range of topics including a monthly STEM recap. Below you will find our scheduled meetings for the year and an example of one of our agendas.
1.2 School Schedules
1.2 School Schedules
Our Master Schedule allows teachers the ability to blend STEM into their everyday classroom. We also have a build in STEM rotation that focuses on Project Lead The Way curriculum and projects.
Master Schedule 2019-2020 (Detail)
Additional Documentation Summary of Dedicated STEM Instruction1.3 Common Work Time
1.3 Common Work Time
Our Master Schedule provides grade levels a common prep time. This time is designed to give teams a time to collaborate and share ideas. We also have built in teacher workdays throughout the school calendar for curriculum building and mapping.
Master Schedule 2019-20 (Basic)Additional Documentation Shared Plan TimeEach grade level team has a shared plan/work time daily. The images on the right highlight a recent STEM activity in second grade. The teams use their common plan time to integrate STEM into their lesson plans.
Additional Documentation Copy of STEM Lesson Plan.docx
Using shared work time before each nine weeks the third grade team plans their Activity Days.
Each week on Thursdays, the third grade team conducts what we call Activity Day. The morning rotation is cut up to ONE rotation each Thursday. Each teacher gets a subject that is agreed upon. For this example, we have 1 teacher working on iRead Moments. This is a PowerPoint Presentation in which students answer questions on a Smart-board together. These questions are very similar to what will be seen on their iRead assessment. Another teacher will be working with students on Fluency Timed Reading. The teacher will be pulling one student at a time. With a third grade appropriate text, they will evaluate each student's fluency growth. Those not being assessed will be kept busy through another task such as typing or reading cards. These rotations will take a total of 3 weeks to get through.
We are able to break the remainder of the day into eight 20 minute rotations. We break those down further into 2 STEM, 3 Math and 3 ELA. Some stations stay, but some stations change weekly. We always do some sort of computation. This includes addition, subtraction, and multiplication. With addition and subtraction we work from single digits up to triple digits with regrouping through the year.
1.4 Classroom Layout
1.4 Classroom Layout
Our classroom teacher's have the ability to build their rooms using desks or tables. Some teachers choose a mix of these options. We also have several collaboration spaces available where small groups or projects can be completed. Teachers are given the freedom to move their rooms around to fit the needs of their students and activities.
1.5 Sustainability Plan
1.5 Sustainability Plan
Our School and Corporation have committed to Project Lead the Way and have purchased modules to kick start our STEM supplies and curriculum. Our board and other community organizations have given us a pledge of ongoing support to replenish and expand these tools. For example: a local church just complete a fundraiser to add an additional module to our PLTW curriculum and plan on making this an annual event.
We had added the STEM budget we are working on. This plan lays out the future of our STEM program. We recently received the IDOE's STEM Acceleration Grant. This grant has injected $50,000 into our plans. We are currently working on additional grants to keep funding coming our way.
Our STEM curriculum and consumables will continue to be funded by:
Student Fees
Grants (such as the Honda Grant and STEM Acceleration Grant)
East Side PRIDE Boosters Donations
Donations from Community Partners
1.6 Measurement of Students' Attitudes/Interests
1.6 Measurement of Students' Attitudes/Interests
Our students are living in a era where technology runs everything. They have responded very positively to STEM and enjoy the extra technology and hands on activities. Students have also demonstrated their interest in STEM by their work in the classroom and their attendance to extracurricular STEM activities/family nights. A recent survey of third, fourth, and fifth graders indicated 95.7% of our students feel that STEM has improved their school experience. This data is collected 2-3 times yearly. We use this data when talking with parents and community stakeholders. It illustrates that our students see the benefit of STEM. We have used it to help secure grants and outside funding.
We will be conducting three more surveys this year. We will be looking for feedback from students, parents, and teachers about our STEM Program. This data will be used to help make the decision about keeping the STEM rotation as a permanent class.
Additional Documentation STEM Student Survey - Google Forms.pdf1.7 Student/Parent Feedback Data
1.7 Student/Parent Feedback Data
Our recent Parent survey show our parents are excited and supportive of STEM education. Our Students have also demonstrated their interest in STEM by their work in the classroom and their attendance to extracurricular STEM activities/family nights. 86% of our parents surveyed stated that STEM education should be a top priority in their child's education.
Below you will find a link to the responses we received from our most recent Parent Survey:
Additional Documentation Parent STEM Survey - Google Forms.pdfAdditional Documentation: We have pushed this survey out on our social media platforms and our website multiple times. The plan is to complete a similar survey every year. We have looked at the responses and used this data when talking to community partners about the importance of STEM. This data has also been helpful when securing funds from grants and donations. This data also helped us form our STEM plan and justify our pursuit of certification. Our STEM team has looked over the results and shared them with their grade level teams.
Our current teacher evaluation tool is a modified RISE model. As you look through the attached rubric it is written to encourage student collaboration and other STEM concepts.
As teachers are asked to complete STEM lessons for their long observations.
Our STEM team has plans to add more STEM specific language to this rubric in the future. Domain 2 on the current Rubric is where instruction is being evaluated. The Effective and Highly effective categories are very dependent on student interest, Inquiry, Exploration, Problem Solving and accessibility.
Additional Documentation Indiana Teacher Effectiveness Rubric 2.0.pdfCurrently we use the Core Professionalism aspect of the evaluation tool to document STEM compliance. The teachers would lose a full point on their evaluation for failure to meet these expectations. The images below show evaluations/observations with notations about STEM instruction. We have utilized our STEM Grants to offer professional development to target STEM instruction.
Book Studies including one on STEM Road Map By Carla C. Johnson, Erin E. Peters-Burton, and Tamara J. Moore are available to all teachers and administrators. Teachers receive PGP points based on their responses/reflections over the text. Equitable Education Solutions offers several summaries and book study tools to drive professional development. Here are a few examples of their materials below. The administration also participated in the book study as part of their training in STEM Instruction.
Additional Documentation STEM-Road-Map.pptxAdditional Documentation STEM-Road-Map-Summary.docx1.9 Instructional Support
1.9 Instructional Support
Additional Documentation: Teacher observation and coaching are aligned with the Rise Evaluation System. Teachers are expected to demonstrate STEM concepts during their observations. The principal uses these observations to provide coaching and feedback to teachers. STEM is one our main focus points during these talks. 100% of the teaching staff is affected by this process.
Two teachers attended Project Lead the Way training over the summer. They shared their new STEM ideas during STEM Team meetings and in a full staff meeting. 100% of the teaching staff attended these sessions.
Our Technology Director is on the HECC Board and attends their yearly conference. He meets with teachers throughout the year and has provided professional development during our August and November staff meetings. 100% of the teaching staff attended these sessions.
Each grade level has a representative on the STEM Team. These representatives act as mentors to their grade level teams.
Our grade level teams also meet with our technology director quarterly to discuss supports and needs. The teachers also meet with a representative of Equitable Education Solutions twice a year to work on developing STEM Lessons and strategies.
As a district we have access to https://k12boost.com/ , Project Lead the Way, and Pyxis for research and training purposes. We have utilized Pyxis as a way to encourage our teachers to learn more about STEM while earning PGP points. 100% of the teaching staff has access to these STEM resources.
1.10 STEM Communications
1.10 STEM Communications
Instagram: eastsidelancers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Edinburgh-Community-School-Corporation
Social media is used to push out STEM info and projects as often as possible. STEM projects and stories are also shared via the Teacher's weekly newsletters and the Principal's monthly newsletter.
1.11 Equity
1.11 Equity
All classrooms are incorporating STEM into their day. Our STEM Lab is used by all students in a rotational bases. This picture depicts our Essential Skills Class conducting a STEM lesson with pumpkins. Our STEM activities are protected from being interrupted by our RTI pull out and other services.
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