South Effingham Middle School teachers are given weekly scheduled planning time to develop new and exciting STEA²M experiences for our students. These collaborative opportunities begin with our weekly PLC (Professional Learning Community) which includes Data Team meetings followed by STEA2M planning and/or professional development led by our STEA2M Coach and other building leaders. Grade level teachers consistently plan together, so that lessons are integrated across the curriculum and are uniform to create equitable learning opportunities for all students. Teachers have had many opportunities for professional development with presenters like Sally Creel (Sally Creel - Cobb County STEM Coordinator) and Allison Morgan (GADOE - STEM/STEAM Program Specialist) and conferences that can provide STEA2M resources. We have also received professional development through our partnership with Discovery Education as well. 

We have multiple community partners but plan to continue reaching out to collaborate with more partners who can assist us in making our program more successful in solving real-world problems. The partners have helped provide the best opportunity for our students and teachers.  Georgia Southern University Center for STEM Education works to provide our school with materials to sustain and implement our efforts towards STEA²M learning.  This program allows our teachers to have access to various materials without having to purchase materials to make our STEA2M program successful.  Our 7th graders have worked closely with Blake Carter with the UGA Extension to prepare a large area at HoneyRidge for a future pumpkin patch.  They have also had Warnell School of Forestry, Gail Westcot, teach them about collecting data on the vegetation in a specific area at Honey Ridge while Wayne Harris from Wildlife Biologist at US Fish and Wildlife Service has discussed researching to turn these areas into pollinators.  Atlantic Waste provided a monetary donation and also provided knowledge about recycling to our 8th-grade recycling program. DNR also worked with our 8th-grade students to gather data on what fish are in the two ponds located on the property so that we can grow the population to hold a community fishing tournament for children. Students and teachers were amazed at how the DNR could "shock" the pond to count the population of the various fish species. 

We have implemented a random walkthrough that provides teachers feedback on visible learning, the other goal that teachers set at the beginning of the year, and the use of the 4Cs in their classroom.  We have also completed a STEM Classroom Observation Quicktool adding our 4Cs that will be used in the future.  The walkthroughs assess many areas of a classroom lesson.  After observation, the classroom teacher will be able to reflect upon the lesson using the Observation checklist.

The STEA2M PLC serves as a time for teachers to share lessons, reflect on lessons, create new lessons, and analyze evidence to help support our students' learning more effectively.  The STEA2M coach is at every PLC to assist with helping the teachers with their needs during the PLC.  The teachers also host one STEA2M Club meeting each year which shows that our teachers are dedicated to our STEA2M program.  This club has continued to be a successful after-school program for our students.  The STEA2M Club consists of 54 students who attend monthly after school.  The afterschool program provides more opportunities for students to participate in STEA2M activities that support the implementation of STEA2M .

The support for our staff will continue through the weekly PLC STEA2M planning and professional development.  The STEM Classroom Observation Quicktool adding our 4Cs will continue to be used to help provide more feedback to our teachers.  This is a great way to ensure that our STEA2M process is data-driven. 

Each week all teachers at South Effingham Middle School meet with their content teams to reflect on the instructional strategies from the past week and to plan for the upcoming week. They discuss the standards they taught, the strategies they used, and the effectiveness of those strategies. They work together to analyze assessment data and determine what instructional strategies work best and how their instruction can continue to be improved. This includes sharing strategies, discussing learning targets and success criteria, and discussion of interdisciplinary projects and project-based learning. They also determine the priority standards and the skills and content required to master them and set goals for mastery.

South Effingham Middle School evaluates the effectiveness of our STEA2M program on student learning and development through school improvement and surveys from our parents, students, and teachers. The data that was collected was shared during our STEA2M PLC meetings.  As a whole school, we provided feedback during the PLC meeting to make adjustments to the STEA2M program based on the data from the surveys. Surveys were completed by staff, students, parents, and other stakeholders. 

Professional Learning Communities

• PLC 22-23 

• PLC 23-24 

• PLC 24-25

Project Based learning

6th Grade PBL 22-23 

7th Grade PBL 22-23 

8th Grade PBL 22-23 

6th Grade PBL 23-24 

6th Grade Agenda 23-24

7th Grade Agenda 23-24 

7th Grade PBL 23-24

8th Grade Agenda 

8th Grade PBL 23-24