Standard 2

Standard 2: STEM educators collaborate to develop, implement, and improve high quality STEM Learning activities.

In the field of education, we know that no man is an island. Collaboration among educators is a valued commodity at our school. Numerous research articles conclude that collaboration positively influences the entire school community and has a positive effect on students’ academic achievements. This is especially true in the area of STEAM.

Childersburg Elementary teachers meet with the administrator, the Dynamic Learning Project Coach, and the Instructional Partner to collaborate and plan PBL's prior to school starting. Teachers collaborate monthly as a grade level during common planning time to develop, analyze, and improve STEAM activities. Teachers have attended PBL 101 as well as local school professional development to strengthen their skills in the creation of these projects. Grade level teachers combine their educational experience and use organizers such as a Collaborative Project Planning organizer as they create at least three to four yearly PBLs that maximize the use of STEAM activities. They also bring completed rubrics and student work samples to analyze and use to reassess the needs of their students and revise their lesson plans. With a collaborative effort from all teachers, student learning is maximized.

Some teachers had the opportunity to participate in Talladega County’s STEAM Cohorts. These cohorts were a component of the Math and Science Partnership Grant that Talladega County received in conjunction with the University of Montevallo and AMSTI. These cohorts provided participants with opportunities to take part in a variety of STEAM-focused professional development activities including, but not limited to, coding, robotics, computer science, and computational thinking. It was through this professional development that teachers were able to take a hands-on approach to learning in order to internalize the ideology of STEAM and how it translates into their courses. Our teachers brought their learning back to school to teach their colleagues and plan engaging lessons for students. Talladega County School District is one of three districts in the nation to participate in the research and development of a curriculum focused on computational thinking skills. One teacher from each school is chosen to participate in the development of professional learning for teachers in our district. This group of teachers is called Experts Down the Hall.

Strengths

Our educators have strong support within our school throughout planning, creating, implementing, evaluating, and improving their STEAM learning experiences. We are focusing on providing opportunities for developing computational thinking.

Sustainability

The quality of activities by our teachers have improved over the years. Our teachers have become more confident in incorporating STEAM in the classroom and will continue to have dedicated time to plan with fellow teachers and learning partners. CES also remains committed to providing our educators with strong support structures for all aspects of their STEAM implementation.

Continuous Improvement

While we have used agendas to focus our whole school, DLP Coach, and IP meetings, we believe that we could improve the structure of our grade level meetings. To get the best results from our grade level collaboration, action lists could be prepared prior to the meetings and anecdotal notes taken during the meeting. We think it would also be beneficial to increase the frequency of student self-assessments in order to monitor effectiveness. Additionally, we would like to begin a school wide initiative to create and maintain student STEAM portfolios. These portfolios would serve as evidence of students’ mastery of the intended outcomes as well as provide data for analysis and refinement.