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Welcome, it is so great to meet you!
Your school wants to be able to say they are doing STEM, so now you have been tasked with making that happen.
Or maybe you have done the pinterest STEM/STEAM activities, and you know they are fun, but you just can’t give up any more time from your real curriculum for this stuff.
Maybe you are tired, burnt out, or overwhelmed with this new STEM/STEAM thing and just need some help.
Maybe you googled “how to hit more standards per lesson” or “student-led learning” and landed here.
Or maybe, like me, you have some amazing lessons, but they just feel like they could be better.
Or you are tired of hearing the sound of your own voice, while your students keep asking “Who cares? It’s just a bunch of old, dead guys. When will we ever need or use this!?”
We all know that students learn better when they are engaged in active learning.
We all know that deep, meaningful, student-led lesson plans take much longer to create, and we are all way too busy already.
Do you enjoy watching students make real-world connections to the material across the curriculum, get excited to see how they can change their world for the better, and step into their agency confidently prepared for their future!? Me too! It is food for my tired, worn teacher heart! I live for these ah-ha moments too!
I loved seeing my students come to class excited to get to work on our projects in our classroom. I got excited to see them learning new things, hard things. I loved to watch them learn things that other teachers would tell me, “they will never be able to do that, they are barely passing math/science/english..” I loved the lightbulbs coming on, the creative ideas they shared with me, and the hard work they put into their learning.
I loved going to work everyday in those classes. But can I be real? It was exhausting to create these projects for them. To invent new, creative ideas for them to investigate. So don’t reinvent the wheel, let me help. I have projects I have already written, and I will happily share them with you. I learned how to write these projects, using materials from the dollar store (because I had no budget), and whatever technology we had laying around/could borrow/was free. Let me share the knowledge I learned the hard way.
You are so tired you made coffee without the grounds or the car behind you honking woke you up in the drive through… been there; you dream of having a life outside work because you can’t recall the last time you sat on your couch and didn’t have a laptop or stack of papers next to you… seriously I just want to relax; and Netflix has been calling your name for days…but you end up missing half the episode because you were reading your 600th essay about Native Americans or Trig identities… Give yourself a break, grab your favorite drink; and grab one of my premade, ready to roll out (once you buy some supplies), fully integrated Social Studies & STEAM lessons. I am a History nerd aka Social studies teacher at heart, who was reading and writing in my classroom long before I had standards for it. I have always loved science, technology, and ELA and integrated as much of their standards as possible in my classroom, because it helped my students. I wrote projects to show off their strengths, and designed assessments to help them show me what they actually knew. STEAM gave me more reasons to integrate more of their voices in my classroom. I fell instantly in love. Come see what I have to offer for your Social Studies or STEAM classes today!
So let’s be real. When you have been teaching for longer than a year, you have seen some shifts in education. Terms may change, but it is basically the same ideas with bright new bows and paper, am I right? I haven’t met a quality educator yet, who wasn’t 100% trying to make their students’ lives better. But, we can be resistant to change at times, especially when it shows up as a demand or has no visible value. I am not trying to sell you some new shiny thing. I am not trying to tell you everything you are doing wrong. I KNOW that you are an amazing teacher, if you are even considering this option. Integrated STEM/STEAM doesn’t have to be hard or complicated, it doesn’t have to take hours to build or write, and it doesn’t require you to change everything about what you are already doing. You can make a few simple tweaks, and be well on your way! You don’t need 3D printers, expensive software, coding skills, or a degree in engineering to make this happen in your classroom. I taught integrated STEAM to preschoolers all the way up to seniors in high school. Has a three year old ever explained if then else statements to you over animal cookies? They can. I used picture books and simple, cheap, easily accessible supplies to teach STEAM for years, and so can you no matter your age group or content area!
I have loved computers since we got our first one in 1993. I still wax nostalgic when I hear the dial-up tones. You totally just heard them, didn’t you?!?? Be honest, now lol. I miss the sound of “you’ve got mail”, and AIM away messages. I still love technology. I have been hooked on building websites, since I built my first one in Educational Technology class in college. We were writing straight html back then and saving on zip drives, unless you were lucky enough to be in the new lab with the cdr drives. Ah, the good old days. I used dreamweaver, frontpage, joomla, wix, weebly, google sites, and WordPress… and some straight html and CSS mixed with java sites. Did any of that mean anything to you, or maybe all you heard was what my husband calls, “techie, techie, techie”? If your answer is no, send me an email right now! I will build you a customized website, that is easy for you to use, and reflects who you are. We will do it together! So you don’t have a logo or coding experience or colors or any of “the things”, I can totally help you with that!
So I guess I should officially introduce myself. I am a wife, Mama to three, and have a slight coffee addiction; although I can’t drink it past noon or I am up all night. I love reading, crocheting, gardening, video games, and creating new stuff with my laptop. I am a perennial introvert, I like to stay behind the scenes and work in small groups.
I have two degrees. One in secondary education and one in History. I have taught every age group from six week old infants to adults. Can I tell you a secret? The same skill set works on every age group. I have written a curriculum for every age group I have ever worked with, so my background is a bit diverse. I adore social studies. I love learning about new people, places and cultures. I fell in love with STEM, and implementing more projects and student centered learning. I was trained at the University of Notre Dame in the Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows program and graduated as a Senior Fellow.
I live with my husband, three kids, two dogs, and three cats. Well two kids, our oldest is an adult and moved out. My oldest sings, my middle kiddo plays drums and the baritone, and the youngest plays violin. Our animals tend to be rescues, and are also a weird mix.
We LOVE nature. We camp several times a year, because we feel more at peace in the cathedral of the mountains. We tent camp, with no electricity or cell service, in our favorite state park. Do you have one? Not everyone enjoys camping, so if it isn’t your thing… it’s cool. It is a wonderful, quiet week. We also love to play board games, card games, and read as a family. We love music, rollercoasters, swimming, and museums.
I love watching documentaries, true crime, crime shows, fantasy shows. I prefer reading historical books, mysteries, and fantasy/sci-fi. I am an eclectic mix of nerd, scholar, geek, and homesteader. I make soap, lotions, lip balms, and love to can our vegetables we grow in our backyard. My yard doesn’t look big enough for the amount of food we grow in it, so Unexpected Homestead was born. It sounds so cliché, but I have always had a nearly insatiable curiosity about nearly everything. I am excited to get to know you!
I also have a great program for you. I was trained at the University of Notre Dame, in their Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows program. If you are looking for quality PD that will legitimately change your life in the classroom, check them out! https://stemeducation.nd.edu/trustey
