First stop on my sabbatical journey....the endless professional development options offered through Remake Learning. The first set of sessions I attended were held at South Fayette School District. South Fayette has had a vision for years directed at creating a STEAM environment for their students. The district did not just invest in their physical buildings and talk about STEAM, but has embraced this movement or rather philosophy, district-wide. I can't tell you how excited I was to attend these sessions!
Most of the classes I attended were at their new Intermediate School. The first thing that completely knocked my socks off was their STEAM room. The tables were all on casters with whiteboard tops. Their "Wonder Wall" was the ideal space for students to brainstorm, create a vision, and revise this idea based on their experiences. The organization of all things needed for STEAM was incredible.....and this was just the front room! In the back "Collaboration Room" area, was yet another separate space for students to work through ideas collaboratively. Now, here is the best part; this was just 1 of 3 "STEAM Rooms" in this building! They were all on different floors, located in the very heart of the floor and school. It was not hard to imagine the focus of this district for their students and/or visitors.
If I have learned anything recently, it is that STEAM can mean, depending on the school district and teacher, different things. It can be the simple integration of a STEAM component such as Bee Bots, Puzzlets, Dot & Dash Robots, etc. Lessons in coding can appear in a classroom, or as a standard required curriculum for specific grade level(s). However, at South Fayette, their STEAM curriculum incorporates computational thinking across many curricular areas, beginning right in Kindergarten. I learned about their incorporation of "Habits of Mind" as well as Visual Thinking Strategies. After 7 days my head was literally swirling with new ideas not only from the wonderful teachers at South Fayette, but also from the connections I made with many other educators from schools across Pennsylvania!
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