One of the best parts of this project is that it has given me the opportunity to use my old Blogger account to share some of my thoughts about STEAM education.
Before I became a teacher, I was a journalist, so it was natural for me to use Blogger to share the events of the day with the parents of my students.
Before I left school
Using Feedburner, it was set up that the posts would be emailed to all subscribers at 5:00pm. The parents loved this communication, as they had a very good understanding of what we were doing in the classroom each day and it helped them to start conversations at the dinner table with their children.
No longer did parents ask, "What did you do today?" with a student response of "Nothing." With the information I provided each night, parents were able to ask specific questions about the student's learning each day and engage in rich conversation. It was a lot of work for, but it was definitely worth it.
STEAM activities can also seem like a lot of work for teachers. As mentioned in my presentation, teachers can often feel insecure and overwhelmed by the focus on STEAM education and require training to increase their confidence in their ability to create and assess meaningful Science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics activities. It is hard work to create innovative and exciting tasks for the students, but the payoff is immense.
When students have the opportunity to collaborate with each other to complete STEAM activities, true deep learning takes place. The students are not just memorizing facts, they are creating products and solving problems, developing critical thinking skills that will help them in their future careers. It is vital that we help students develop these skills through solving Math problems, coding activities and science workshops because many of our students will be working in fields that do not currently exist. We can't prepare students with the specific skills needed for these future occupations, so it is important that we help them develop a diverse skill set that will serve them well in many fields.
As a parent, I am thrilled when my daughter's teachers engage the students in a variety of STEAM challenges because I know how much she enjoys them and is motivated by these tasks. Simply put, incorporating STEAM activities is a best practice for teachers because they result in more engaged students who are excited about their learning journey.
Thanks for your time.
Craig Skinner
