Impact Narrative:     

 

Our leadership team and educators place value on protected collaboration and planning time. Educators have a common planning period five days a week, including one day of protected team planning, and another day for Professional Learning Communities (PLC),  with instructional support members (STEAM, Gifted & Talented, Student Support Team). Kindergarten through 5th grade teachers have forty minutes of planning, and our 6th-8th teachers have 90 minutes of daily planning. By giving our educators opportunities to collaborate and check in with one another throughout the day, teachers work together to plan and prepare high-quality STEAM learning activities. Consistent teaching is then provided across grade levels.

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During full-day professional development, we provide in-house teacher-driven professional development. Educator surveys are sent out, as our professional development sessions are based on trends and data in an effort to authentically inform teacher areas of growth. The results of the survey allow us to provide professional development in STEAM-content specific areas, on topics such as unpacking the Fine Arts Georgia Standards of Excellence, the design thinking process, project-based learning, and technology integration.

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To support our scholars becoming problem-solvers and innovators, we also formed a STEAM Leadership Team. Using the design thinking process, we conduct empathy interviews and define problems, then ideate, prototype, and test ways to tackle school-wide issues. For example, we used the design process to tackle benchmark assessments by examining the effectiveness of more traditional assessments in comparison to performance tasks as a means to assessing scholar's depth of knowledge. We plan to increase our use of performance tasks in the 22-23 school year. 

 

As we have worked towards STEAM certification, the importance of collaboration, not just among grade levels but also throughout the school and community, has become a key component to the overall growth of our STEAM program. 

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Program Strengths:

• Weekly Team Collaborative Planning Meetings

• Bi-weekly PBL/STEAM and PL Sessions

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Initiatives/Actions:

Buck Institute PBL School-wide Training, SY 22-23​

CEISMC, Georgia Tech Design Thinking Process PD, SY 22-23

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Artifacts:​

First Grade Team Collaborative Planning Agenda and Notes

6th Grade Team Collaborative Planning Agenda and Notes

STEAM Journal PL Session

Georgia Tech University’s GoSTEAM Grant

Professional Development Survey-PBL

PBL Professional Development Survey Data

Professional Development Survey-STEAM

STEAM Professional Development Survey Data

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