My STREAM Endeavor

I began teaching middle school mathematics August 2017. It was a big undertaking as I was teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math. I remember prepping the summer before the year began, each day hours upon hours of prep. Should I do interactive notebooks? Should we focus on Math Labs? It was overwhelming to say the least! I am proud to say I survived!

I like to think I am a little bit wiser now on the other side. I definitely have had some amazing lessons and some serious flops. The biggest things that was driving me was to get the students not to be scared of the math. I quickly noticed that many of my students were simply scared to get the wrong answer. They had ben constantly graded on correctness which led to their ultimate downfall when the math become increasingly more difficult. I focused all of my efforts on making sure students were TRYING to understand the material rather than worrying if the end was correct.

Throughout my constant reading and obsessing about trying to reach these kiddos STREAM and STEm continued to appear in all of my findings. It was quickly clear, I needed to get these kids thinking like problem solvers. I did not want them to fear mistakes, I wanted them to realize it was about LEARNING from those mistakes. That's what made them true life long learners.

A new goal formulated to engage students with STREAM tasks! My first attempt will be an end of the year problem solving competition. My 6th graders will be building hotels to withstand an earthquake, my 7th graders will be building linear function roller coasters and the marble must "survive", and my 8th graders will be building actual floating cruise liners.

Am I in over my head? Absolutely! Do I care? Not one bit! This is how we grow as educators. How can we expect students to take a leap and to try if we don't do so ourselves? We push growth mindset, we push grit. We must practice what we preach! Embrace the unknown and dive in!

I will keep you posted with pictures, lesson activity templates and more!

Wish me luck!

Shine On ⭐️