Over the years, the STEM Team and Coordinator have had the ability to attend and/or host many professional developments. Professional development (PD) is part of our school’s culture.  It is one that is outlined in our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP).  Many of the professional developments are centered around STEM initiatives that can be useful for classroom instruction and enhancement of lessons.  One such professional development was entitled, STEM/STEAM Lunch and Learn, where educators learned about creating and/or designing a Bitmoji classroom.  Another professional development was entitled, STEM/STEAM Microsoft Sessions.  In that session, the focus was learning how to navigate inside of Microsoft Teams, and using breakout rooms.  In order to prepare for recertification, meetings featuring members of the COGNIA Team to assist us during this process, was very helpful.  STEM/STEAM Effective Journals are some that we have been privileged to attend.   While others professional development courses were not STEM specific, they were such that they could cross over into the STEM class.  Those PDs were were content specific such as, Using Technology in the Math Classroom." Some examples of STEM initiative crossover include Technology Integration, Microsoft sessions, Practice Engaging Student in a Virtual Space, or Understanding Mathematical Representations – Success for ALL Learners; again, naming some.  Both are effective for use in the STEM classes. A STEM Coordinator's role is to ensure members on their team have access to and are made aware of any professional developments that may be useful.  It is important to bring something useful to every monthly STEM Meets meeting. We have a variety of professional developments because like our students, we all have different modalities of learning styles.  To appeal to all, some other professional developments included Interdisciplinary Planning, Prosthetics Hand Design activities, and creating a Digital Storybook.  All or most of the professional developments were designed for teachers to be able to take what they learned back into the classroom and implement them with students in the STEM classes.  This is a marked standard for the STEM Team and a non-negotiable for educators.  We are fortunate to be saturated with STEM professional learning opportunities. We either attend sessions as a group or individually. Some of the many opportunities we have had are as follows:

 

DeKalb County School System Jotting in Journals Workshop

DeKalb County School District STEM Academy

DeKalb County School District STEMisLit

Digital Dreamers

Digital Instruction

GTRI Series

SeaPerch Workshop/Training

STEM/STEAM Lunch and Learn Series

STEM Leads Synchronous

Technology (Chromebooks in the Classroom, Engaging with Launchpad, Digital Literacy and Citizenship)

Technology Integration

Zoo Atlanta