- Campbell STEM Elementary
- Overview
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Leadership for STEM Learning
Campbell STEM’s leadership team (STEM Foundations) shares expectations for learning with staff, students, and families. STEM program expectations include leading the way and providing mentoring. STEM professionals have provided learning opportunities for students and staff throughout the year. Staff have been provided with professional development to dive deep in data checking for students' academic growth. Professional Learning communities (PLC) have been developed and monitored by the PLC leadership team. Campbell STEM staff have received guidance in the PLC process for creating units of studies with common assessments and reflective practices occurring over common assessments. Professional development occurs in many forms, such as a book study, PLC planning process, new staff mentoring program, and whole staff meetings that have occurred throughout the school year. External learning opportunities are provided through the district's My Learning Plan program and the local university. These opportunities include bringing in professionals to support learning in STEM, math, Reading, etc. A school-wide PLC planning framework established the monitoring of STEM and grade-level standard instruction benefiting student learning.
Campbell STEM Foundations and PLC teams work together to establish and support the Campbell STEM school culture. School-wide systems are academically focused with a high emphasis on social and emotional frameworks. These occur throughout the day and in all settings. The STEM Foundations team gets feedback and then focuses the meeting on opportunities for growth across the school. Our school receives funding and donations from Community School Business Partners and PTA. Donations include items, funding, and volunteering of time and skills. Campbell STEM staff provides opportunities outside of school hours. These opportunities include after-school tutoring, Indigenous education, STEM CITC FabLab, Innovators STEM Club, Lego Robotics, etc. Campbell STEM benefits positively from these experiences and the donations from our School Business Partners and PTA.
STEM education is a high priority at Campbell STEM Elementary. Staff are dedicated and seek opportunities for growth and continued education through many facets outside of school hours, thus providing students with a rigorous and engaging learning environment. Training opportunities have included the PLC symposium, Reading symposium, i-Ready Math symposium, summer PBIS training, book studies, etc. The information is shared with staff during professional development days, staff meetings, and during PLC time. Grade-level teams work together weekly during PLC meetings creating STEM units of studies and sharing teaching and learning knowledge and experiences. An example is 2nd grade working together to teach grade-level standards with STEM instruction while learning about the Iditarod. The team established the power standard, developed formative and summative assessments, and planned instruction. After each assessment, the team discussed the results and next steps. A cross-grade level example is 1st and 4th grade working together to create a unit of study in Life Science focused on agriculture. The lessons included identifying parts of plants, life cycle, growth, purposes of plants, etc. Working in collaboration benefits all of the Campbell STEM environment.
All staff work in collaboration during PLC’s is important in developing a successful STEM program. Campbell STEM’s District approved proposal provides the school with the freedom to focus on STEM instruction while teaching state standards. The STEM Foundations Team (Leadership Team) includes a representative from school grade-level bands, specialists, preschool, special education, the counselor, and the principal. This ensures all staff have a member that ensures their perspective is presented, and their voice is heard as it relates to the schools mission and vision. Other staff members lead additional school programs such as ELL, Migrant Education, Indigenous Education, MTSS, and PBIS. The student STEM Council has the opportunity to discuss the school climate and provide feedback to the STEM Foundations team. This provides the STEM Foundations team with the opportunity to hear student views when making decisions.
Campbell STEM’s mission is to “Support, Teach, Empower, and Motivate.” Students and staff are taught that all stakeholders can do the following:
- They can support each other,
- They can teach each other,
- They can empower each other, and
- They can motivate each other.
This process can be student led, as students can support, teach, empower, and motivate staff members and peers.
In May 2024, the STEM Foundations Team will identify professional development goals for next year. In addition, we will be establishing a plan of professional development for the next 2–5 years, focusing on inquiry-based learning, units of study, and STEM training. The Campbell STEM staff will commit to continuing to establish relationships with our stakeholders and Community School Business Partners by ensuring that they are included in the continued growth of Campbell STEM Elementary practices and policy planning and implementation.