Full steam ahead for STEAM Tracks!

Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office has been the recipient of $583K SSAE grant to create an internal structure and facilitation of professional development for TK-8 teachers in all elements of STEAM while fully infusing working artists into each classroom of a participating teacher.

Sixty-one teachers have joined this grant. Their learning opportunities are extensive: this spring participants are completing an online digital STEAM conference with both live and breakout sessions and local artists completing residencies in each classroom. Participants are also attending monthly meetings focusing on the exploration of arts, art standards, and arts integration; a two-week summer institute in which the teacher participants become the students and actively learn both college-level pedagogy in STEM curriculum from our local college community college instructors and learn strategies for adapting the curriculum for their grade level. The institute will focus on all components of STEAM with the first week engaging participants in science, engineering, and math practices. The second week will infuse art with direct instruction and immersion in nature journaling and project-based learning to bring the natural sciences, math, and engineering to life.

Living in a rural area, teachers are often the only grade level teacher at their school. This grant allows our participants to collaborate with teachers from other sites to create a learning sequence integrating the elements of STEAM. This collaboration gives our community of one-school districts the opportunity to communicate and engage in meaningful conversations to further the goals of SSAE: providing students a well-rounded education. Our goal is to inspire teachers to instruct students in a manner that will actively engage them in learning the principles of STEAM.