Starting Steam STEAM

Ruby

Starting Steam STEAM

I have been wanting to run a STEAM elective for a long time. I have always wanted to run one STEAM elective in particular, it’s called Steam STEAM. It is a STEAM elective where you learn all about water vapor and it’s uses. I got the opportunity to run this elective when I was talking with some of my friends. We were talking about starting STEAM and lit electives. That's when I brought up Steam STEAM and my friend, Jackie got really excited about it, so we teamed up.  

Jackie and I got straight to work on making this elective happen. So we went to Anne Marie get permission to make this new STEAM elective come to life. Anne Marie said that our idea was good, but we needed to find a staff member to supervise it, so we did. Most staff members already had an elective that they were supervising so we had to get creative. Jim (the head of school) was walking by so we asked him to help us. He said he could and we just needed to check with Joanne. Jackie and I went to Joanne office and set up a meeting for next snack.

 The next day rolled around and we talked to Jim. It was a shockingly short and easy meeting. We started the meeting by telling him that we needed a teacher supervisor every Friday during STEAM elective time. When we told Jim this, he took out his computer and checked something then he told us, that he could supervise. Jackie and I were very glad to hear this so we thanked Jim and went back to tell Anne Marie. We were excited when we told her we found a supervisor. Anne Marie said that we were good to go, and we needed to announce our STEAM elective at middle school meeting. 

We were in middle school meeting listening to other STEAM elective ideas when we heard our names called, so Jackie and I both stood up. The entire middle school turned to face us. I got kind of uneasy because I hadn't really planned on what we're going to say. Our brief description was enthusiastic and unorganized which made it easy for people to not take us seriously. despite people not taking us seriously they still signed up.

Our first class snuck up on us we weren't expecting it to be the same week that we announced it, so we were caught off guard. Jackie and I had to think of something fast we were getting really nervous. Since we have done no research, our only option was to teach something that we already knew. The one thing that me and my friend can both teach is art, so we decided our first class was going to be a steam related art project. So we made a short slide deck in advisory introducing Steam STEAM  and the art project.

Now had to actually teach the class. Right after assembly, Jackie and I went up to our classroom. While my friend set up the projector, I went out into the hallway to get our students lined up. This is hard because I was teaching the class that I was the same age as the students. It was difficult to get them to listen to me, but eventually I did get them lined up.

 Once they were lined up we took them inside of a classroom. Jackie and I stood next to the TV with our short slide presentation on it. I began to introduce the class and what steam STEAM was about. While I was talking the students seemed to be decently well-behaved, and no one did anything outrageous, which I thought was a success. 

When I was done introducing Steam STEAM, Jackie began to introduce the art project. It was very open-ended project where the students could draw whatever they wanted as long as it related to steam. While the students were drawing Jackie and I went over to the corner and discussed how we were going to run this class because we haven't really discussed it before.  we had determined that the next class was going to be about the steam engine because that was relatively easy to research and teach, and we needed something easier to introduce us to teaching. When class was over and all the students had finished their drawings we told them to clean up and they were dismissed. This went smoothly the class generally went well and Jackie and I were impressed. We were both so excited for our next class.