STEM Interview

STEM teachers have been trying their best this year to teach kids life skills. These skills require Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. One of the teachers for STEM is Mrs. Winfrey. I asked her what her favorite STEM is, she said that her favorite is the passive housing unit! She said that STEM is all about hands-on activities and about working as a team to solve problems. These are both interest areas for the students and in engagement. I asked Mrs. Winfrey how she keeps students engaged during any long lectures. Mrs. Winfrey said that STEM does not require a lot of lectures because it requires hands-on activities more. She said, "We will typically go through some general instruction from what we are doing for the day, and then the students will get to work with their groups." This shows that STEM is using different types of management to help kids use their time wisely and get their things done. I asked her the types of teaching methods she prefers and why she prefers them. She said that for STEM specifically, she prefers hands-on and student-led. She also said that it is cool to see students come up with solutions to problems and then have to build or create something that helps answer that problem. The thing that she thinks is the most important thing that STEM teachers can do that will help their students succeed is to give them the basic instructions and then let the students take over with the thoughts and creativity that they come up with. If a student is struggling with something she said that they will look over the concept again together and she will try to rephrase it in a way that will make more sense to them. After she does that she says that she might point to their research in a certain direction to help them gain more understanding or to have them talk it out with their group. One of the questions that I asked her was how long she has been teaching STEM. She said that this is her first year teaching STEM and that she has previously taught life science classes which consist of biology, anatomy, and Earth science before she came to Raymond Central. When asked what a STEM teacher does she said that they give general guidance and introduction to concepts before they hand a majority of the work over to the students and that they will conduct their own research, brainstorm, design, build, and test all of their own projects based on the problem given. She said that she's there to provide some guidance, act as a sounding board for ideas, and make sure that everyone is safe and involved within their groups. When I asked her what makes a good STEM teacher she said that it is having the ability to give control over to the students to explore on their own while still providing the support that they will need.