Dear Henderson Mill Community,

Many of our new families and even some of our returning ones often ask me what STEAM looks like at HMES. This, in itself, is a great question, because STEAM and STEM can often look different at different schools. There are many levels of STEAM/STEM that we do at HMES. All seek to integrate math and science standards into engineering, the arts, and often involve technology as well.

Students who are engaging in what the Department of Education calls Major STEAM are actively involved in a 6-8 week project-based learning (PBL) activity. These PBLs are centered around a global problem or question that students are working to solve locally. Last year some of these PBLs addressed questions around reducing plastic and Styrofoam waste, minimizing the effect of erosion, supporting the habitat for the monarch butterflies, or solving world hunger. Each grade level will participate in 2 of these lengthier projects annually.

These lengthier PBLs will be complimented by additional Minor STEAM activities. These may be day-long or week-long (or somewhere in between) activities where students use a particular technology or solve a particular problem, all the while integrating standards from the other STEAM areas.

Another layer to STEAM at HMES is our involvement with our business partner, the Alliance Theatre. Now in its fourth year, this partnership started with four kindergarten classrooms and, this year, will be present throughout all Kindergarten-5 th grade classrooms. What does the Alliance do at HMES? Teaching artists from the Alliance allocate roughly 10 hours per classroom at each grade level over the course of a semester, working with our students and teachers. We love this type of professional learning at HMES. It is similar to our coaching model that Ms. Mize and Ms. Tieman use in their work with our teachers, and it mirrors what we do every summer in our Summer Institute. Through this direct modeling, our teachers gain proficiency in a new skill, in this, using drama to teach and evaluate knowledge and skills learned in the core content subjects (ELA, Math, Sci, and SS). Simultaneously, students are learning this knowledge and are learning to use drama as a way to demonstrate their learning. So much is gained through making learning active. It is true learning by doing! Our Alliance partnership kicked off this past week with an initial training session for our 3rd -5th grade teachers. Our upper grades students will be working with our teaching artists very soon. The 3rd -5th grade partnerships will be completed by the end of the 1st semester. Our Kindergarten-2nd grade partnerships will take place during the second semester.

Keep your ears open! Your students will be talking about these experiences very soon. Thank you to our Foundation for supporting the growth of our teachers and students!

To Engaged Learning,

Mitch
Mitch Green
Principal