Episode 512: Integrated Curriculum in a Shared Environment: It's All-Inclusive

Looking to make STEM accessible for all students? Join us in conversation with Abbie Hudson and Lindsey Cook of Harris County School District to learn how!

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Hello Georgia Educators. We invite you into a new episode of Classroom Conversations presented jointly by the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Classroom Conversations is the platform for Georgia's teachers, and I am the woman who gets to participate in this eye-opening teacher talk as your host. I'm Ashley Mengwasser, and right now I want you to go on a mental vacation with me, shall we? I want you to close your eyes unless you are driving, walking or hot tooling your hair, accidents can happen. In all of these scenarios, breathe in and imagine yourselves at a beachy resort. Waves are crashing, water birds diving. Something chilled is in your hand. You feel the juxtaposition of warmth on your face, and you don't even need your wallet as you watch the surf because I'm upping the ante here, this resort vacation, it's all-inclusive. Doesn't that phrase just multiply the goodness? Every experience at an all-inclusive resort is so surprisingly personalized. Have you ever noticed that? There are classrooms like this, classrooms where all students are learning, all students. That's a phrase we'll be repeating today. Where the learning is personalized to the learner. Today, let's explore STEM and STEAM and the shared environment where everyone gets a tailored approach so that STEAM is possible for all students. My guest today makes STEM and STEAM accessible and inclusive for all their students at Pine Ridge Elementary School, part of Harris County Schools in Ellerslie, Georgia. In 2020, Pine Ridge Elementary received STEAM certification from the Georgia Department of Education, including special education students in their presentation to DOE, we're going to hear about that. Teachers Lindsey Cook and Abbie Hudson are classroom neighbors over at Pine. Ridge. Lindsey teaches second and fourth grade resource, which is reading, ELA and Math, special education. And Abbie teaches kindergartners. Both are in the decade club, meaning they've both taught for around 10 years and both have earned their masters. Welcome to the podcast, Lindsey and Abbie, how are you?

Abbie Hudson: Great.

Ashley Mengwasser: Great.

Lindsey Cook: Yeah, we're great. Excited to be here.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm excited to, are you ready for this all-inclusive podcast experience?

Abbie Hudson: Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's what I like to hear. How long have you been teaching special education, Lindsey?

Lindsey Cook: I have been teaching special education for three years now.

Ashley Mengwasser: Three years.

Lindsey Cook: And I taught kindergarten for six.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay. All right, so you had a bit of a past life there.

Lindsey Cook: That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser: How long have you been teaching, Abbie?

Abbie Hudson: I've had 10 years at Pine Ridge, two of them have been in pre-K and the rest in kindergarten.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay. All right, you guys have quite the seasoned gifts in the classroom, we're going to hear about that today. What is something though most people might not know about students at your age or ability level? Tell us something surprising about them. What about for your kindergartners?

Abbie Hudson: I would think that kindergarten students would want people to know that they just want to be kids and want to be little, and they want the fun in school, and to be given those opportunities to explore the world naturally.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's a good tip. Lindsey, what about your special education students?

Lindsey Cook: I think mine, it's important to know that they all learn in different ways.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay.

Lindsey Cook: So having to know the kids well enough to learn how to teach them, and that what they strive off of depends on that.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. You both are so observant of and dedicated to your students. What led you to the classroom to begin with? How'd you get into education? Was it you Abbie who was told you look like a teacher?

Abbie Hudson: I was told by an academic advisor at Columbus State University that you just look like a teacher, and I was like, let's do it.

Ashley Mengwasser: If it were only that easy.

Abbie Hudson: There's something about the face, just the sweet... And then whenever I mentioned that I'm a teacher it's, oh, so it's kindergarten? And yes, I'm just a kindergarten teacher-looking face.

Ashley Mengwasser: Everybody knows, you were destined for it. What about you, Lindsey? What's your story?

Lindsey Cook: I feel like all kids for a long time, teachers are the only career they know, so it was one of those growing up I was like, I want to be a teacher because I know my teachers and I love my teachers. And so then in high school, our high school provided a teacher education program that I went through where we did some observational type things and went into elementary school classes in high school, and I was like, this is what I want to do.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look at you.

Lindsey Cook: And I did it.

Ashley Mengwasser: You found your way.

Lindsey Cook: I found it.

Ashley Mengwasser: Right to this podcast experience. Did you ever know your teaching was going to land you here?

Abbie Hudson: No.

Lindsey Cook: Even walking in, we were like, wow, we're doing this.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, you are. Pinch yourself, you're celebrities. What do you do in your spare time when you're not educator celebrities? Do you have spare time?

Lindsey Cook: Barely. I always say my classroom is my second home, but sometimes my first home. We're there so much, but I have a daughter and I have a dog, so they take up all the rest of my time.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes, the dog in particular, right?

Lindsey Cook: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: What's your dog's name?

Lindsey Cook: His name is Cooper. He's an Aussie doodle, he is much bigger than we anticipated him being, he was only supposed to be about 45 pounds and he is now 68.

Ashley Mengwasser: He is just an overachiever.

Lindsey Cook: He's just full of life too.

Ashley Mengwasser: It sounds busy at your house.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Abbie, what do you do in your spare time?

Abbie Hudson: I'm a mom in my spare time, I have a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old. And bringing just the creativity to childhood in general is I felt like just my hobby. Each summer we have a theme, last year's theme was a Disney theme, and we had Magical Mondays where we virtually rode rides and we had snacks, and just bringing the creativity to my children's childhood.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's awesome.

Abbie Hudson: I love it.

Ashley Mengwasser: You're the one who picked up on kids, just want to be kids and have fun.

Abbie Hudson: Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: So, you're multiplying that spirit at home. Are you maybe a bit of a big kid yourself?

Abbie Hudson: Yes, and in high school, a drama geek.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah.

Abbie Hudson: So, anything that I could add into just the little spark the magic.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, bring the enthusiasm.

Abbie Hudson: That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser: Have either of you ever been on an all-inclusive trip?

Abbie Hudson: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Mengwasser: You have?

Abbie Hudson: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay, tell me about it.

Abbie Hudson: Mine's more of cruises, Disney cruises, there you go.

Ashley Mengwasser: You've been on a Disney cruise?

Abbie Hudson: I've been on a Disney cruise; I've been on a couple.

Ashley Mengwasser: Is it as good as they say?

Abbie Hudson: Oh, it's amazing. It's magical.

Ashley Mengwasser: Did you meet my favorite Princess Belle?

Abbie Hudson: She's my favorite too.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh my gosh.

Abbie Hudson: Yes. No, I didn't get to meet Belle, but I did bump into Cinderella and while I felt awful, she was just very poised and graceful about it.

Ashley Mengwasser: Even with one shoe, she was great.

Abbie Hudson: I didn't check her feet, but...

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay, that is an all-inclusive experience.

Abbie Hudson: Yes, love it.

Ashley Mengwasser: What was that like? Being on a ship and having everything handled? It's all on your ticket fee, so you're not thinking about it, it allows you to vacate, right?

Abbie Hudson: Absolutely.

Lindsey Cook: That's the best thing.

Abbie Hudson: It's calming to know that everything's taken care of and that I don't have to run zero to 100 like I do in the classroom or at home trying to get things done. Everything else is taken care of for me.

Ashley Mengwasser: And what little things, I love an all-inclusive experience, did they tailor just for you? In your cabin?

Abbie Hudson: The little towel animals, making them fun.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, yeah.

Abbie Hudson: When it was one honeymoon, strawberries and the champagne.

Ashley Mengwasser: The Disney cruise was for your honeymoon?

Abbie Hudson: No, a different one.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, okay. I was like interesting honeymoon choice.

Abbie Hudson: That would've been great though.

Ashley Mengwasser: She's been on a bunch of cruises. All right, Lindsey, have you been on an all-inclusive experience?

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: What was yours?

Lindsey Cook: We went to Jamaica. We went to Montego Bay Jamaica in October of 2020 for our honeymoon. And it was a strange situation because it was in the height of COVID.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh yeah.

Lindsey Cook: So, we had to do all the testing and all the paperwork and all that to even get to go. And I will say it was only occupying 20% capacity at the time, so it was real all-inclusive for us.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, yeah, you guys got the extra treatment.

Lindsey Cook: We got a lot of individualized special treatments just because there wasn't that many people there, so it was really amazing.

Ashley Mengwasser: And was it the trip of a lifetime?

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: My point exactly.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: And that education in the classroom can feel like the lesson of the lifetime, the moment of a lifetime for students when you are tailoring to them, and that's what we're going to talk about today. I know that your school is STEM, STEAM certified. I talked about that in the beginning. Your presentation to the DOE was special, tell me how.

Abbie Hudson: I believe it was special because we included all of our students. There was just this warm environment that we have created that welcomed everyone, even the guests that appeared. And I think that was very special to have just that warm, welcoming environment.

Ashley Mengwasser: And I hear that this is unusual to have such a representative experience of your students going and presenting to the DOE, so that's a good milestone. Anything to add there?

Lindsey Cook: I think another thing that made it so special is with the partnerships that we've had within our school for the past several years, kids were used to seeing adults and people in and out of our school, so having these important people did not phase them, no, they were just like, this is every day for us. So it wasn't some special day where it's be on your best behavior, you got to do everything right, because that's what they've been used to. They've been used to all these adults coming in and interacting in partnerships with our school. So it was just a normal day when we had our big certification day.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, a testament to you. They were prepped for such a moment.

Lindsey Cook: Yes, they were.

Ashley Mengwasser: As that-

Abbie Hudson: Whenever you have a kindergartner opening up a door for a very important person and saying, "Welcome to our classroom." A five or a 6-year-old doing that, it is just magical.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, that's a pinch yourself.

Abbie Hudson: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: That is incredible actually, and just the ownership that exemplifies. What was the thought process when your school, Pine Ridge began to include all students? And what do we mean when we say all students?

Lindsey Cook: I think this is a hard question for us because it's always been all-

Ashley Mengwasser: It's always been all.

Lindsey Cook: ... students for us. There's never any separation between our special education kids and our general ed kids. I think it's just everybody, we always say our classroom doors are always rotating because we just have so many kids and so much movement in our school that there's never, oh, those kids are leaving because they need extra help or they're going in and out of the classroom all throughout the day for special activities like news broadcasting that we do and stuff, so it's never separation between, oh, they're leaving to go do this, it's everybody's moving, all kids are all kids. There's never a question of, oh, these are those and those are these.

Ashley Mengwasser: Good, yeah.

Lindsey Cook: It's just everybody's everybody.

Ashley Mengwasser: You got very Dr. Seuss on me just there, Lindsey.

Lindsey Cook: We can rhyme anytime.

Ashley Mengwasser: These were those and those were these. And the personalized learning, which we'll hear more about this is standards based meeting the students where they are, is that where that comes from?

Abbie Hudson: We sit down, and we look at our standards and we realize or figure out what PBL or since we're from a rural area, our county decided to focus on agriculture. So at the beginning it was what kind of agriculture components can we bring into our building? So since I teach kindergarten, we have chickens, so bringing just that into it.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's perfect, bringing that into your classroom, the environment that you're in. So that's how you determine your PBL projects, you look at your surroundings, you see what's relevant to your learners. Do students ever influence those decisions, those PBL choices? They do?

Lindsey Cook: They pretty much guide everything.

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Lindsey Cook: So, it's like the teachers behind the scenes, come up with what we hope is going to be our PBL or kind of the direction we're going in, but it's the questions the kids ask that they're like, oh, that's a fabulous question, why don't we investigate on that? That kind of just really leads to all the problems that go on the school, I know when the chickens came to our school, it was where are we going to put these guys? We need to figure out what's going to be a spot that's not too populated during recess time and things like that. And so it was the kids that went out every day and found places around the school that they thought were going to be the best place, and they collected data based off of the sunlight and what was going to be shaded and not shaded. So it was all based off of their questions and their thinking.

Ashley Mengwasser: Their curiosity led the mission. Are there other projects in school that you'd like to share with me? Like the chickens that you're working on?

Abbie Hudson: First grade has gardening beds. As of right now, they're like the raised type that they are working with. Second grade is pollinators. Third grade at one point was water and solar. And then fourth grade is aquaponics. We have a fish tank in the hallway that's inside of a wall that they take care of and they grow vegetables on the top of.

Ashley Mengwasser: They're talking about solar energy in elementary school?

Abbie Hudson: Yes ma'am.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm going to sign up for the STEAM program.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: This is important. How do they present their findings from all the data they collect?

Abbie Hudson: My favorite part that they show their findings is our interactive walls or wall displays. So with kindergarten, we have a wall display that has a calendar, and so whenever it's your class's day to go out and check on the chickens, you come back with a sticky note and you write, how many eggs did you find? You put it on the calendar that way, whenever, let's just say it's not my chicken day, I can go out there...

Ashley Mengwasser: Not my chicken day.

Abbie Hudson: Isn't that funny to say? It's not my chicken day. But whenever I go out there to the hallway, I can see, oh, they laid three eggs yesterday, and I can go back to my STEAM journal and add to it. And just seeing that you can walk up and down the hallway, even though I don't teach first grade, I know exactly what data first grade is collecting.

Ashley Mengwasser: From looking at the walls.

Abbie Hudson: From looking at the interactive walls that the children are changing in editing it daily.

Ashley Mengwasser: Ongoing. Do they collaborate with each other when they work on this?

Abbie Hudson: They do, yeah.

Lindsey Cook: Yeah, because our whole school is based around agriculture, a lot of our PBLs and our investigative research we do, they cross over between grade levels. Third grades, they were working on solar energy and they were talking about even... They were doing rain barrels at some time, I can't remember what their investigative research is.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, interesting.

Lindsey Cook: The rain they were collecting in the rain barrel provided water to our chickens and they provided water to the gardens, everything crosses over. We do reading buddies and stuff like that too, but we do STEAM buddies within the reading buddies, share their STEAM journals with each other and the data they're collecting within their projects. And then the kindergarten gets to talk to their fourth grade buddies about what they're doing, so a lot of interaction.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's excellent. So you've mentioned STEAM journals, now need to know what these are. So how do they present through these STEAM journals? Tell me how they're using them and then tell me how you modify for your special education students. Lindsey, what's the STEAM journal about?

Abbie Hudson: I like to refer to STEAM journals as your personal diary. It is your diary for your educational journey. I can put all of my thoughts about a lesson or I can go in there and creatively and express the way that I've learned through a lesson. One of my favorite conversations this past year was we were talking about natural and man-made things. And so we went outside and we did a hunt for natural and man-made things. And-

Ashley Mengwasser: I was imagining everybody with little rifles, but you meant a different kind-

Abbie Hudson: Oh my God, no.

Ashley Mengwasser: You meant a different kind of hunt.

Abbie Hudson: I'm sorry, no, we went outside, and we just explored outside things that were man-made and natural. And this student of mine, she drew her headphones for her Chromebook, and I was like, is this natural or man-made? She said, "It's man-made because they made these for me." And so having that conversation with her, I knew I was like, she's got the standard, she understands it.

Ashley Mengwasser: She understood the question.

Abbie Hudson: So, they get to use them for data collection, whatever their PBL is, and then they also use it daily with different lessons. We'll just say, okay, pull out your STEAM journal and journal what you thought about, what you learned about or things like that.

Ashley Mengwasser: They reflect on their own about the information in their journals. And who gets one?

Abbie Hudson: Everyone, every student gets one.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, wow.

Abbie Hudson: And they will work at their own pace. They do what they're comfortable with. And going back to the idea that it's a diary, so if we sit here and we think about our childhood diary, I would never give you my diary and expect you to be like, well, this grammar is wrong, or you should have spelled it this way.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes, but I would do that because I was an English major.

Abbie Hudson: So well in STEAM journals, we would never do that to them. That's their thoughts, that's their learning, that's their ideas, we're not going to touch that. We'll have the conversation with them, oh, tell me what you learned and tell me what you did. It's their individualized, personalized way of getting out what they've learned about a lesson.

Ashley Mengwasser: Processing, reflecting. Yes, it's unedited, it's their own. So onto the modification and accommodations piece, Lindsey for your special ed students, first, help us understand a little bit about the demographic of your special ed students and then let's talk about how you've adapted STEAM journals for them.

Lindsey Cook: Yeah, so my kids, most of them just have a learning delay or a learning disability, so it's just something that's blocking them from maybe learning at the same pace as their other peers in the general ed classroom. So as far as what they do in their STEAM journal is no different, like Ms. Hudson said, we don't grade it, we look at it to see if they're on the right track or just to make sure that they're putting some things down, their thoughts. But if they rather draw a picture than write, that's fine. We're not grading spelling, we're not grading punctuation and grammar and things like that. So, it's already modified and they're creating their own accommodations to what they can do. So, there's no guidance really besides, hey, why don't you just journal? Why don't you reflect? Tell us what you learned, tell us what you thought about it. We'll check it to make sure they're not too far off. But as far as checking for anything for grades or anything like that, we're just making sure that they're on the right track and can get something down on paper. So if they'd rather draw a picture or they want to draw tally marks instead of writing the number, that's completely up to them. They create their own pace in their own journals, which is really nice.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's not about correct and correct, it's about inspired.

Lindsey Cook: That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser: Is there a spark here that I'm seeing in your work.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. Do your special ed students ever inform the general ed students' work? Do you see some crossover there?

Lindsey Cook: This is what's amazing about STEM is its all integrated. So although they might be coming out of their general ed classroom for specific times of the day, they're going back in. So they're working along with their peers, doing the same things, collecting the same data. They're not missing out on anything because of the way the integration works with STEAM, they might be in my room for reading and we're working on specific IEP goals and things like that, but they're in their classroom and they're talking about solar panels and they're talking about just whatever they're learning in science and the integration between, and also they're never missing out on anything. So they're collaborating with their peers just the same as any other student would collaborate with theirs. That's wonderful.

Abbie Hudson: And since the gen ed works so closely with the special education department, we already know what accommodations that student would need. I would never sit there and push a child to write a sentence when I know they're not there yet, that's not what they can produce yet. I'm looking for a word, a letter, a picture. So knowing that we have had that conversation before and knowing what I could expect, that's helpful too.

Ashley Mengwasser: Have you seen positive effects on school-wide climate because of the integrative nature of STEAM? Yes, Abbie?

Abbie Hudson: I think you've mentioned a few minutes ago about the sense of pride, whenever my kindergarten student opened up the door-

Ashley Mengwasser: Ownership.

Abbie Hudson: They own their learning; they take up pride. There's a sense of pride, there's also a sense of being excited to learn and being excited to be at school.

Ashley Mengwasser: Gosh, I love that.

Lindsey Cook: When the little kids come in holding their eggs that they collected from the chicken coop, it's just the cutest thing. First grade students, they're growing loofahs and taking those loofahs home and cleaning... They're not doing too much with them, but it's just so cute to see how much they're learning from something that we think is so basic. It's not basic to them, it's so important to them.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, it's life and mind-altering for their benefit. Let's talk about the A in STEAM, the arts. How does arts integration work into your students' knowledge acquisition? How are you working in the arts to this stuff? I've heard a lot of science.

Lindsey Cook: Yeah, so arts is definitely equally important in STEAM. We have an amazing connections, we call them connections, so that's our art and music teachers and stuff like that. Again, with little STEAM journals, their little diaries and they travel everywhere with them. So if they're going to art class, they're taking their STEAM journal with them.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay.

Lindsey Cook: They're going to music, their STEAM journals going with them, and we have such good collaboration with our connection teachers that we're planning with them. We have at least one or two days during the year that we sit down, we all look at the art standards, we look at academic standards, and we're integrating those, we're figuring out how we can make this work. So we're doing arts in the classroom. They're doing art, they're doing science, they're doing everything in their classrooms too. So it's just this revolving door of all the letters of STEAM.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's all interconnected.

Lindsey Cook: That's right.

Ashley Mengwasser: Even just the fact that they are journaling about their art experiences in their STEAM journal, the physical presentation that it's all in one book shows how connected it all is.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: What do you have to add to that?

Abbie Hudson: That we have fantastic partners in ed where we are. In Harris County, we always say we're very fortunate that we have a great community. And the fact that we can lean on each other whenever it comes to your strength is theater, your strength is art, and we pull them in and we receive training from them. The kids receive classes from these people who that's their area of expertise. So relying on the community to come in and be a partner with us and take on that role of ownership of it takes really does take a village.

Ashley Mengwasser: And you have one.

Abbie Hudson: We have a fantastic one. Lindsey and I were talking about the fact that we are products of Harris County, we graduated from Harris County High School.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow, I didn't know that.

Abbie Hudson: Yes, I'm a little older than she is, but we graduated from Harris County High School. We are homegrown Harris County teachers and that alone to know that you've got people in your system, that there's an emotional connection there.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, it makes it all the sweeter.

Abbie Hudson: Yes, it does.

Ashley Mengwasser: When you're working with your kindergartners, Abbie, have you ever seen them do anything funny or surprising with their STEAM journals along the way? Anything blow your mind out there?

Abbie Hudson: Let's see.

Ashley Mengwasser: If you can think of anything, Lindsey, I wonder-

Lindsey Cook: I think just their drawings.

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Lindsey Cook: Because they're trying to sometimes just draw things off of memory, especially in the early months of kindergarten where there haven't quite formed letters and how to write words and stuff and their little drawings of their chickens or their earth materials or whatever topic we're talking about, they're just cute.

Ashley Mengwasser: Aw, are you sure that's a chicken? They know what it is.

Lindsey Cook: Okay.

Abbie Hudson: As adults, I think that we want organization, and we've got tabs and just like organization makes me happy. But with a kindergartner, whenever you say, turn it to the next blank page, and then that turns out to be the back of the book and we've skipped 50 pages in the middle, but it really doesn't matter because I'm sure that's organized in their mind. I think-

Ashley Mengwasser: It's working for them.

Abbie Hudson: It's working for them. And then they can go back and be like, oh, this is when we were talking about how many eggs we received in October, or this is whenever we were talking about why the length of day affects their laying habits, and it's exciting that they can pull that from memory.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. What have you learned from and about your students in this process?

Lindsey Cook: I've learned to be patient. Now, I think I've learned, again, back to what I was saying earlier, they all have their own individual style. They all have their own individual personal style, but also learning style. And I think the key thing in those first few months of school is really learning their interests. What's going to kind of spark their learning and how can we relate those to what they're required to learn? And so if I need to talk about letters and I need to associate that with frogs, if that's somebody's interest, we're going to figure out how to do that.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah.

Lindsey Cook: We're going to give them pictures with letters. I think that's what I've learned the most from my kids is you got to learn them first. And I think that's one of the key things of wanting them or asking them to do what you want them to do. You got to-

Ashley Mengwasser: Learning them to help them learn.

Lindsey Cook: ... form that relationship.

Abbie Hudson: I've learned that they can ask really good questions, even though we're five and six years old, we have really amazing questions whenever we're interested in something and when they have that sense of pride. And they're a lot braver too for a kindergartener to walk up to a fourth grader and say, "Our chickens are doing so and this is how it could help you out." And that's a big deal. Or I remember a student had wrote a letter to the principal and about why we should study rocks at one point, and I never would've written a letter to my principal.

Ashley Mengwasser: To the principal. A future geologist.

Abbie Hudson: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look at that.

Abbie Hudson: He wanted to study rocks, and he was going to persuade her-

Ashley Mengwasser: Advocate to get some rock curriculum.

Abbie Hudson: ... let's do a rock study.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes, excellent. That is wonderful. And what I've learned from listening to you talk about your students and what they're retaining with their experiences is that having a STEAM certified school has brought the spark back to the learning and you can't bottle that. It just proliferates and proliferates, and I think that's a beautiful thing.

Lindsey Cook: I think the fact that the kids don't realize they're learning is what's so fun about it. They don't realize that we're talking about earth materials, we're talking about the needs of plants. We're talking about what is a pollinator, and they don't realize that they're learning because it's fun.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's wonders of the world.

Lindsey Cook: They're outside, they're exploring, they're doing things. They're manipulating things that they've never manipulated before. Probably, some kids have never touched the egg, they've never touched a plant, they've never done those type of things, and they have no clue that they're learning.

Ashley Mengwasser: Right.

Lindsey Cook: It's pretty amazing.

Ashley Mengwasser: Most of them have only manipulated their parents, that's all they know, the little ones.

Lindsey Cook: And their teachers.

Abbie Hudson: Yeah.

Lindsey Cook: Back to what you're saying, Abbie the young kids, the five six-year-olds conversations with them, that should be a show because kids are fascinating and intelligent.

Abbie Hudson: And they're hilarious!

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Abbie Hudson: They're absolutely hilarious. I use a lot of hand gestures in my classroom because I find that helps me to learn. And so teaching them these dances that we have to show them what we are learning. And for them, when we were getting STEAM certified, two students were recorded doing those dances and the news crew that was there, they were fascinated because they were explaining what they had learned through just these simple movements and listening to them conversate about what they've learned. And sometimes you have to remind them, this is social studies class now. They have no idea they're learning.

Ashley Mengwasser: I love it. I love that all-inclusive is the only way at your school. You can't even imagine there being a different way, it's so integrative. How can we sum up your message today in a simple phrase for our teachers listening?

Lindsey Cook: I think to me, one of the most important parts about STEAM is allowing the kids to be able to express their learning in a different way. Some of them might need to draw it and really pull in the arts. Some of them might be better at pulling in the technology side of it. It's not an expectation of you need to do this test to show you're learning. You can talk about it, you can, like I said, draw. There's so many different ways to express their learning, and I think that's what drives the STEAM is there's no pinpoint of you've got to do it this way, you've got to do it that way. And I think the kids being able to-

Ashley Mengwasser: It's open.

Lindsey Cook: ... express it how they feel comfortable, especially my kids, they might not be able to write two paragraphs about what they've learned, but they can draw it, or they can tell me, and that's okay, because there's no guideline to how STEAM looks or how STEAM works. And I think that's the most important part for me.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, they can still participate in STEAM.

Lindsey Cook: Yes.

Abbie Hudson: The conversation that I mentioned earlier about the man-made item with the headphones, imagine how many conversations that are happening like that around the building now, whereas a worksheet wouldn't be able to tell you that.

Ashley Mengwasser: No.

Abbie Hudson: A worksheet would just be able to tell you, I can cut, and I can glue and I can color. But being able to sit down and talk about what she drew and she had two letters to represent headphone, it was H and F. Great, I can hear it. But knowing that I had that conversation with that student and there's other teachers in my same building, having those same conversations with those students of, well, I know that she's got it now, instead of she didn't pass this paper, or I'm going to send this home, and... It really shows the more positive side.

Ashley Mengwasser: And the evidence is there, to use a science word. The evidence is there in her journal that she's grasping it. I think my takeaway message would be, don't be rude, include.

Abbie Hudson: I love that.

Ashley Mengwasser: There's no reason to think about it any other way, just let students find their access point and support them in that. You two are making your students feel so glowy, so capable, giving them this all-inclusive experience. Thank you Lindsey and Abbie for making STEAM accessible for all students.

Lindsey Cook: Thank you.

Abbie Hudson: Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser: Appreciate you two being here today. Teachers, you heard it here first, the shared environment is truly the pinnacle, and your students can feel right there at the top in their learning milestones with you. You're a great teacher. Seriously, who is letting our little resort thought experiment become an action item? It's time to vacation browse. I'll wait to board any planes though because we're back in the studio next week for a brand new episode of Classroom Conversations. As you set those travel alerts, set them for our podcast series too and follow Classroom Conversations. I'm Ashley, goodbye for now. Funding for Classroom Conversations is made possible through the School Climate Transformation Grant.