Greetings! I’m Jessica. I am a wife, mother of three creative and curious kids, and a seasoned teacher who has taught everything from Kindergarten to 8th grade science!  Most recently I have taken up residence in a Middle School Science classroom, where my district has decided to utilize my certification in secondary science. However, I left a piece of my heart in my kindergarten classroom which is where my colleagues said I brought a special skill of raising the bar for critical thinking in Kindergarten while keeping the work very hands on and developmentally appropriate. While teaching in a PreK-4 building, I was inspired three years ago to organize the first Family STEM Night in my district. This event has been a huge success, and has now become a district wide event held at several buildings. I am happy now to have move on to helping my children’s school district strengthen the great STEAM night program that they have started. Several years back, I was the recipient of a grant from our district foundation, that allowed me to purchase age appropriate STEM materials for my kindergarten students to explore and learn from. In 2015 my kindergarten students worked exclusively with the local ISD STEM coordinator to create undercarriage containers for an unmanned aircraft (DRONES!). Once I saw what an amazing opportunity STEM integration in my Kindergarten classroom was, I was inspired to expand out into other grade levels as well. It was with the help of my 4th grade buddy classroom teacher that I was able to test drive an entire year of STEaM lessons that are geared towards lower through upper elementary.  I love sharing my passion with other teachers! I have been able to speak at STEM Con, NSTA: STEM Forum, and ITeachK twice. Each time I come away reenergized and ready to help even more people bring the magic of STEM to their elementary classrooms. I enjoy empowering others to have the confidence to bring STEAM education to their early childhood through inspiring her peers, authoring her blog, and presenting at educational conferences. I hope that you will find the content of this blog to be very helpful. If ever you have questions, please feel free to contact me at TeachingFullSTEAMAhead@gmail.com