https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4933-3573
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Creator for this vast and beautiful world we live in and learn from. Thank you to the STEMSS community for opening this chapter of my career. I would like to thank my parents, Dave and Lori, for raising me in an educationally rich home, sparking my lifelong love of learning. Last, I’d like to thank my husband, Alex, for supporting me in all of my endeavors.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Josie Renee McClain
I come from a family of immigrants. I think that’s why the novel Esperanza Rising had such a lasting effect on me. I first read this story in the sixth grade and was later required to teach it in my fifth-grade curriculum. I am originally from Holland, Michigan. I moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 2016 for my first teaching job (more migrating).
In 2021, I earned my master’s degree in education with an emphasis on social-emotional learning and culturally responsive practices. It is my belief that all students should feel truly represented in the lessons taught. My classroom library has grown to include many cultures and backgrounds, which are used to connect social studies to literacy.
I attended the Arizona Geographic Alliance STEMSS Summer Institute in 2018. The STEMSS project supported my developing identity as a geography teacher by providing a number of resources to take back to the classroom—one of which was the large state floor map! My school communityloved making connections to the places around them with the floor map under their feet. The STEMSS Institute also helped me gain confidence in geography integration. Before STEMSS, I briefly incorporated geography skills to “fit” into my ELA lessons. After participating in STEMSS, I find multiple connections to my ELA lessons and reframe my lessons to have STEM applications; science and social studies no longer take a backseat.