Tami Plein

From space to code-breaking, women have shaped STEM. 🚀 Space: Pioneers like Svetlana Savitskaya & Mae Jemison. Invention: Sybilla Masters held the 1st US patent. Tech: Ada Lovelace was the 1st programmer. Science: Marie Curie, 2x Nobel winner.

@AFallsPETeach @MAPEC_Members @SHAPEAmerica Adapted PE Week reminder: today a mostly non-verbal student looked at me during play and said, “I do.” Two small words. Huge moment. Movement can unlock confidence, connection, and communication. Moments like this are why we teach.

We don’t have a classroom management problem. We have an emotional regulation crisis that teachers are being asked to handle. Somehow, “classroom management” has turned into: • de-escalating trauma • supporting anxiety and depression • calming panic attacks • being the counselor, social worker, and crisis team • carrying emotional loads no one sees And then we remove the very things that help like recess, movement, art, play, connection. Teachers aren’t trained for that. They shouldn’t have to be. Classroom management is about relationships, structure, routines, and connection. It was never meant to replace what families, communities, and systems failed to provide. And until we stop offloading every societal failure onto schools, teachers will keep drowning under expectations no human can meet.

Awesome engagement with ⁦@TICalculators⁩ ⁦@EllenSBrowne⁩ #T3IC

This is not enough. We’re spending $350M on an unaccountable private school voucher program while constitutionally underfunding our public schools. Iowa kids deserve better. Accountability and transparency now. who13.com/news/politics/…

Big, profitable corporations often pay a lower tax rate than ordinary people like teachers and firefighters. Small businesses are paying more while massive corporations use loopholes to pay nothing. Let’s close those loopholes and make corporations pay their fair share.

🧵 🚨UPDATE🚨 HF 2121 has now advanced out of subcommittee and is moving quickly to the full House Education Committee, with a committee meeting scheduled the same day as the subcommittee hearing...

Implementing OpenSciEd with PASCO 📅 Feb 25 | ⏰ 1:00–1:30 PM PT Register here👉ow.ly/cleG50Y58lc Learn how PASCO supports OpenSciEd with integrated sensors, certified training, LMS connections, and PASCO Portal. Recording provided.

“The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep.” nbcnews.com/politics/justi…

The Texas power grid system, which failed during a previous winter storm, could be put to the test this weekend as the region faces subfreezing temperatures and dangerous wind chills. nbcnews.com/weather/winter…

For some reason, Trump said his tariffs would bring costs down for Americans. But the data shows what you already know: Americans are bearing 96% of the tariff burden. That's $200 billion coming straight out of our pockets because of him.

The day the music died. That line from the song American Pie could just as easily be about schools. Because the day No Child Left Behind Act began, something real changed. That was the day music, laughter, creativity, and fun started disappearing from classrooms. Not instantly. But steadily. In their place came standards. Practice tests. Pre- tests. Tests Post-test Retests. Data. & more data. Learning was no longer the goal. Testing was. Teachers did not suddenly forget how to teach. Kids did not suddenly stop being curious. The system just stopped valuing those things. And after all of it, let’s be honest. It did not improve anything that actually mattered. Yes, that was the day the music died and so did the joy of learning.

The public has a distorted view of science, because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, science is not a collection of truths. It is a continuing exploration of mysteries. - Freeman Dyson

When a 2nd-grade math word problem is written at a 4th-grade reading level, it’s not really about the math anymore. It’s about reading above grade level. Reading belongs in math. Kids have to make sense of problems. But when the language is harder than the math, the outcome is predictable. Students can understand the math. They can know how to solve it. And still fail — because of how the question is written. This isn’t an accident. International comparisons (PISA and TIMSS) show that U.S. math assessments are often longer, wordier, and more linguistically complex than those used in many higher-performing countries — even when testing the same math concepts. In other words, testing companies design questions that make it easier to miss the math. If we want math scores to mean something, grade-level math needs grade-level language.

Imagine if a trainer was expected to get identical results from every client. Different bodies. Different histories. Different abilities. Same outcome? Impossible. Yet that’s exactly what we expect from teachers.

📣 Have you heard? Teacher externs can $5500 while gaining real-world knowledge in a local STEM workplace! Extern & host applications are open now! 🔗 #11" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">educate.iowa.gov/iowa-stem/stem… 🧩Let us know you are interested so we can make a match that's the right fit for both extern and host.

It's day 13 of the shutdown. What's Trump doing?   Negotiating a budget deal? No.   Preventing premiums from doubling? No.   Stopping 15 million Americans from losing health care? No.   He's meeting the Pres. of Argentina to reward him with a $20 billion bailout.   America first?

After cost-cutting blitz, Trump administration rehires hundreds of laid-off employees kcrg.com/2025/09/24/aft…

"Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, still remains one of the safest options to take in pregnancy.” ABC News' Dr. Darien Sutton is breaking down the data after the Trump admin linked Tylenol use in pregnancy to increased risk of autism despite mixed studies.

A reminder: accountability is good.