After several years of teaching in the public education system, it was time for a new approach to learning. Together we combined our expertise to establish a new way to inspire kids’ love of learning through STEAM experiences.

At Dakota STEAM Learning, we believe kids can accomplish challenging tasks, find solutions to challenging problems, and persevere through the challenges in their future. We strive to create inspiring learning experiences for the kids in our community to grow as learners in order to embrace the characteristics that make them truly unique.

Deanna is a passionate educator with nine years experience in Rapid City and out of state. Deanna began her career teaching fifth grade and spent the last 5 years teaching an elementary level STEAM elective in the Rapid City area. Deanna has a Bachelor’s in American history and cultural anthropology but found her passion for teaching STEAM after being hired to teach elementary students 21st century skills. She quickly realized that STEAM was the most effective and engaging way to teach those skills to kids and reorganized the entire class to be centered around STEAM. That experience changed her view points as an educator and led to her staunch advocacy for STEAM education for all children.

“Kids' self esteem, self image, and self worth all flourish when they are shown that they can solve hard problems and accomplish things that they never knew they were capable of. That is why I am so passionate about STEAM.” - Deanna

Jamie has a decade of experience teaching students in the Rapid City area. In those ten years, Jamie developed many different teaching techniques to help students thrive in the classroom. In her experience, she found no better way to authentically allow kids to embrace and strengthen learning skills than through STEAM experiences. Jamie has a Master’s in Curriculum & Instruction and a Bachelor’s degree in K-8 Elementary & Special Education. She taught fifth grade specializing in reading, math, science, and technology. Jamie has taught most recently middle school math specializing in differentiating lessons to meet the needs of all her learners. Jamie is so passionate about STEAM learning and our need to have STEAM program in our community.

“I am very passionate about STEAM learning because STEAM is such an engaging and memorable learning experience.” -Jamie