Ari Collins
eSomethin staff
“Right now we’re working on building foam wire cutters and in the time we’ve been working on this project, Mrs. Marshall’s class has easily become one of my favorites,” Kiana Allan, a junior at Perrysburg High School, said about her principles of engineering class.
“The classroom environment is very friendly and positive…[Marshall is] really helpful during class and also very easy to talk to,” Allan said.
The STEM classes, and its new instructor, seem to be a huge hit.
Lexi Marshall poses with some robots in her classroom. She was excited to start the school year and keeps a positive mindset. She said that “every day is a good day teaching. Something good happens—it could be a student does well, or one of my lessons goes well. Every day I can focus on one thing at least, usually more.”
Lexi Marshall was just welcomed into the community as the new STEM teacher. She teaches robotics, introduction to engineering design, principles of engineering and AP computer science.
Marshall grew up in Perrysburg and went on to attend college at Bowling Green.
“I went to school originally for business and then I was coaching basketball here,” Marshall said.
After around a week of assistant-coaching basketball, she realized she loved “working with students and helping them out and teaching them. So I went and changed my major to business-[education] right away.”
“So it was really coaching here that made me decide to do it.”
This year Marshall said she was excited to be back in a high school, especially since she has spent the last six years teaching at middle and elementary schools.
She still has the same enthusiasm. She said that everything has gone well for the most part and that she is getting settled in and finally getting her classes organized.
“I’m finding my stride, finally, I think,” she said.
Why STEM?
Something that Marshall loves about STEM is that it is always changing, just like science and technology.
“I like that it’s different everyday, and that every year it will also be different,” Marshall said.
She also likes that the subject is not just one singular thing. Instead, it is a combination of many different concepts. She reported that there really wasn’t a specific subject in school that she truly connected with, so she likes that with STEM “you have the opportunity to integrate a bunch of different subjects.”
There are many students who feel the same way, and Marshall knows that. She likes that her class gives them a chance to excel even if, in other subjects, they typically don’t.
Marshall thinks that STEM is important in schools because it gives students many valuable skills that they will use throughout their lives. She mentioned that some of these skills include “critical thinking and problem solving and the creativity.”
Her classroom, reportedly, is a place for trying new things and taking risks.
“This is a place they can feel safe to fail and push themselves.”
Lexi Marshall
Her class is also a place for everyone because “people shine in different ways.”
Marshall points out that because many different skills are needed for one project, STEM encourages collaboration and community.
“You’re not really competing for the shine, if that makes sense, because it takes several different people who are good at several different things to make the best group.”
Future
Marshall wants her students to gain confidence in their work—she wants them to be proud of themselves in the same way that she is proud of them. She mentioned a recent project that her introduction to engineering design did. She said that she was “blown away by what they were able to make. They exceeded my expectations, so that was really cool.”
Some of her goals revolve around growth. She wants to see more students involved in the STEM classes at PHS and she wants to use more technology in her class and the school.
She also hopes to help the robotics clubs travel to competitions in the near future.
She wants the community to know that she loves Perrysburg and teaching and that she is “happy to be here and [she is] excited to have a career here.”
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