I thoroughly enjoyed my week at NCCAT. I appreciated all the presenters for exposing me to new technologies that I can incorporate into my classroom and the opportunity to expand my professional network and build friendships simultaneously.  I absolutely loved the setting.  The North Carolina mountains provided the perfect backdrop for a retreat meant to be both reflective and renewing.

With regard to professional reflection, I found the juxtaposition of our Tuesday experience and our Wednesday experience to be the most thought provoking of the week for me.  We spent Tuesday immersed in new technology.  We wrestled with the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I know many fellow Kenans shared my mix of feelings at the end of the day on Tuesday.  There were times when I felt overwhelmed and inadequate and other times when I felt inspired and energized.   By the end of the PD sessions for that day I felt absolutely exhausted.

We spent Wednesday on the river.  Oddly enough I experienced all of these feelings all over again.  There were times when I felt overwhelmed and inadequate by the power of the river.  I felt inspired by the natural beauty of the gorge.  I felt energized each and every time we approached a rapid or a surge of freezing water hit me in the face.  Reflecting on these two very different, yet strangely similar, experiences helped me to process the information overload I experienced on Tuesday.  As  educators we have to be balanced.  I think that this is particularly important when it comes to the incorporation of technology into our instruction.  Using new and innovative technology in the classroom is now an expectation, but this can be taken to a fault.  The incorporation of technology can lend itself to more hands-on experiences and authentic learning for students.  The incorporation of too much technology also runs the risk of removing humanity from the classroom.  Debriefing with my friend and now colleague Emily Jolley on the way home, she shared with me her observations of the effect on her high schoolers of being constantly connected.  I see glimmers of this with my second graders.  It takes a lot to capture their attention.  I’m not sure they’d be as mesmerized by the natural wonder of the Nantahala and the gorge as we all were.

Balance is the key.  Peter taught us that a unique chemical balance is what keeps the Nantahala gorge beautiful and diverse.  We want to foster balance in children.  While new technology engages them, I personally don’t want my students (and eventually my own children) to require new technology to engage in their environment.

After spending a little more than a week with my fellow fellows and meeting my mentor to begin developing our project I can say very decisively that what I’m most excited to gain from this experience is relationships.  I am widening my network and I am not going to be the only person whose life if affected.  The relationships I will foster throughout this experience will change my students’ lives.  I am becoming a better teacher by collaborating with other fellows and my mentor.

Looking ahead toward our week at NCCAT I know that I will not only be strengthening the professional relationships I’ve built in the last week, but I will also be building personal relationships as well (and not just with my other DPI fellows friends). Pushing yourself to be an innovative educator is hard work. If there is something I’ve learned about teachers that strive to be the best it’s that they’re all the same kind of crazy.  Looking forward to NCCAT I am prepared to meet 40 new colleagues/friends that at the surface seem like completely unique individuals.  I anticipate, however, that the personal relationships among fellows will come pretty easily because there is something that is fundamentally the same about each of these people that make them the sorts of people that would pursue a Kenan Fellowship in the face of all the adversity that is public education in North Carolina.

In the last few months those of us in public education have felt bombarded by the bad news in North Carolina’s schools.  As we are required to meet increasingly rigorous standards we see our most valuable resource stripped away.  People.  Warm bodies won’t do.   We need people who care.  You don’t have to be a Kenan Fellow to be Kenan Fellow crazy; those are the people we need.  It seems there are some pretty influential people in our state who don’t get that.