The biggest impact I feel this experience will have on my students is producing true, high quality, and authentic lessons for my students. Using the Engineering Design Process I will construct lessons that cover standards required, activities to support lessons, and exciting opportunities that will engage my students. This will in turn engage me and make me a more productive, efficient and exciting teacher.

Now comes the biggest challenge . . . having my team members jump on board. It’s easy to feel excited about this on my own because I was a part of a great group of Kenan Fellows this summer who were equally as excited as I was and they applied to be a part of this program. It’s just not the same when you come back to school after a summer of legislative disappointments that have discouraged our teachers and made them feel defeated. I’m praying I can find a super hero cape that will enable me to have mystifying positive influences that will “light the education fire” in my co-workers!

Through my summer externship of Engineering with my mentors I explored the Engineering Design Process. What’s funny about this process is I felt that I was previously using bits and pieces of this, but not in a consistent and sequential manner. After participating in my externship and attending the summer PD’s I have seen how important this process is to me as a teacher. I find myself jotting down the steps as I am planning lessons and will now use this as I plan, prepare, teach and evaluate all of my lessons.

Through the Data PD I also realized how important it is to document my students work through the year as well as my own. I will be creating a digital portfolio for each of my students as well as for myself to use as an observation/evaluation tool. As it was mentioned in our PD, our observers don’t get to see EVERY lesson we do in class so they may miss key pieces for our evaluations. I will be making videos, taking pictures and documenting work in my room to use as assessment pieces for my students and myself.

My project is all about introducing Engineering to my kindergarten students and hopefully expanding to others in my school, district, state and possibly at a nationwide level. The more I have worked with my mentors I have realized I already use the engineering design process myself, however, not as often as I should. As I am beginning to prepare my  lesson plans for the school year I have implemented this process in every step and have been so thrilled with the outcomes. I truly feel that once students understand this process they will be able to produce better work, presentations, and projects. As a teacher, I will provide better lessons because I will know what my students need and my lessons will all be meaningful and engaging.

This fellowship has given me many “aha” moments when my inner child was energized and excited with the possibilities that I could bring back to my class. It has challenged me to think outside the box and pushed me to provide as many genuine experiences for my students that I possibly can. There has been this amazing encouragement from so many of the other fellows during this time of discouragement within our state. I am so thankful for this opportunity and for all the friendships made by being a part of this program.