I could probably go into specific details of my entire externship and describe exactly how important my mentors have been to me during this fellowship, but I’m not. Instead I am going to share with you an event that involved my mentors interacting with my students to show you how amazing our partnership has been and what this fellowship has not only done for me, but also for my students.
Friday, November 22, 2013, I anxiously awaited the running feet of 24 amazing children entering my room. Dr. Bill Fortney (one of my mentors) met me bright and early at Ben D. Quinn to set up our “ocean”. Curious? Our ocean (aka – pine box with plastic liner) was made for our students to launch their very own Mayflowers. We spent the entire week discussing the Engineering Design Process as we constructed our own Mayflowers. This was to end our Thanksgiving unit and to expose my students to engineering in more detail. We were fortunate enough to have local engineers come in during the week to work one-on-one with my students after they explained what they did as engineers.
The bell rings at 7:45 and I hear their excited voices and they come down the halls. Once they come in they get to meet Dr. Fortney and share their Mayflowers with him. As we prepare for the event getting our Pilgrim hats on and Mayflowers in hand, a huge crowd is gathering. We have families, school volunteers, County Board of Education members, Partners In Education members, managers of Weyerhaeuser (who provided a grant for our project as well as engineer volunteers for my room), State Representatives, County Commissioners, local television reporters. Then I spot one more face. My other mentor, Mr. Mark Meno, who rushed to get to us after an exhausting flight so he could support my class and assist with our event.
Mark and Bill operated our wind (aka large fan to blow our Mayflower’s sail) and placed the boats in the water for our students. They not only assisted my class, but two other Kindergarten classes as well. Watching the two of them interact with the students made me so appreciative of what Kenan Fellows has done for me and thankful for the mentors I was given. Not only did they physically show up, they were engaged with these children who worked so hard to be “Mayflower Engineers.” This was one of my greatest days of teaching (granted this is only my second year 🙂 ) and none of this would have been possible if it was not for the two mentors I have and the partnership we have formed.
Below is a link from our local news as well as a link to my webpage documenting the event.
http://mrschristywilson.weebly.com/1/post/2013/11/kin-gineers-setting-sail-on-the-mayflower.html (Class blog)