The focus of my Kenan Fellowship was the creation of a ELA unit grounded in science-based text. When considering how my unit was created and how it was received by students in the classroom, I would consider it to be quite a success. As with any unit, I have made refinements, tweaked particular lessons, and made modifications to activities after implementation in my classroom. Overall, I feel the unit was productive and that my students enjoyed the time spent working with the selected materials and completing the planned activities.

In considering how the unit might be used across the state and nation, I am humbled to think that one of my creations might become a tool for other teachers to use for instruction. When writing the unit, my goal was to create a quality piece that integrated ELA Common Core Standards with Essential Standards in Science, all while maintaining a focus on quality literature. I believe that I achieved this goal and have created a unit that can certainly be used by NC teachers and other teachers across the country as well.

As an avid technology user, I found the Lenovo tablet another valuable tool for my students and I to use in daily classroom activities. We quickly learned the “bells and whistles” of the tablet, and in no time at all, my students were off and running, using the tablet in a variety of ways.

We’ve used the tablet to record many of our daily classroom activities. We’ve taken it on field trips to explore colonial life and examine native animals in our ecosystem. We’ve used it to record special events at school, including “Mad Scientist” day in our classroom. Students have completed research using the tablet, used it to for stop motion films, and completed blog posts. In all, the Lenovo tablet has been a welcome tool in our classroom and I look forward to using it with many more future students.