Monthly Archives: June 2013

Bend

After a detour to retrieve two of my children from Camp Grandparents, I’ve finally been able to let the sediments settle in my head.

This week eroded my brain. Like the stream capturing the river, my sense of direction and safety have been pulled off in an unexpected direction. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

image of whitewater rafting

picture from the Nantahala Outdoor Center

To be honest, I am terrified about this Fellowship. My last biology class was 20 years ago so my externship to date has been a crash course in cellular biology — that, and me wondering at night how to translate the information to young children without inadvertently oversimplifying to the point of misconceptions. I am afraid of failing my students and the team.

The techno-frustration of this week is an important takeaway for me; not because I want to dwell in frustration, mind you, but because it forced me to place myself in the position of a student and recognize that frustration does pass, that time smooths edges and exposes new paths. I will be frustrated in this Fellowship because I will be learning in this Fellowship, and so I will need to hold tight to geologic time. I can flex. I will not break.

Thankfully, I am not alone. I have a team to help guide me around the bend.

 

 

Getting out…

What am I looking forward to getting out of my Kenan experience? Hmmm…

At this point, I am mostly looking forward to getting out on the river tomorrow and decompressing a bit. Long term, I hope to become a better teacher for my students, families, and colleagues. I want to gain a deeper understanding of the content underpinning the life sciences strands in elementary school so that together we can make it concrete, tangible, and accessible to students, families, and communities. And I want to be able to build a connection between the women who run the lab and the young girls dreaming of their futures, to help my girls see that their native languages are strengths, not obstacles. I do want to help change my small corner of this great world.

But for now, I want to rest up so that I can be open to whatever the world tosses up tomorrow when we venture out into it.

Day 1

Today was day one. And I’m feeling overwhelmed.

I’m sure that feeling will subside, if not exactly pass. But today served to remind me how great my knowledge gap is. Belen Cardenas patiently gave me a crash course in biochemistry, as well as a little lesson on Spanish vowels. And now, it’s swimming around in my (still slightly concussed) brain. I feel like my kids look at the end of a long day.

And that’s enough whining for one day. I have a lab safety manual and background articles on salmonella to read.

*update:Chapter 1 of the LSM and 14 pages of Salmonella background articles read. Now to see what I actually retain…

Salmonella in the Twittersphere

The following salmonella-related links came across my Twitter feed today:

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/06/salmonella-is-more-severe-when-it-hits-in-the-morning-at-least-in-mice/

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/06/canada-recalls-sprouts-for-possible-salmonella-contamination/#.UbtNU_lwqSp

http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/typhimurium-hedgehogs-09-12/index.html

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/new-pathogen-detection-tech-from-3m-analyst-blog-cm252799

http://www.worldpoultry.net/Breeders/Health/2013/6/Control-of-SE-in-the-US-egg-industry-1280706W/

For years, my husband and I have mused over the possibility of a pet hoglet. But I guess the CDC link puts that debate to rest.

Teaching teachers

I got to spend the day today with the brilliant, talented, and lovely Katie P. In the morning, we worked with two other teachers, helping our district’s K-2 teachers to use data in order to make instructional decisions about early childhood mathematics. In the afternoon, Katie and I worked with three other teachers and two central office personnel to develop roll-out training for a new interdisciplinary curriculum writing team.

Although the teams were different, the questions kicking around in my head overlapped:

1. How do we develop and communicate a clear vision about the learning/teaching process?

2. How do we effectively support teachers as they begin the process of re-envisioning their practice?

3. How do we continue to provide effective, meaningful support as teachers evolve in order to sustain learning/teaching?

4. How do we support teachers to move towards taking ownership over their professional development?

What has been effective in your experience?

On the Maker Movement and its implications for education

So, this is a post unrelated to Kenan, but it’s what is kicking around in my mind at the moment.

Next Saturday, I get to hang out at Maker Faire NC with some of my students and celebrate creativity (especially theirs). This will be my second trip to MFNC with students, and I’m always thrilled to watch them in action: inspiring other kids to create, play, and learn.

This article came across my Twitter feed earlier this week, and, although it is completely unrelated to the Maker Movement, it seems to encapsulate nicely why we ought to put education back into kids’ hands, both metaphorically and literally.

http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/if-i-were-a-black-kid/276655/

Starting off…

So, this is it, I suppose, the obligatory “start-of-something-new” post. But you already know how this one goes; it’s similar to your own. Same feelings, same questions, etc.

So, for the sake of brevity and in order to avoid redundancy, here are the bullet points that mark the differences:

  • I’m one of three elementary teachers and nine teachers total assigned to the Kenan Fellows Food Safety Project for 2013-2015.
  • The project is a collaboration among 3 labs, 2 universities, and 4-H, funded by the Department of Agriculture. You can read more about it here.
  • I will be working in the Microbiome Research Core lab at UNC under M. Andrea Azcarate-Peril and María Belén Cadenas learning about bioinformatics.

I ought to have more to say in the coming weeks. In the mean time, here is a an article about probiotics that was sent me by my dear high school friend who, in a very unlikely coincidence, is a bioinformaticist (is that even a word?) working in a lab that is researching salmonella.