When I was selected as a Kenan Fellow, I knew that it was an incredible blessing and opportunity, but I was not quite sure what it all entailed.

Little did I know that I was about to go on the ride of my life. The Kenan Fellowship was amazing, but the professional development and the connections I made were, by far, the absolute best part of the entire experience.

It is incredible to be able to collaborate with like-minded teachers that advocating for engaging and developmentally responsive curriculum for all students. Talking with individuals that actually want to improve the conditions and curriculum in North Carolina was relieving. There are people like me that want to push for the best for our students!

I have never had such valuable professional developments with such important connections. It was an incredible opportunity to be able to hear Congressman David Price speak and all of the other guests that we heard from. My entire staff is so jealous of my experience and now want to apply to become Kenan Fellows. I am so glad that Kenan has allowed me to become a teacher leader and I cannot wait to encourage more people to become teacher leaders!

Edmodo is a social learning platform that encourages collaboration and communication between teachers and students and teachers with other teachers.

I teach at a school with a 1-to-1 laptop ratio. Now I do not encourage Facebook in the classroom, but I highly encourage using Edmodo, which has the interface appearance of Edmodo.

It helps students organize their documents, assigns their homework, allows them to message each other with any questions, talk to their teachers, and collaborate with various groups of people. It is an incredible social learning platform that has transformed the way my class operates. Everything is available online for both parents and students. All of my lessons and documents are readily available. The students love the freedom, but it also keeps them focused.

I do not encourage all social media, but Edmodo is definitely one that I would. I am even writing my grad school thesis on using Edmodo in the classroom!

I teach 6th grade social studies at a STEAM, project-based learning school in Raleigh. My students have a 1-to-1 laptop ratio. This summer Kenan experience impacted me in more ways than I realized.

My team does a bunch of collaborative projects that use the Buck Insititute and learning styles as our trademark to build these projects. Our current one was about the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas. The students were put in collaborative groups. They had to research three types of engineers, research and use the engineering design process to make a cultural artifact, and then use the engineering design process to build an insulated home for the climate where one of the cultural groups lived. The students have never done a project this big before this period of time in their educational careers. It is hard and frustrating, but very rewarding. That’s what Kenan was to me.

Being put in microbiology and immunology labs was VERY out of my league. It was like learning a new language every single day. Half the time, I felt like I had no idea what was going on. The other half of the time, I only partly understood what was going on. Building curriculum in teams can also be frustrating. Each member has prior experiences and backgrounds to bring to the table that all have different understandings, but WE MADE IT THROUGH.

My students made it through too. I learned how to collaborate with a greater impact and I am now teaching this to my students!