Describe something that you’ve learned as a result of your Kenan Fellowship that will change how you teach next year.

My teaching will be greatly impacted this year by what I’ve learned as a result of my Kenan Fellowship. I teach at a STEM school, but I never really thought that the principles of STEM were important to me as an English teacher.
Through my work with Dr. Fortne at NC State and Mark Meno at FRC-East I have definitely developed a deeper understanding of the Engineering Design principle, and I am so excited to incorporate this into my English class this year!

I intend to use the Engineering Design process to help my students plan for their papers, products, and speeches; the latter being my focus for my Kenan Fellowship. We have already used the first two phases of the process to write poetry at the beginning of this year. It is amazing to me how applicable this process is to my curriculum, and I intend to use it as often as I can with my students.

Our school is placing an emphasis this year in incorporating the design process in the classroom, and I feel like I already have a head start!
We are using the process broken up to help students with their planning. Here is a picture of the process I use in my classroom as I teach the students about each phase:

I think what I have learned from this process will not only affect my lessons, but also affect the manner in which I plan for lessons, as I myself have used the Engineering Design process to plan my Kenan lesson. Doing this has made everything I do more deliberate in the classroom, and that, I think will make the biggest impact on my teaching overall.

As you prepare for the 2012-2013 school year, describe how you envision your summer experience impacting your students.

I am actually finishing up the beginning year preparations (we just finished our work days this last week and I get kids on Monday), and I can already see my summer experience making a huge impact on my students!

Of course, there is my externship and everything I have learned about the engineering design process. This is going to have a major impact on the way I run my class, and on the way my students proceed with projects, papers, presentations, and really any large assignment. I am working hard this year to incorporate the design process in as many areas of my English curriculum as I can manage.

Not only will my students be impacted by my externship, though. I think the professional development we were able to be a part of will make a huge difference in my classroom! I am already making many changes based on things I learned from presenters! I am collecting more data on my students to better assist them in what their individual needs are, and to better understand where students are coming from. I am opening new avenues of communication (I never thought I would have a twitter!) with students and parents. I think I have taken away the value of open communication with everyone from the PD I participated in!

Not only will these things impact my students, they should impact all students at our school, because I am a huge proponent of sharing. I have shared so many things that I have learned with my colleagues, and in doing so I feel as though my summer experience will impact students even beyond my reach.

How exciting!

As you reflect on your externship experience to date, what has been your biggest “AHA” moment? Include a 3-5 minute video of you at your externship site if allowed.

Looking back on my externship, my biggest “aha” moment was the realization of how often I use pieces of the engineering design process in my classroom. I spent the majority of my externship learning about the FRC, their engineers, and just what they all do; however, right at the end of my on-base visits, I got the opportunity to sit one-on-one with some engineers just to discuss my project and the design process.

I really value this process now, and I am working to incorporate it in all that I do in my classroom. I think I truly saw the value when I used the process to create my Kenan Lesson Plan. I finally saw how beneficial this was going to be for my students in my English classroom, and I got really excited about the engineering design process!!

As I get ready to start back to school (Monday with kids!), I am planning to start the year talking about this process and how we will incorporate it in the majority of our assignments. I think having this revelation about the process is super beneficial to me, my kids, and also my school! Being a STEM school, this is a huge push this year, and after my externship I feel like I have a jump start!

Considering the significant curriculum changes taking place as a result of the Common Core, do you think that the Common Core is more likely to positively influence the use of technology for learning or is it another impediment to implementing digital tools?

I think Common Core has a lot of great features, and I think it truly will increase the rigor in the classroom. In that regard, I think that it can be a very positive influence in the use of technology in the classroom. My experience with Common Core is that it places a lot of responsibility for learning on the students (which I LOVE), and responsibility on the teachers to find the means for students to take the reins on their learning. Technology is a great resource with which to do this.

On the other hand, my understanding of Common Core also places a huge emphasis on the use of technology, which makes me concerned that in some cases, random and ineffective technology will be used simply for the sake of using technology in all aspects of learning in the classroom. I am of the mindset that technology can be great when it is truly needed, but often as educators, we throw in technology we may not necessarily need for the sake of using technology.

I think if technology is used when needed, and not simply because Common Core calls for it, then Common core could be a very positive influence in using technology to assist students in taking responsibility for their learning in the classroom.

Describe at least one way you can connect your summer externship experience to your classroom curriculum. Also, share and respond to at least three posts.

My summer externship will have a major impact on my classroom. For my Kenan Fellowship lesson, I am creating a unit that will lead students through the engineering design process to create a presentation. My intent in my classroom, however, is to incorporate the process in many other aspects of my classroom.

We will be using the engineering design process extremely deliberately this year; this is something I have never done in the past. Because I work at a STEM school, we have this process posted in every classroom; however, very few of us as teachers outside of stem actually referred to it in our teaching last year. It is my intent to truly base PBL on this process this year, and to incorporate this into our classroom vocabulary.

Through my externship I have gained a much better understanding of the process, which will allow me to teach the steps to my students this year. I have seen it in use during engineering camp with the middle school students, I have discussed this manner of thinking with my mentors, former Kenan Fellows, and with engineers I have worked with over the summer. The time I spent in my externship will greatly benefit the paradigm shift I and my students will partake in this upcoming year!

Based on your experiences, what are the greatest challenges for leveraging technology to empower learning in your classroom and school?

For me, the greatest challenge in using technology in my classroom is to not use the technology for the sake of using technology. I want to work toward using technology in my classroom to enhance learning and for growth, not just to say I am doing it.

There are a few programs I use to do this, but I want to become better versed with technology that truly promotes and adds to the learning in the classroom, and does not take away from it.

The week we all spent in Cullowee was very memorable. A lot will stand out to me from the professional development and the time we spent as a group.

The event that I think I grew from the most was the white water rafting. Not because it was fun and exciting (although it was), but because I was truly scared to do it, and I did something that was totally out of my comfort zone. The fellowship that I am a part of is also putting me out of my comfort zone, as I am definitely not an engineer!

I think having the opportunities to get out of my comfort zone will help me becoming better in my profession, because I am allowing myself to grow by doing these things.

Since the Kenan Fellowships were announced, I have been wondering what all this thing would entail. I applied without much expectation, so my expectations at this point are somewhat unlcear.

After speaking with fellows from last year that did the same program I am doing, I am doing my best to keep an open mind about everything, and am trying to basically be a sponge to all of the information I am getting. For me, staying open to what is going on and NOT setting expectations is a change, and I have been trying to go by that philosophy for this experience.

Of course, there are things I hope will happen due to this experience. I hope to become a better, more effective teacher. I hope that I am inspired to incorporate new and exciting things into my classroom. I hope that the work that I complete through this fellowship has a direct effect on my teaching, and more importantly, on my students.
I also have the idea that doing this will not only impact me currently as a teacher, but will open doors for me down the road. Which doors it may open, I am not sure.

Since my first post didn’t go through, this is a practice post to see if it will go through this time!