As I grind through the many pieces that are going to go into the 4-H curriculum I keep coming up with moments of, “I can’t wait to share this!” – with my students and with fellow teachers.  The conceptual discovery of the central importance of the microbiome is enough to wax poetic about for a few days.  I am certain that my unit on biodiversity will look very different this year and probably on into the future.

Mechanically I am actually going to flip a few lessons.  Baby steps on this one, probably because I just detest myself on video.  Maybe just a voiceover to start with.  I envision poster creation using the cool poster sites like Easel.ly.  I foresee using Socrative.  I now have a Twitter account for directing science news towards my students (and opening up another means of communicating classroom news besides Moodle, School Fusion, and PowerSchool.) QR codes will have a place in my instruction.

If only every teacher could have the opportunity or had the will to dive into professional development like we have this summer.  Imagine how energized we could be in the face of the state that’s trying to rob us of so much.