While looking through the photo album of the 2014-15 Kenan Fellows, I realized how far we have come. After three productive professional developments, I have gained a lot of important knowledge to infuse into my teaching. The experience of seeing what is being done on the cutting-edge of electrical engineering at the FREEDM Center was also crucial in the way that I teach STEM topics. It helped me really realize how important it is to introduce students to these topics so that they are even aware that they exist! I think the lessons I helped to develop and my Kenan Curriculum, “Pencil Circuits,” is helping to progress STEM knowledge. Even this blog has helped me to take the time necessary to be reflective on my practice.

Over the last year as a Kenan Fellow, I have learned a lot of valuable information. Being able to spend time alongside electrical engineers designing and inventing our future gave me an even better understanding of the importance of a strong STEM foundation for all students. Additionally, the professional development I received through the program was by far the most relevant and worthwhile PD I’ve ever encountered as a teacher.  The experiences I gained through my Kenan Fellowship are very difficult to find elsewhere and have strongly influenced my career.

After seeing the cool things that electrical engineers were doing at the FREEDM Center, I worked on developing a very basic introductory lesson on circuits for 6-8th grade students. The goal was to ignite their interest in circuitry while requiring very little investment in materials from the teacher. The solution was to create the “Pencil Circuits” lesson that uses a pencil, 9V battery, and LED’s to create circuits. No wires—students’ pencils “draw” the wires!

I would love for this lesson to be used by teachers and anyone else who wants to lead a lesson on introducing circuits. Through my fellowship, we worked to create engineering lessons that would be sent out to every county in NC and possibly beyond. This lesson could act as a supplement to the other lessons.

The student worksheet is posted at the link below:

Pencil Circuits

As part of the Kenan Fellowship, Lenovo offered each fellow a tablet. It was great to be able to take such a compact device to my placement and various professional development seminars. It has a keyboard, and the full functionality of a PC in a very small package. The best part is the two USB ports, which are very rare on tablets!

For my Kenan Fellowship at North Carolina State University’s FREEDM Center, I designed a lesson to introduce middle school students to electrical circuits. To make the lesson cheap and accessible for many people, I created a worksheet that uses students’ pencils to draw wires that will connect a 9V battery and an LED light.

After moving to North Carolina from a state where teachers are taken much better care of, I was a little discouraged. I felt like people in this state didn’t value or recognize the important work that teachers do. The Kenan Fellow partnerships helped show me otherwise. It was good to see industry and higher education seeking out teachers because they realize the importance of quality education. I gained a lot of knowledge of the ‘real world’ from the partnership that has improved my teaching and even the view I have of the profession within North Carolina.

The best thing about the professional development offered in the Kenan Fellowship Program is that it was all relevant and useful for us to apply to our careers. The topics that were presented were things that could be applied to help our students. I never felt like we were just being presented information because it would impress people. In many school meetings, I feel like the aim is to make the school look good or impress the people at the central office or state department, whether or not it is really what is most beneficial to teachers. The result of the Kenan PD is that my teaching has improved and my students are learning more information in more engaging ways.

I think social media is an excellent tool to use in education. It is an amazing way to raise awareness of what is happening in classrooms and to keep parents informed. It is also a great way for teachers to share ideas with each other. Even the community can stay informed about what is happening in classrooms.

Unfortunately, all of the benefits come with some significant concerns and potential barriers. I would not want to be able to see what my students are posting to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The best case scenario would be to post to those outlets without being able to see “friends'” information. A social media form of Remind 101 would be great!

My solution to these issues has been to avoid interactive social media beyond Edmodo, which is monitored by our district. Instead, I post to my websites and blog. A great example of the success of social media is my Garden Club Blog, which has raised a lot of awareness and fostered a great amount of support for our club. The community has a much better understanding of what our club is all about and we have received a lot of funding and volunteers.

See my blog at: www.mooresquaregardenclub.weebly.com

The blog has worked great for my application. I hope that there will be a better way to be involved with mainstream social media without peering into the social lives of our students and parents.

My Kenan Fellowship will change the way I teach by being able to explain and show my students what I experienced this summer at NC State’s FREEDM Systems Center. Instead of just speaking about examples of engineering projects, I can explain my first-hand account of my summer with electrical engineers who are working to change the way our energy grid works. My projects will be more relevant and students will be able to make connections between what they are doing in my classes and the real-life applications. Having spent my entire life from student to teacher in the field of education, I have only learned about the real-world. This summer allowed me to witness how scientists and engineers are actually shaping our future and will directly benefit my students!

My students will benefit from my summer externship in many ways. The main reason is because I spent my summer working to develop engineering lessons that reflect what is being done at NC State’s FREEDM Systems Center. I will be piloting these lessons in my classroom this year. I will also be able to back up my claims of what scientists and engineers need to know and the kinds of jobs they are involved in because of my first-hand experiences touring many facilities and engineering departments at NC State.

Another big influence on my teaching is the result of the great professional development that we had at NCCAT and in Raleigh. I am writing this from my classroom on the fourth day of the school year. My classes have loved playing kahoot.it, which I learned about at NCCAT. I have no doubt that they will learn so much more with this form of review because it is so fun! They want to play the same game (which basically amounts to taking a quiz) multiple times!

The KFP has been a great experience so far and is already changing the way I teach STEM topics and present material.