Wow!

Summer always flies by, but this year!  I can’t believe I’ve reached the end of my summer internship. Where did the time go?

I’ve learned so many great things during this experience. Everything from learning about lab procedures, lab safety, to best practices in education, technology, and grant writing. All are areas that will impact my classroom.

I can’t wait to use some of the cool apps I’ve learned this summer! Our school will try one-to-one learning with tablets being issued to my grade level in November.

Ugh!

November!

I am also excited to share with my students what I learned in the labs at NCA&T State University. When I applied for the Kenan fellowship, I was a 6th grade teacher. I’m moving to 8th grade in a couple of weeks. And, the 8th grade curriculum more closely matched what I learned in my internship! The lessons I’ve created this summer will greatly enhance my curriculum.

Finally, I will reenter the classroom feeling recharged, and renewed, feeling greater confidence and just happy to get the year started!

What an outstanding feeling when I connected the dots regarding the increase of surface area by using a mesoporous surface.  This was familiar to me from the last two summers spent trying to create thin films, and nanowires to also increase surface area.

I also felt a sense of relief as I realized how I could translate what I’m learning into what I’m teaching next year to my 8th grade students. I’m also excited to know that although they will not be able to do the cutting edge research of my mentor(s), they will be able to reproduce a small part of the experiment on a more classroom appropriate level.

I am hopeful the lab I’m creating, coupled with the video of the researcher, will excite my students into considering a science related career.

I don’t have a video to upload, but here I am loading the world’s smallest crucible with sawdust, before heating the sample in the furnace. This was taken at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering lab.

As a writer, I look forward to any writing opportunities. I write middle grade and young adult novels in my copious free time 😉 and I am a community writer for our local (very local) newspaper, which is a whole other kind of writing.

But, writing curriculum…

That’s a whole other other kind of writing.

Curriculum writing is challenging in many different ways. It’s like driving with a car full of kittens running, hiding, and chasing over and under the car seats.  When I write curriculum, I feel as if I’m trying to corral a whole bunch of things at once. Is the curriculum engaging? Is it easy to understand? Easy to implement? Did I stray too far from the standards?

In this experience with my externship, I have additional challenges. Take a high-level experiment, or research, and bring to the level of a middle school student. In my first lesson, I felt as if I were reinventing the wheel, or maybe the mesoporous support 😉 In this go ’round, it has taken a lot more time than in my previous experience with curriculum writing.

However, I’ve had an equal amount of successes.

In creating a lesson plan from scratch, I feel a certain amount of creative license. And, when I find that perfect supplemental match, I feel I’ve accomplished a great task. I’ll have to admit, it also felt pretty darn good when my mentor’s critique of my first lesson plan only had a few minor suggestions. That’s success!

The major challenge I face in writing curriculum based on my Kenan Fellowship is scaling down cutting edge technology and research to something my middle school students can appreciate and understand.

In my fellowship, I am spending time with several different researchers. I have found videotaping their explanation of their research, and then playing the video back as I write curriculum to be more beneficial than traditional note taking. When not using video, I am using a voice recorder, which offers the same flexibility.

I find by viewing/listening to these segments, I am able to focus on small aspects of the research which may translate to my 11-13 year old students.

There is obvious limitation in replicating the research/experiments being conducted at my externship, but there are many practical applications as well. For example, finding surface area, or even gaining a better understanding of biomass, or renewable vs. non-renewable resources. I am finding it is easier to write small lesson plans that will build foundational knowledge of the overall big picture of the project.

As I am writing, I am also reflecting on my experiences. The process of writing this curriculum is providing me with a deeper understanding of my externship.

I shadowed a doctoral student today who is working to find the best balance of chemicals toward creating biofuels. He explained how he uses the pore space of the supporting material in a method to introduce one of the chemicals.

In using pore space, he creates more surface area. I think I can use this part of his very complicated research in my classroom by creating a lesson that mimics his use of pore space.

It would seem that traditional educational environments have lagged behind trends in using technology in the classroom.

My school is no different. We have three computer labs, and one student computer in each classroom. However, since our class sizes range from 28-32 students, it is not feasible to use the student computer for a class project.

Historically, my challenge to use technology with my students has been met by the assigning of individual assignments with deadlines of a few months. That way been able to provide access to the classroom computer for each of my100+ students.

Happily, the start of the 2014-2015 school year brings the reintroduction of a one-to-one environment for middle schools in my district. The pilot program began last year, but the tablets were recalled, so we didn’t get much accomplished.

It is my hope the reinstallation of this program will eliminate my greatest challenge to using technology in my classroom – the basic lack of equipment.

Hopefully, we will have a flawless implementation, and I can dedicate this year to change in technology use by my students.