My Kenan Fellowship was the perfect mixture of hard work and a lot of learning. I got the opportunity during my externship to learn more about grassroots organizing and reaching out to youth in nontraditional ways. The PD institutes were so eye-opening, though, that I would like to take a few minutes to simply reflect.

Our second PD Institute made me step out of my comfort zone into the world of politics. If you know me, you know that I’m a peacemaker. I love for everyone to get along and I seldom voice my dissent. This particular PD even made me get up in arms!!

We started the weekend with a really great introduction to the Meyer-Briggs Personality test. This was really fun and informative – mostly because it was spot on! Slowly, though, more and more political figures were incorporated. Some were on “our” side and some were definitely not, but most made us think. Truly a great learning experience!

Hoke County Schools recently opened up the use of social media by both students and teachers, to include Facebook and Pinterest. They have also significantly lessened the restraints of the safe internet browsing program. Students have much more access to the world wide web; however, it has not all been positive. Students are often working on inappropriate google searches and on inappropriate Facebook pages.

I have chosen to implement Edmodo in my classroom this year, because I honestly have a fear of using other types of social media with the kids. I feel that I might be putting myself in a compromising situation if I have the kids use Facebook or even Twitter. I much prefer to utilize any of the many school-focused social media like Twiducate or Edmodo.

The culmination of my externship at Sustainable Sandhills was receiving word from a local philanthropy organization that they would be supporting our endeavors at the North Carolina Turkey Festival. We are planning a two-part project for the Festival. First, we will be utilizing my student Green Team to work as a recycling team at the Festival. They are going to be encouraging festival-goers to use the recycling bins we will provide rather than the trash. The second part of the project will be hosting a sustainable energy table at the Festival for students to take part in mini-labs.

I am really excited to be a part of such an innovative project. Receiving funding just re-emphasized that we are going to be able to really implement a fabulous set of activities!

During the KF interview process, we had to provide a sample lesson plan. I chose one that covered a topic that I am especially enthusiastic about, the hydrofracking debate in North Carolina. This topic allows me to bring students into a current events situation and create their own opinions about the subject.

My mentor has asked me to further develop this short lesson plan into a full curriculum unit. We are really excited about integrating the news articles that have been published in our local area in recent weeks. For example, The Fayetteville Observer recently ran a six-part series on the fracking debate in the area. Also, there are transcripts of the recent town hall in Sanford. Finally, we have that express-pass piece of legislation that recently made its way through our legislature in North Carolina.

The challenge for me at this point is finding how to fit all of this new information and these new lessons in my current curriculum piece without losing coherence.

The school that I am teaching at this year is BRAND NEW. It opened its doors this past year (2013-2014), and I totally expected top-of-the-line in the technology department. Every classroom is equipped with a SmartBoard. Math, Social Studies, and ELA are allocated one teacher PC and three student PCs. Science classroom teachers, on the other hand, are provided with only a single teacher-issued laptop.  Every grade level is assigned a class set of laptops on a mobile lab  cart, so every class gets the opportunity to use the technology once every two weeks or so. My answer to this is to regularly write mini-grants to try to increase the technology that is available to my students. So far, I have been able to purchase 5 tablets for my classroom.

This week I was able to take part in an amazing experience that has left me both fulfilled and overwhelmed. I feel like I received a ton of information that I can use this year in my classroom and in the future. I also feel like I have made a lot of connections with other Fellows that I will be seeing during this experience and beyond.

Most of the Fellows are probably going to say that the highlight of the week was their experience on the river. Unfortunately, I was unable to take part in that exciting experience. The highlight of my week has been attending Dacia Jones’ seminar EIEIO. This seminar provided me with a ton of information about obtaining grants. I was also really interested in her concept of front-loading the hands-on science to provide the students with background information. I also liked her idea to invite famous or influential people to Skype with her students.

The NCCAT experience was really worthwhile. I am happy about having met the great people I have had the opportunity to spend time with this week and I look forward to seeing them again in July.