I am now reflecting on what a wonderful we we had all together! Never thought it was going to be so inspiring, informative (lots of information!), and memorable. But the piece of it that I was most impressed about was meeting and bonding with such a great group of teachers. Meeting all of you made me acknowledge that there are many teachers in NC that really care about how they teach. Teachers who work hard on improving, always trying to make a difference, nurturing in a positive way future generations. I saw there that we all care about how we teach Science, or Math, or any other subject in a more meaningful way, and that we all like what we do; we share a passion for this.

After this week, I have added many more new tools to my teaching, and hope to use many of them in class. I am excited about trying infographics when doing labs (hope it works), use Evernotes, and work with Trella when students are working in group projects. I am thinking that during math class we can have some “break times” to play the “paper bridge” game and the “adding hand” game.

A memorable day: the water rafting day. How much fun! I had never done it before, and enjoyed it so much I want to do it again. It was a great opportunity to bond, and relate to others in a different way. I like doing this type of activities with my students to see them interact in other situations outside the classroom. We watch them during dances, when we go bowling, or during field trips. All these help them improve relationships among them.

And last but not least, I have to thank the “chefs” there; delicious food! I think I gained weight. Especially loved the cookies!

Thanks to all for a great week. I wanted to add this picture I took during one of my walks around NCCAT-  ” A new beginning”

Now that I am here at NCCAT , I am getting more excited about the program I am going to be involved. At the same time, I am meeting all kinds of interesting teachers, making new connections, and starting to develop relationships. This is one of my goals; to meet new people in my career, or people that can somehow be involved in my teaching.  People whom I  can collaborate with, share experiences, and learn more about teaching (and have fun too). I want my students to benefit from all these experiences I am starting to have with this fellowship, and at the end, I want my students to be more engaged in Science through real life experiences. I want my students to experience what scientists are and do, and develop a love for science.

Hopefully, through this program, science/math/engineering education can move forward as they engaged more students into the Science fields.

I really enjoyed the “games we played together”, in collaboration. That is what students should be doing: enjoying learning, collaborating while learning, developing relationships as they learn more about themselves, too.

I hope to have a memorable year!

Last week, before ending the school year, some of my 6th graders were studying the “pros and cons” of the Aurora Phosphate mine, place where Dr. Bucky Gates my mentor, gets fossils. My group of students and I went to interview him at the Nature Research Center. The interview went well; students hard very good questions and they learned a lot about the benefits of the mine, and its environmental impact. They will now take this information to the rest of the class. Here are some pictures in action. And a picture with the whole group.