This year has gone by so fast. Maybe it felt this way because of all the interesting and exciting things I was doing and experiencing through this fellowship. And the nice part of it is that the fellowship continues, it will never stop now.

Looking back, my first blog was titled “Empowerment”; this is what this year has been for me and for my students. I now feel I can ask my students to complete tasks, assignments, and work I never thought they could do, and also be interested in doing them. I see my students also feel empowered; they feel they can do anything they set for, no matter the challenge. They have learned so much, they are becoming critical thinkers and can analyze situations, while solving problems. They have grown so much academically, and personally! They have learned to work in teams, collaborate, and support each other through our projects.

Last summer internship not only taught me about geology, paleontology, evolution, and taphonomy, but helped me build strong relationships with my mentor, with the other postdocs at the Nature Research Center;  I feel I can always go back there and feel like “at home”. I have learned a lot from my mentor, Bucky Gates, about doing science in the classroom, becoming a better science teacher, bringing that “scientist” part of me alive again, while empowering my students to be scientists themselves. Once I told Bucky that I was loving this year because I had become a scientist again, doing some research again, as I used to do so many years ago, after I graduated as a biologist and before becoming a teacher. The nice thing is that I am incorporating both things now in my life and in my classroom.

I feel re-energized with all these experiences and have plans to do more new projects in the classroom, improving also the ones I already do. With my 6th grade teaching team, I have introduced the Dandelion project with Dr. Julia Stevens, and we have already started it! Students seem excited, too.

This year I also had the opportunity to present a citizen science project at the Inaugural Citizen Science Conference in San Jose, CA; what a wonderful experience!  Empowerment…Hopefully, I will be presenting at more conferences in the near future.

Every day I keep learning more and that is what makes life enjoyable. I learn as I teach, and want to transmit that joy to my students.