Currently where I am located, students to do not have access to social media networks like facebook and twitter, and snapchat when using the school’s wifi network. Sad to say, this is not the case  when most students all have a smart phone with a data plan that can allow them to access any website.  From what I have seen of students use in social media in the classroom is just a hinderance to instructional time.  All students want to do is take pictures and snap people during classtime, instead of using the technology for educational purposes.

One thing that I do think that social media can lend itself  well to, would to have students to start to think critically and analyze all things that the read online with skeptism. There are so many false posts everyday on social media networks that are either not true, or have inaccuracies with them. Yes, facebook could be a good starting point to help conduct more research on a particular topic of interest, but it is not the all know. I mean how many people fall for the so-and-so died, but they are not really dead. Or that certain shows have been cancelled, when they really have not. This would be the only positive thing that I could really say about social media in the classroom.

I do think that edmodo, does lend it self well as to trying to attract and entice students into thinking that learning is more like a social media experience rather than learning. I do not think that I would classify edmodo though as social media, i feel that this site is sort of like the classroom bulletin board that everyone enrolled can post on.

During the process of writing my lesson plan, I did not experience many challenges. One of the toughest things for me, was finding the right supplemental material to use in the lesson plan. My goal with the lesson would be to encourage students to read and analyze graphs about Global Warming. There is so much material and graphs on the internet today, that trying to narrow it down was a little bit tough.

Overall, I feel that the writing the lesson plan is coming together and will hopefully yield a good result.

During my experiences working at NC State this summer with the ASSIST team, I discovered many engaging activities and videos that were shared with everyone to help connect students to understanding what nanotechnology is and how much of an impact nano-tech is to their everyday lives. Without this really small scale chips and electronic boards, they would not have a super fast and powerful smart phone.

Also, during this summer experience Dr. Jones and Dr. Jurr invited Carolina Biological out to do a short workshop.  There were two main activities that I  would love to come back and do in my classroom with students. The first being the Write It, Do It challenge. Students build a sculpture and then write detailed directions of how they built the design. After about 20 minutes, everyone was to switch their directions and then try to build the design of someone else based on their directions. This would enable me to stress the importance of being very detailed oriented, in ordered to have a good repeatable experiment. Next, I can tie this into the research scientists I meet at the externship site, and discuss some of the cutting edge research that is happening at NC State.

Also, from this experience I would hope to eventually have my mentors come out and talk to the students about what they do for a living, and how they got to where they are today. I would hope that possibly , this could help encourage some of my students to go into an engineering or STEM career field.

After hearing about all the wonderful new apps, computer programs, and flipping the classroom. I still wonder at times… is this something that I can do and make work in my classroom. One of the toughest things that I have to compete with currently in my classroom are all the social media apps for the phones that pull students attention away from learning. Students are more interested in using the time provided for social media apps like facebook, snapchat, and twitter rather than educational apps, like quizzlet or searching for information on their cell phones. I feel that phones are like a double edged sword for me currently.

I plan to a better job next school year with identifying from the get go of class, what I consider to be acceptable phone usage and what is unacceptable or inappropriate phone behavior. I really do value the engagement aspect of sneaking in education activities through the use of technology in the classroom.  I am looking forward to using Polleverywhere, Aurasma, and Tellagami in the classroom next school year. I may even try to use more of Edmodo to convince students to stay off of Facebook and use it to communicate group thoughts to the entire class.

My past week has been spent in Cullowee, NC at NCCAT with a great group of educators. This week has been filled with an innumerable amount of invaluable experiences from all the lecturers and presenters that filled my schedule this week.

The major highlight of the week for me would have to have been the rafting trip down the Natahala River. I love the idea of bringing the classroom outdoors more. What a great way to do that with the rafting trip. The best part was also having the biologist guy in the boat with my group. We stopped by the edge of the river and ate black raspberries while having great conversations about biology and students in the classroom. Not only were we talking classroom and teaching, but he was also pointing out all the plant fauna and different bird species by their calls. It was a very enjoyable afternoon down the river; COLD but enjoyable none the less.

Another highlight from the week at NCCATs Professional Development was meeting wonderful educators that are excited to be in the classroom and learn new technology to help engage the 21st child in learning. All of the presenters were great; I did not go to one presentation that I did not learn something new that I can potentially use in the classroom. It was also great to make new connections and hopefully maintain contact with educators to connect with.

I hope that my experience as a Kenan Fellows  is one about learning and increasing student engagement in learning.This past year at Apex High School there was a big push to assess how engaged students were with the content that was being taught. Therefore I am also looking to find new and creative ways to help engage students into learning science. I also hope to network with other teachers around North Carolina and be able to network with them. I am very interested to hear what other educators are using in their classrooms.

Not only am I hoping to learn a lot of new things to put into my teacher tool bag, but I am also hoping that by completing this fellowship it will allow new doors to open my horizons for more exciting things to happen in my career.

The picture above is a good representation of what I hope to gain from my experience as a Kenan Fellows. Finding new resources to use in the classroom, time to reflect on the resources and new knowledge gained, and then build the curriculum surrounding the new information that’s been processed.