Wow!  I had an amazing week in Cullowhee, NC at the Kenan Fellows Professional Advancement Institute.  In my 25 years of teaching, I have not experienced such top quality professional development as I did this past week.

Arriving back home exhausted from the week’s activities, I began reflecting on my week and the many new tools, strategies, and ideas that were presented at the institute.  I attended so many excellent sessions on technology that will engage my students and improve my instructional practices. However,  the session that most inspired me as a middle school science teacher was Justin Osterstrom’s presentation on Engineering in the Middle School Classroom.  His hands-on, minds-on approach was right on.  I cannot wait to implement some of the practical activities he shared in my own classroom.  I could have spent two hours in a session with him learning more strategies for creating lessons that will improve  my students’ inquiry skills.   I plan to post the following quote from Justin in my classroom as a constant reminder to my students :  “I expect you to fail, I don’t expect you to quit.”  THIS is the point where those AHA moments occur and real learning begins.  The type of activities that Justin presented are the ones that create excitement in the classroom and leave the students begging for more.  I left that session inspired and eager to create more opportunities for inquiry learning in my classroom.

I was surrounded by amazing educators from across the state this week.   The conversations and team building experiences I had walking around the track, sharing a meal, or rafting down the Nantahala were just as important and meaningful to me as the professional development sessions I attended.

I am honored to be a part of this group of exceptional educators and energized by the creativity, skills, and passion that was shared throughout the week.  I  also really enjoyed learning from my fellow educators during the Kenan Talks. I look forward to meeting together  with this group again in July and continuing my journey as a Kenan Fellow.

I decided to apply for the Kenan Fellowship Program this year when I heard there were going to be fellowships at the North Carolina Science Museum.  I’ve had many great experiences with the science museum  both professionally and personally from student field trips to exploring the jungles of Belize with the Educators of Excellence Program .  Kenan Fellows have such an excellent reputation throughout the state so I couldn’t dream of a better partnership to help me grow as educator.

My excitement grew when I met my mentor , Dr. Julia Stevens, at the science museum on June 5th and learned more about our research project exploring soil microbiomes.  It was apparent to me that my summer  work in the Microbiology and Genomics Lab was going to be awesome!

I’m now at NCCAT in Cullowhee, NC participating in the Kenan Fellows Professional Advancement Institute.  WOW!  In just two days I’ve made  great connections with outstanding educators and experienced professional development unlike any I’ve had in my teaching career.  This program has already exceeded my expectations!

As I begin this journey as a Kenan Fellow, my hope is to improve my skill set as an educator. I want to  learn new strategies and tools that I can share with my students and colleagues that will engage the learner and rejuvenate the educator.

I’m very excited to be part of the citizen science intiative at the museum and take what we are doing in the classroom back out into the real world.   I hope to create lessons that can be used by teachers anywhere that will engage their students in participating in citizen science.  I want the students to be excited that the data being collected in classroom is not going to die in the notebook at the end of the year, but become part of the collective science.  We are going to KICK IT UP A NOTCH in the science classroom this year!