Monthly Archives: August 2014

It takes a (virtual) village…

Uncategorized

As a teacher, I like to think that I’m part of the proverbial “village” that it takes to raise a child.  One of my goals for this school year is to increase the parent and community involvement in my classroom.  I want parents to feel like I’m part of their “village,” that they can feel comfortable talking to me.

What I’ve realized through my Kenan Fellow experience this summer is that it also takes a village to raise a teacher.  For my first few years in the classroom, I tried to do everything by myself.   Eventually I learned to rely on the people around me: my PLT, department, and the teachers with similar visions and goals.  This year I’m also going to take advantage of the virtual village: the immense supply of tools, resources, and people who can help me become a better teacher.

A few ideas I have so far:

  • Using Foursquare to facilitate learning on our field trip to CAM and have students track their community service hours
  • Inviting parents to follow me on Twitter and tweeting about things we’re doing in class.  (Above is a tweet from our first week of class!)
  • Keeping in touch with my fellow Fellows and collaborating on projects through apps like i-naturalist.  This will be a great way to connect across the grade levels–a great project idea for my students who like working with kids.
  • Having a Skype session with Brian Strahl when my juniors read Brave New World about the likelihood of scientists being able to achieve the levels of human genetic modification described in the book

The challenge with all of this will be sticking to my ideas when the year gets hectic and we have more to do than we have time for (the plight of public school teachers everywhere).  I’m confident I can make it happen, however; my Kenan experience this summer re-energized me and made me excited about being back in the classroom.

Renaissance Thinkers

Uncategorized

When I think about the impact I want my externship experience to have on my students, a lot of things come to mind.  I want them to learn about the reality of genetic research and how it is being applied to benefit natural and human life.  I want them to get a sense of what it means to be a researcher.  I want them to come in contact with some of the awesome stuff I learned this summer (like that it takes 800 millileters of bacteria culture to yield 5 microliters of protein).

More than anything, though, I want my students to open up to the idea that just because they are good at one thing, doesn’t mean they can’t be interested in everything.  I’ve been thinking back to my earlier ideas about crossroads thinkers who can combine scientific and artistic knowledge.  Writing my curriculum proved to me just how difficult that can be!  While we can’t all be geniuses in the way of Divinci or Lovelace, we can all cultivate our curiosity and become Renaissance thinkers.   By sharing my internship experience, I can introduce students to the novel idea that an English teacher can also be interested (and successful!) in science.  As a high school student, I remember signing up for classes and wanted to take classes like physics and AP Chemistry and anatomy, but I lacked the confidence in my own abilities.

I want all my students to feel confident enough to do anything.  I also want them to know that just because they don’t look like, or have the same experiences as others, doesn’t mean they can’t do what they do.  I can’t wait to tell my students and my colleagues how I spent this summer.  I hope to inspire future Fellows, and future Renaissance thinkers!