As my summer experience comes to an end this week, I am very excited to begin this school year! My how time flies!!!! There are so many ideas that I have for the upcoming year from all that I have learned at the PAIs and from designing and writing my Kenan Curriculum. I fully expect Earth Science to become a much more interactive and engaging environment where my students can make more emotional connections to nature and the beautiful world around them. I think my students will really enjoy iNaturalist and the identification process, and I truly believe that the students will become excited, engaged, and develop a sense of ownership for their natural community. I want all of my classes to develop a stronger sense of worth in nature and in turn within themselves…I want them to become citizen scientists today and remain citizen scientists tomorrow. With regard to my Chemistry and Research Methods students, I believe they will be interested in the Kenan Curriculum that I have been designing–I have really tried to take manufacturing from the large scale to the small, where students can dig deep into the product formulation and production concepts and recognize that science and math are embedded within it all!

I know my students will have a heightened educational experience this year! This will partly be due to the amazing technology-based apps, gadgets, and tools that I have learned about, but most importantly it will be due to the emotional and intellectual growth that I have personally experienced. When do students become the most engaged and inspired? When they are encouraged and supported. This Kenan Fellowship summer experience provided me with the ability to provide the needed support and encouragement, the ability to try new things and promote true inquiry, to be able to increase the level of interaction not only within the classroom walls but also outside in our school yard… our woods… our community. I know that my students will have a great school year- I know that I will impact them in a positive way- and I know that the Kenan Fellowship Program and the amazing mentors at Wright Foods have given me the confidence to say this!