My KFP experience has totally reinvigorated me and caused me to seriously reflect on my teaching practices. As an educator, it is easy to brush the dust off of the same curriculum that you’ve been using. However, I am encouraged and inspired by my PD sessions this summer to try new things (BYOD, classroom discussion/debate, POGIL, etc.), while also moving away from the mostly lecture format that I learned from my teaching mentor.
I want my students to be as excited about my biology content as I am! I want them to see the world as a series of questions, waiting to be answered. I want students to be challenged and encouraged to make mistakes. It is only through their experiences and mistakes that learning truly takes place–not with textbooks and testing.
This year, instead of introducing topics with notes, I want to engage students in discussion and have them practice with the material before truly understanding “how it works.” No one has all of the answers; so why give students all of the answers from the outset?
Beyond my classroom, I am grateful to this experience for the networking opportunities it has provided me. I now have 41 new KFPÂ friends that understand #teacherstruggles and can support my growth as a person and educator; I have multiple lab mentors who are willing to come into my classroom and engage with my students; I have outlets for sharing ideas and collaborating (e.g. Twitter).
With new ideas and a large support network in place, I am excited to shake things up in my classroom and see all of my ideas come to fruition. I can’t wait to see how this school year goes!
