Hard to believe I woke up in the beautiful Smoky Mountains this morning. Joanne, Nate, and I drove to Burlington, where Nate and I promptly got in his car and drove to Raleigh-Durham airport, because I am about to fly to Ohio to go to the wedding of a great friend of mine with whom I teach and coach. I’m sitting near Gate D17 at RDU, waiting for my flight. Looong day.

While I was super excited about the raft trip and it was (along with the edcamp) my favorite activity of the week, the highlight of my experience at NCCAT would be the relationships formed. Our cohort is AWESOME.

Project: The 1NFuns

Project: Wearable Devices

Project: Students Discover

The teachers here have been selected (from a pool of around 300 applications) to do this project and I feel honored to be among them.

We were presented with some fantastic resources in addition to having the time to network and form relationships. The project management tool Trello is going to revolutionize the way I do group work.  I do some formal debates in my class that require a lot of purposeful collaboration and teamwork.  Trello is going to be a perfect tool for that (and my teammates and I are going to use it to plan our year AND my E-Mammal projectmates and I are going to use it to plan our Kenan product). Trello was introduced to me by @mcscienceteach, who put on a great workshop about project management. @mshicksenglish shared some great resources for the discussion based classroom as well. Hoo-boy, I am ready to start cracking on next year.

Even with something as high quality as Kenan PD, there is always room for improvement.  I attended a session with a teacher that (because I follow her on Twitter) I know is awesome. But, I was expecting some very practical advice on implementing successful project-based learning in my classroom and I didn’t get it.  I think edcamp’s philosophy of “The Law of Two Feet” needs to be implemented at ALL PD for teachers, and this problem would be solved.

Regardless of this session, my week at NCCAT has been better than any other PD I’ve attended save my two day visit to Ron Clark Academy. The programming that was put together was helpful and useful and practical and didn’t waste our time.  Additionally, they take good care of teachers at NCCAT and I’m currently brainstorming a way that a few teachers at Broadview can go.  Believe it or not, this resource is not widely mentioned where I teach in ABSS.

I have a feeling that will change soon.

It is DAY 2 of our retreat at NCCAT in Cullowhee, NC.  I am thrilled to be surrounded with teachers of this caliber.  I’ve had refreshing conversation after refreshing conversation.

I believe that Kenan will elevate my teaching career by providing resources, connections, relationships, and experiences that would otherwise not be available to me.  I am excited to fall more into a role as a teacher-leader within my school and my district. I am excited to do a better job of empowering teachers around me to do things they want to do for their students.

Working with my mentor Stephanie will provide a level of expertise that my students and I (and hopefully other teachers in the building) will benefit from.  I’ll be able to tap into her knowledge base to bring that to my students.  Having more perspectives is ALWAYS better than having fewer. I think that is why this time at NCCAT has been so great. I’ve been surrounded by great perspectives–and many of them.  I will carry these ideas back to my school.

Here is to two more days here at NCCAT!

Tomorrow is a big day. I will join the other Kenan Fellows on a trip to NCCAT.

The facility’s goal is to advance teaching as a profession and an art, which is a beautiful mission. I’m grateful for people doing that work, and that I get to benefit from it. I’m excited about this week.

In certain ways, I think this week will be reminiscent of summer camps that I attended when I was younger–and I’m pumped about that. We will be diving headfirst into the Kenan experience, getting to know each other, hiking, white-water rafting, sharing ideas about teaching and, I’m sure, much more.

Recently, I read Kim Bearden’s book and I’m currently reading Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation. I admire teachers who lead the profession by using their voice to articulate their experience. I’m excited to interact with teachers who are already doing this in many ways and I hope to, in some ways, come into my own as a teacher who has good ideas and isn’t hesitant to communicate those ideas. Kenan is going to play a big role in my development as a teacher leader and an advocate for the profession.

Tomorrow is a big day!