As we close in on the last few days of school, most teachers have visions of sandy beaches, lazy days, and maybe a few good (fun!) books dancing through their head. I have a different vision bouncing around in my head that I am very excited about! I’ll be spending most of June and July working with Edgecombe-Martin Electric Membership Cooperation as a Kenan Fellow. When I tell people my plans for summer there are a few questions they ask almost immediately. I’ll share the answers to some of those questions here:
#1. So this internship thing this summer, what’s that about?
The internship is offered through the Kenan Fellows Project. I encourage you to check out their website, but here is the summary listed on their website under ‘About Us’:
The Kenan Fellows Program empowers educators, students and businesses through strategic partnerships.
“Solutions-driven K-12 teachers selected as Kenan Fellows engage in a year-long fellowship in partnership with university researchers and industry experts. The program provides opportunities for development and advancement, inspiring educators to drive innovation in North Carolina public schools.
Key components of the fellowships are a five-week summer research experience with a mentor in a local workplace and two weeks of professional development. From this experience, Fellows create innovative lessons for students and professional development workshops for their colleagues.”
My project title is “It’s Electric!” and I’ll be learning all about the different ways electricity is generated, transmitted and supplied while learning about the cooperative business model and all aspects of member services in the co-op.
I don’t think we’ll be dancing, but anytime I say “It’s Electric!”, this is what goes through my head…
#2. So you’ll spend your WHOLE SUMMER working?
Yes and no. I will spend 5 weeks at Edgecombe-Martin Electric Membership Cooperation, 1 week at NCCAT (more on that in a later post) and 3 days in Raleigh, NC for Professional Development associated with the program. I’ll also have two days in the fall for professional development. I will have two weeks off action packed summer fun in August before I go back to school (stay tuned for more on that). So yes, I’ll work most of my summer. Which leads to the next quesion I’ve been asked…
#3. WHY are you doing this?
Many people cannot fathom why in the world a teacher would want to ‘give up’ a big part of their summer off in order to do something like this. What most people who are not teachers do not understand is that most teachers spend at least part of the summer at professional development anyway, and they spend a lot of their summer working on their plans for the next school year as well. These are just a few of the personal reasons I applied to be a Kenan Fellow:
a. I love learning and growing as a professional– I know this will provide me with a great deal of experience that I can share with my students. Since I started teaching I have always participated in some sort of extensive training during the summer- it’s just what I do.
b. I like new challenges. This will be something new and different for me. When I graduated college I went straight into teaching. I don’t know what people in other businesses, and I’ll get to interact with a wide variety of professionals and my own learning will be stretched. I’ve been ‘eyeing’ Kenan Fellows for quite some time now, and due to different reasons I never applied (more about that in a later post). I decided this was the year I needed to step out of my comfort zone and just do it.
c. Kenan Fellows provides leadership opportunity within my school, county, and state. This is important to me because it means that I am active contributor to the success and growth of my profession. Teachers that are involved and lead the profession often help mold and shape our profession and initiate and implement change. These changes impact student learning at the classroom level– which is why we do what we do anyway.
#4. Ok, so WHAT will you be doing every day?
I’ll be following around a bunch of folks from Edgecombe- Martin EMC as they do their daily jobs. Each day will have a different adventure for me. I’ve already seen the calendar and let me just say I am THRILLED at all of the opportunity that will be packed into these short 5 weeks. My adventure will include days with the line crew, touring businesses and generation stations, learning about the member side of electric cooperatives in NC from billing to connections, renewables, maintenance, safety, economic developments and partnerships, and tours of other cooperatives.
It is my intention to share my experiences via this blog on a regular basis. Some posts will be text heavy, while others may be more pictorial. I have a supply of my favorite notebooks and pens ready for my first day, which is Monday, June 15. Before then I’ll share a little more about who I am and my journey to becoming a Kenan Fellow. This is interactive, so please ask questions and/or make comments below!