Connecting the Pieces

Wow, what a summer. It seems that the Kenan Fellows externship has just ended, but it’s been two weeks! As I have reentered my life after this summer of awesome, I have slipped off task in blogging I have had two weeks of respite, but we start workdays next week and my brain has begun churning all the things I learned and experienced this summer into cohesive connections. Right now, it’s like a big pile of play blocks – chaos with limitless possibilities

Though there are still a number of moving pieces rattling around, I have recognized a few connections that have already began to take shape:

Content connections

As a science and STEM teacher, this summer has been a wealth of knowledge and ideas for me to take back to my classroom and school.  My own project, Students Discover: Shark Teeth Forensics, put us in a paleontology lab all summer looking at prehistoric and current sharks.  The study of these sharks relates perfectly to middle school science classes – both in specific content and pedagogy. For content, my class this year will be working with the concepts of Earth’s history, evolution, morphology, genetics, and phylogenetics…just to name a few. These are all things that our team researched and explored this summer in the externship.  The deeper connection, though, is how I can have students attack these concepts.  Brittany, Chris, Bucky, and I spent the summer asking questions about these sharks.  How big were they?  How do tooth shapes relate to diet?  Do teeth chance size and/or shape over the course of a shark’s life?  If so, is that change consistent across shark types?  One of the biggest questions we had was: can data on modern shark teeth be used to estimate information about the prehistoric shark populations that swam where we sit today?  It is this inquiry that I strive to bring back to my students – modeling and fostering a sense of life-long curiosity and learning. In many ways, providing students the materials, opportunity, and support to ask and research their own questions is what a middle school classroom should be about.

Peer connections

In addition to my own projects, The Kenan Fellowship essentially created a meet-up of some of the best teachers in the state.  Through the professional advancement institutes at NCCAT and Hunt Library,we had a chance to talk with these amazing educators, hear their ideas, get feedback, and plan future projects.  I am now looking forward to collaborating on projects that cover much more of my curriculum and can share them with a wide range of educators.

Professional connections

This is the connection to be named later.  Whether through meeting past Fellows, ed-policy gurus, new connections in the NCMNS, or Kenan Fellows Program or Friday Institute staff, I feel that my professional network is expanding.  As I am supported to process this specific product, I can see how this professional network will help my fellow Kenan’s and myself achieve many more projects in the future.

Putting the pieces together

This is where the hard work pays off.  Over then next few weeks, I will be implementing many of these connections in my work, both in the classroom and across my school.  Like sitting down with a pile of building blocks, I’m looking forward to test-running many of the projects, getting students and peer feedback, and reflecting through this blog to build amazing things.