[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3vxEudif8&w=420&h=315]
One cannot discuss the changes undergone as a Kenan fellow without at least giving a nod to the late David Bowie. As he says in his song Changes:
I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
This set of lines from the song truly sums up how I was beginning to feel about teaching before Kenan. I was in a cycle of seeing students who were able to identify terms for the sake of passing the NC VoCats exam (the ripple in the stream), but never really see the implications of the material they were learning to either themselves or the world around them (taking those skills and knowledge outside of the stream to form their own rivers.) And being stuck in this apparently never-ending cycle was slowly killing my motivation to teach.
Over the past year, I have undergone a sort of metamorphosis as a result of the program. You could say that I was like a caterpillar before Kenan. I desperately gorged myself on information and tools, looking for anything that could help me better relate the implications and relevance of my curriculum, providing my students with a connection to the world around them. However, I never made any real use of what I found. This was the effect teaching anywhere from three to five different curriculum each day had on me. And, with at least one curriculum or required software tool undergoing dramatic changes or updates every year, there was no end in sight to the hectic and draining life I was leading. It was a constant race to stay ahead of the students and that made it difficult for me to make any real-world connections for them.
Then, I entered the Kenan Fellowship Program. My summer internship and the Kenan professional advancement institutes were my chrysalis. During this phase of the program, I was in isolation of thought but never alone. I was presented with new skills, knowledge, tools, and materials. I learned how to make the connections between my curriculum and the world that I personally lacked. And, much like the caterpillar prior to its own transformation, I was allowed to digest all I had learned and its relevance to create updated materials for my students, without all the stress and frantic behavior that occurs during the school year. This was a critical step for my development.
As the summer portion of the program drew to a close, I emerged as a completely different educator. My motivation to teach had returned. I had a plan in place of how I could implement many of the things I learned over the summer and was ahead of schedule, for once in my career!
So, how has this changed my day-to-day activities with peers and students?
Well, for starters, I have been more involved with my peers. Both in terms of learning from them and sharing what I have learned as a fellow. I have led professional development sessions on tools that will make their lives easier. Instead of thinking of being required to participate in a PLC as one more meeting taking up my planning time, I engage my coworkers in intellectual discussion of what we are doing, why we are doing it, and what the overall effect on our students is by changing our thinking about teaching. And, I have gone into classrooms to observe educators from a variety of departments so I can learn what they do in order to improve myself as an educator. Interacting with other educators is no longer simply another district-required checkbox needing to be filled. The one thing I keep planning on doing but never seems to get done is some cross-curriculum lessons with other teachers. But…that will certainly come down the road!
As for my students, I no longer open state provided PowerPoints and recite the information back to them. We discuss the content and I connect what the state wants them to understand with the relevant STEM careers. I give them the freedom to express their understanding or confusion in new and exciting ways rather than simply being an automaton that recites facts with no understanding of their implications. Although my students may not be performing any better on tests than they have in the past, they are more engaged in their learning and curious about the information relates to the world around them and their lives specifically.
So, allow me to end this post the same way it started: by discussing another line from David Bowie’s song Changes. You might be wondering, why did I choose the line of ‘Time may change me, but I can’t trace time’ for the subject of this post? Quite simply, I have been changed both personally and professionally from the time I have spent as a Kenan fellow and I refuse to repeat (trace) the things I have done in the past as a result of those changes. I hope that in reading this post, it has inspired you to reflect on what kinds of changes you can make to improve both yourself and your career regardless of what it may be.
