In applying to become a Kenan Fellow, I had a number of goals in mind. First, I have now worked as a teacher for 12 years, with a number of years of experience outside of education prior to that. While I love what I do, there is something about seeing what goes on outside of education where employers/employees use many of the skills I teach my students that can re-energize a person and make them a better teacher. This experience will help me make the curriculum more relevant for my students and allow me an opportunity to understand where more emphasis should be placed in teaching the curriculum provided to me by DPI. I have hit a point in my career where I find such information and experience to be essential to my continued growth and effectiveness both personally and professionally.
Another benefit that I hope to gain from the fellowship is to gather resources in the form of connections I make during my internship. The goal here is to find individuals who can visit my classes as guest speakers who can help make the tools and techniques I teach more tangible for my students than a picture and definition ever can. These connections may also allow me the ability to plan field trips where students can see the techniques and technologies being used in both industry and research.
A third benefit is the ability to help direct the future of curriculum development in my content area. My students follow a very direct pathway through their concentration in Game Art & Design. They begin with Scientific Visualization (my internship has already introduced me to many of the topics covered in the curriculum for which I have never had direct contact before), they then take Game Art & Design followed by Advanced Game Design and hopefully complete their high school career by completing a CTE Advanced Study related to the game industry. I have now taught these courses for a number of years and there has been little-to-no (official) alterations to what I received seven years ago, outside of what I have done on a personal level! It amazes me how one can be expected to keep the students up-to-date with technology without making changes to the material. I want to be involved with this process by making sure these changes are relevant to what we do. This is one of the reasons I have also accepted the offer to take part in DPI’s secure databank review team for the Game Art & Design curriculum, which went into field test status this past school year.
The final thing I hope to gain from participation in the Kenan Fellows Program is to make professional connections with other teachers who are also passionate about their material and being a positive influence on both students as well as fellow educators. It is important to be able to find knowledgeable and skilled individuals to collaborate with because as the saying goes: it takes a village! No one individual can influence change and I feel that often, it helps to just bounce ideas off other teachers for feedback on things I would like to see changed.
Odds are, there are more things I hope to gain from this program, but these are definitely some of biggest for me.