As a child, I heard the phrase “commencement.” I used my context clues (incorrectly) to assume it meant “the end.” It made sense to me. The ceremony is held at the end of a high school student’s career. Of course, later I found out the meaning of the word is, in fact, beginning. Since this blog post is an end, but truly just a beginning, I’ve chosen the title “Commencement.”

At the end of the year, we celebrate our fifth graders with a promotion ceremony. (Going to middle school is a big deal, right?) We have each student decorate a star. They are told to write about: 1) a happy memory 2) what they want to be when they grow up, OR 2) someone they would like to thank. Very broad topics usually get broad responses. There were the usual, “I want to be a football player when I grow up” responses. Those are fine and typical of adolescents.  However, there were three students (our of twenty-six) who wrote things that surprised me. I don’t think these students would have had the same response had their teacher not participated in a Kenan Fellowship. One student wrote his favorite memory of all of his elementary school days was the Strawberry DNA experiment! The other two were a little more in depth: see picture below.

My Kenan Fellowship wasn’t just limited to me. It wasn’t just limited to my classroom or even the teachers who use my project. My fellowship will reach people I will never meet, because these kids will grow up to be leaders either in STEM fields or leaders in other fields who have strong backgrounds in scientific literacy. They will be the ones making decisions one day. As they are making decisions, they might remember one time in fifth grade when they extracted DNA from a strawberry or put earth worms in their greenhouses.

Although my time with these students and with my fellowship is drawing to a close. It is a commencement of new opportunities for both them and me, and I can’t wait to see what they are!

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Thank you for reading my blog. Although the topics were at times redundant, (and I often chose my own), the requirement to write gave me the monthly opportunity to reflect on how my fellowship was molding me. I may chose to post here again to hash out the trials and victories of education, but for today, I’ll leave you with this:

Today’s takeaway: What things in your life are ending? Could it really just be an beginning you can’t yet see?

Video Reflection of My Fellowships Impact on the Classroom

When reflecting on my internship, I took some time to look over the development dialogue I wrote before my Kenan Fellowship began. It surprised me how many of my goals (and hair brained ideas) turned into reality this year. You can view part of my development dialogue below.

Memories: One of the best moments of my Kenan Fellowship was seeing my students interact with professionals. As mentioned in previous blogs, I had our city’s project manager talk to the kids about how local governments develop their budgets. Then, the students worked in groups to prepare a budget for their cities, while receiving feedback from our guest. More recently, I had five scientists and three lay agricultural experts come to give my students feedback on their greenhouse projects. The students explained what they learned during their research, what choices they made for their greenhouses, and why they made each choice. They enjoyed sharing their ideas with adults, and they devoured the feedback they received. There is a lot of research explaining the importance of giving students feedback, but how much richer the feedback is when it is from an expert in the field. Not only do my students enjoy their time with the professionals, the adults have remarked to me how much they enjoy their time at my school. They have made comments, such as, “Your students put way more thought into their project than I ever did when I was in school.”

Although the students certainly benefit from the visit, I believe the adults benefit as well. I think it is good for them to see what happens in classrooms these days. (Let’s face it. Things have changed since we were in school.) The role of technology and the implementation of twenty-first century learning skills have reinvented the classroom. Even the environment has changed. When I had one group of visitors come, we had a lock down. I felt the experience was good for the visitors to see how schools (and children) prepare for school violence. In summary, having professionals visit the classroom benefits both the students and the guests.

Would I recommend the program? I have definitely recommend the Kenan Fellows Program to colleagues who have a desire to increase their STEM content knowledge and teacher leader skills. However, many of my colleagues teach at a year round school, making it difficult to complete parts of the training and internship. I was very thankful Bayer was willing to work with my schedule.

Always improving: One of the things I like about the education profession is the constant opportunity for reflection and professional growth. I felt last year was a successful year; but this year was better because of my fellowship. I have refined some of my teaching practices, integrated more real world content and information about STEM careers, advocated for education, and developed skills as a teacher leader. Ultimately, students are the ones who will reap the benefits of my fellowship, both my students and beyond my classroom through teacher leadership.

Today’s Takeaway: Never stop growing  – personally and professionally.