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!

******************************************************************************************

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?