What I am most hoping to gain from my experience this year is a better understanding of the applications of the content I’m teaching. I want to know more about what research scientists do on a daily basis so I can model some of those practices in my classroom. I hope that by the end of the fellowship I am able to increase my students’ 21st century skills and develop curriculum that is authentic and relevant to what scientists are really doing everyday.
My other goal is to develop a curriculum product that incorporates scientific literacy. Of course I want my lessons to be engaging, relevant, and inquiry based too! But those are things that I have already been doing when lesson planning. This year I want to tackle the challenge of helping even my struggling readers to decipher what can often seem like a foreign language – scientific writing. Over the course of my fellowship I will be asking the researchers in the Nevzorov lab to send me papers they have written. I expect to have to pour through dozens before I find ones that will work in my classroom but I’m optimistic about finding several that I will help my students work through as a part of my curriculum product.
Both of the goals I’ve describe are examples of how my fellowship can improve my skills as a teacher. However, I also think that next school year other teachers at my school will be inspired to use some of the lessons I will develop and/or to use me as a contact person in developing their own engaging lessons. I plan to bring my ideas to my PLC and will be inquiring about the possibility of presenting to a wider audience at our next county professional development. I hope that other teachers see me as a leader in the profession, especially relating to literacy integration and inquiry-based education.
Finally, one of the unexpected opportunities this fellowship has already provided me at NCCAT this week is the ability to bounce ideas off of a network of other amazing, inspirational educators. Not only are these men and women experts in their field, but they are also just as passionate about what they do as I am! I look forward to working with them in the coming year! More about this aspect of the fellowship in my next post…