Looking back at one of my first blog posts last year, my three main goals for the internship were:
- Increase the scientific literacy skills of my students
- Gain a better understanding of current research practices and design authentic assessments for my students based on this
- Share my ideas with my PLC and beyond
I have accomplished all of those goals. First, I incorporated lessons that require my students to read and analyze actual scientific papers. Next, my students designed and implemented their own inquiry-based experiments and wrote their own scientific reports based on them. And, they peer reviewed each others’ reports before their final submission. All of these meet goal 1 and 2. However, I have much more extensive goals next year for broadening these two goals in my biology classes. Finally, for goal 3, I have not only shared my ideas with my PLC but also led professional development sessions for my entire district based on them.
I would, of course, recommend this program to other educators. There’s no other program that helps teachers develop so much professionally. And, the network of fellow teacher-leaders that you create over the course of the fellowship is invaluable.