My relationship with my mentors has been quite possibly the most valuable part of the Kenan experience. When I met DeAnna and Magda, I remember being amazed at two things: The fact that they were normal cool people who had normal lives. Like teachers, scientists often get put in a box by people who don’t know them. As a… Read more »
This weekend, my students and I attended the 20th annual BugFest at the Museum of Natural Science, where I did my internship this summer. I knew that BugFest would be a great event for the boys, but I had no Idea how much I’d be impressed by their enthusiasm for teaching the public about ants. Six weeks ago when we started… Read more »
This is not one of my required Kenan blogs, but I’m feeling inspired and don’t have anywhere else to write these things right now. Currently I am in my second week of school staying busy and loving life. During my second period planning block, three high school students take an online calculus class. They work in the library which doubles… Read more »
Yesterday I kicked off the start of the 2016-2017 school year with my first teacher workday. While I’m of course sad that summer (and my science teacher “summer camp” at the museum) is over, it was nice to be back. When we arrived to our first staff meeting, I found that in front of each seat was a vase half… Read more »
During the last week of our externship, each team at the museum gave a talk in the super cool Daily Planet Theater, a three story globe shaped structure. It was amazing to give a talk in the theater, and I loved feeling like a real professional and scientist. Putting the talk together also really helped me to process all of… Read more »
When I worked at a summer camp during college, we always used to throw around the phrase “pack your suitcase full” when encouraging campers to spend their days forming relationships and developing skills that they could take with them when camp ended. In a lot of ways, I have felt like a kid at summer camp during my time at the… Read more »
Each Friday at the museum, we have “Lunch with Liz,” a two hour period in which the 12 teachers participating in the Students Discover program meet with Liz Baird, the Chief of School and Lifelong Education for the Museum of Natural Sciences. For the past two weeks, I have been impressed with the way that Liz can just rattle off… Read more »
Before I started this experience I honestly didn’t care much about ants. I didn’t really even know that there were many types outside of red ones (avoid these) and black ones. However, after meeting my scientists and learning more about the great diversity of ant species, they’re growing on me just like the fungal pathogens growing on my petri dish… Read more »
A week ago at this time, I had just returned from my first ever white water rafting trip and was feeling proud, accomplished, and exhausted. Throughout my rafting excursion down the 45 degree Nantahala River, the words of the previous day’s very charismatic presenter stuck with me. NO FAKE. NO FEAR. Leading up to our group chanting these words in unison,… Read more »
The first principal I had as a teacher began every day at school with announcements over our unbelievably loud (once it was so loud that the speaker fell off the wall) intercom system: “Happy MARVELOUS MONDAY (or similar weekday alliteration) Trojan Land, it’s another day of teaching and plearning!” At first, I thought I misheard the announcements every single day,… Read more »