• List where you teach: I teach at Longview Alternative School in Raleigh
• What you teach:  I teach Horticulture I, II and Exploring Ag.
• How long have you have been teaching.  I have been teaching 10 year
• Why you wanted to become a Kenan Fellow? I wanted to become a Kenan Fellow to improve my teaching and to help me network as an educator.  Also, to receive the resources that are offered through this program.  The goal is to become a better educator and to be recognized as such.

When I initially received the internship I had thought that the area of the internship would match what I teach as an educator.  Once, I saw that I was in an area that was outside my comfort zone ( a bit), I started to question myself about actually if they had made a mistake in the process.  As I attended the initial sessions, I soon realized that that the internship was put together to help broaden the desired effects of the finished product which is a wearable device.  Then, as we broke up into teams, I then further realized that as individual we had some great ideas that  each of us had to be sound boards and ultimately develop a product.

Now, my goal as an educator – I can now relate what I am doing in the my team to goals that I will develop for my students wearable device project.  Whether it be a Arduino or Lily Pad project – this whole process will help me develop a winning plan.

The highlight of my week at NCCAT was the session Twitter and my PLN.

• How do you plan to implement something you learned at NCCAT in your classroom? I am planning on having my students to set up their own twitter account and then use these accounts to document and communicate back with my students.
• Which session was your least favorite? Why culture matters was probably my least favorite.  Why? Even thought I enjoyed the session, I felt that this session was going to be more personalized to North Carolina students and I thought it was going to entail more solutions on how we as teachers would work with the various cultures.  She did go over this, but I thought it could have been deeper.
• How has the week at NCCAT compared with other PD opportunities you have attended?  The week at NCCAT was very intense.  I don’t remember PD sessions in the past that presented such intensity.  There were alot of sessions and workshop that provided quite abit of information.
• Which session did you find most useful and why? The session on Marketing yourself as an educator.  In the past, I have thought back on situation in which I did not market my agriculture program.  I could have done a better job showing what I have done and presented pictures to support the success of my program.

Thanks,

Patrick Faulkner                                                                                                                     Kenan Fellow 2016

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