Fun Times in “The Whee”

I’ve heard tons about NCCAT from other teachers, and all of it was positive. Other than the fact that I’m deathly afraid of driving in the mountains, I was really excited about going. Luckily, one of the Fellows from Durham was willing to drive (thanks Lena!).

Highlights of the Week

• #EdCampKenan was a definite win! It was so amazing to be able to gain professional development through dialogue with other current educators instead of the traditional lecture format.
• The Myers-Briggs presentation told me a lot about myself that I hadn’t quite thought about before. It was definitely an eye-opener as I think about my approaches to working with others. Also, it’s always great to know that I’d be Fred or George Weasley if I were a Harry Potter character.
• Whitewater rafting was…cold. Very cold. But it taught me that it is okay to let other people take charge on major projects for once. While I had never been rafting before, there were people in my boat that had been that could lead the charge for us. I also really stepped outside of my comfort zone when I decided to jump off of the troll bridge into the water.
• “Patio PD” was the most useful of all of the sessions, if that counts as a session. I’ve come to realize that the most valuable resource that you could ever have is the group of people that surround you during your development. I really enjoyed being able to reflect on each day’s PD sessions and be able to share experiences with other educators that I can learn from and take back to my classroom. This was especially beneficial because as one of the youngest Kenan Fellows this year, I was able to pick up so much knowledge from more experienced educators.

Moving forward…

Of course, I learned tons of things that I could take back to my classroom. Unfortunately, it’s pretty unrealistic for me to try to implement all of these things in one year. What I’m most excited about is implementing more project-based learning in my classroom and trying to implement a semi-flipped classroom. Stay tuned for more details…