I have had about two weeks now to process my time at Caterpillar. It was far and beyond any experience I could have dreamt up for myself. If you had told me a few years ago that I would spend a summer working at Caterpillar at any point in my life I wouldn’t have believed you, and I might have even laughed at you. Interestingly enough, now that I have spent a summer working at CAT I am the one being laughed at for saying I did. At least initially. “Well why would you do that?” “What did you even do there?” “How does that add value to teaching?” Are just a few examples of questions I have been asked recently.
I get it, it’s not an expected answer for how I could have spent my summer. But certainly a worthy way of spending my time. Usually after a conversation people better understand why this opportunity was so important to me. And since I cannot individually address all of the interwebs I turn to blogging and hope that this will address what a summer in industry did for me and why I wish it for so many more educators. I also hope to pay tribute to those who I met with in my final two weeks at Caterpillar.
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Ever since I was 9 years old I wanted to be a teacher and the more life I experienced, only reinforced that teaching was the perfect fit for me. All the classes I took prepared me to understand best teaching practice and to build a strong philosophy on what learning should look like and feel like in the classroom for each content area. And while I firmly believe that NC State has an INCREDIBLE teaching program I also know that I only briefly explored concepts of engineering and science. I didn’t deeply plunge into any topic in particular. High school was no different nor any part of my educational career. I was on the path to become a teacher and everything I did and saw was from that lens. Because of this I missed so much. I didn’t understand how exposure to different concepts would be beneficial to me as an educator. After all, I would only be teaching elementary school and that can’t be that hard right?!
It is not to say that I went through school thinking none of what I was learning had add-value. It’s just the WHY wasn’t made clear to me. I learned curriculum and content, but I didn’t understand the inter-connectedness between what I was learning in class and how it translated to the real-world and for that matter into my future classroom. I couldn’t see how chemistry could connect to what I would be doing with fourth graders or how calculus had a function in my life.
If you didn’t catch that pun, I recommend re-reading the last line.
I think I felt like a lot of other people did about school. I like many others was learning to pass a test, but I wasn’t learning to make meaningful connections. I didn’t understand why content was relevant and because so much of that WHY was missing for me. I missed out.
Between 4 years of teaching at Exploris, a little more life experience, and Kenan Fellows I have learned that there is a lot of value in having a broad knowledge base to pull from. Exposure to different concepts only creates a more wholesome view of the world and contributes to implementing meaningful curriculum in the classroom. Because school for me was taught through a lens of becoming a teacher and only really needing to know what a teacher does. I didn’t get a picture of what it must be like to work in different fields of industry or why what I was learning was important.
By working at CAT I now understand how to go about addressing the WHY. I know that creating opportunities for students to apply their knowledge in a meaningful context is so important. My hope for my current and future students is that they will someday be able to say things like, “We learned about geometry as part of engineering drawings and we still use that today.” Or we learned about how to create a business model when we partnered with Techstars.” Or “We learned about nutrition when we volunteered at the Camden Learning Garden and discovered ways to increase access to healthy foods for our local community.”
I want the WHY to be clear. The WHY needs to be clear. Why do I show up for work? Relationships. Why did I spend a summer with CAT? To become more innovative. Why do I teach fractions? Because the state makes me…
Alright, the last one is a joke… but a real answer that teachers give. It isn’t good enough to have an answer. We must have a context for our answer, we should be able to back our answer up. As educators we need to look for the deeper connections whenever possible. To bring learning to life and help students understand the relationship between what they are doing now and their future career.
Prior to this summer I had no experience working in industry, driving machines, being in shipload meetings, meeting with a VP, talking to folks in marketing, or talking about how to improve a design to better serve a customer. All of this was NEW! I didn’t take business classes, or know about welding or the blue collar workforce. These are only things I had heard of, but didn’t “know” about. I didn’t understand the value of each of these jobs and how they contribute to making a more beautiful and productive world.
My view of the world was skewed and limited by my exposure and experiences. In the US one thing that connects almost all of us is that we all had exposure and experiences in education. So while there are many “experts” in my field, there are few teachers who are “experts” of others fields.
It is hard to address the WHY without meaningful experiences like the one I had this summer. We need good teachers who understand best practice and the philosophy behind what a classroom should look and feel like depending on the content area. But we also need teachers with a broader view and understanding of the world that they are preparing kids to go out and be a part of.
I’ll say it again but just change the pronoun, OUR, knowledge is limited and skewed based on our exposure and experiences. I cannot create meaningful contexts without creating community partnerships and connections. I need Caterpillar and other local businesses to create that WHY everyday for my students. I want them to gain insight into what goes on out there in the real world and from more than just behind a screen. There is nothing better than getting out there and seeing and doing things for yourself.
So while I think I’ve already addressed a lot of what a summer in industry did for me. I want to make a few more things clear…
Networking
A summer at CAT as a Kenan Fellow helped me to expand my network. Each week I have concluded my blog with a list of names of people whom I interacted with. Many of which I anticipate I could reach back out to and ask for their assistance in implementing lessons in my classroom. This network will be invaluable to me moving forward as I work towards become a better educator.
In my third week at CAT I got to participate in a WIN STEM Day alongside 13, 9th Grade Girls. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to connect with students whom I do not directly work with and to hear about their experience in education thus far and what I can do to become a better educator. It also provided me the opportunity to connect with Caterpillar employees who extremely passionate about expanding STEM education in their communities. I am excited by this new network of individuals I have to call upon.
Exposure
As mentioned above I had limited knowledge due to lack of exposure to industry. I did not know what kinds of things took place in a workplace such as Caterpillar. I now having a clearer picture of what it looks like to work in industry and while I do not claim to be an expert, I feel more comfortable to incorporate new things in my classroom because of this summer.
Ideas
Each week I was at CAT I left with a new set of ideas for implementation in my classroom. These ideas would not have been born if it weren’t for this opportunity with Caterpillar. It has given me ideas on how to address the WHY, where to go with my curriculum, and what a future career could look like for me. It has given me some ideas to ponder that I am really excited about.
Permission
This is the final point I want to make for this blog post. Having this experience has given me permission. It has given me permission to take risks. It has given me permission to dare to spend my summer differently. It has given me permission to continue to pursue my love of learning. It have given me permission to be bold. It has given me permission to be a leader of students and teachers. It has given me permission to believe I can be more than just a teacher.
And while maybe I didn’t need to be given permission to do any of these things, it sure feels good to be empowered to.
So thank you Caterpillar for providing me with a summer in industry.
I hope this is only the beginning of my story working with and alongside of you all.
Thank you to week 3 and 4 Hosts: Teresa, Ashley, Steven, Scott, Mandeep, Ryan, Aaron, Brendan, Chuck, Rick, Brad, Scott, Steve, Dat, Drew, Pranav, Chris, Donna, Jamie, Joseph, Patrick, Anwrag, Rachael, Annette, Jason, Michelle, Max, Kem, Pat, Diego, Amanda, Matthew, Tony, Mary, Jennifer, Cathy, KMC Design Capabilities, Walker CAT, & WIN STEM Day Volunteers, Officers, and Participants
Best,
Ms. A