First let me say that I applied for and was accepted as a fellow for the Michigan Educator Voice Fellowship underneath the umbrella of America Achieves a NPO based out of Washington D.C.
In any
profession it is paramount that opportunities are offered to the workforce in
order to help them learn, grow in their roles, and foster innovation. Teachers
nationwide are constantly looking for innovative things to incorporate in their
classroom, often using the internet to learn from and share with others, but
never actually meeting their peers face to face.
As a 3rd year teacher, the America Achieves Fellowship is my first
professional experience with teachers outside my district. The Michigan
Educator Voice Fellowship is a great avenue for me to build relationships with
peers and to see how some teaching strategies in other buildings, cultures, and
geographical regions can and will impact my best practices within my own room.
The America Achieves Michigan Educator Voice Fellowship offers
teachers and administrators from across the state the opportunity to
collaborate and on how to better educate Michigan’s students. Learning about
Common Core State Standards and how to implement them in the classroom was one
way we accomplished this. My main focus
at the Fellowship’s launch convening in Lansing was to try and listen to as
many people as possible and take as many notes as possible on ideas I could
implement into my classroom.
Over the course of
the two-day convening in Lansing, many of the sessions focused on training the members of the
Fellowship to make their voices heard regarding the future of education in
Michigan. We unpacked what the Common Core State Standards mean for educators,
parents, and students. We also learned how to properly teach the skills demanded by the Common Core and
communicate these skills to outside-school audiences. With the Michigan
Educator Voice Fellowship, I am sure that the people impacted most by the
Common Core – educators, parents, and students – will gain a seat at the table.
The
Michigan Educator Voice Fellowship is the kind of opportunity and network that
I hope all my peers get to experience. It affords me as an educator the
opportunity to listen to a diverse range of people in order to learn how to
educate my students for the future. Within this network, there isn't a question or
situation that I know one of my colleagues hasn't gone through themselves. It is
reassuring to sit among educators and know that their sole goal is the same as my own: to educate the students of our state to make them college and career
ready. Any group that can rest on that is sure to be a successful one.
On a more personal note, the holidays are here. It's always refreshing and reassuring to share this time of year with students.
In the 11th grade we are finishing a mini-unit on Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. It's a great segue to our Non-Fiction unit coming soon. The culmination of the unit is an essay about the theme/central idea/author's intent of the piece. The students FLEW through the book and really enjoyed it.
In the 12th grade we are still working on our Holocaust unit. The students have finished the book Night by Elie Wiesel and will begin their Multi-Genre Research Project Monday.
It will be an exciting couple weeks for sure.
It will be an exciting couple weeks for sure.
