Monday, April 21, 2014

Elephant Families TED-Ed

I love TED Talks, some might even call me an addict.  With that said, I find it especially exciting when I find something from TED-ed that I can use in my classroom.  I subscribe to the TED-ed e-mail newsletter so that I get to see the new things on their site.  Today one of the featured lessons was on The Family Structure of Elephants.

We have both said all along, that we wanted this grant, so that we could become learners as well as teachers.  We hope that as you follow along on our journey, that you too will get to see the world from a new perspective and enjoy the sensation of cleaning the cobwebs of the distantly traveled paths in your brain.  

Thursday, April 17, 2014

The To Do List

Do you ever have those weeks where you start off with a really big list of things to do, and towards the end of the week you realize that you have added more things that you have crossed off?  If so, then you can relate to this stage of expedition planning.

The big news, as Connie mentioned in her post, is that we were handed a big fat check.  As a teacher, it is not often that someone hands you (us in this case) thousands of dollars to be a learner, explorer and dreamer.  In fact in my 10 years as a classroom teacher, and Connie's 20 years in the classroom, this has never happened.  So, to say that our logistics coordination is a bit rusty when it comes to making this happen.  Granted, the idea behind Fund For Teachers is to learn, and it was continuously mentioned that we should expect surprise learning to take place.

Here are some of the skills I have developed just this week:

  1.  We have 7 new apps on my phone for things like TripAdvisor, US embassy, Thai language, and currency conversion calculators... and I am sure more by the time we leave.
  2. I am through lesson 6 of Pimslur's Conversational Thai.  What can I say?  I can ask if you understand English/Thai, where you are from? Basic directions, and if you want to eat rice/drink water/iced tea.  Hopefully "where is the bathroom?"  will come up soon.
  3. I have read three different guide books about Bangkok
  4. We have made international flight reservations and domestic flight reservations
  5. I have created a Google Map mapping out the route we want to take to see the things we really want to see for our one touristy day in Bangkok.
  6. We found a hotel in Bangkok.  This seems like such a little deal.  I assure you it is not.  
  7. We have started our excel budget spread sheet, and even our FFT expense reports.
  8. I am finished with the necessary paperwork for EarthWatch Thinking Like an Elephant expedition.
While this has been a lot to do in addition to our regular lives of being parents and teaching, there is still lots to do and learn. Up next:
  1. One more set of hotel reservations
  2. Packing list then acquiring or finding everything on that list
  3. unpacking things that make luggage over 40 lbs. (we are each allowed free 50 lbs, but I want to have extra for souvenirs.) 
  4. Dr. visits for vaccines and emergency travel medicine
  5. Finish teaching our kiddos for the next 5 weeks
  6. And Connie gets to go to the beach just before we leave.  

Saturday, April 12, 2014

I'm the Grounded, Responsible One!

I never thought it would actually happen!  When my colleague, Karon, approached me with the idea of applying for a grant to study elephants in Thailand I said yes without giving it much thought. Remember, if I haven't mentioned this before......I didn't believe it would ever come to pass!  Today, we joined an elite group of teachers from around the state to become 2014 Fund for Teachers Fellows!  To say I have become a believer is an understatement!  FFT has given us an unbelievable opportunity to learn and grow in an environment that is completely outside of my comfort zone!  I have been a science educator for 20 years and have a passion for teaching middle school students. Karon was correct in saying I am the grounded, responsible one. Karon is the nomad who has a very colorful background set in all kinds of exotic places.  She has entertained us in the hall for years with zany stories of her travels around the world between class changes. On the flip side, I have taught middle school science in three different schools in the same state I was born in.  My husband and I were blessed to travel to Russia 15 years ago to adopt our son, but this is my only claim to the exotic!  I am the mom to a wonderful 20 year old daughter as well as our adventurous 15 year old son with a minivan and a mortgage. To be able to experience this awesome opportunity now in my career is mind-blowing!  All of a sudden my world has expanded! I'm now looking at flights to Bangkok, purchasing field gear and reading Lonely Planet Thailand!  To say I am thankful for my colleague for pushing me out of my steady, responsible comfort zone is also an understatement!  Thanks, my friend!  And yes, just for the record, I will be the one keeping up with all of our receipts and getting us on the plane home!

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Why?

Why Thailand?  Why elephants?  Why Fund for Teachers?

Well boy have we thought about this.  You see, in order to get the grant, we had to do a lot of introspective work about our teaching philosophies, goals, and weakness.  We also go to do something that teachers rarely get to do...dream big.  Dream like we could spend $10,000 on educational enrichment for teachers.  After dreaming, came the searching, which led to more dreaming.  The search was on!

We started by thinking about what we are doing really well as a science department, and then looked at which units we wished were a whole lot better, engaging and relevant.  This lead us strait to our ecology unit.  We go into a tremendous amount of detail about the cell, genetics, and the human body.  Once we get to the big picture, it always feels like we are in the mad-dash-cramming mode of spring and thus our plants, animals and ecology unit suffers.

So, ecology enrichment is where we started our search for the ultimate experience that would help us see the reality of 21st century ecology work in progress.  The search led us, eventually, to the programs offered by Earthwatch Expeditions.  But more about that on the next post.

The first part of the application asked:
Directions:  When thinking about your teaching practice, what would you like to learn?  What are the key questions or learning goals you want to explore?  What challenges or passion inspires your proposed fellowship? What grades and subject areas do you teach? 

This is what we had to say about that:  

Science is a fascinating discipline that allows those who are willing to ask questions of the unknown, the opportunity to discover new ideas, define a new way of thinking about the world around them, and inevitably the opportunity to ask more questions.  Sadly, science instruction for secondary students quite frequently becomes a class demonstration of the history of science discovery, giving the impression that what needs to be learned has already been figured out.  As a result, many students find themselves disenchanted with a subject that should be about discovery.  Instead, the study of science becomes riddled with huge vocabulary list and intricate processes to be described and memorized. Often, the art of science is lost.

Our goal as a 7th grade Life Science department is to consistently be conscious of the need to relate the history of what has been learned through science to the complex questions that scientist are striving to answer through the use of facts, exploration and imagination.  In order to provide our students with a clear picture of how they can use their knowledge and skills gained in our 7th grade life science classes, we need up-to-date real world experience working with field researchers.
 
When looking closely at our course of study, evaluations of our classes from our students, standardized testing, and the ability for students to apply information from previous units, we have found that our population struggles with tying the principles of genetics to natural selection, species variation and how plants and animals interact within the larger ecosystem.  While we strive to guide our students through the intricate details of inherited and learned traits through genetics, having the first-hand experience of working with endangered elephants in Thailand will give us, as teachers, the opportunity to teach our ecology unit through an exploratory case study model emphasizing the skill and art of science. 

Through participating in field research in an Earthwatch “Thinking Like an Elephant” expedition, we hope to broaden our teaching experience by studying the following: 
·         How do modern day large mammal researchers are studying natural selection and species variation?
·         What types of scientific data impacts policy decisions to protect endangered species and their habitats?

·         What are the current science professional expectations for data collection, reporting, and use of scientific data collection tools?

Ultimately, our goal is to expose our students to a variety of possibilities in applying the knowledge they learn in class, as well as creating an environment that fosters imagination, inquiry and exploration. We will do this by looking at a specific case study, the elephants of Thailand, to inspire our students to delve into an ecology topic that interests them.  

Monday, April 7, 2014

Ready?....Set?...No!



You know that saying "Be careful what you wish for.  It just might come true"?  This has been a common theme for me this year and somehow each time something comes my way, I am still utterly shocked and ill prepared. despite wishing for said thing to happen. 

I turned our application in for the grant to go to Thailand in January.  I placed that large leaning tower of paperwork in a crate, and quite frankly dove into our huge human body unit, not really giving Fund for Teachers, Thailand, or Earthwatch much thought.  It was a healthy choice given that it would not have done much good to invest time in planing for, what at the time seemed like, an "imaginary trip." 

Well, now it is real, and not that far away, and my list of things to do has more question marks rather than periods.  With all that said, I feel alive when I dive into the details, the specifics, the big picture.  I can feel the winter cobwebs of my brain clearing as I use parts of my drifter skills that have been suppressed by life in suburbia. 

With all of that said, what I do know, is that we have a ton of stuff to do in LESS THAN 2 MONTHS!  When I looked back at the program briefing this weekend it started with what we needed to do 90 days prior to the expedition.  Oops, guess we will need to do that list and the 60 day list very soon. 

Here are the must do logistics:
  1. Physician appointments to make sure we have a personal first aid pharmacy with us.
  2. Vaccines:  Typhoid, Japanese Encephalitis ?, Determine Malaria risk, Tetanus booster, Hepatitis A.B Booster
  3. Learn basic conversational Thai
  4. Check state department alerts for Thailand (yes they have them for Bangkok)
  5. Figure out travel arrangements (while we can look now, we cannot finalize anything until we have access to the funds)
  6. Sign power of attorneys
  7. Determine if the grant will cover everything, or if we will need to fundraiser for the reminder
  8. Update filed work clothing wardrobe
  9. Fortunately we both have up-to-date passports
Then, there are the exciting things we get to learn and think about:
  1. Looking through Thailand field guides (yest I did stay up until 2am on a Friday night reading Lonely Planet Thailand)

  1. Learning everything we can about elephants
  2. Scouring pictures of Thailand on Pintrest
  3. Deciding on what touristy things we might also be able to do while there
  4. Creating a blog to document our adventure
I think for now, we are both going back and forth between excitement, shock and trepidation, along with a "Oh my! Are we going to get all of this done in time?" 

Fortunately, we both know how to work under pressure, get huge things done, and we love learning.

Coming soon, what we will be doing and why a pair a teachers should be doing things like this.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Wake up Call

One Christmas I was visiting my parents, and I remember opening the cupboard to help set the table, and seeing 12 different index cards with contact information for me that my mom had taped down to keep up with me over the past year.  I was a drifter to say the least.  Now, not so much. I have things like a mortgage, a minivan, gardens, orchards, a teaching career and two children.  Drifting is much more complicated.

Despite all the things that have led me to this phase of "responsible middle age lifestyle" I find myself frequently with itchy feet and wanting to see something totally new, and step out of my routine survival mode of life. I know that moving right now is not an option, or big expensive vacations, or selling everything and living out of my car would be a lot less fun with two seven year old boys, but I still find myself longing for an adventure to recharge me.  

Last summer  I attended a local middle school summit, and I gained a fair amount, but the one thing that really stuck with me was a very pregnant teacher talking about how several teachers from her school were going to the Galapagos in a few weeks to learn. She had my attention at "Galapagos."  This is the moment I learned about Fund for Teachers.  

When I returned to school in the fall, I decided to look up the details of the program.  I knew that writing a grant for some sort of science learning expedition, was just the cure I needed for the restlessness I usually feel once I am confined to my four walled classroom.  Then, I took the bold step of suckering my fellow science teachers into applying for a team grant.  Only one was able to jump on the drifter train with me, and she quite honestly thought it was a joke.  I think her words were "I am signing on to the grant because it will be good therapy for Karon."   

To make a long story short, this same teacher called me yesterday at 5am.  My initial thought someone has died.  Instead, she was calling me to tell me "Karon!  Are you ready to go to Thailand!"  

See, unlike me, she is the grounded responsible one, who gets her work e-mails on her phone.  Good thing I will have someone with me to make sure I get back on the return flight home.  

So, here it is, my new blog, for a new phase.  A phase of learning, exploring, questioning...Oh, and doing it by studying elephants in Thailand just to keep things interesting.

Here is the exerpt from our acceptance letter:

Congratulations! Fund for Teachers is pleased to recognize you as 2014 Fellow and award you $5000 to: Investigate the condition of endangered elephants in Thailand using modern field research practices to develop an ecology unit focusing on methodology, inquiry and advocacy for science-based conservation initiatives.  From thousands of applications from across the country, your proposal stood out as one that will bring relevant knowledge and skills back to your students.

You now join a peer group of 6,000 other preK-12 educators who refused to settle for traditional professional development or the status quo in their classroom. After navigating the globe conducting field research, attending seminars, volunteering with community organizations or observing best practices, our Fellows inspire school communities with authentic learning.
Please mark your calendar for Saturday, April 12th from 10am to 1 pm at Alabama Public Television in Birmingham to attend a mandatory orientation.  Details on the meeting will follow by email.

We look forward to meeting you and watching how you impact student achievement through your odyssey this summer.


Sincerely,