"Good teachers never stop learning."
I have been so fortunate to be invested with Science Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Unlike many college graduates, I have returned to campus multiple times during the past eight years for workshops, curriculum design, and graduate school. Learning about science and teaching is much more useful as an actual teacher than it was when I was an undergraduate student. I now understand the needs of my students, can apply the learning directly to my classroom, and network with other teachers like me around the state. As the only physical science and chemistry teacher at my small school, I cannot emphasize enough how valuable it is to have professional development tailored to my own subject where I get to discuss ideas with others who teach similar content.
I am currently working with 23 other teachers who were selected for a summer institute called Integrating Crosscutting Concepts in Iowa Science Classrooms (ICCISC) and we are learning how to implement pieces of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in our curriculum. The institute will meet over the next three summers and we will have monthly meetings online during the school year! Today concludes the first week of our two weeks on the UNI campus and I am already excited to return next week! I have gotten to meet some amazing teachers and have learned so much by sharing ideas with them as we work together each day to learn more science and teaching methods.
I have always been a perfectionist, much to the chagrin of my friends and family, but I have realized there will never be a perfect way to teach. There will always be new methods, students, materials, research, and expectations. Each decade will bring new ideas and behaviors so teachers if teachers want to be effective they must constantly adapt and learn to improve their practices the best they can. For teachers, no two years are ever the same even though it might not look that way to outsiders. We are constantly changing to meet the needs of our students. In all reality, we are teachers but we will forever be students.
I have been so fortunate to be invested with Science Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Unlike many college graduates, I have returned to campus multiple times during the past eight years for workshops, curriculum design, and graduate school. Learning about science and teaching is much more useful as an actual teacher than it was when I was an undergraduate student. I now understand the needs of my students, can apply the learning directly to my classroom, and network with other teachers like me around the state. As the only physical science and chemistry teacher at my small school, I cannot emphasize enough how valuable it is to have professional development tailored to my own subject where I get to discuss ideas with others who teach similar content.
I am currently working with 23 other teachers who were selected for a summer institute called Integrating Crosscutting Concepts in Iowa Science Classrooms (ICCISC) and we are learning how to implement pieces of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in our curriculum. The institute will meet over the next three summers and we will have monthly meetings online during the school year! Today concludes the first week of our two weeks on the UNI campus and I am already excited to return next week! I have gotten to meet some amazing teachers and have learned so much by sharing ideas with them as we work together each day to learn more science and teaching methods.
I have always been a perfectionist, much to the chagrin of my friends and family, but I have realized there will never be a perfect way to teach. There will always be new methods, students, materials, research, and expectations. Each decade will bring new ideas and behaviors so teachers if teachers want to be effective they must constantly adapt and learn to improve their practices the best they can. For teachers, no two years are ever the same even though it might not look that way to outsiders. We are constantly changing to meet the needs of our students. In all reality, we are teachers but we will forever be students.