I've learned so much throughout my church experience that have strengthened not only my ideas on teaching, but my ideas on how to carry on through life as well. As I've mentioned before I have been leaning more and more towards taking a full time animal science/zoology teaching position in the fall. I think it is important for students to have a teacher that has spent a lot of time in their field because they bring relatable real world experiences to the forefront of the classroom. What I've taken away from my learning experience is the undeniable importance of accountability, family, and community. I want to model my classroom after these three ideals incorporating multiculturalism within each facet as well.
I want to be a teacher that pushes students towards success by holding them accountable for their learning. I want them to know that I believe in them and know that while they may struggle in some areas if they push through and ask for help I will be more than happy to take the extra time to figure out a way to get them to master the material. I also want them to know that mistakes are a part of life and learning from those mistakes is how we grow. If we can work together as a classroom family having open discussions about what we are learning and learning what students actually want to know than success may come much easier.
Along with having students understand that their classmates as well as teacher are working together, I also want them to feel a sense of community. Not just from the classroom atmosphere, but I want to bring others in as well. Experts in the field, local vets, and even those who oppose zoological settings. It is so important that students learn about both sides of every debate and be able to make their own informed decisions. I am so grateful for this experience because not only have I garnered such a respect for the role the church plays in the black community, I have also found some amazing principles for which to guide me on the rest of my journey.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
The power of the community
One of the most interesting things I've noticed over my experience is how important accountability and a sense of family can be to an individual. I've also seen how both of these factors can come together in the form of various programs designed to ensure that even if struggling those in the church community know they have a place to turn to that can help them. More and more I have read about programs that are helping to ensure that children have enough to eat on the weekends when they cannot receive a regular meal at school. Many members of the church volunteer their time to help not only their community, but those outside of it because they want to achieve a greater purpose by doing good for others. They also do a number of charity bike rides to help raise money for various community projects and provide activities for younger children so that they'll have a place to go when their parents are busy working.
Having a group of people that all know each other and generally like each other is astonishing to me. I work with over 100 people at my job and I'm still struggling to get to know half of them on what I would consider to be a friend based level. The church is so different everyone is open to listening about the problems each other faces and is ready and willing to help or give advice if needed. They have vision for their community and what they know needs to be changed. It's a force that has a lot of power especially come election season and one that I hope more political minds pay attention to. A number of problems could be alleviated and solved if more communities came together in a similar manner.
Having a group of people that all know each other and generally like each other is astonishing to me. I work with over 100 people at my job and I'm still struggling to get to know half of them on what I would consider to be a friend based level. The church is so different everyone is open to listening about the problems each other faces and is ready and willing to help or give advice if needed. They have vision for their community and what they know needs to be changed. It's a force that has a lot of power especially come election season and one that I hope more political minds pay attention to. A number of problems could be alleviated and solved if more communities came together in a similar manner.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
The church and family
I've been going to church with my former high school athletic trainer for nearly 3 weeks now and the experience has been awesome. As I previously mentioned I am not at all a religious person. I am very science motivated and that has really steered me away from the church as I got older. I decided to focus on the black church for my service learning because of the importance it has to the community. I've read countless articles and book chapters about the importance of the church and the family it forms and I just wanted to see it for myself. I have definitely not been disappointed. I was welcomed with open arms and everyone was anxious to learn all about me and my background. I quickly told them all that I was there to really observe and see how the church works as part of the community and was greeted with a number of stories.
One of my favorite stories was from a middle aged woman who told me about how the church kept her out of trouble as a young girl. Her parents were in and out of the house and she often ran with what she called the wrong crowd. After getting in trouble for shoplifting some of the church elders staged a sort of intervention with her. They told her they were her family as well and expected better of her. They were holding her accountable for her actions and had her do volunteer hours in the soup kitchen they ran until she could understand what real struggle was. It was so fascinating to hear about how a group of people not even actually related had taken such a stock in her life. It made me think about teaching and how if more teachers held their students accountable and made them feel a part of a classroom family that maybe this gap could begin to be closed.
One of my favorite stories was from a middle aged woman who told me about how the church kept her out of trouble as a young girl. Her parents were in and out of the house and she often ran with what she called the wrong crowd. After getting in trouble for shoplifting some of the church elders staged a sort of intervention with her. They told her they were her family as well and expected better of her. They were holding her accountable for her actions and had her do volunteer hours in the soup kitchen they ran until she could understand what real struggle was. It was so fascinating to hear about how a group of people not even actually related had taken such a stock in her life. It made me think about teaching and how if more teachers held their students accountable and made them feel a part of a classroom family that maybe this gap could begin to be closed.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
The church and dance
Just a short post as I continue compiling my notes from the past two weeks. Over the past two weeks I have been attended church with a former teacher of mine from high school. He attends the Life Church in Ocoee which is predominantly made up of African American members with a few exceptions. I've also been volunteering with an after school dance program for urban youth called Royce basically working to help with some of their technique. I've come across two central themes at both of these experiences and that is the idea of community being an extension of family and accountability. I'm working to compare and contrast both of these themes because I think it is very interesting how well they both resonate.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Dream Big
This week I learned the importance of dreams and sharing them. Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of working with whales and dolphins. 8 years ago that dream came true and it has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I think I often forget just how lucky I am to have been able to achieve my dream. This week I met a group of young girls that were just fascinated by our whales and wanted to know everything about them. I had the best time answering all of their questions, introducing them to the whales, and letting them in on the secrets on how to tell which one is which. At the end of our conversation one of the girls told me she wished that she could work with them one day. I got the opportunity to share my story with her and tell her exactly how I came about doing what I love to do. I wanted her to know that she could absolutely achieve her dream because I am living proof at it. By the end of our conversation she hugged me and thanked me for being one of the few people that she felt believed in her. It was such a special moment for me because I knew I made a difference in her life if even for those few moments.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Observing English Language Learners
I had the unique opportunity this week to shadow a few ocean discovery classes and advanced animal sciences classes. I have taught both numerous times, but as I have been more focused on direct work with animals I was given the opportunity to shadow a few classes and see what changes have been made. I was in luck this week because the classes all happened to be high school aged students visiting from Argentina on an educational school trip. It was so refreshing to see large groups of teenagers here to learn and not to just run amuck on their summer vacation. We have a few Spanish speaking guides that generally work with these classes because they can communicate more effectively, but the groups actually asked for English speaking guides to help further the student's understanding of the English language.
It was very interesting to see kind of a joint struggle between students and instructor in order to gain a mutual understanding from each other. I give a lot of credit to the instructor for going above and beyond and learning a number of phrases and sentences to help guide students. One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing the instructor not be afraid to get a little silly to get a point across. Sometimes expressions and body language can bridge a language gap and help get a point across. The students also came prepared with a lot of questions and taught the instructor a very cute song about dolphins they had made up and one that I hope can be shared with camp kids in the future. By the end of my observation it was clear that not only did the students learn a lot, but the instructor did as well.
It was very interesting to see kind of a joint struggle between students and instructor in order to gain a mutual understanding from each other. I give a lot of credit to the instructor for going above and beyond and learning a number of phrases and sentences to help guide students. One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing the instructor not be afraid to get a little silly to get a point across. Sometimes expressions and body language can bridge a language gap and help get a point across. The students also came prepared with a lot of questions and taught the instructor a very cute song about dolphins they had made up and one that I hope can be shared with camp kids in the future. By the end of my observation it was clear that not only did the students learn a lot, but the instructor did as well.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
A bit of an unconventional learning experience this week, but I'm quite steamed about the whole situation and learned quite a lot. To make a very long story short my mom broke her leg this week and I finally got to make a long trip to the ER that wasn't for me. The whole ER process is always frustrating, but this time even more so. After filling out tons of paper work I was told the wait would be 1 to 2 hours as they were limited on staff. I noticed quite a few people already waiting and thought that was a generous estimate. Well magically we were taken back not long after arriving while a waiting room full of people ahead of us still sat there. As I was trying to figure out why we were taken so quickly I thought about the people waiting and noticed out of all of them my mom and I were the only two white people. I asked the nurse why we were so lucky to be brought back so soon and she told me high priority patients get moved ahead. Funny because last time I went to the ER with a visibly dislocated shoulder I waited 3 hours to see a doctor. I'd like to hope we were high priority for reasons other than race, but when we got done and left I still saw many of the same faces waiting to be seen.
I learned a lot from this experience especially about what I can only think of as white privilege. I wanted to prod the nurse more, but I couldn't while trying to get my mom taken care of. I think there is a lot that we still need to work on in the area of race relations and perception. Not all things are equal and we really need to look at the macrostructure to get to the root of the problem.
I learned a lot from this experience especially about what I can only think of as white privilege. I wanted to prod the nurse more, but I couldn't while trying to get my mom taken care of. I think there is a lot that we still need to work on in the area of race relations and perception. Not all things are equal and we really need to look at the macrostructure to get to the root of the problem.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Kids and Pop Culture
It's been a week with little opportunity for me to teach up until today. Between being a regular ole keeper for a few days and coming down with a bad case of food poisoning it was nice to get back on my feet and actually get to teach. First thing I always notice about kids and the weekend is that their parents have very little control over them and your ear drums literally start to ring. I was rather inspired by the reading for this week and thought that I would take the opportunity to infuse some fun pop culture references into my narratives. I always have to survey the room and get a look at the general age level before I can plow head first into teaching because it is so easy to either oversimplify or to make it far too difficult for kids to understand.
I took the opportunity with a large group of teenagers to try out a new idea I'd been working on which is to simply liken animals to being Olympic athletes. Basically, I tell them about the animal and then what sport they would best fit into. For example, Manatees even weighing thousands of pounds only have about a 2 - 4% body fat percentage and are strictly herbivores. For us humans, that's pretty much the percentage you would see on a body builder or an elite Olympic athlete. In honor of the winter Olympics I decided they'd be pretty awesome curlers because they are slow, but gentle and always on point. I got some good laughs out of the group and I could tell they were following what I was saying. It made it very easy for me to tie in conservation messages because just like athletes get injured sometimes so do animals. There are so many ways to tie in different references that can connect students to whatever subject you are teaching. It is my goal to make a huge list of ideas and have them kind of tucked away so that I can use them as needed to hopefully more effectively teach in the future.
I took the opportunity with a large group of teenagers to try out a new idea I'd been working on which is to simply liken animals to being Olympic athletes. Basically, I tell them about the animal and then what sport they would best fit into. For example, Manatees even weighing thousands of pounds only have about a 2 - 4% body fat percentage and are strictly herbivores. For us humans, that's pretty much the percentage you would see on a body builder or an elite Olympic athlete. In honor of the winter Olympics I decided they'd be pretty awesome curlers because they are slow, but gentle and always on point. I got some good laughs out of the group and I could tell they were following what I was saying. It made it very easy for me to tie in conservation messages because just like athletes get injured sometimes so do animals. There are so many ways to tie in different references that can connect students to whatever subject you are teaching. It is my goal to make a huge list of ideas and have them kind of tucked away so that I can use them as needed to hopefully more effectively teach in the future.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Adventures in Marine Mammal Education
Hello All!
First of all thank the technology gods that I figured out how to set this thing up. I am notoriously bad with any and all forms of technology. Just wanted to share with you all an interesting experience I had this week with some elementary school students. As of late I have spent a lot of time educating people on rescue and rehabilitation programs for marine mammals at our park and encouraging guests to become what we like to call everyday heroes. Other zoological facilities often refer to them as conservation ambassadors as well, basically just making small changes like recycling or conserving water to help out animals and humans as well.
I had a particularly boisterous group of elementary school children come through our manatee and sea turtle exhibit and knew I had to do something to sell them more on the animals then the really cool movie at the end. I've developed some strategies over the years for effectively describing things to people from different learning backgrounds and it was clear that these kids would not normally have the opportunity to learn about these animals outside of the classroom. I decided to do what I call a fun narration which is super kid centered with a lot of classroom comparisons, food comparisons, and some awful jokes. What I saw was amazing! Instead of rushing into the movie the kids hung back to ask me all about the animals and their injuries. Even laughing at the fact that manatees weighing over a ton are not in fact fat at all. I've had a passion for animals my entire life and no how important it is to instill that same passion in kids especially if we want them to become involved in caring about them. What I've learned from these kids and others is to simply never underestimate children or judge them. If you take the time to figure out a way to effectively communicate ideas you will get through to them.
First of all thank the technology gods that I figured out how to set this thing up. I am notoriously bad with any and all forms of technology. Just wanted to share with you all an interesting experience I had this week with some elementary school students. As of late I have spent a lot of time educating people on rescue and rehabilitation programs for marine mammals at our park and encouraging guests to become what we like to call everyday heroes. Other zoological facilities often refer to them as conservation ambassadors as well, basically just making small changes like recycling or conserving water to help out animals and humans as well.
I had a particularly boisterous group of elementary school children come through our manatee and sea turtle exhibit and knew I had to do something to sell them more on the animals then the really cool movie at the end. I've developed some strategies over the years for effectively describing things to people from different learning backgrounds and it was clear that these kids would not normally have the opportunity to learn about these animals outside of the classroom. I decided to do what I call a fun narration which is super kid centered with a lot of classroom comparisons, food comparisons, and some awful jokes. What I saw was amazing! Instead of rushing into the movie the kids hung back to ask me all about the animals and their injuries. Even laughing at the fact that manatees weighing over a ton are not in fact fat at all. I've had a passion for animals my entire life and no how important it is to instill that same passion in kids especially if we want them to become involved in caring about them. What I've learned from these kids and others is to simply never underestimate children or judge them. If you take the time to figure out a way to effectively communicate ideas you will get through to them.
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