Motivation for Next Week

Sometimes we get to Fridays and say, "where did that week go?" Other times we get to Fridays and say, "Thank goodness we finally made it!" This week I got to Friday and thought, "Wow! What a good week!" This job is a work in progress. There are still moments in my day when I admit to myself (and sometimes others) that I am not sure what I am doing, but I think that is part of any job. The reality is that thinking you know what you are doing all the time leaves very little room for growth. Admitting that I don't know what I am doing gives me an opportunity to grow in that area and I think that is great. 

This week there were things that came up that challenged me as an educator and as a person. I could take that challenge and use it to feel defeated. I could take that challenge and use it to do better. I could take that challenge and ignore it. It is how you choose to accept that challenge that defines who you are as an educator. The role that I have been placed in means that I have the opportunity to impact every child in the district! If I work my days right I get to contact two building principals, classroom teacher K-8, students K-8, and everyone else who makes this school what it is. That is a huge privilege that I didn't have trying to manage the day to day happenings in my own classroom with my own students. There is a quote...

but I would argue that with great privilege comes great responsibility as well. I have the privilege of being in every classroom, but the responsibility that high level science education is being delivered. I have the privilege of seeing countless children's faces light up when they get something to work on their computers, but the responsibility to support their teachers in providing those opportunities. I am challenged to be better, because we should all be challenging ourselves to be better. 

As part of my new role, I built on the ideas of our middle school teachers and started a website called Merton Science Scholars. the idea of the site is that 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who are interested in science, reporting, photography, website building have place to showcase their skills and share their work. I talked to three grade levels of students during the second week of school and 31 of them have signed up to take part in this project. I have 13 reporters, 24 photographers, 3 guest bloggers, and 7 website editors (I know that adds to more than 31...some kids just wanted to be part of it twice!) 31 kids who agreed to take time, outside of school, to work on science, to write about science, to share their love of science. Today I took all of their responses to the question "Why do you want to be part of science scholars?" and dropped them into a word cloud generator and this is what emerged...

This is why I will embrace the challenges of this position, the challenges of education in general. I want to create a generation that is all of the things that this graphic embodies. I want to create a generation of Merton students that truly LOVE SCIENCE!