Week 20

Week 20 and I have come to the end of the first part of my Fellowship. Wednesday was spent in Wellington with the Royal Society of New Zealand staff and the other teacher fellows. I had a 6 am flight to Wellington so it was breakfast in the airport before being shuttled to our venue. More coffee and chats was the first thing on the agenda and then we were put into groups for our presentations. Each person had to to a 8 minute presentation (with 2 minutes for questions at the end.) We were in groups of 8 or 9 so we heard about the different things people had been up to. It was really good to hear and learn about what other people had been up to. Half of the teacher fellows were part of the Awarded scheme and so their presentations were more about what they had achieved. The Primary Science Teacher Fellowship teachers presentations were more about the process of what we had done and the nature of science we had learnt about.
After lunch we had discussions about heading back to school and what to expect. Next year will be the begining of the next phase of this Fellowship, leading our staff to raise the level of science teaching in our schools. We were awarded certificates and had a chance to unwind before heading back to the airport and home.
 I have loved everything about being on this Fellowship because there have been new challenges and things to learn. Next year there will  be new challenges and new things to learn and I am looking forward to that as well. I am also looking forward to being back in front of a class because it is that aspect of teaching I enjoy the most, developing a class that works together. In lots of ways the Fellowship has confirmed that I enjoy being a teacher, and now I have a new string to my bow. I will be a better teacher of science from this experience, and I believe I will be a better teacher all round.

This will be the last weekly post but theree will be some posts next year as I try new science teachng in my class and with my colleagues. Stay tuned for those and until then have a happy Christmas and holiday.