Learning From Living while Living in Motion
By: Carolyn Moss
When I think of myself in five, ten, or twenty years I know I will have grown. Not taller, I stopped growing taller in the 6th grade. And not wider – I hope my running will continue to balance out the chocolate chip cookies. But I see myself as five, ten, or twenty years smarter. Its not that I plan to continue formal education or that I plan to take hundreds of development classes, I know I will be smarter just from the experience of living.
When I first started teaching I had no training, no education in teaching, no workshops under my belt. My first class in my first classroom was my textbook. My first group of students to ask questions became my homework. I learned to teach from teaching. I have since taken lots of workshops and development classes, been to a few seminars, and almost completed a masters program – all in teaching. But I can honestly say that the majority of how I run a classroom and how I teach a subject was learned from those first years of experiences.
It is truly experiences that teach us. Through college I worked with a few different professors on their research teams. I even got to travel to Baja, Mexico to observe and track grey whale migrations. We spent days drifting in small boats cameras and clipboards at the ready. While I was there I learned more than any book could have taught me and now looking back I understand the value of that trip. The depth it brought to my understanding of marine biology is only shadowed by how my excitement for the topic will always be linked back to those experiences.
It is experiences like that that I plan to continue. For a scientist and science teacher continuing education is easy. As easy as finding a research project to join. For me I would rather jump in along side a group of scientists conducting research than go to a conference. I would rather help collect plastic debris from the ocean than sit and listen to a webcast. I am a hands-on individual and need those moments for something to stay with me. Research provides the learning while doing, and that is the mix I plan to seek.
This spring I am venturing to the Galapagos Islands and while my time there might not help with my curriculum mapping I know the experiences I will gain with further my knowledge of biology more than any book, class, or conference could.
While I am intrigued by the online possibilities available not only to students but also to teachers, I know their limitations. I know that my continued education falls outside of a computer and outside of a building. I have found depth and intrigue in learning from experiences – even ones not originally intended to teach me something – and will continue to follow that path.
This is not to say that I have not and cannot learn from technology. The limitless ability of simply being ‘online’ opens more doors that can be viewed. What I believe will be my path for future learning from a technology standpoint will be how I can use current or new software to share my experiences with others; to bring the outside in. I had a few students in my oceanography elective one year who had never seen the ocean in person. In the perfect world I would order up a field trip and pack them all off to the ocean. Sadly that isn’t always possible. But through technology and websites I can bring the ocean to them. I can provide visuals and sounds and add my experiences in as narration.
Technology also provides ability for worldwide collaboration. I can join a research project, taking place on Palmyra Atoll or anywhere else in the world, and aid in data analysis. I can add weather patterns from my small sailboat in lake Michigan to the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association) monitoring service. The range of possible experiences is what technology opens up. And those billions of open doors are what I will take advantage of.
In five, ten, and twenty years I hope to have kept moving. I hope to have kept tying new things and living through new experiences. I hope to have twenty years worth of experiences to share with my students and twenty years worth of their reactions to guide my further pursuits. I hope to have grown.
When I first started teaching I had no training, no education in teaching, no workshops under my belt. My first class in my first classroom was my textbook. My first group of students to ask questions became my homework. I learned to teach from teaching. I have since taken lots of workshops and development classes, been to a few seminars, and almost completed a masters program – all in teaching. But I can honestly say that the majority of how I run a classroom and how I teach a subject was learned from those first years of experiences.
It is truly experiences that teach us. Through college I worked with a few different professors on their research teams. I even got to travel to Baja, Mexico to observe and track grey whale migrations. We spent days drifting in small boats cameras and clipboards at the ready. While I was there I learned more than any book could have taught me and now looking back I understand the value of that trip. The depth it brought to my understanding of marine biology is only shadowed by how my excitement for the topic will always be linked back to those experiences.
It is experiences like that that I plan to continue. For a scientist and science teacher continuing education is easy. As easy as finding a research project to join. For me I would rather jump in along side a group of scientists conducting research than go to a conference. I would rather help collect plastic debris from the ocean than sit and listen to a webcast. I am a hands-on individual and need those moments for something to stay with me. Research provides the learning while doing, and that is the mix I plan to seek.
This spring I am venturing to the Galapagos Islands and while my time there might not help with my curriculum mapping I know the experiences I will gain with further my knowledge of biology more than any book, class, or conference could.
While I am intrigued by the online possibilities available not only to students but also to teachers, I know their limitations. I know that my continued education falls outside of a computer and outside of a building. I have found depth and intrigue in learning from experiences – even ones not originally intended to teach me something – and will continue to follow that path.
This is not to say that I have not and cannot learn from technology. The limitless ability of simply being ‘online’ opens more doors that can be viewed. What I believe will be my path for future learning from a technology standpoint will be how I can use current or new software to share my experiences with others; to bring the outside in. I had a few students in my oceanography elective one year who had never seen the ocean in person. In the perfect world I would order up a field trip and pack them all off to the ocean. Sadly that isn’t always possible. But through technology and websites I can bring the ocean to them. I can provide visuals and sounds and add my experiences in as narration.
Technology also provides ability for worldwide collaboration. I can join a research project, taking place on Palmyra Atoll or anywhere else in the world, and aid in data analysis. I can add weather patterns from my small sailboat in lake Michigan to the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association) monitoring service. The range of possible experiences is what technology opens up. And those billions of open doors are what I will take advantage of.
In five, ten, and twenty years I hope to have kept moving. I hope to have kept tying new things and living through new experiences. I hope to have twenty years worth of experiences to share with my students and twenty years worth of their reactions to guide my further pursuits. I hope to have grown.