TRC 2012-2013

The TRC has been part of my life for five years and I have been accepted for the 2013-2014 year as well. I was recently referred to as a “member for eons” and I had to laugh considering for education five to six years can be eons…there are stats out there confirming that most “new” teachers (who survive year one) will only make it to year five. I’m on year six going into seven and the majority of those include TRC membership. So eons it is.

I wrote a reflection on this past year. Well here is my reflection on my pd this year since the TRC is the driving point behind most of my pd. With the TRC I am required to get 105 contact hours in science pd as well as mentor 3-5 teachers in my school to pass all that knowledge on. I mentioned building my PLN in my last reflection and here I will expand on that.

I feel I have two PLNs, one virtual and one physical. I have built both, probably my virtual one has gone through the most change due to Twitter, Share my Lesson, Teacherspayteachers.com, my new listservs and other websites. But I’ll save talking about that til another day. Here I want to focus on my physical PLN, the one that I get to see these influential people face to face regularly. And the TRC is where the bulk of them come from or is what links them together in some way.

First, there are my fellow TRCers. We are linked together with a common desire to teach science well and keep improving. I know I can turn to them when something isn’t quite right and get suggestions for improvement. I can also get a shoulder to lean on or cry on if necessary when I am struggling. I know they understand the difficulty of teaching science to students and teachers cause they’re doing it too. They are my greatest source of strength and motivation. And that is why I’ve been in the TRC for “eons.”

Secondly, there are my mentees, my fellow science teachers at school whom I mentor and share the knowledge and resources. They too are in the thick of it with me and know what I’m going through. They are a great source of ideas and support. But here I get to share. Share ideas, share knowledge, share experiences. Not that I don’t share with my TRC fellows, I do, but here I am able to teach adults. And that is what I am reaching for, that is my goal. To teach teachers how to teach science.