Balancing possibilities

How am I doing on my 2011 themes and my 5r’s of sabbatical? Today I will report on rest and recreation and others, along with some updates.

Rest and recreation: Life in general and my year of sabbatical continue to be good and full of rest and relaxation. Summer is so short where I live in the Upper Midwest that I find myself enjoying every possible minute of outdoor time I can get. Lately I have been doing a good 10 miles or so a day of bike riding for exercise and fitness, with many days two or even three more rides that are more leisurely as I go fetch grandbabies or run some errands. I spend almost a part of every day with one or more of the grandbabies, too.

Balance: I think most people who know me will say that I am more balanced than I was before sabbatical. But, how can you help but not be more balanced when you do not have to report to your office and have the luxury to set your own hours? What I would say is that I am better at chunking off parts of each day for things that I enjoy, including my professional work and being okay with leaving something not as complete as I would like for the next time. I am one of those people who easily is drawn into the things that I enjoy. I definitely have flow. I am better at shutting it off.

But there is more to balance that I would like to share here. Maybe balance is not the right word. But, I will stick with it since it is one of my major themes for the 2011 year. Most of you reading this post know that we lost our hobby farmhouse to fire on March 22. Thankfully no one was injured. Neither us nor the firefighters that went in. I have written here before about the process of it all: first the grief, than the acceptance, and than the what’s next. I do not think one moves seamlessly through each of these stages. I know this because there are times when I think, or even dream, about being at the farm and I can feel the tears and emotions welling up. Like thinking about standing at the kitchen island with the grandbabies making some cookies and cutting them out, or looking out the window in the kitchen and seeing some of my favorite song birds right there in front of me or … well, you get the picture.

We are currently exploring our options as to what is next. We researched rebuilding and met with a contractor. Honestly, we were shocked at the cost to rebuild. Rebuilding something similar to what we had before will cost more than it would ever be worth in the Mankato market. We are exploring other options, now.

Over the last couple of weeks we have explored purchasing a different kind of property all together for us: a lake property in the north woods of Wisconsin and or Minnesota. The recreational housing market has been hit hard by the down turn in the economy. For us, this means that there are many properties to choose from with acreage, woods, and various types of cabins. In many ways it is an adventure for us, something we never, ever dreamed we would be doing. But because of the loss of our farm, something we can choose, if we so desire.

That choice in our minds is all about balance. We are in our late middle fifties. The loss of the farm has pushed to the surface many options, including retirement. Retirement was always something fuzzy in the horizon. Now it is tangible and nearer. I am not really ready to retire, now. But being on sabbatical has helped me to see, even though I for the most part enjoy the work I do tremendously, that retiring from the work I do will be a wonderful opportunity to explore other kinds of work that I have enjoyed this year, like writing and consulting. We are trying to figure out that balance of just how many more years we need or should work to be secure. Purchasing a possible recreational property is part of that balanced retirement equation for us. What I mean to say is that the fire, although horrible and sad, has opened a door of different possibilities for us. Out of the charred remnants some different vision for us is emerging. We will continue to explore our options and re-imagine the next years of our lives.

You can be sure there will be more to come. Thanks for reading and TTFN,
Michele

Yo-Yo Ma and Award

Today I begin the post with a homage and recognition to all of you of something that I care deeply about: cello music (violoncello music as is the precise name of this beautiful instrument). As I write this post, I am in a little bit of heaven. For my birthday, I splurged on some music: Yo-Yo Ma’s 30 Years Outside the Box collection to be exact. This is a compiled set of ALL (over 90) recordings that he has made in his professional career over the past 30 or so years. This box set is music and musicianship at their finest.

He rotates his play on two cellos, my favorite being the magnificent, 275 years old, Domenico Montagnana's cello with exceptionally beautiful resonation on the low C string, which for me, makes for that great woodsy sound that stirs my soul. So, for me, listening to each of those CDs is a little bit of heaven. There are 90 in the box. I am only on CD 10. You can read more about Yo Yo Ma here and here.

People that know me, know that I am an amateur cellist. I was introduced briefly to a cello while in tenth grade in high school. Later, as an adult, I studied cello at Mankato State with Dr. Harry Dunscombe, who recently passed in January 2008. I considered myself a pretty good intermediate player. With loads of practice, I eventually auditioned for the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and won a place in their cello section. I happily played with this group for about 5 years. I have not played in many years due to a fairly significant knock on the head and subsequent sensitivity to sound. But, I have the cello out, and plan to start up again.

Next news:
I am tooting my horn here a bit. I submitted one of my papers that I presented in January for an award and guess what: I got it!! I cannot tell you how much this means to me. That paper describes what I have had my science/math methods students do in terms of researching their own teaching. This practice is what got me in the pickle around tenure: I pushed them too hard, or so they thought. Here is a bit from the letter:

Congratulations! The ASTE Awards Committee has completed its review of all submissions for Awards IV and V. It is my pleasure to inform you that the ASTE Award Committee selected your paper, Descriptive Inquiry in the Throes of Learning to Teach: Can Prospective Teachers Learn to Teach and Study their Teaching Closely? for Award IV: Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers.

Here is the abstract for this paper:
This paper will report on results from an innovative elementary science methods course where prospective teachers study closely their own teaching episodes within a framework of descriptive inquiry. During the science methods course, the preservice teachers spent 5 weeks in local elementary classrooms applying the teaching methodologies with elementary students. In addition and working in pairs, the preservice teachers applied qualitative research methods to their own teaching by collecting observational data through videotaped teaching episodes, field note documentation, and interviews to uncover phenomena, dynamics or practices that are exclusive and do not promote learning of all. In this paper, we will report on two case examples where prospective teachers’ research revealed that (1) the “average” students were overlooked in their teaching and (2) gender bias interfered with their inclusive interactions with all elementary students. These results suggest that if prospective teachers apply knowledge of subject matter methods with a close look of their teaching episodes they will gain some of the perspective of more seasoned and expert teachers.

I invited one of my former students to co-present this paper with me. As such, this award will be shared with her. She reported to me that she thinks about the work that she did in researching her teaching almost every day as a new teacher. So, it is a pleasure to share this award with her.

I know that the work I do with my students pushes them hard. They have told me this both in verbal ways and in written comments. But, I know, that this work make them better teachers, which is the point. So, receiving this award is a great validation of the work I have been doing and am so committed to doing. Isn’t our goal as teacher educators to produce the very best teachers possible?

TTFN and thanks for reading!
Michele

Rest and recreation

It seems so ho-hum to state that I cannot believe that I am almost five months into my sabbatical: but, I am. I started this blog to help me document my sabbatical because I was so afraid that I would look back and wonder what I had done with this precious gift of time. Well, all I can say is that I am relishing the time. Savoring it.

Recreation and rest: Since my birthday I have been in the Netherlands with a side excursion to Paris for a few days. I blogged about some of the bike rides we did in the Netherlands, the greatest country for biking, on my other blog here and here. But there is so much more.

First, here are my travel companions, Ellery (6 and grand-daughter) and hubby. There is no one I would rather travel with than my hubby, first, and a lovely grand baby, second, especially to Holland, hubby's birth country and home to many, many relatives, including my own sister. Here is a picture of my hubby, Johannes, and Ellery.
We were blessed with fantastic weather the entire trip which makes for great recreation. The first week we stayed in Onderdijk with hubby's sister and family. You can read more about our stay here if you like. The extended family I have in other parts of the world, especially the Netherlands, enrich my life. The picture below gives you an idea of the tranquility that is still part of some parts of rural Holland, including this small village in Onderdijk.
Our trips to the Netherlands are always full with family visits and activities. Coming only about once a year means that we have lots to catch up on. Several of hubby’s siblings still live in the village, but several; are spread around in other cities in Holland. This trip we planned a day of biking on the island of Texel as well as a day trip to Utrecht, home of one brother and his family.

My sister Chris also lives in the Netherlands with her hubby, Koos and our two god children. Chris, Ellery and I made a short trip to Paris by the high speed train the Thalys. It takes only 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to Paris from Amsterdam. Chris surprised me by booking our tickets in First Class-a wonderful luxury when traveling with a child.
If you ever go to Paris, I highly recommend this fast train as transportation. Easy and quick. We stopped at many cafes for coffee and sometimes a bite to eat. With a child in tow, cafes were one sure way to find a bathroom. Prices can be high in cafes, especially near well known tourist spots, but they are a great way to take a short break. Plus many of the cafes have seats that face outward-so they make for a great people watching venue.

The River Seine flows through Paris. We walked along it, road in a bus-boat on it and crossed over many bridges above it. Notre Dame is one of the great cathedrals that is located right on the River. My pictures do not do justice to the intrinsic craftsmanship that was part of this building, including sculpture and stained glass. That is Notre Dame on the upper right of the first picture.

Ceiling below.

Beautiful rose window.

Some of the

intricate sculpture

around the entry doors.

Image of the cathedral from the street.

One of my most favorite museums is in Paris, the Musée d'Orsay. The building itself is an old train station which makes a spectacular venue for some of the most beautiful artwork in the world.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures.
First, Van Gogh:

Next a little Monet. Claude Monet.


Ellery at the Musee d'Orsay

I have always wanted to go to Holland in the spring. I was not disappointed. Temperatures were mild (65-70 degrees) most of the time, with a gentle crispness in the air at times; some rain, but not much. It was lovely to share this travel experience with Johannes and my sister, but the delight was having Ellery along. She sang, skipped and danced her way through corridors in the Metro through Paris. She sang and told funny stories in the child’s seat on the bike. She enchanted us with her “tea party” play with her little animals and a tea set bought to her by Chris. Most of all, she illustrated for us adults, Chris and I, that a small child (6 years old) could fully enjoy what are often times considered adult excursions (museums and world class tennis). She had studied about “Claude Monet” in school (a Kindergartener) and was determined to find all the Monet pictures at the Museum. She knew which pictures were painted when his “eyesight” was poor and desperately wanted to find the water lilies and the Japanese bridge of the painting above.

Her delight and enthusiasm for Monet was captivating to us. Having her along and reveling in her own delight at the sights was a great reminder of how impressionable children are. How they can absorb, learn and be resilient in international travel. I enjoy my grandbabies tremendously. This year I am relishing their companionship, antics, and play more than ever. The gift of time in a sabbatical is remarkable for recreating with special people. Thanks for reading and TTFN, Michele

Spring and gardening

Do you like to garden? Well, I do, too!! We spent the day yesterday at our Mankato farmhouse. It was a magnificent Minnesota spring day. Magnificent. About 64 or so degrees with a cool and crisp wind at times. I worked on weeding one of my native gardens, while Jan moved the last items (a door from my father’s old home place in Maryland and our dog run) out of the house and transplanted the plants. The house will be demolished this week. A couple of weeks ago I bought a wagonload of native plants at a plant sale at the U of MN. We hastily planted most of these last week. Those of you who know me know that I have a thing about plants in general. What you may not know is I can almost weep at the sight of beautiful plants. Let me explain: we have had a long winter and a slow start to spring in Minnesota. We as avid gardeners wait along time before we can get back in the soil and muddle around in it. Seeing all that budding and new life at that plant sale, especially down the native plants aisle, brought tears to my eyes.I was moved to tears because it simply has been such a long time since I saw our native plants! Wahoo for spring!



The rural property is a blaze with life and palette of green. Our lilacs are about to bloom, the trees are unfolding new leaves each and every day and the birds. The birds. The songbirds are back!! Weeding out that garden was a great reminder to me of the beauty and the cycle of our natural world. The birds are back and soon the monarchs will be also. Looking out across all of the trees on our property reminded me of the cyclic seasonal nature of growth. The trees, bushes and native plants are unfurrowing their leaves, roots and stems. No matter that Mother Nature tossed a couple of bolts of lightening that destroyed our farmhouse. The cycling natural world continues. That is profound to me.

So, yes, you read right above: the house will be demolished this week. We have said goodbye and removed all the contents. But, there is a promise of things to come, there is greener grass in our future so to speak, as these pictures illustrate.



Finally, I am on a mission this summer to grow the best and tastiest tomatoes, ever. I have two flats of seedlings (heirlooms) that I grew myself. I will be planting them this week under a variety of experimental conditions, including containers, in the ground and in a variety of greenhouse type contraptions that I am making to hold the heat in. I don’t know about you, but, for me, nothing tastes better than garden fresh tomatoes! I can barely eat them out of season. Growing them is a fun challenge for me. Part of my rest and recreation themes of my sabbatical, too. TTFN and thanks for reading. michele

Just catching up

It has been a while since I updated this, my sabbatical, blog. Just two days after my last post, our Mankato farmhouse burned down-or was a total loss due to a fire. Technically it is still standing, but a mere shell of what it was before. As I write this, my hubby and I are staying at the Hilton in Mankato. Such a weird experience being in a hotel in a small town where I have lived, at least partially, for the past 24 years. We will never know definitely how the fire started, but the accepted cause is lightening. There were two lightening strikes right on our house according to ligtening.com. However, the insurance and fire department have never been able to locate an entry point through the roof or the electrical system. It is generally accepted that lightening hit and made it's way to our furnace. The wiring on the furnace shows some evidence of a lightening strike, but again, no entry point. Regardless, the fire smoldered for at least 2-3 hours in the furnace and going up the furnace vents. The furnace apparently worked for at least an hour because smoke was drawn throughout the house via the intake vent. Once the fire came into the upstairs and found more oxygen it advanced very quickly.

We spent the majority of the day today cleaning out the upstairs. We had a number of storage closets in the upstairs of the farm so there were a lot of memorabilia from our kids and their youth, as well as our own tokens of a life together. Most of the time I am matter of fact about taking out, sorting out and then throwing out a life time’s worth of stuff, but today was hard. I came across an old journal that I wrote when my babies were small, my wedding wreath, and Sean’s baby blanket. Plus, the bunk beds upstairs where the grandbabies slept were made with some beautiful quilts that I have collected over the years as well, as some woolen blankets that were my mothers. So, definitely a tug at your heart day. I am ready for this phase to be done. Jan knocked down our beautiful armoire, a dresser that we took from California and took apart the bunk beds that I mentioned above. Our dumpster is now just about full. We will more than likely need at least one more. The basement is left for tomorrow.

It has been odd going through all the things and of course throwing just about everything away. I saved a few school papers and trinkets from our kids, but there is little that can be saved. After my mom died, August 2009, I brought many of her clothes, bedding and other things to the farm, including her purse. I had a tumultuous youth and growing up. My mom was a wreck through most of it because of mental health disease. I mourned my mother more than I ever thought possible after she died and kept those few items as a way to keep her around. But, alas, all of her stuff is basically gone. I threw out the old purse, although I saved her wallet.

We are leaning toward rebuilding, but are also considering all options, including doing nothing to selling. We have started to look at house plans, which can be fun, but still weird right now. If we do rebuild we would like to build a house that is super green with a ton of windows, and easily accessible for both of us as we age. If you are reading this post and have not seen the video of the house after the fire here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum

A few pictures:

I wore this ribboned headpiece on my wedding day.
Not much left now. It hung above our bed with other pictures for many years.

A little of my music with bowings from my cello prof. I will recopy these marks.

Even the farm playhouse partially melted.

Now on to a few things about my sabbatical progress:

Research and 'riting: I presented two papers, one at NARST in Orlando and the other at AERA in New Orleans earlier this month. These two conferences were remarkable. My papers were well received, but that is not what made them remarkable for me. Remarkable was listening to so many papers, panels and symposia delivered by some of the big names in the field including Linda Darling Hammond, Gloria Ladson Billings, Angela Calabrese Barton, and Marilyn Cochran Smith, just to name a few. Education in general is under assault, as many of you know. While none of these researchers painted a picture that was rosy, all of them provided some hope and strategies to get through this difficult time. Among the best was a presentation by Darling-Hammond, Larson Billings and Edward Haertel. The later is a statistician who pointed out that the press and the “value added measures” that are in the news are actually a falsification of test findings given that the studies they purport to evidence contain omitted variables and include non-random assignment; thus making generalization and validity problematic. He also pointed out the unintended effects of high stakes tests is the narrowing of what is being taught (no surprise here).

Some of you may know that many newspapers publish the test results by schools and even by teacher. The LA Times did last year, and this year, too. One teacher, Rigoberto Ruelas Jr., a fifth-grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in California, was deemed a less than effective teacher when his students’ math and reading scores did not make the cut and took his life. (You can read more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39404037/ns/us_news-life/). This is simply unconscionable that a teacher is compelled to take their life because of the pressure of these standardized tests. What Darling-Hammond and group ask us all to do and think about is: how do we develop, evaluate and insure effective teachers for every child? Teaching is a “team sport” with a cluster of variables that influence a teacher’s development and influence their effectiveness. Will we survive this onslaught of negativity? Only time will tell. School age children will be the ones who suffer the most impact. Guaranteed.

On a brighter note: I have been granted IRB approval to go back into St. Paul Schools and work with 6 out of the original 9 students who were part of my thesis study in fall 2005. This is a remarkable group of ELL (Hmong), special education, gifted and regular students. I am excited to see where they are now and what plans they have for after graduation. They are all seniors. My study originally looked at their learning in an inclusive life science classroom. It will be great to talk with them about their own ideas about science, the nature of science, scientific inquiry and future plans for science. Hopefully I will meet up with the first students in the next week or so.

There is no shortage of research opportunities coming my way. Yesterday I was at a STEM Network of MN conference. Three different principals approached me about starting research in their schools. One of them is a brand new STEM middle school. Another has been STEM for 3 years. And another integrates everything including language arts into STEM topics. So, wonderful opportunities for me. All will have to wait until the fall, although I will set the gears in motion. I am going to invite a colleague or two from other institutions to join me on this research to make it more manageable.

As I mentioned, I wrote two original papers for NARST and AERA. I have now completed three original papers since my sabbatical started. I am going to push to finalize these papers and submit to journals for publication before I leave for Holland and France on my birthday.

Reading: I started reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen because several members of my family read it and recommended it. I have to say it is not my favorite book was hard to get into, but I am plugging along. Definitely some complex character development as the book unfolds.

Recreation, rest & relaxation: New Orleans and Orlando were definitely part rest and realization. But the best relaxation was a couple of days hubby and I spent in Pensacola, Florida. Our hotel was right on the beach. We rented bikes one day and rode over 20 miles to a National Seashore. Just lovely. Here is a picture of my toes and I poolside!

And if you know me, imagine my DELIGHT at
discovering an INSECT Museum in New Orleans!!!

Now, a little about my themes for 2011:
Organization: well, the fire is certainly helping. Nothing like throwing everything away to get organized! However, my home office in Minneapolis, although more organized than it was in January, is again cluttered with tons of piles of books and articles. Everything is sorted into bins for the particular research project or paper, but so much stuff. I just cannot seem to get a handle on this.

Balance: I love the gift of time that I have had with sabbatical. I believe I have been fairly diligent about planning work vs off time. So, in short, I think I am gaining more balance. But, it is soooo easy for me to get drawn into my professional work and lose myself in it for too many hours. But, then again, I put it down if one of my kids or their wives needs me or if a grandbaby wants to play. So, definitely better balance.

Downsizing: Well, again the fire helped. Physically, I am the same weight as I have been for about three months. I am not able to maintain a losing streak when I am traveling. I am hoping that in the next 4 weeks when I am home I will knock off about 6 pounds. This will put me at my lowest weight on over 15 years.

I also made the decision not to go to Africa, at least for now. The fire was the last “straw” so to speak. There are simply too many things I need to take care of now, and here. I also am at a loss as to how to communicate effectively with the school, and personnel. There is still time for Namibia and South Africa and I will still do some work there, just not now.

Finally, although I have had some ups and downs, as would be expected after the fire, I am doing well. When I wrote above that my sabbatical is a gift, I mean just that: it is. The fire is what has happened to me, my hubby and our family. I am glad I have the gift of time to sort it all out.

Thanks for reading, TTFN, Michele

Nsta and catching up

Almost two weeks since I posted here. I am back a week aleady from one of the most inspiring and informative National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) meetings I have ever been to. I was just a regular attendee, too, with no paper or presentations what so ever. Just there to learn. I did.

To me the most inspirational talk was Jeff Goldstein, astrophysicist and director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. Over and over again he recharged the audience about why science, STEM and education for that matter are critically important. Several of my favorite lines were:

• Science is not a book of knowledge but the journey behind the science.

• If you want to be part of history all you have to decide is when to jump in.

• Science = organized curiosity.

• Nurture the gift of a question.

• Conceptual understating at the emotional level.

Jeff blogs at blog on the universe.org for any of you who might want to read more. Powerful talk. A short video of his after talk thoughts may be found here. I have not yet located a video for his talk.

Every session or PD that I attended at NSTA was noteworthy. I plan to incorporate more nutrition and health in the science course I teach at my institution once my sabbatical is over. One of the PD sessions was about nutrition. I walked away with a great deal of information that will be suitable for my students. I have taught about Global Climate Change for years. One of my challenges has always been the controversial nature of GCC in the eyes of many of my students. After attending a three hour long session on GCC and teaching about controversy I feel better equipped to dig in more with my students. There will be additional webinars (FREE!!) in the near future from NSTA that I will attend in the coming months. Kudos to the planning committee for NSTA for making this a great and inspirational event for so many!

Writing: Last week I finished my third original paper of my sabbatical. This one will be presented at AERA in New Orleans in April. This paper will be uploaded on the AERA conference site so that attendees can access it. It is not yet ready for publication, but it is close. This study features both qualitative and quantitative research methods. I synthesized over 300 pages of interview transcripts, 30 videos of teaching episodes, my own observational notes (25 pages) and many, many samples of teacher and or their student work samples. The major findings are in regards to the transformative nature of the identity of the teachers as scientists and a progressive model of inquiry that is adopted by the teachers as they implement our PD into their classroom. It is such a thrill to distill out these findings! It was a long road, too, to get that paper conference ready. It is 37 pages single spaced. I am going to let it rest now for awhile before I make the final push to publication. I will be very curious as to how it is received at AERA and look forward to finding other relevant and currents studies that offer additional perspectives while I am at the conference.

Recreation, rest & relaxation: Everyone should be so lucky and certainly any person working should be entitled to a sabbatical. Yes, I did attend a professional conference in SF. But, it involved plenty of rest, recreation and relaxation: three of my other three “R’s” of this sabbatical. I am finding walking in a city is one of the best ways to get oriented to the new geography. One day, I actually walked almost 12 miles. Believe me, I was sore, too, that night!

But, there is more to the rest, recreation and relaxation. I feel like I am so present in what I am doing. I feel so relaxed. Now, granted, I am accomplishing many of the things that I had hoped for in my sabbatical, especially the writing. So, I am still productive every day. I think because I have been able to distance myself from all of my teaching responsibilities, my mind is not spinning about all that I have to do, especially if what I have to do is for my students. I am more focused on me, but also the other things that are important to me in this one life.

Yesterday I spent the entire day with three of my adult children and their children. We were all gathered to celebrate the oldest granddaughters 8th birthday. I never felt “I have to go now because I have to …” I just enjoyed the day, especially the shenanigans of my children (all adults) and their beautiful offspring. My daughter and daughter in law and I even played two games of Scrabble!

I am reawakened and present to what is happening around me. I wonder as I sit back and ruminate, if I am more present because of the gift of sabbatical or is it just the fact that I am older now and perhaps this is the “wisdom” that comes with being more seasoned? I don’t know, but I sure am enjoying. More to come...

Thanks for reading and TTFN,
Michele

This week's ruminations

This has been a really great week of sabbatical. I feel like I am finally finding a rhythm. It is grand, simply grand to have the TIME to soak up in my life. That sounds so narcissistic, but, that is not how I mean it. What I mean is that I am enjoying this gift of time to spend an hour trying out new recipes, take long, long walks every day and read, read, read. I finished Buzz this week. Two chapters really resonated with me, the one on education and the one on meditation. Every teacher should read what she has to say about being an individual with ADD herself and a parent and of a kid with special needs (ADD/OD). Most kids with special needs do not have a parent as well educated and diligent as Ellison. It is a crime that we do not service these kids well. The chapter on mediation was funny, poignant and interesting. Ellison checked herself into a meditative retreat center with a brain and body is super drive. Her own story of responding to the silence and uncovering her own inner peace is compelling, especially for someone like me who never gave much credence to meditation. I am interested to learn more now.

Another part of this week that relates to having time is my own research writing. I am working on my third paper. This one is the process by which teachers who enroll in our courses at the U of Mn implement and experience the PD in their classrooms. This paper involves three years worth of both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data is the easy part (except sometimes getting the tables right!). But, it is the qualitative part that really tells a story. And that for me is what is so exciting. For so many of our teachers, especially elementary and middle school, they begin to form a new identity for themselves as scientists. This happens gradually and in large part stems from the relationships that they develop with our team scientists as they work at their “elbows” on citizen science research. The second marvelous part of the story is how the teachers come to terms with the uncertainty that is part of the practice of science. It is a 180-degree shift from needing to know the “right” answer at the moment and becoming comfortable with the ambiguity that is part of learning, whether in science or any other field.

Writing research is a time consuming process. There are just so many angles to think about to get it right. Getting the story right is one of the most important charges you have as a researcher; this is actually the ethical dimension of the research: getting it right. But that is also one of the most exciting. You get to think deep and hard about things that matter to you (what could be better than that!) and put together all the pieces until you have solved the puzzle and voila (!) the paper is complete. Intellectually it is thrilling to see how your research fits in to the published work and how your research even ADDS to that research (or at least I think). Finally, it is understanding where you could go, what more you could do. And that leads you to the next research projects.

So, a great week has now passed filled with the gift of time. TTFN, Michele