Last week of externship

July 19, 2010

This is my last week in the yeast fermentation lab. I spent most of the day dismantling the fermenters, cleaning them and getting them ready for the next round. I have really enjoyed the time I spent here but realize that I was meant to be in the classroom dealing with students. Many students ask me how I can teach the same thing over and over again all day. My response is always that each class is different with different personalities and that makes each class unique. I thought that what the researchers were doing here might get monotonous, doing the same thing every day. But in conversing with them I realized that each fermentation they run is unique because yeast do not always grow the same. So they have to make adjustments to their protocol, just as I make adjustments to my lessons each period and each year. I guess teaching really is not that different because as we progress in our careers and the years add up, we become experts in our field, just as the researchers become experts at what they do. And to put this into a students perspective, as teachers we need to make our expectations known at the start of the year and allow students to grow and get better at mastering the 21st Century Skills that are so vital to their success. Having content that is focused and efficient will allow students the opportunity to master those core ideas. More later....................