Lately when I have a moment (it doesn't happen often!) I have been playing Krillion. Has anyone played it? www.krillion.io. You have to guess the least common answers to questions. Pro tip - whenever the question is about a country, African countries score big points because people don't know anything about them. The upside of all those misunderstandings!

As for digital media, I am a weekly watcher of Dancing with the Stars, as well as Taskmaster UK. 

I hope to present my curriculum to my team of 3rd grade teachers, our instructional facilitator, as well as admin. Since I am hoping my project will be able to be implemented within the school starting next school year, I am eager to see their commentary and gain the approval to begin using it. 

Once I'm back at school (fingers crossed), I'd like to lead a workshop at a conference or write an article about ways to make cross-curricular connections to teaching about Africa at the elementary level. I'd also love to work with the Middle and Upper School teachers at my school to see if there are ways I can support them doing more with teaching about Africa.

The school year is always interesting. Heavy on my heart are the following. 😣 I am at a new school in a new building, teaching a different grade than last year. I am having a lot of mixed feelings regarding inclusion. At this point, I have come to my own conclusion of what it should not look like. The school itself is very large and the physical size is tiring and overwhelming. We are three schools that closed and merged into one large one not made for elementary school children. It hurts my brain that every year there are several teachers in schools (everywhere) that are missing required curriculum and materials that are (supposed to be) provided by the district. It is October and our Math student workbooks have finally arrived. I can now spend less time at the photo copier. Yay to the environment. Word on the street is that we are the first Cape Verdean dual language school. We had a visit from the Cape Verdean prime Minister and his motorcade was fantastic to watch out the window. I am questioning how the teaching and sharing of knowledge regarding Cape Verde will be accessible to those of us not in that wing. Also what are we as educators in a dual language school being offerred about CV other than our core values being written in both English and Cape Verdean Creole? I hope to be able to present my curriculum to my school community. I think this is a good start and will help myself and other teachers not as familiar gain an entry point in our community and make some actual connections.

I hope to share my curriculum with colleagues at my school and also with a wider audience by submitting an article to Social Studies and the Young Learner or Edutopia.

2. I would like to share my resources within my school, possibly at a PD. I think it will be a change of pace from the same PDs we sit through every year.

Also, I accepted a new role as a member of the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools Classroom and Community Advisory Council.  It is a new committee, and I look forward to seeing how this new role will help me serve as a liaison between my school and our state school leadership.  I hope that this role will help me make more connections with other Independent school educators and see how what I am learning in this course can best be shared.

One of the things that is keeping me going is engaging with my professional Instagram page.  My handle is @honeybeehivelibrarian.  The work that librarians do is often not shared, so I am working on sharing small glimpses of what I do in hopes that other librarians feel less alone and non-librarians can see some of what life in library world is like.

Despite the uncertainty, this experience has reminded me how important it is for educators to be flexible, collaborative, and willing to take leadership. It also motivates me to think more intentionally about how I can support students and other teachers through change. I’m hoping that what I learn from this course will give me additional tools and perspectives that I can bring back to my school and district.

After completing the certificate in 2027, I hope to share my curriculum and experiences with other elementary educators in my school and beyond. I would like to present at professional development sessions, with the goal of helping teachers bring more accurate, diverse, and meaningful perspectives on Africa into their classrooms.