A Moment to Celebrate - One Year of Growth

Before we can officially say that we have completed the Teton Science Schools Graduate Program, the graduate students have one last assignment to turn in - we must end similarly to how we let our students end their programs: through a 'Celebration of Learning.' These celebration of learnings consist of students presenting what they have found most valuable to their knowledge and state of mind as well as a synthesis of their experience they have had here with the Teton Science Schools - so for me, TheChristyBel, here is mine!

First off, can we acknowledge that a year ago - TODAY - I packed up my Little Blue and began my drive out to the Forever West?!? Can you believe it?! I can't! As I checked in with my iPhone's TimeHop app, it posted photos of my last 'goodbyes' to my East Coast home and of the new opportunities that this western adventure had in store for me! Looking back over this blog, it has been one roller coaster of a year - A good one filled with a lot of challenges, but wonderful realizations and a clearer vision of what I plan to have in store for myself in the years to come!

For me, I wanted to do something that best represented theChristyBel for my COL: a mural, some form of a drawing, possibly even a color guard dance...but 1.) I did not have enough time to plan that...and 2.) I felt that was too predictable and sort of a comfort zone. I think it was time to find something else - as the weeks passed by through my summer capstone, I realized I already had a 'Celebration of Learning and a Synthesis of my Graduate Year.'

As many of you know, I have been recording my new chapter in my life here with the Teton Science Schools through this blog filled with wildlife, teachable moments, patterned pants, and summit poses. Originally, this blog's main purpose was to keep friends, family, former co-workers from back home, and random people in internet-land up-to-date with what is going on in the life of TheChristyBel as I embark on a new chapter - Grad School in the Tetons. I mean, why retype and rewrite the same experience over and over in many letters, when you can have a digital resource filled with photos, movies, and stories for anyone to see.

Not going to lie, I was never a 'Dear Diary' person so I thought that this blogging would not last long once the year got started and busy...but shortly after the Fall got into swing, I realized I enjoyed sharing these stories and Forever West adventures and continued to blog away for the year.

As I look back through the 150+ entries I wrote since my Forever West Journey started, I realized this blog is one of my biggest treasures from this program (besides my AEFECD Field Journal of course). Filled with every experience I've had: this blog helped me reflect and realize three main things about myself while being here with TSS: from where I stand among the four pillars that represent this graduate program and where I want to see myself in the future based on the goals I had coming here.

Beginning this program, I was dead set on pursuing a career in the science realm educating others in a formal middle school or high school classroom. With keeping this teaching career in mind, that was how I tried to focus this past year - a stepping stone to being a teacher. I was incredibly grateful to have outreach for my fall practicum - I absolutely loved the classroom, admired teaching with wonderful teachers that provided immediate feedback, and how to properly lesson plan. Having outreach under my belt and incorporating Lemov's Five Principles of Classroom Culture (discipline, management, control, influence, and engagement) definitely helped me be a better educator and learn how to create thoughtful and engaging activities and lessons for my students. I also discovered my first big realization: I enjoyed younger children a whole lot more than older ones. That was the first turn in my career path to teaching - aim to paddle towards elementary education!

Winter was the next step with a bunch of challenges that all revolved around SNOW! When our first snowfall fell, I could not believe what type of environment I got myself into for the next six months. But it made me realize that it is okay to show your students you are not perfect - for instance falling flat on your face in the snow while on cross-country skis: incredibly embarrassing - yes, incredible opportunity for you to demonstrate how to properly get up from your fall and admit to others I am also new to snow activities too: incredibly powerful. I believe it takes a type of leader and a thoughtful team member to show your own flaws and help others learn from them, and for me to present that to my students who were struggling in the very same area I was struggling in, was a great way to earn trust and an understanding from them when I taught. Winter also gave me time to perfect lessons: reteaching them week after week, learning what worked, and reflecting on the outcomes, helped sort out the kinks and make lessons stronger for spring.

Heading into spring with one last week left of the winter practicum, I was given the opportunity to work in the Journey's School (a second opportunity in a school) and an exciting chance to show off and incorporate some of my own talents into teaching - ART! Being paired with another talented artist grad student, we had the chance to create an art class elective for the middle schoolers! I was beyond super excited! Through the discussions of planning this week-long course, we were able to incorporate both of our knowledge and passion for art and give it a naturalist twist for our students in a shared teaching vision. A beautiful progression of differing drawing techniques each day resulted in an end of the week beautiful gallery walk full of wonderful pieces drawn by each student. That elective week, was by far my favorite and most proud moment of being a teacher and that's when I had my second realization: I really love art, maybe a little more than science.

Through the spring, I was able to enhance my naturalist skills much more - taking AEFECD enabled me to fill my mind with more natural history than I had learned during IFST and resulted in a field journal filled with countless sketches. If you've seen that journal, I think I took my understanding for the natural world to a whole new level and discovered I learned more when I got to draw it out. Through drawing, you are able to capture those small intrinsic details that an animal or plant holds and understand their ecological relationship to the rest of the ecosystems and communities.

Going into the capstone, I really felt strongly to one of my Expression team's key understandings: Science is an Art & Art is a Science. You definitely need one for the other. Using that same concept of the AEFECD field journal, my students were able to connect scientific and naturalist concepts through artistic observations and sketching data. During one of my observation debriefs, my faculty coach stated that I taught well, but I taught art really well and that I should continue teaching art and using it in my teaching. 'We need more Christy-Art in this life.' That capstone experience helped solidify this love for art and sharing that with others. And that is when I had my last realization: as much as I love teaching about science and the outdoors, I believe there is something I'd rather teach art!

Reflecting back on this year, the one last concept that I want to emphasize is the Golden Circle model where you define your what, how, and why of an idea or soul-purpose or goal. Through my experience here with TSS, I believe it helped me define my real 'why.' The what: realizing I enjoy teaching and working with younger minds. The how: I use my artistic talents for all of my teaching tools and assignments, I gain understanding and trust of my students through one-on-one check-ins and small group teaching and an ability to give students their own time to reflect on what their needs actually are. and the why: it is not directly teaching science, but using the natural world and scientific concepts to teach art.

For me this program was more than perfecting where I stand on the four pillars of the grad program, it was solidifying what I want to do with my life. I thank Teton Science Schools for helping me narrow down the path of where theChristyBel needs to be and that is with a pen and paper in my hand and teaching a passion that I've only focused on as a hobby. So here's to figuring it out - and I did. I believe that as I continue my path, I will be able to take what I have learned here of the and incorporate it into some other realm of teaching: art.