Carole Bentley
Snapshot
Oinking All the Way to College and Career Ready
The grant that I wrote is to purchase fetal pigs for dissection in my 7th grade classroom I have been fortunate enough to have received a grant to do this in the past and the experience for the students has been amazing. It is a time that excitement is hard to contain. I really worried the first time that I did the dissection in my classroom. I worried that kids would refuse to do it or be totally grossed out by it and not be able to do it. To my absolute surprise, the students have welcomed the challenge and have learned so many things about the structures and functions of the human body and about themselves! I have witnessed the amazing look on their faces as they made connections to themselves and understood the workings and amazement of the human body. The students have always requested to go even further than I had first anticipated. For instance, I had not planned on dissection of the eye,ball! However, they requested and dissected the eyeball of the pig. I provided materials for them that helped them to understand the structures and their functions of various parts of the eye and they were able to relate the information to themselves. Receiving this grant has provided invaluable opportunities to students. Experiences that they will carry with them throughout their education and hopefully choose a career in some field of study that will provide great opportunities and employment for them. I discuss various fields that students may have never thought about as a career. This will hopefully open their eyes and future to possibilities they had never considered such as, forensic science, mortuary school, crime scene investigator, specialists in various fields, etc. The opportunity to allow students to experience this in my middle grades classroom has been SO VERY rewarding to me, as well as for my students,, because I “see” new thoughts, new “visions”, new things that my students are now aware of and an experience that could only come from the hands-on work they do….only because of the opportunity due to this grant offered to a school with very limited funds for unique classroom experiences.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
I am so concerned and worried about the economy and population of our area. Since the quick and vast decline of the coal industry, people have had to leave the area to find work. If there are no opportunities here for our kids, they will have to do the same and the area will continue to decline in population, economics, opportunities, and the list just continues with negative events. I wonder what future job opportunities my kids will have here in the area. What can they do? What should they, and teachers, be looking toward so that these kids, my Kids, have the opportunity to stay home in these hills. So, I look toward technology. Technology is constantly changing and changing the way we live, how we do our jobs, how we communicate, and how our lives are going to forever be changed with technology being a be part of daily life on so many different levels.. Technology is the KEY!. The key to providing jobs, opportunities, and possibilities for my kids to stay here where they will be part of communities that need rebuilding. Staying or coming here, if jobs are available, would create a stronger tax base, more taxes equals more school funding, better roads, etc. So, what technology might be a good place to start? What about coding? It seems that there are many opportunities to code in a variety of markets–hospitals, gaming, website creating, etc. So, I decided that I would write a grant and get materials that my kids could use to learn coding. If they learn simple coding process, they could move on toward more complicated types of coding such as python and others. I will be using the Sphero Bolts that I purchase with the grant to incorporate and promote coding in my classroom. I even have a teacher partner who teaches 8th grade science that I am going to share the Spheros with so that he can use them with his students. I am hoping that this will allow some of my kids to gain an interest in or a great enthusiasm for coding and go on to more difficult coding that will provide them with job opportunities that they may do from their homes or in various work places. The doors have to be opened for them to remain in their home communities. If not, the door will shut behind them, and for those of us remaining here. We want our kids to not have to go to the door…much less go through it on their way out!