Giving back to colleagues

I teach at an international American school in Egypt. My school is only two years old and I am the only specialized science teacher. I teach middle school, grades 6 through 8 and I also teach 9th grade science. This means I have four different curricula to prepare for covering almost all branches of science; life, earth, and physical science. I have taught all branches of science for almost seven years now with various grade levels starting 2nd grade all the way up to 12th grade. I feel I have mastered my subject knowledge, and now because of my Master degree in education, I have mastered more skills at teaching science.

I feel I owe it to my students and colleagues to share this knowledge and all the tips I have gained to teach science in a relevant, effective, and modern way. Because of the lack of time, I have been unable to share as much as I would like and have only shared various articles, templates, and tips through emails and occasional staff meetings. However, in the next academic year, I have decided to take time off from teaching and focus on more learning through sitting in classrooms and substitute teaching. The goal is to gain more knowledge of how others teach science, and how to integrate different disciplines.

As a result, I will have much more free time and will arrange monthly, if not weekly, faculty meetings with elementary classroom teachers. I plan to share all the knowledge I have earned through my master program to perfect their science programs. I feel it is necessary because there is more focus in elementary school on Math and English than there is on science; partly due to lack of specialization, and partly due to lack of skill for teaching it. I also plan to create an online portal to post advice, documents, experiment videos, links, and for quick questions from those who need feedback, perhaps a FAQ or Q&A section on the website.

Unfortunately this is a private school and we do not work with a district here in Egypt, but we do have other sister schools in other part where perhaps I can visit occasionally for the same purpose. The online portal will provide quick access though.

War Vs education?

The United States’ policy on war on terrorism (Friedman, 2010) seems justified, but it does cost a lot of money and even lives. The army has a smart approach into attracting youth into enrollment. They offer good salaries and benefits which is something any person needs. In addition there is a high sense of achievement and satisfaction from serving the country. It is a shame that a similar approach is not pushed for in education.

As money is spent to attract and support the army, money should also be poured into education and jobs that support STEM. A national campaign for awareness and “attraction” should be launched much like is done to get military enrollments. But I do believe parents should be greatly involved.

I live in Egypt where we actually have a very high rate of STEM career graduates each year. The reason being that both parents and students are aware that it holds a higher social status, and will also provide for better money in the future. Those are the same two reasons students in the United States enroll in the army. But the culture here supports this idea and especially parents. They push their children to study hard and pay a lot of money to give them private tuition just to ensure they end up going into engineering, medicine, science, computer science, construction, you name it. There are now many qualified professionals. Our greatest problem here though is the lack of support of the country for these individuals and too many of them end up leaving the country to work at other places that will provide more money and an even better social status.

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.