This summer marks a new venture in connectedness on my part. Using facebook and twitter, I have built important learning communities, both educational and social. But I find myself very nostalgic today, in particular focusing on my first teaching job, where I taught chemistry and physics (in various “flavors”) at Roberto Clemente Community Academy. I was a part of the small schools initiative. Within the 2000+ populous of the school, I was charged with educating students in the math science and technology academy, known as MSTA. The main reason for this post is a video that I made my last year teaching at Clemente. The project was to construct a water and gas powered rocket that would carry a raw egg aloft and then safely back to earth without damage. It was likely the most fulfilling project that I conducted while at that school.
When I came across the video, I watched it again, and all of the emotions of the day that I showed it to my class came flooding back. It is not that it was an astounding video, but it was the last video that I made for my students prior to leaving Chicago. This was especially hard for me as many of the students had been in my class for the past two years. I had taught them chemistry, then challenged them to take ap chem. A recent facebook connection with a prior student motivated me to post the video, in the hopes that I could reconnect with as many of the original class members are possible.
A Digital Life 