Reflections from an NPCA Teacher

I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my own learning experience as a lead teacher for the NPCA Project. My journey began last spring when the MS core teachers started reading about integration and talking about having students participate in an Integrated Inquiry unit. We spent months collaborating, discussing, and strategizing about how to structure the project in a way that would be meaningful to students.

Planning, organizing, and executing this project has required me to use a whole different set of skills as a teacher than I normally use. I usually plan lessons weeks in advance and create a set unit calendar for each quarter. In contrast, for this project, I have been working in tandem with the students to create activities that are responsive to their needs. For example, when students expressed an interest in learning more about the importance of music in people's lives, my colleague and I invited local musicians to come to our classroom and talk about their musical backgrounds.

Seeing this project take shape and move from the abstract to the concrete has been both challenging and rewarding. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of the process from start to finish. I have learned so much about what education is, and what education can be. I am also glad to have had the opportunity to collaborate so deeply with my lead planning partner, Ms. Althauser. Watching our dreams become a reality has been nothing short of inspiring, and we could not have done it without each other (and without the support of the entire APIS faculty).