Upon discovering her selection as an AlbertvEinstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, Ms. Thomson, “shocked”, wondered “can I really do this?”
The East Lyme School District, however, clearly possessed no such doubts. “We were very excited. You know, anytime we can offer the opportunity for one of our teachers to go off and engage in their own learning opportunity that is going to enrich … their background and support their classroom instruction,” said Ms. Spaziano, assistant superintedent of the East Lyme School District.
Ms. Thomson’s fears, though entirely natural, were unfounded: Ms. Thomson returns as an educator greatly enriched by her nearly year-long position, an educational experience which brought her to conferences held in Texas
and meetings with members of a tribal college in Montana.
Now, with even greater clarity, she sees “how integrated science is in everything…from easy connections to things like engineering and math, to more complex things like policy making, advocacy, and art.”
The AEF, established in 1994 via a provision of the Improving America’s Schools Act, is highly selective, annually electing a mere ten to twenty American fellows.
During a span of 11 months, fellows are employed in either Congressional offices or governmental agencies which may benefit from the expertise of skilled educators such as Ms. Thomson.
“[I] know a lot of people that want to work on Capitol Hill, and she didn’t. She wanted to work with the U.S. Geological Survey so she could focus on environmental things and how to train teachers and people better. She very much took a really amazing experience and made it her own,” said Ms. Singer, chemistry teacher at ELHS.
Fellows, having applied their acumen to national education policy, return home with a renewed passion for teaching as well as access to a variety of resources to assist them in their career, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, overseer of the program.
Ms. Spaziano says networking is a key benefit of the fellowship. “[She] has met in her fellowship [those] who have experience … in specific areas of the sciences,” allowing the school to “help further expand our program offerings here in East Lyme.”
As an example, Ms. Thomson has been connected with a member of the STEM Alliance of Connecticut, amongst other profesionals.
To describe Ms. Thomson’s ordinary schedule while acting as a fellow would be quite difficult, for, much to her delight, “no day was the same. Every day would be different.”
While she remained in the capitol for the majority of her fellowship, meeting regularly with members of the United States Geographic Survey (enviornmental concerns are paramount to Ms. Thomson), funds were allocated to enable travel to meetings of the “National Science Teaching Association … (New Orleans, LA and Philadelphia, PA), the American Geophysical Union conference (Washington, D.C.), the South by Southwest Education conference (Austin, TX), and the EarthX conference (Dallas, TX)”.
When work had concluded for the day, Ms. Thomson relished Venezuelan empanadas as well as the “enlightening” collections of D.C’s numerous museums.
“I loved exploring the history within our nation’s capital. When I was done with work for the day, I could hop on the train and go to a Smithsonian museum for an hour. Or, I could walk through Arlington Cemetery or visit the monuments. It was fun … to take in art, culture, and history at the end of the day,” Ms. Thomson said.
Having imbibed such a great deal of knowledge, her teaching as a highly respected faculty member at ELHS is sure to reflect her time spent away from her local home. “I think this experience has broadened her thinking with regards to how the sciences connect and how that might help her create real, authentic experiences for students that are really relevant to science in today’s society,” said Ms. Spaziano. Ms. Thomson already has begun planning the implementation of this new knowlege. Firstly, she wants to talk about possible STEM careers.
Firstly, she wants to talk about possible STEM careers. “I ran into analytical chemists in the basement of the Library of Congress. There are sociologists at the USGS that help plan, design, and execute information collected around people. The Department of Defense has more than 3,000 government civilians working at NavSea in Carderock, MD and most of those people are scientists and engineers. There are communications majors in the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center that focus on communicating science information … The opportunities are endless,” Ms.
Thomson said.
Secondly, Ms. Thomson plans to introduce generative AI to her students, recognizing its particular importance in the world of STEM. “I want to advocate for students to learn how to code and implement this in some course, although I’m not sure where yet. Learning Python and R and in high school could really set students up for success,” Ms.
Thomson said.
The fellowship, though instructive, was not without its difficulties. “It was really hard to be away from my family so often. I came back and forth a lot … but we developed a new rhythm as a family. It is so important for me to have my daughter see her mom go out and chase a dream, and my son see his father support a partner to pursue their dreams,” she said. “In Native culture, all of the things we often call resources, such as water, land, plants, and animals, are considered relatives. We are all a connected family,” she said, summarizing her many experiences into a
single moral.
The benefits of this remarkable fellowship are large and far-reaching.
“[Ms. Thomson’s] always sought out PD and ways to make her classroom better. And so I know in this process,she will have developed some things, some content, some projects, some contacts that she’s going to bring into the classroom. I think it’s going to enhance not only her classes, but probably everybody else’s,” Ms. Singer said.
