{"id":6868,"date":"2020-09-18T16:33:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T00:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communications.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us\/?p=6868"},"modified":"2020-10-27T07:33:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T15:33:19","slug":"celebrate-ms-jen-booz-fulbright-distinguished-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/2020\/09\/18\/celebrate-ms-jen-booz-fulbright-distinguished-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Ms. Jennifer Booz, Fulbright Distinguished Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Homer Middle School educator\nis going to Finland!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Booz of Homer Middle School in Homer, Alaska, has\nbeen selected for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Research\n(Fulbright DA) Program to Finland, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department\nof State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Booz is one of approximately 22 U.S. citizens who will\ntravel to 10 countries around the world in spring 2021 on the Fulbright DA\nProgram. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic\nand professional achievement, as well as record of service and demonstrated\nleadership potential. Learn more\nabout the Fulbright Program,<\/a> a the flagship\ninternational educational exchange\nprogram sponsored by the U.S government, and created to increase mutual\nunderstanding and build\nlasting connections between\nthe people of the United\nStates and the people of other\ncountries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her words\u2026 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education is evolving, especially in 2020! What most intrigues you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is becoming increasingly connected both to itself\nand to information. Gone are the days when the teacher imparted all knowledge\nonto students, revealing the mysteries of the universe. Beyond the critical\nskills of reading and writing, it will no longer be appropriate to teach facts\nand ask for recall. Students have this information at their fingertips.\nEducators would be foolish to not evolve along with our students. I see the\nrole of education and teachers evolving into that of a guide and interpreter. I\nwould love to see a teacher pose questions or present students with phenomena\nwhich is then explored. Teachers and students would then work together to sift\nthrough the vast amounts of information and students would learn the skills\nneeded to navigate this new world. I am also interested in developing more ways\nfor classroom students to feel empowered to make things happen in their\ncommunity. I want students to realize they have a powerful voice, and take what\nthey learn in school to use it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow! What does\nreceiving the Fulbright Award evoke in you<\/em><\/strong>?         \n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel both thrilled and terrified. This is a very prestigious award and I want to be sure to do my best during my fellowship to show I am worthy of this honor. I know I will be in the company of people far smarter and more accomplished than myself and look forward to collaborating with and learning from them. I am also very much looking forward to being a student again. I have so much to learn from the courses I will take and from the Finnish teachers I will be working with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In retrospect,\ndo you have guidance for your younger self? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always wanted to study and live abroad. For many\nreasons, this never happened during high school and college. Since then, it has\nseemed a far off dream that would never happen. I think I would tell myself, \u201cStick\nwith it. Keep working hard, push yourself out of your comfort zone, keep\nlearning and trying to improve yourself, and never let your work become stagnant.\u201d\nEven after 17 years of teaching, I feel I have so much to learn. I want my\nyounger self to know it will be worth it one day! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope my future self can tell me that my Fulbright\nexperience was a life-changing one. I want to know I took full advantage of all\nthe opportunities given me, embraced the culture, and made new friends and\ncolleagues. I want to hear that it will be challenging but entirely worth it. (Oh,\nand I want to know that COVID-19 doesn\u2019t interfere with the program by shutting\ndown countries again!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s a\nfavorite aspect to your work each day<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If last spring and remote teaching taught me anything, it is\nthat students are my favorite aspect of my work day. Middle schoolers are goofy\nand weird and hormonal and smart. My daily interactions, from hallway banter to\nengaging them in science learning, keep me going through the not so fun stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no\nlimits, what is your dream three-to-six month professional learning experience\nyou\u2019d like to pursue?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am doing it! The Fulbright DA is the ultimate in professional learning experiences for teachers. It combines living and studying abroad with high level learning and professional development. When choosing my host country, Finland stood out for a few reasons. First, their education system is generally regarded as being the best in the world. I want to learn from the best. Also, in 2016, Finland implemented a country-wide curriculum reform which, among many things, mandates Phenomenon-Based Learning<\/strong> (PBL) in all schools. PBL is near and dear to my heart so I hope to learn from Finnish teachers about best practices in PBL in hopes of bringing them back to my classroom in Alaska. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cJen is a student centered teacher who always puts her students\u2019 needs above her own. She is always at the cutting edge of embracing innovated instructional practices and is an amazing role model for her students. She will represent KPBSD wonderfully in this Fulbright experience and I am certain that when she returns her students and colleagues will also benefit from this amazing learning experience.\u201d<\/p> John O\u2019Brien, Superintendent of Schools <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMs. Jennifer Booz is an exceptional physical science teacher who consistently represents her colleagues in leadership roles, and continually strives to further improve herself professionally. For the last seven years as the Homer Middle School principal, I have been fortunate to supervise Jennifer in her position as the eighth grade science teacher. Our school is located in a small coastal town at the end of the road in Homer Alaska, has a student body of approximately 200 seventh and eighth grade students from a high diversity of families and cultures including Alaska natives, commercial fishermen, and oil and gas industries. Jennifer\u2019s physical science curriculum routinely incorporates community engagement including local scientists from a broad range of disciplines and teaches physical sciences through local relevant and current topics. Jennifer has been teaching middle school science for 14 years covering a variety of topics within science from engineering to the scientific method to design and modeling. Jennifer\u2019s students are consistently engaged in high-level thinking and rigorous learning activities. Her ability to establish rapport and connect with the students, which has resulted in, improved student self-motivation. Jennifer continually refines her practices and in my opinion, this has benefited our student\u2019s learning and academic achievements.\u201d <\/p> Homer Middle School Principal Kari Dendurent <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations Ms. Jennifer Booz! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINK: Department of State, Fulbright Press Release <\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Homer Middle School educator is going to Finland! Jennifer Booz of Homer Middle School in Homer, Alaska, has been selected for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Research (Fulbright DA) … Continue reading “Celebrate Ms. Jennifer Booz, Fulbright Distinguished Award”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":6876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[422,502,537],"class_list":["post-6868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","tag-fulbright-distinguished-awards-in-teaching-research","tag-homer-middle-school","tag-jen-booz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6915,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions\/6915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpbsd.org\/schools\/comm-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}