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Physics is Elementary

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  On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound.  This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
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The Ripple Effect of Teaching: Beyond the Traditional Classroom

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The Ripple Effect of Teachers

Last week was a big one to face the facts of my recent medical condition. For those who do not know, in mid-2022 I was diagnosed with seronegative autoimmune encephalitis. On Wednesday of last week, a pair of Launch Medical and Health Care Strand students presented a personal narrative about my experience. Their presentation was a personal narrative combining a personal interview and research on the disease.  Although the slideshow doesn’t do their presentation justice, it will give you a general overview of the narrative. They covered many aspects of the condition from the factual to the personal narrative, and the lessons learned. They did a wonderful job of capturing a human story rather than listing a clinical definition.


At the end of the week, Brookfield Central High School had our annual career day. I was lucky enough to have the ICU neurologist Dr. Gregory Rozanzky who handled my care while I was in the intensive care unit attend and present to over 70 students. Topics ranged from what the career looks like daily, the educational requirements, the most difficult to the most unusual cases, and a brief explanation of my case. An important aspect for those interested in the field is that Dr. Rozansky went through his educational journey.  Below is a clip of his session.



An important takeaway I got from his talk was that you may not know what you want your profession to be until you get to experience it. The most surprising was that he enjoyed the teaching aspect of his position the most. The fact that every student, a future physician, he teaches will affect at least 5 other lives. That ripple effect a good teacher can have on the lives around them will only keep spreading. I love that Dr. Rozansky points out that this applies to so many careers, not just his but to anyone who at some point has to pass along a set of skills. It is what my great student teachers did for me. I hope that someday, I will be allowed to do the same. In my new role, I can have an impact on staff which can be applied in their classrooms.



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