NOAA Teacher at Sea
George Hademenos
Aboard R/V Tommy Munro
July 19 – 27, 2022
Mission: Gulf of Mexico Summer Groundfish Survey
Geographic Area of Cruise: Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Date: August 27, 2022
As a teacher, I am constantly involved in professional development activities which could take the form of a presentation, workshop, seminar, book study or immersive educator experiences such as NOAA Teacher at Sea. At the end of each offering, whether I am required to or not, I take it upon myself to consider its impact on me as an educator and reflect upon how the take-home messages will impact my students. Because of the wide-ranging facets and extensive learning opportunities provided by the Teacher at Sea cruise, I took particular interest in drafting my reflections. It was an experience that I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about and an activity that I looked forward to reflecting upon. However, just to be clear, reflections in my definition is not a concise and cogent summary of the activities that occurred while on cruise. This is what was presented in each prior post of my blog. Rather, my reflection represents a “30,000-foot overview” of my interpretation and evaluation of the experience.
As I prepared the text for the reflections of my Teacher at Sea cruise, I opted to adapt the words to photos of scenic views taken from onboard the R/V Tommy Munro and threaded the images together in a video presentation.
Reflections of a Teacher at Sea
George Hademenos
SEAMAP Groundfish Survey
As I gaze in any direction at the seemingly endless volumes of ocean, I see questions…
questions to be answered and answers to be questioned,
questions to be formed and questions to be researched,
questions that will inspire one to learn beyond imagination…
with answers that will foster an understanding deep within…
of the unexplored frontier of marine life below the water’s surface.
Questions to me present an opportunity…
to celebrate what we know and to stimulate our quest to discover what we don’t.
As a NOAA Teacher at Sea, I will return to the classroom with…
questions waiting to be answered, answers waiting to be investigated,
and hopefully career paths in ocean sciences waiting to be pursued.
I hope you enjoy the video and for my educator colleagues, please consider taking advantage of this “once in a lifetime” opportunity for you and your students.
In wrapping up the final post for this blog, I would like to continue with the final installment of my exercise of the Ocean Literacy Framework and ask you to respond to three questions about the seventh essential principle (The ocean is largely unexplored), presented in a Padlet accessed by the following link:
Remember, there are no right or wrong answers – the questions serve not as an opportunity to answer yes or no, or to get answers right or wrong; rather, these questions serve as an opportunity not only to assess what you know or think about the scope of the principle but also to learn, explore, and investigate the demonstrated principle. If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please indicate so in the blog and I would be glad to answer your questions and initiate a discussion.
