#TLAP Act 1: Guest Speaker Reverend Marty M. Antis

Out of the two courses that I teach I am naturally more passionate about AP Environmental Science because it is what is most familiar to me with my love for the outdoors.   It was a very passionate professor of mine in college Dr. Kerry Katovich that got me hooked on Entomology.  I had grown up working at the local garden center.  This was the job that got me through high school and college until I landed a full time teaching position.  Customers would bring me baggies and jars of both pests and diseased leaves.  Most often they were something fairly common, the pest problem that everyone had, and I could offer them the treatment of choice and they went on their way to treat their problem. Other times, things were more challenging to identify and I would take their sample home with me to study it, look it up, and follow up with them the next time I worked.  Over the years some of these pests even made it into my very own collection.  What I loved most about what I was doing, is that I was working with people, I was educating them, and I was learning. How often does one get paid to learn?!

This experience allowed me to amp up my "Integrated Pest Management" lecture in AP Environmental Science this school year.  Dave Burgess challenged us with the idea of "how could you invite a guest speaker or personality to give a lecture to your class?"  This was the perfect opportunity for the mantis costume to come back out of the closet (as it was previously worn for a Halloween Contest at the garden center in which I worked).  The trouble was is that I was lacking the confidence to do it.  I could pull this off at a garden center that I worked at for years in which people knew I was into bugs, but how could I do this in front of my very own students.  What would happen if they didn't buy in?  Would I lose their interest in the class?  With the encouragement from my #tlap PLN I decided it was time to add passion and excitement into my teaching.

The day prior I had told my students in my 3rd period class that there would be a guest speaker tomorrow for our IPM lecture.  Comments by the students were:  "Who is the guest speaker?" Followed by, "I bet it's going to be Korn."  Boy did I have a surprise for them!  The lights were off in the classroom as students walked in and there was a praying mantis youtube video playing.

Reverend Marty M. Antis (a name coined with the help of one of my coworkers and her husband) made his guest appearance.  There was a schedule on the board include the agenda for the hour.  Students were shocked when I walked in.  This was a class of juniors and seniors, I wasn't sure how they were going to react.  I slowly walked to the front and introduced myself....

                                                

I would say within seconds students were trying to capture the moment by taking "selfies" with me in the background and later in class asking for photo opportunities with me.  Word got out that there was a guest speaker and a student from 4th hour said, "Ms. Kornowski I was excited to come to class today just to see how you were dressed up."  Imagine if this was the reaction from your students everyday.  I was challenged and my students said, "Korn, you're going to dress up like an oak tree tomorrow, right?" I  reassured them that I had more tricks up my sleeve but we had to preserve them because there is a whole semester left ahead of us.

I could not have done this without the encouragement and support of my #tlap PLN.  I was inspired by @burgessdave himself along with all of the other teachers in my PLN that shared their #tlap stories and lessons.  In my eyes this was an #eduWIN  because my students are now kept off balance and don't know what to expect next in the classroom, and they are asking for more!  If I demonstrate my creativity, I hope this will encourage them to challenge their own thinking as well.  #tlap is a game changer in education, and I really hope that I can help others to see the value as well.