Perspectives in Online Learning: Gary Nowik and Ellen Green

Science teacher and school guidance counselor at Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School

This perspective highlights a collaborative project between Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School sixth-grade science teacher Gary Nowik and guidance counselor Ellen Green. Green was hatching chicken eggs at home, and reached out to Nowik to share the project with his students.

Science teacher Gary Nowik:

"During this time of distance learning, we’re not able to employ the soft skills we constantly use to gauge our students’ social-emotional well being. When Ellen Green told me about her hatching project and asked if I’d like to share it with my classes via Google Classroom, I was thankful for the opportunity to share the excitement and pure joy it could bring to students. During the course of a couple weeks, I posted the 19 short videos without requiring anything to be filled out or completed. I think Ellen’s narrative hosting really makes a personal connection and checking the progress from eggs to birth gave the students something to look forward to. I can’t think of a time when people have needed it more than now!"

School guidance counselor Ellen Green:

"This has been such a fun learning project for me during this time in our lives and I was thrilled when Gary Nowik accepted my offer to share it out to our sixth-graders! I send the growth milestones on video to Mr. Nowik to post, explaining what is happening as the chicks incubate and start to hatch. I first explained the life cycle of fertilized eggs, how candling within their shells determines development and then the excitement of the chicks emergence after 21 days. Gary then posts it all on Google Classroom for the students to view virtually. We started out with 8 eggs and only 3 hatched, but the process has been fascinating!"

"We named the chicks after flowers to acknowledge and honor spring. Tulip, Daffodil and Blueberry (really not a flower but my 3-year-old grandson named that one) are all flourishing. Each one has a distinct personality and we are talking to them daily, trying to tame them. The biggest obstacle is convincing my handy husband to build a coop, so we can keep them, rather than give them to a friend who raises chickens."