NBC Learn K-12 Subscriber Spotlight: Cultivating Lifelong Learners

Kim Duhe is not only a lifelong educator, but a lifelong learner. As a religious studies teacher for the past ten years at Mount Carmel Academy, an all-girl’s Catholic high school in New Orleans, Duhe recently transitioned into the role of educational technologist for the school to provide herself with further challenge and learning opportunities.

“Even if you change your curriculum area, you get complacent a little bit, each year has been a growing and learning experiment,” says Duhe. Over the years, she has taught several grades, however this school year Duhe is teaching two sections of religious studies to sophomores, along with educating her colleagues on educational technologies like NBC Learn that are available at her school.

“With 30 new teachers this year, I try to have one professional development session on NBC Learn a year.” Mount Carmel Academy uses Canvas to access NBC Learn, and it quickly became one of Duhe’s favorite resources when introduced. “NBC Learn is really so convenient, and the platform itself is super easy to embed,” Duhe says.

Duhe usually embeds NBC Learn resources along with questions and supplemental materials as a starting point for classroom discussions. She also suggests that her students search for their own videos on the same topic to contribute to the discussion. “I can send my students out on their own because NBC Learn is a safe space, and I don’t have to worry about inappropriate commercials,” Duhe says. She also loves the transcript feature, as it allows her students to be free from taking notes while watching the video, but still pulls meaningful quotes directly from the words of the reporters and interviewees for discussion and responses.

In her own classes, Duhe uses a lot of current events to tie-in to themes they are learning through readings in class. In September she used the video, “Long-Awaited African-American History and Culture Museum Set to Open,” after seeing it on Nightly News earlier in the week, and accompanied the video with articles and a quote from First Lady Michelle Obama about the museum. Duhe also uses NBC Learn to showcase two sides of a topic, such as recently comparing the response to flooding in Louisiana to flooding in North Korea in early October.

For her colleagues and fellow educators, Duhe has been reminding them constantly of NBC Learn’s continually expanding collections. She pushes math and science educators who have not recently looked at NBC Learn to go through the Science of Innovation and Nanotechnology: Super Small Science, just two of several original collections produced by NBC Learn in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Since Mount Carmel Academy encourages its students to pursue STEM careers, Duhe points out the Lives and Careers in Science section, along with the other Lives and Careers sections available in various K-12 subject areas. Duhe pushes her students to think about their role in society as well, through such videos as” Tween Uses Twitter to Compliment Peers,” and other videos about women astronauts.

As Duhe browses the Current Events section for new content for herself and her colleagues, she feeds her love of being a lifelong student by thinking about the best ways to reach the students in each of her classes. “Teaching today in 2016 is nothing like it was 5 years ago or 10 years ago. It’s wonderful and exciting. You’re never going to have the same students. I find that energizing.”