Category: Professional Development

Opportunities for sharing your school success story

Following the launch of the Maine School Performance Grading System, we’ve spent our time reaching out to underperforming and at-risk schools to learn more about their challenges and the supports they’d like Maine DOE to provide.

What we continue to hear is that schools want to learn from other Maine schools that are like them. In the words of one school leader, “Tell us what’s working in other places with similar populations and budget concerns.” That’s the thinking behind our Center for Best Practice, which provides success stories (and videos) from schools in our state implementing learner-centered instructional practices. Continue reading “Opportunities for sharing your school success story” →

Successful schools use data to focus improvement efforts

Last week I had the privilege of attending the 21st Annual Model Schools Conference down in Washington, D.C. Put on by the International Center for Leadership in Education, this year’s conference provided teachers and educational leaders, including many from Maine, with practical ideas for increasing student achievement and ensuring college and career readiness in an age of declining resources and higher standards.

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Maine math teachers prepare for coming assessments

Resources available online

The Maine DOE collaborated with the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Maine (ATOMIM) in organizing a series of two-session “Dine and Discuss” events this spring to share information about the Smarter Balanced assessments and Maine’s role as a governing state in the consortium.

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New teacher leaders discuss proficiency in the arts

Visual art teachers Debi Lynne Baker (left) and Jane Snider discuss proficiency and standards at the MAAI summer institute at Maine College of Art.
Visual art teachers Debi Lynne Baker (left) and Jane Snider discuss proficiency and standards at the MAAI summer institute at Maine College of Art.

The Maine DOE’s Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) welcomed 14 new teacher leaders during the summer institute held at the Maine College of Art in Portland. More than 50 visual and performing arts teachers have received professional development to become teacher leaders and continue to provide workshops on a variety of topics that include assessment. During the last two years, more than 800 teachers have attended sessions at the regional, mega-regional and statewide levels, and electronically. The teachers represent dance, music, theatre and visual arts from PK-12 grade levels and all regions of the state.

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Conference promotes student, staff health and well-being

School districts from across the state attended the 2013 Maine Schoolsite Health Promotion Conference, Celebrating the Seasons of Wellness, last month to gather knowledge, skills, resources, ideas and inspiration to apply to their 2013-14 Health Promotion and Wellness Action Plans.

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Free webinar series supports healthy school environments

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is offering a free webinar series to help school communities take sensible, low- or no-cost steps to create healthier environments in their buildings. Each webinar will feature school district personnel from across the country presenting their real-life examples and solutions.

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Maine educators form partnership for rural science education

Teachers Kathy Dixon-Wallace and Katie Danielson are looking at a diabase dike on rocks at Schoodic Point
Teachers Kathy Dixon-Wallace and Katie Danielson are looking at a diabase dike at Schoodic Point during the MainePSP conference.

Many of Maine’s most distinguished sixth- through ninth-grade science teachers in rural areas recently united with the University of Maine science and science education faculty for professional development on the shores of the Schoodic Peninsula in Acadia National Park. Representing a unique collaboration between 18 rural Maine school districts, the Maine Center for Research in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education (RiSE Center) at UMaine, several non-profit organizations and the Maine DOE, the participating teachers were there as part of the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (MainePSP), which supports teaching and learning of the physical sciences in grades six through nine.

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We’re serious about our support

Congratulations on completing another successful school year.

I was honored to spend much of the past week connecting with many of Maine’s education leaders at the 102nd Annual Superintendent’s Conference in Northport. For those who attended, I hope the transformational leadership development combined with the transitional support to help your schools move to a proficiency-based diploma energized you as much as it did me. Just as our potential to graduate every student prepared is great, so are the stakes – as was made quite evident by the CEOs who spoke during Sunday’s session about the core competencies the opportunities of Maine’s future will demand.

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Free professional development to expand STEM teaching skills

The course schedule for the Maine School of Science and Mathematics’ 2013 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Educators’ Camp is now available. This camp is for educators looking to expand their repertoire of STEM teaching skills, delve deeper into STEM course content, develop ways to engage kids in STEM, get kids motivated in independent STEM research or start an after-school STEM club. A group of educators will present 26 different STEM course options this year.

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