June is LGBTQ Pride Month and the Maine Department of Education (DOE) has a robust collection of resources devoted to supporting LGBTQ+ students in Maine and fostering a positive school climate.
The resources were put together through a collaborative partnership between Maine DOE, OUT Maine, and GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders) in an effort to provide meaningful resources and information to schools to give them the tools to support not only their LGBTQ+ students but families and school staff as well. The Maine DOE is committed to ensuring Maine schools are safe and welcoming environments for all students.
The website includes data about Maine’s LGBTQ+ youth, the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey (MIYHS) data, teaching resources, and other vital tools for Maine schools to ensure equity for LGBTQ+ identifying students and meaningfully celebrate Pride Month. There are also additional resources specifically for students and parents.
The website of resources can be accessed here: LGBTQ+ Resources.
On June 6th from 3:00 – 4:30pm, join April Perkins, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) & Bilingual Programs Specialist at the Maine Department of Education (DOE), and Sheanna Zimmermann, ESOL Director for South Portland School Department, to learn strategies for ensuring that newcomers and their families feel welcome and supported at school.
The session will focus on establishing a school culture of inclusion, as well as instructional and socioemotional tools to empower all teachers to meet the unique needs of these students and their families. While this training is primarily geared towards teachers who may not have experience with newcomers, all teachers are welcome.
Register here by June 3rd. This session will be recorded and available on the Maine DOE YouTube Channel, and contact hours will also be available. Contact April at april.perkins@maine.gov if you have any questions.
The Community Coordinator’s Collaborative (C3) recently named the recipient of Maine’s first annual Excellence in Extended Learning Opportunities (ELOs) Programming Award during its end-of-year celebration.
The award was given to Sheree Inman, the Cooperative Work Coordinator at South Portland High School. Sheree was selected for her outstanding commitment to student-centered practices, her understanding the necessity of equitable and accessible options, and her ability to showcase the importance of relationship-driven partnerships and interactions in her work.
ELOs are hands-on, credit or credential bearing experiences outside of the traditional classroom with a community-based career exploration component. They frequently take the form of internships, work-based learning, or a series of job shadows connected to academic learning standards. These valuable learning opportunities are becoming available in more Maine schools each year, and C3 developed the award alongside these programs to highlight the quality work being done by those in the field.
The C3 group collectively includes staff from more than 50 educational institutions across the state and is responsible for spearheading the statewide Virtual Career Fair, a widely successful virtual option for students to explore careers when in-person options became unavailable to them.
The recent statewide virtual event is one of the key factors in Sheree’s nomination for the 2021-2022 Excellence in ELO Programming Award. The 2-day, virtual event included community support from more than 110 businesses offering career presentations, 2500 registrations and approximately 10,000 staff and students participating from more than 50 schools.
“Due to her ELO work, collaboration with MaineC3 and work with the virtual career fair, she has been a huge asset to not only her own district but many teachers, programs and students across the state,” said someone who nominated Sheree for the award.
Sheree Inman is the Cooperative Work Coordinator at South Portland High School. She has been in this role for 3 years and an educator for 21 years. Please join us in congratulating Sheree in this well-deserved award!
Maine DOE Team member Karen Barnes is being highlighted this week as part of the Get to Know the Maine DOE Team Campaign. Learn a little more about Karen in the question and answer below.
What are your roles with DOE?
I am the Behavioral Threat Assessment/Mental Health Coordinator for the Maine School Safety Center.
What do you like best about your job?
I enjoy feeling that we are making a difference in the lives of Maine children by working with school staff to identify students who may be at risk of committing acts of violence and providing interventions to support them and take them off the path of violence. Maine educators work extremely hard to keep their school communities safe and it is truly an honor to work with them and support their efforts.
How or why did you decide on this career?
I was a school social worker for 25 years prior to coming to the MSSC and I chose this career because it is so fulfilling to support students and their families by connecting them with services. To see students overcome obstacles and improve their quality of life is very gratifying. Although my role at the MSSC is more of a macro level position, it continues to be rewarding as we support school staff who then support students and families.
What do you like to do outside of work for fun?
I think a work/life balance is extremely important for our mental health. When I am not working, I enjoy spending time with my 3 grandsons and attending their sporting events, spending time with my children, camping, hiking, gardening and hunting with my husband. My four sisters and I spend as much time with our dad as possible, and have yet to beat him at cornhole! I prioritize family time when I am not working.
Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin and Senator Angus King kicked off the 19th annual MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative) Student Conference today by participating in a live robotics competition with students at Nokomis Regional Middle High School.
Makin participated in person while King entered the competition remotely from his office in Washington, D.C. Student teams from schools across the state also competed to see who could get their robot to complete the skills tests the fastest, including nationally-ranked basketball phenom and Nokomis freshman, Copper Flagg. The morning launch session also included a welcome video from Governor Mills and a high-altitude balloon launch into space.
This year’s MLTI student conference was the highest attended in MLTI’s 19-year history with 55 schools, 5,672 students, and 696 educators participating. The theme of this year’s conference was MLTI Launches Space2Connect and included interpretations of space and connection as they relate to Maine students and their use of technology. The new virtual, classroom-based session style allowed students to attend in a classroom setting where they could learn, practice, and create.
Following the morning launch event, workshop leaders taught the conference participants new skills, provided time for students to practice these new skills, and then supported them as they created something new with what they learned. This new design allowed students to work together as they explored new resources and applications, created with new digital mediums, and collaborated to complete tasks.
Every school also received shirts for all participants that were designed by an MLTI student, and a 3-D printed medallion that traveled to space and back.
Math4ME is designed to implement evidence-based professional development to improve math proficiency of students with disabilities by supporting their teachers’ instructional practices. Math4ME training is grounded in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Mathematics Teaching Practices. This training includes hands-on activities and interactive professional learning experiences that allow participants to gain a deeper understanding of core mathematics concepts and strategies.
The Office of Special Services is seeking a Math4ME Coach for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years. The Math4ME Coach will be part of the Math4ME team creating training materials and facilitating small group and large group professional learning experiences around computational fluency, diagnostic assessment, and formative feedback. This is a hybrid position with some in-person professional learning sessions, coaching events, and meetings. To check out more about the Math4ME Project and the coach position, click here.
Excitement was certainly in the air on May 12th as people filled the Hall of Flags in the Maine State Capitol Building for an announcement to be made by the Maine Department of Education. Among the guests were several 4th and 5th graders from the Captain Albert Stevens Elementary School (CASS) in Belfast, part of RSU 71. The students are part of 4th grade teacher Nancy Nickerson’s Journalism Club and what they don’t yet know is that their teacher Mrs. Nickerson was about to be named a County Teacher of the Year, along with 15 other educators from across Maine.
Nickerson, who had only known for a short time herself, wanted her students to join in the excitement by being there for the wonderful surprise that afternoon. So, she invited them to come to the State House to write a story about something cool that was going on in the Hall of Flags, for their school newspaper, The CASS Times.
Nickerson started The CASS Times during the 2020/2021 school year as a way to let the community know what it was like going to school during the pandemic. “We started a small class paper to begin with.” Nickerson explained that her 4th graders would publish an article a month in the Republican Journal, a local paper, about what it was like at CASS. “Every student in the class got a chance to write an article, and interview teachers and classmates for the Republican Journal. It was amazing,” said Nickerson.
After great success with “COVID Classroom” the students decided that they wanted to keep The CASS Times going by expanding the initiative into an after-school club and inviting other fifth graders and fourth graders to join. The students now create a monthly 24-page newspaper with an assortment of articles, and one article in particular, slated for the next issue was going to be about this big announcement.
“It really means a lot to me that you are here,” Nickerson said to her students as they looked around the Hall of Flags wide-eyed with anticipation. Prior to the announcement Nickerson had arranged for the students to get the chance to meet and interview Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin has part of their article.
The Journalism Club interviewing Commissioner Makin in the Hall of Flags.
When the event began the students took their place in the crowd to watch the announcement unfold, notebooks and pencils in hand. As each of the 16 teachers were announced and honored, cheers and applause filled the room. When the 2022 Waldo County Teacher of the Year was announced as Nancy Nickerson there was big roar of excitement from the back of the room where Ms. Nickerson’s students could be seen cheering with their hands in the air and big smiles on their faces.
“When I heard Mrs. Nickerson’s name being called I screamed, ‘That’s my TEACHER!’,” said 4th grader Maggie Maheu.
“Sounds like Nancy has some fans,” said 2022 Maine State Teacher of the Year Kelsey Stoyanova who was emceeing the event. She then paused the announcement to acknowledge the students in the back. “Welcome to Nancy’s fans,” she said with a smile and a wave before continuing the announcement.
“When I saw the Maine County Teacher of the Year pin on Mrs. Nickerson’s shirt, I knew she had won the award,” said 5th grade Eliot Fowler who is editor of the The CASS Times. “I was really excited and proud of Mrs. Nickerson for all of her hard work and amazing teaching.”
Guided by their fearless and dedicated editor and fellow journalist Eliot, the students went on to publish an article for their May issue of The CASS Times which included their interview with Commissioner Makin: read the article here.
A little more about the Journalism Club:
Nickerson tells us that between 15 and 20 kids show up every week to write, eat snacks, play outside, listen to journalists to talk with them, and go on special field trips like the State House visit. The group also recently did a bake sale for Ukraine, raising close to $900.00. “The kids baked everything and took turns ‘manning’ the bake sale for an entire morning,” said Nickerson. “We even had some community members come in to purchase items. I’m pretty proud of them,” she added.
Interested in starting or expanding public pre-k in your school administrative unit during the 2023-24 school year? If so, the Maine DOE’s Early Learning Team invites you to attend an informational session regarding a Pre-K Expansion Grant opportunity that will be available later this year.
Pre-K Expansion Grant Funding Informational Session Date: June 23, 2022
Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm Description: To review the grant opportunity and anticipated requirements. Register here
Twelve Maine School Administrative Units (SAUs) were awarded Pre-K Expansion grants totaling $2.2 million for start-up or expansion of pre-k programming during the 2022-23 school year. The Pre-K Expansion grants, authorized through Maine’s Jobs and Recovery Plan (American Rescue Plan Act allocation), provide funds to the Department of Education to support SAUs with start-up activities necessary to establish new or expanded public prekindergarten programs to address the inequities in availability of early education opportunities resulting from the COVID pandemic. Households with young children have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. This project directly addresses this harm by supporting schools to overcome barriers that are preventing them from starting and expanding public pre-k and to transition from part-time to full-time programming, thus increasing the number of young children in high-quality prekindergarten. A greater availability of full-time prekindergarten slots will support parents with young children to work and prepare young children for success in kindergarten and beyond.
Round two of pre-K expansion grant funding will be released to applicants in the late summer/early fall of 2022. Funding for this round will amount to approximately seven million dollars for Pre-K expansion in school year 2023-2024. Interested SAUs should monitor the DOE Newsroom as well as the Division of Procurement Services site for release of the next RFA.
The Maine Department of Education’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) summer office hours are shifting slightly for July and August. There will be two different office hour offerings, one specifically for questions and guidance around Gifted and Talented (GT) renewal, and one for general MTSS.
What’s Happening with GT? – On Friday, July 1st, a brief renewal application for gifted and talented programs will become available on the MTSS-GT website. All schools, whether they previously had a funded program or a waiver, must submit a renewal application for the next school year. Renewal applications will close on September 30th.
General office hour will be Tuesdays 11AM-12PM. GT renewal office hour on select Tuesdays from 12PM-1PM: July 5, August 16, September 13, July 19, August 30, September 27
Beginning June 6th, check the MTSS YouTube playlist for the MTSS M&M topic for the week. What’s an MTSS M&M? An MTSS M&M topic is a 3-4 minute video that will explain one tiny MTSS concept in a bite-sized clip. But wait, there’s more! The district with the most watched M&M’s will get a shoutout on the MTSS website, so be sure to leave a comment responding to the call to action embedded in each video with the name of your district to get your minutes counted! How many M&M’s will you watch?!?
Join us for the first ever MTSS book club experience! Rather than a traditional text study, this reading experience will function much more like your typical book club. Participants will have about 4-weeks to complete the text at their own pace, then join the virtual discussion via zoom to discuss the book with colleagues. It’s that easy! Already read the text? Great! Feel free to join the conversation! Books will be provided to the first 25 educators who sign up. If you do sign up, and receive the book, please commit to
attending the virtual meeting via Zoom. Bring your innovative mindset, and enjoy some summer learning with your peers!
JUNE – Effective Universal Instruction: An Action Oriented Approach to Improving Tier 1 by Kimberly Gibbons, Sarah Brown, and Bradley Niebling, Thursday, July 14, from 10:00-11:30 AM. Register by June 10th – Click here to Register for June Book Club!
For further information about any of the MTSS or GT summer opportunities, please reach out to Andrea L. Logan, Maine DOE Multi-tiered Systems of Support Specialist at andrea.logan@maine.gov.
Since 2018, the Maine Department of Education has adapted and piloted open-source Pre-k and Kindergarten programs based on the Boston Public School’s evidence-based Focus on K1 and Focus on K2 curricula. Pre-K for ME was launched in 2019. K for ME was launched in 2021. These programs focus on the whole child and are interdisciplinary and developmentally appropriate. They are also aligned to Maine’s learning standards. While Maine schools are responsible for the purchase of the materials that support the programs, the programs can be accessed at no cost via the Maine DOE’s website. Informational overviews for each of the programs available through the following links:
Educators/schools/programs interested in utilizing Pre-K for ME and/or K for ME in the coming year may want to take advantage of 2-day initial trainings scheduled for August 1 and 2, 2022. These trainings are provided to promote understanding of program design and to support successful program implementation. School administrators are strongly encouraged to attend the trainings with their Pre-K and/or Kindergarten teachers. This year’s training opportunities will be held in-person in the Augusta area. Registration for these trainings should be completed at the school/program level. Principals and educators should complete one registration on behalf of their school/program. Details about location of and how to prepare for the trainings and the materials needed to support the programs will be provided via email after registrations are received. Registrations for the 2-day training should be received by June 30, 2022.
This year’s MLTI student conference was the highest attended in MLTI’s 19-year history with 55 schools, 5,672 students, and 696 educators participating. The theme of this year’s conference was 
Following the morning launch event, workshop leaders taught the conference participants new skills, provided time for students to practice these new skills, and then supported them as they created something new with what they learned. This new design allowed students to work together as they explored new resources and applications, created with new digital mediums, and collaborated to complete tasks.
Maine DOE Newsroom 