Submitted by Reza Namin, Superintendent of Schools for Maine School Administrative District 49
Under leadership of Superintendent Dr. Reza Namin, Maine School Administrative District 49 has implemented a partnership with the Harvard University School of Education. 47 teachers, staff, and specialists in 8 Professional Learning Communities are taking part in the partnership. The goal of professional learning through WIDE World at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is to transform school systems by developing professional communities of teachers and school leaders with interactive online courses and on-site support programs that enable schools to cultivate the critical learning students need for the 21st century world. Programs are based on Teaching for Understanding, a classroom-tested framework developed through research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They are taught on-line which enables a truly global learning environment with educators participating throughout the world. Courses are job-embedded so that learners may integrate research-based strategies for learning and teaching into their own workplace. Teams of learners are supported by both a course instructor who is on the faculty of Harvard University as well as coaches from around the world who help them achieve their goals. WIDE World encourages participants to tailor their learning to their own classrooms, schools, programs, and systems while building local capacity for enhancing learning for all.
Courses for Maine School Administrative District 49
Teaching for Understanding 1: Focus on Student Understanding
TfU is an introduction to the Teaching for Understanding framework. In this course, participants learn to clarify educational goals, link student work to experience, design active learning instructional units, develop effective assessment practices, and reflect on their own teaching practice. As we enter a new century of the unknown, there are critical skills that students must have in order to excel. The Teaching for Understanding course is an opportunity to learn teaching strategies that will actively engage students in the critical-thinking and 21st Century problem-solving skills that are now demanded by society.
Teaching for Understanding: Understanding in Practice
This course builds upon concepts and strategies learned in our introductory courses, giving participants a chance to explore the practical challenges of Teaching for Understanding. Using the unit, participants have previously planned, they will look at ways to refine their practice and implement new strategies to keep students engaged and focused. With fellow educators, a coach, and an instructor, TFU will help you combine disciplinary goals and students’ understanding in the classroom, exchange successful approaches and guide you through the process of continual reflection and adjustment.
TFU will also give you practical strategies for incorporating participants’ educational institutions’ educational goals into their unit.
An Impact on Maine School Administrative District 49
As Maine School Administrative District 49 reaffirms its identity as a learning community, the philosophy of Teaching for Understanding is most appropriate. We acknowledge and build upon our current strengths as a school district, including our curriculum standards, faculty professional learning communities, and attention to individual student needs. It is important to focus now on understanding and the realization that 21st-century learners must not only have knowledge and skills, but also strategies to think deeply about their learning, themselves, and the world. As our school department moves forward, all of our learners – both children and adults- will be challenged in new ways through our curriculum, instruction, and professional development.
Submitted by Ainslee Riley, Principal of Thomaston Grammar School
We have a wonderful parent group that works to provide opportunities for our families to come together to have fun in the school community. They sponsor and run big events like our annual Fall Fest and Cookies with Santa weekend events, movie nights, family dances, Trunk-or Treat for Halloween, and more. They have also brought in organizations like Mad Science of Maine for school wide learning opportunities. In addition to these events that our parent group provides for our school community, we: have two concerts a year, host a Family Fun Night, hold a Talent Show, celebrate Read Across America week with a week filled with theme days, collect food for our local food pantry and hold a Passing of the Food event, and more.
We partner with a variety of organizations that enable our students to have further educational enrichment during and outside the school day. We have partnered with Leaps of Imagination, allowing for art enrichment during the school day for all students in second and fourth grade. We work with the Strand Theatre, which offers a variety of learning opportunities where we travel to the theatre or they bring in artists to do workshops inside our school. Our older students have the opportunity to participate in after school art enrichment, after school programming through Youthlinks, and a Big Trek/Little Trek mentoring program. Through funding from the Georges River Education Foundation, our second grade students and teachers, along with our PE teacher, have been working with an area gym, Hybrid Fitness, to complete an integrated unit on fitness and nutrition. Our students in third grade have the opportunity to learn to ice skate at the MidCoast Recreation Center, and our students in fourth grade have the opportunity to learn to ski at the Camden Snow Bowl. Fifth grade students are able to enrich their learning through our school’s fifth grade TGS Common Ground Garden and Outdoor Classroom. Students in various grades have the opportunity to visit Herring Gut Learning Center, the Botanical Gardens, the Owl’s Head Lighthouse, Tanglewood, Old Fort Western and more, depending on the year, as part of integrated units they are studying. This year the Georges River Education Foundation also helped to fund a birding unit for our fifth grade students that has involved bringing in a variety of experts to talk and work with our students.
We recognize students at monthly theme-based assemblies. Our assemblies focus on a variety of attributes including, but not limited to, respect, compassion, and perseverance. There is also a monthly Principal’s Award given to a student who exemplifies all these attributes on a daily basis. Students who are recognized have a special lunch with Principal Riley. Students who receive TGS tickets are recognized at this assembly as well. These are students who go above and beyond our school rules: Be Safe, Be Kind, and Try Your Best. Students who get tickets are also announced daily and earn prizes for receiving multiple tickets. Students are very excited to receive these tickets.
Maine DOE Newsroom 