Student registration begins March 7 for AP4ALL, which provides online Advanced Placement courses free of charge to any student residing in a Maine school administrative unit who is educated at the public expense. By offering online Advanced Placement courses at no charge, AP4ALL provides equity of access to any student residing in a Maine public high school regardless of where they live and the limits of resources available in their local school.
Category: News & Views
ACCESS for ELLs® 2.0 testing window closes March 7
The ACCESS for ELLs® 2.0 testing window for both the computer-based and paper-based versions closes March 7, and districts are required to pack and return all testing material to Data Recognition Corporation by March 9, 2016. Please direct all questions regarding shipping and returning of all testing materials to Data Recognition Corporation at (855) 787-9615.
Continue reading “ACCESS for ELLs® 2.0 testing window closes March 7”
Four high school finalists chosen to compete in LifeSmarts State Championship
Teams of students from high schools in Bangor, Portland, Topsham, and Baileyville will vie to represent Maine in the National LifeSmarts Competition to be held next month.
Continue reading “Four high school finalists chosen to compete in LifeSmarts State Championship”
“Content Corner” releases second round of instructional improvement articles
The Maine Department of Education is pleased to release the second collections of 2015-2016 articles in the “Content Corner.” These resources are designed to support teaching and learning in Maine classrooms and make connections to classroom applications and research.
Continue reading ““Content Corner” releases second round of instructional improvement articles”
Mathematically speaking, what is fluency?
This is the second in a series of instructional articles to support teachers in implementing the 8 Effective Teaching Practices outlined in the book Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. This article discusses teaching practice 6: Build Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding.
Continue reading “Mathematically speaking, what is fluency?”
Feedback: A valuable teaching strategy for health education and physical education, Part 1
Feedback is an essential instructional strategy; when implemented effectively it can improve both student and teacher performance in Health Education and Physical Education. This article will introduce just a few of the many concepts and resources that are available and encourage educators to explore additional resources through the links provided.
Assessment strategies for the theatre classroom
Assessment is part of the educational process. However, assessment can become an afterthought in the theatre classroom due to educator concerns that theatre is too subjective to assess successfully or that traditional assessment tools are not applicable to a performance-based discipline. Fortunately, theatre gurus, Susan K. Green and Stephen Gundersheim, have identified the following six sequential steps that educators can use to prioritize and develop effective theatre assessments.
Continue reading “Assessment strategies for the theatre classroom”
The why and how of thematic units in the world language classroom
The December 2015 article on the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do statements guided world language educators on using the resource for identifying learning targets relative to proficiency level. This article builds off of that idea, and it looks closer at thematic units in order to understand why and how they best empower educators to teach to language proficiency.
Continue reading “The why and how of thematic units in the world language classroom”
Instruction in preschool programs
“Instruction” is not a word that rises to the top in a preschool teacher’s vocabulary list. In fact, some teachers hear the word and envision “instruction” as equal to inappropriate practice. It is a word that often connotes preschool becoming too “academic,” a “push-down curriculum from kindergarten,” or taking the fun out of young children’s curiosity about the world. And, if one mentions the term “direct instruction,” many preschool teachers will end the conversation, running out of the room.
Social Studies: questions are as important as answers
Humans are naturally inquisitive. Young children tend to ask an abundance of questions, yet the volume of questions posed by students often dwindles in middle and high school. Learners at all grade levels benefit from the opportunity to devise questions and seek answers. If students are taught how to ask questions they will learn how to learn. Students frequently hear there is no such thing as a bad question, yet some questions are better than others. How do we help students learn how to ask good questions?
Continue reading “Social Studies: questions are as important as answers”
Maine DOE Newsroom 