Category: Professional Development

Science teachers needed for graph literacy pilot project

The Concord Consortium is recruiting 10 seventh- and eighth-grade science teachers for the Piloting Graph Literacy Activities in Maine project, funded by the National Science Foundation. During the past year, four pilot Maine teachers used more than 50 class sessions trying and commenting on new instructional materials designed to help students understand graphs, which are an important component of the Next Generation Science Standards and are used often in science (and math) textbooks, as well as newspapers and magazines.

Continue reading “Science teachers needed for graph literacy pilot project” →

Maine DOE releases updated math web pages

In an effort to better serve Maine’s mathematics teachers, Maine DOE has updated its math web pages at www.maine.gov/doe/math/ so they are more user-friendly and provide expanded resources to support educators in their local implementation of Maine’s standards.

Continue reading “Maine DOE releases updated math web pages” →

Updated: Schools, districts invited to participate in Smarter Balanced field test

Updated Oct. 8: The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has noticed a weak trend in high school registration for the field test. To have a sound assessment, it is imperative that Smarter Balanced obtain a sufficient number of students in all tested grade levels. Please register your school by the Oct. 15 deadline.

Maine schools will have the opportunity to participate in the spring 2014 field test of the Smarter Balanced assessment in preparation for the full spring 2015 administration of the test. This is an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience with the new test design and for teachers and administrators to gain exposure to the logistics and prepare for a smooth transition to the new assessment.

Continue reading “Updated: Schools, districts invited to participate in Smarter Balanced field test” →

Jackson Laboratory teacher internship program accepting applications

The Jackson Laboratory and the University of Maine are pleased to announce the annual Teacher Research Sabbatical program, a paid research experience open to all middle and high school science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers in Maine and other rural New England states.

Continue reading “Jackson Laboratory teacher internship program accepting applications” →

Reminder: Smarter Balanced practice test available

Teachers and administrators are reminded that Smarter Balanced practice tests are available all grade levels from 3 to 8 and at grade 11. These practice tests are an excellent way for teachers to preview what to expect in spring 2015, for students to get practice in online testing and for parents to begin to understand how the new tests will better assess student achievement and understanding of both content and concepts. Continue reading “Reminder: Smarter Balanced practice test available” →

Unorganized Territories educators prepare for new school year

To prepare for its upcoming school year, the Education in the Unorganized Territories (EUT) principals and teachers in conjunction with the EUT Special Education Director, Barb Pineau, and Director of State Schools, Shelley Lane, focused on three important areas during its annual August training.

Continue reading “Unorganized Territories educators prepare for new school year” →

MIT seeks math, science teachers to pilot STEM learning game

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Scheller Teacher Education Program and Education Arcade were recently awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an immersive virtual learning environment to support high school math and biology instruction. The resulting Radix Endeavor, a multi-player online game, will be available for pilot during the 2013-14 academic year.  Continue reading “MIT seeks math, science teachers to pilot STEM learning game” →

New tools help teachers navigate ELA standards

New implementation resources focused on central elements of the new English language arts and literacy standards are now available to Maine educators.

They include a new set of online tools to guide teachers in analyzing texts for complexity and using them in instructional units. These resources, developed by a dozen states including Maine in collaboration with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Achieve the Core, include text complexity roadmaps, model text sets for instruction, tools for analyzing texts, recommended text-dependent questions and sample lesson videos.

Continue reading “New tools help teachers navigate ELA standards” →