Georgia College, in partnership with the Cheche Konnen Center of TERC and the school districts comprising the Oconee Regional Educational Service Agency, are collaborating on a planning project to develop a Noyce Teaching Fellows/Master Teaching Fellows project. The project that is planned will focus on developing a cadre of highly qualified science and math teachers for rural, majority African-American middle schools, using a professional learning community design model. Objectives for the planning process include: 1) determining an appropriate scope and a vision for sustainability of the Noyce project that will be proposed, including identifying an appropriate nonprofit partner and non-federal matching funds; 2) designing a robust outreach plan for recruiting and retaining Teaching Fellows and Master Teaching Fellows; 3) developing an evidence-based and practical approach for the teacher preparation framework for the STEM Master of Arts in Teaching program at Georgia College; 4) building a foundation for a professional learning community for the Teaching Fellows and Master Teaching Fellows; and 5) developing an engineering focus for the project which will be primarily centered on supporting teaching in middle grades. The planning process includes an evaluation expert, who is helping to develop the evaluation for the full project alongside the project development, while also providing assessment of and feedback on the planning activities.
We received the Noyce Track 2 Planning Grant, "Building a Community of STEM Educators," to develop a competitive grant proposal for submission to the Teaching Fellowships and Master Teaching Fellowships track of the Noyce Scholarship Program. We at Georgia College & State University (GCSU) wanted support in order to equip an already strong university-school partnership with a solid infrastructure to recruit, educate, and mentor excellent science and mathematics teachers in the Middle Grades Master of Arts in Teaching in Mathematics and Science (MG MAT) program. Ann Rosebery and Beth Warren, internationally recognized experts on STEM education for diverse students, strengthened our expertise in teacher professional development. Our activities provided time to develop an innovative, holistic approach to teacher preparation. When implemented, the program will push forward knowledge of excellence in teacher education that others may use to develop their own programs. General principles of curriculum design for young adolescents include developing real-world connections arising out of students’ concerns, integrating knowledge across disciplines, building upon the strengths that youth bring. In our view, diverse cultural backgrounds provide a rich opportunity for learning rather than being a hindrance for students who are not part of the majority culture. Research supports engineering and problem-solving challenges as a way to implement these goals for STEM learning in the middle grades .The MG MAT prepares candidates to be certified in both middle school mathematics and science, making STEM curriculum focused on engineering pa The Chèche Konnen Center (www.chechekonnen.terc.edu) has a long history of focusing on professional development for STEM teachers of underrepresented groups and has demonstrated expertise in engineering curriculum for P-12 students. (See letter of support.) Because pre-service teacher education in STEM fields is just a small part of the network of schooling, we took steps to incorporate and enlist the support of the community. We developed partnerships with Digital Bridges, which is a private foundation dedicated to increasing the technological skills for the Baldwin County workforce. We also worked with Communities in Schools to develop a plan for involving community volunteers in engineering projects in middle school classrooms. As part of the grant activities, we conducted a feasibility study. We found that within the seven school districts to be served, a suitable pool of potential Master Teacher Fellows (MTF’s) existed. . It was decided to recruit one cohort of 10 MTF’s, to serve as mentors for two cohorts of five Teacher Fellows (TF’s). The MTF’s would receive one year of training in mentoring and providing professional development, while serving as clinical faculty within the Middle Grades undergraduate and graduate program. After the first year they would assume duties as mentors for TF’s and serve as faculty for the PLC Seminar, to be described below. While mainly serving a planning function, the MTF recruiting committee also served as a vehicle for education of teachers, school administrators and CoAS faculty. We also examined the feasibility of recruiting Teaching Fellows, who would receive Noyce Scholarships during their MAT year and then continued scholarship support during the first crucial years of teaching. Our study concluded that we would be able to recruit two high-quality cohorts of five Noyce Teaching Fellows. Capacity Building Activities. We held planning grant meetings on a monthly basis. There was great enthusiasm among all stakeholders, and attendance at meetings held in August through January reached 30 people, with a consistent core of 12. Drs. Deneroff and Richards considered these planning meetings to be educational for the group, in that groundwork was being laid for a functioning professional learning community across boundaries between schools, the community and the university. At the September and October meetings, Dr. Karynne Kleine, an expert at community building and a member of the Georgia College Middle Grades faculty, led the group in setting out norms and establishing procedures for our work together. After these meetings initial meetings, the format consisted of general announcements, and then breakout sessions in which members worked on committee assignments. One of the unexpected outcomes of our grant was a series of teacher workshops on how to implement engineering curriculum. The focal point for the workshop was a Model Wind Generator Competition. Ten teams of six middle school students from the local middle schools participated in the competitions. The workshops were a chance for us to try out the professional development plans we made together in the Noyce Planning Committee. Two of the teachers who participated in the Planning Committee facilitated parts of these workshops. The Noyce Planning Committee now exists as a structure for future collaborations between the university, schools and the community. Our modest wiki (www.noyce-georgiacollege.wikispaces.com) provides a venue for communication and information exchange among participants. We have plans for a viable proposal for a Noyce Track 2 Teacher Fellow/Master Teacher Fellow grant to be submitted in March 2012.
