Gwen Gray (right), professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, collaborates with teachers from Central Middle School's 8th grade Learning Studio to develop project-based learning around real world problems.

Spirits were high last week when Learning Studios teachers from Anne Arundel County, Maryland met to continue their work with their cross-curricular teams. NCTAF works with over twenty teachers at three middle schools in Anne Arundel County – Central, Old Mill South, and Lindale. NCTAF launched at these sites at the beginning of the 2012-2012 school year with the support of content experts from the U.S. Naval Academy and recently added the support of the Boeing Corporation.

The design session began with updates from each team as they shared their progress since the last meeting in December and set goals for the day. Each Learning Studio continued to cite planning time as the most consistent challenge to the project, but the teams had made significant progress on issues of supplies, resources, and scheduling. For example, Central suffered a set-back when they learned their school’s renovation would not allow them to plant a rain garden as originally planned. The team regrouped and found a solution with a parent who works in Forestry and was able to donate over a hundred trees that the team will plant with their students around the school. The teachers are planning their lessons around the idea of “Evolving Land Use” with the trees as a catalyst for exploration. Students will examine satellite images of the school’s changing surrounding vegetation over time using Google Earth.

Old Mill Middle School South explained how they integrated social studies into STEM. Students in world history created interactive presentations on water usage and filtration around the world based on research and stories found on the Peace Corps website. The work that students completed reinforced concepts that connected to the team’s theme for the year, ”Water, Water Everywhere, What is it? And Why do we care?”

Gwen Gray, a professor at the United States Naval Academy, joined us again to continue her collaboration with each of the teams. In addition to assisting with resources and content expertise, Ms. Gray helped the teachers coordinate field trips to the Naval Academy’s campus as culminating events for the year’s investigations in April. Each field trip will be customized to the respective Learning Studio’s theme for the year. For example, Navy scientists will work with the Lindale Learning Studio to assemble the air quality sensors, while the Central team will explore water treatment and storage at the Navy’s facilities.

The Lindale Middle School Learning Studio discusses aerospace engineering with Mike Doellefeld (center) of Boeing Corporation.

Mike Doellefeld joined us as the content expert representative from the Boeing Corporation. Mr. Doellefeld is the Director of Aviation & Regulatory Affairs and has an extensive background in aerospace engineering. He was able to assist the Lindale Middle School team by connecting them with officials at BWI International Airport, located next to their school. The team will build air quality sensors at the U.S. Naval Academy and then take them to the airport to determine how air travel effects the quality of the air around the airport. The students will then analyze the raw data gathered from the sensors and so they can draw their own conclusions about the relationship between air quality and air transportation.

The lunch break featured a presentation from Flavio Mendez from the National Science Teacher’s Association (NSTA) Learning Center. Mr. Mendez provided a virtual tour of the Learning Center’s free materials and supports for science teachers, and all teams were able to find resources to take back to their classrooms the next day.

The day ended with presentations from each team on their plans for the next quarter: Old Mill Middle School South planned a Chesapeake Bay Festival during which students will present their work on Watersheds to the school community. Each team also shared a “Best Practice” that they have developed during the Learning Studios process.  In the words of the Central Middle School 8th Grade Learning Studio: “Support of our parents and the community has been critical to our success.”

Author

Laura Coscarelli, Program Manager, facilitates professional development and teacher collaboration for STEM Learning Studios. Laura also manages the NCTAF Learning Studios’ online communities and contributes to outreach and social media efforts.

• How effective learning communities can impact teacher retention
• The impacts of effective learning communities on teaching practice
• What makes effective learning communities so important for student success

Author

Laura Coscarelli, Program Manager, facilitates professional development and teacher collaboration for STEM Learning Studios. She also manages the NCTAF Learning Studios’ online communities and contributes to outreach and social media efforts.

By the end of the day, each school had created a plan that included a list of community partners to connect with and action steps to complete for Quarter 3. Lebanon High School, one of the schools participating, will begin their Learning Studio on February 27th when they return from vacation. The team restructured their school day to establish a block schedule to enhance the depth of the project. The team of ten worked on finalizing their plan around the theme of Community Wellness. The Essential Question for the students, teachers and experts to dive into will be “How can we improve the wellness of Lebanon High School’s Community?”

Three other schools also chose to look at the challenges of community wellness and health while another three schools chose to concentrate on energy, the environment, and water issues, respectively. The theme “Survival of the Fittest,” with the Essential Question, “What are the factors that contribute to the survival of ideas, cultures, governments, people and other life forms?,” takes on a whole new dimension when the teachers at Sanborn High figured out how students could have voice throughout the process of their Learning Studio.

All schools expressed interest in the activities of other Learning Studios. The NCTAF edWeb.net community will be one way that teams will collaborate and learn from each other between design sessions. Over the next several weeks, I will visit the schools to see the Learning Studios in action; so stay tuned for reports from the field.

Author

Elizabeth Colby is the coordinator for New Hampshire’s Next Generation (NxGL) Learning Studios as well as the Extended Learning Coordinator/After School Director at Newfound School District in Bristol, New Hampshire.

Great Teachers for Our City Schools 2012 Preliminary Program

Author

Sofia Rivkin-Haas, Program Manager, leads the Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC) projects and contributes to NCTAF’s research and grant writing. Sofia also manages social media outreach and writes the NCTAF blog, in which she regularly analyzes and responds to current trends in education research and news.

Teachers from Gwynne Park High School, Prince George's County, MD

This room in the depths of the NASA Goddard Visitor Center has no windows; but there’s no lack of natural light here. The energy of 30 middle and high school teachers, along with that of scientists, engineers and district personnel is palpable. The teachers work in their interdisciplinary teams as NASA scientists listen in and answer questions; talk of solar panels, clean energy, and the ozone permeates the room. An integral part of NCTAF’s Learning Studios process, this Design Session provides the much-needed work time for these Prince George’s County teachers to concentrate on planning their next Learning Challenge, a hands-on project inspired by real-world problems, that extends across the STEM disciplines. Walker Mill Middle School’s team is delving deeper into their examination of water systems, specifically the intersection of engineering, design, and environmental impacts of dams for this quarter. Last year Bowie High School’s team investigated alternative energy sources when they built and tested wind turbine models. They are building on the same theme but going further this year as they attempt to determine with their students, “Is tidal power efficient?”

Winter STEM Learning Studios Design Session at NASA Goddard Visitor Center

There’s a good-news story to tell here: good, old-fashioned teamwork. But something as natural as working together needs time to blossom especially since having the opportunity to collaborate is so rare. NCTAF is here to listen and capture the successes and challenges that these Prince George’s County teachers, and the scientists who are working with them, are experiencing as they attempt to cross curricular divides to get students excited about STEM. Stay tuned for videos.

Author

Sofia Rivkin-Haas, Program Manager, leads the Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC) projects and contributes to NCTAF’s research and grant writing. Sofia also manages social media outreach and writes the NCTAF blog, in which she regularly analyzes and responds to current trends in education research and news.

Washington, D.C. – January 26, 2012

The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF), in partnership with the Alliance for Excellent Education, is calling on teachers, schools, principals, community leaders, parents, and students to participate in the inaugural national Digital Learning Day on February 1, 2012. Digital Learning Day will celebrate innovative teaching practices that make learning more personalized and engaging and encourage exploration of how digital learning can provide more students with more opportunities to get the skills they need to succeed in college, career, and life.

“Technology is critical to organizing schools for success and facilitating great teaching and learning,” said Melinda George, Vice President of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future.  “Technology tools that support teachers and students working in collaboration and encourage teaching teams to engage community members to address student learning challenges are making a huge difference in education.  NCTAF is pleased to be part of the Digital Learning Day movement that is highlighting the great benefits that technology can bring to America’s teachers and learners.”

“Digital Learning Day is more than just a day” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, co-chair of Digital Learning Now, and former governor of West Virginia. “It is about building a digital learning movement that truly provides a quality education for every child.”

”Simply layering on technology alone will not move the education needle very much,” said Wise. “Effective technology combined with great teachers and engaged students has the potential to transform the world of learning. The time has come to ensure that every child has access to the engaging experience that comes with powerful teaching and rigorous content available through digital learning. The teachers are here, the technology is everywhere, and the students are ready and able.”

February 1, 2012, will be the culmination of a continuous celebration of innovation, personalization, and imagination to build a movement that provides a high quality education to every child. No matter the approach, no matter the grade level, no matter the subject or geographic location, no matter a teacher’s specific comfort with using technology, this day will challenge education professionals and policy makers at all levels to start a conversation, make a proclamation, improve a lesson, or create a plan.

The website, digitallearningday.org, will offer customized toolkits for all audiences, grades, and subjects to help you think about how you can contribute to the campaign.  Teachers, principals, students, leaders, parents, and communities are invited to visit DigitalLearningDay.org today to register to receive toolkits, resources, and invitations to run-up events and activities.

To learn more, please visit www.digitallearningday.org.

Contact: Elizabeth Foster

(202) 429-2570

efoster@nctaf.org

The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) launched a new website today, to highlight the organization’s high-quality research, projects and partnerships. In addition, NCTAF’s blogis updated frequently with news, commentaries, and analysis of current trends in education.

“For more than fifteen years, NCTAF has been a leader in the movement to ensure that all students have access to high quality teaching in schools organized for success. Our new branding signals that we are reenergized in our commitment to this vision, and will use all the tools we can to achieve this goal,” says NCTAF President, Tom Carroll. “We invite you to join us in a collaborative effort to reinvent teaching to create the schools our students need.”

The new interactive website will feature short videos highlighting how NCTAF’s 15 STEM Learning Studios bring teachers across the curriculum together with STEM industry professionals to design hands on projects for students. In addition, the site will highlight recent awards from Ashoka Changemakers and 100Kin10, and the wide-ranging ways in which NCTAF’s teacher education partners are using online communities and mobile devices to encourage collaboration that closes the preparation-practice gap.

The new website will provide a platform for featuring best practices in collaborative teaching strategies and educator development initiatives around the country and will mean greater visibility for NCTAF’s own research and analyses.

To read the blog, follow us on twitter, and like us on Facebook, please visit our new website at www.nctaf.org.

Contact: Elizabeth Foster
(202) 429-2570
efoster@nctaf.org

Read NCTAF’s full post on the Connected Educators Blog