Local Districts Get CONNECT-ED to Phase II of Outreach Program
More than 70 K-12 science and math teachers and district supervisors attended the CONNECT-ED Phase II Kickoff Event held at Rider University’s Lawrenceville campus to learn how professional learning communities (PLCs) can help “big-ideas thinking” in science and math take root in their classrooms and throughout their districts.
Past participants of CONNECT-ED, or the CONsortium for New Explorations in Coherent Teacher Education, attended the event on Tuesday, October 28, helping them take the first steps toward leading CONNECT-ED PLCs in their districts.
Rider, through its Science Education and Literacy Center, is the lead institution in the CONNECT-ED consortium, a partnership of 14 central New Jersey school districts and two independent schools, Rider, Princeton University, Raritan Valley Community College, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, dedicated to the professional development of K-12 teachers of science and mathematics within the consortium.
The kickoff event highlighted what was accomplished in Phase I (2003-2008), provided an overview of Phase II (2008-2011), explained the concept of PLCs, and identified the next steps participants need to take to establish PLCs and connected learning in their districts.
In Phase I of the program, elementary, middle- and high-school teachers teamed up with a district curriculum expert and scientist or engineer. The team identified a “Big Idea Module,” or core concept, in science or math, and then designed a six-hour workshop that followed the concept as it developed across the grade levels. Design Teams would then present the Big Idea Modules during the CONNECT-ED/QUEST Summer Institute or at school-year Mini-Institutes within districts.
Jean Kutcher, administrative director of the Teaching/Learning Center and the Science Education and Literacy Center (SELECT), said the goal of Phase II is to establish PLCs, which will include past participants of “Big Idea Module” design teams, in each partner district and apply “big-ideas thinking” to teachers’ day-to-day classroom practice and districts’ K-12 science/math programs.
CONNECT-ED Phase II is supported by an existing grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company as well as two new grants. Rider received a U.S. Department of Labor grant from the Executive Committee of the Central Jersey BIO-1 WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) program in the amount of $157,500 for a two-year period. Rider received another grant from the Martinson Family Foundation in support of the CONNECT-ED program for $300,000 over a three-year period. Kutcher explained that part of the Rider grants will help CONNECT-ED PLCs support their work in the district.
During the afternoon session of the kickoff event, Hamilton Township School District was presented with CONNECT-ED’s 2008 Isaac Newton Award for Vision and Leadership in Science/Math Education for the district’s contribution to the CONNECT-ED Consortium since 2006. The award is presented to those individuals or organizations who create opportunities to deepen others’ knowledge of their world through the teaching and learning of science and mathematics.
Hamilton Superintendent of Schools Neil Bencivengo and members of this year’s CONNECT-ED PLC Leadership Team were on hand to receive the award. This year’s members include Shazia Ansari, a science teacher from Yardville Elementary School; Karla Peroni, a science teacher from Sayen Elementary School; Jacqueline Garatva, a science teacher from Crockett Middle School; Jennifer Magdelinskas, a science teacher from Hamilton High School North; and Hope Benson, the district’s Science and Technology supervisor.
Ansari said CONNECT-ED allows the teachers to learn about what is being taught at each of the grades levels. Peroni agreed. “The program gives you a sense that what you are teaching is important,” she said. “You plant the seed and see the root. It gives your lessons meaning.”
