PIMMS Newsletter 18


	Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science


Fall 1999	Issue #18

In this issue... CEA Highlights PIMMS Professional Development and You STARLAB on the Move From Phobic to Fanatic Go Fly A Kite PIMMS/BEST Program Mathematics & Science Leadership Institute Other PIMMS Newsletters: Fall 2002, Issue #21 Spring 2002, Issue #20 Fall 2001, Issue #19	CEA Highlights PIMMS photo by Mike Lydick In late May, Kathy Frega, Director of Communications for the CT Education Association (CEA), called to request assistance for a special feature issue in the CEA Advisor on teachers’ participation in summer professional development programs. She said, "CEA wants to raise public awareness about what teachers do during their summer vacations." Knowing that PIMMS offers a number of high-quality programs at sites throughout Connecticut, CEA felt that PIMMS would be the ideal program to showcase. Photographers, newspaper reporters, and radio program interviewers descended on several One-Week Institutes, the Beginning Educators Support Training (BEST) Program, and the PIMMS Fellowship Program at Wesleyan University. Pictures were taken, material was gathered for articles, and interviews with teachers were taped for broadcast on local stations in the regions where participants taught. The School House News, a CEA publication distributed to state legislators, school board members, school administrators, town finance council members, and Parent-Teacher Organization presidents, carried a picture and a half-page article headlined, PIMMS SUPPLIES JUMP START. The Advisor, the CEA Newsletter for members, featured PIMMS throughout the Fall issue. A front-page picture (See right) and a double-page article with additional pictures described the Mystic Aquarium workshop. The article below, reprinted courtesy of CEA, featured participants attending three different PIMMS programs. Another two-page spread included a picture of teachers attending a workshop in Waterbury and a lengthy quote from a participant praising the workshop and its impact on the improvement of teaching and learning of mathematics. PIMMS is grateful to CEA for providing this extensive publicity about PIMMS professional development programs and for their permission to reprint this picture and article from The Advisor. Back to Top


*Professional Development & You* Keeping current with some hot summer study programs If the tables could be turned and students could assign teachers the proverbial "What I Did This Summer" essay, they might be surprised to learn how many teachers spent time in classrooms as students themselves. Thousands of teachers used their "off-time" to be on task studying the latest in teaching and learning skills at scores of professional development workshops and courses that were offered throughout the State. Opening up new student learning opportunities Nancy Field, a fourth-grade teacher at JFK Elementary School in Windsor, took a week-long workshop on Integrating Mathematics and Literature, Grades K-3. The workshop was sponsored by the Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science (PIMMS). Field is entering her 12th year as a teacher and says that each summer she tries to take a new and different course that will open new learning opportunities for her students. Field, who plans to use the techniques of integrating literature and math concepts in her classroom this fall, says, "Children today have so much to learn. The more we can integrate concepts and ideas, the better they can learn and relate those concepts and ideas to actual situations." She also believes the workshop was a wonderful opportunity to meet other teachers and to share ideas. "In some ways, I wish school was starting tomorrow," said Field at the end of the workshop in mid-July. Developing new skills to help new teachers Michael Rollins, middle and high school science coordinator in South Windsor, took the Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) Program for Exemplary Mathematics and Science Teachers, also sponsored by PIMMS. In this two-week-long program, Rollins and 21 other science teachers were trained to help new teachers develop their teaching skills in science. In addition to learning how to score BEST portfolios, participants were shown connections among national standards, state frameworks, CMT and CAPT assessments, and performance-based learning and assessment and were asked to reflect on their own practices to increase their effectiveness in the classroom. "Summer courses are very useful," says Rollins, who has spent other summers taking courses to earn his master’s and a third degree, "because it is time spent totally immersed in a topic." Strengthening teaching strategies to enhance student learning Karen Griffen, from Ralph Johnson Elementary School in Bethel, spent five weeks of her eight-week break in school. This was the second summer she spent as a participant in the PIMMS Elementary Fellowship program. The program strengthens and updates teachers’ command of math and science subject matter, familiarizes them with various teaching strategies and practices, and guides them to be leaders of workshops and professional development activities in their local districts. "When I first started teaching, I was supposed to lecture," says Griffen, a 16-year teaching veteran. "Today, children need to understand scientific method as well as fact. Teachers need to know how to help students apply the knowledge they are learning." Griffen will use the skills and information she has learned the last two summers to coach other Bethel teachers in ways to enhance students’ math and science learning.	*STARLAB on the Move* by Holly Garavel, Grade 4 Teacher Anna Reynolds School, Newington After watching a lesson in the STARLAB planetarium during the summer of 1997, my love for the night sky began to grow. It all began while I was attending a PIMMS one-week astronomy institute led by Dr. William Herbst, Chairman of the Astronomy Department at Wesleyan University. It was through his patience and support that my infatuation with astronomy began. As a result of my participation in the PIMMS workshop, I was able to bring STARLAB to my school to share my new-found knowledge of astronomy with my students and colleagues. I was a nervous novice, but I did it. I developed lessons for my fourth graders and for the other classes at my school. Every student who watched a planetarium show was amazed and awed by the stars. Never had I felt such energy in any other lesson I had presented. When STARLAB was returned and my week of star-gazing was over, I kept thinking that there must be some way to use STARLAB again. In April of 1998, my wish came true. I was awarded the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship. My proposal included the purchase of a STARLAB planetarium. I planned to develop astronomy lessons and to take the planetarium around the state and offer them to elementary students and teachers. Traveling throughout Connecticut with the STARLAB planetarium was a dream come true. My program was well received in a variety of school settings. During the 1998-1999 school year, I visited 33 schools and presented astronomy lessons to over 12,000 students and teachers. My own knowledge of astronomy and space science was enhanced greatly through daily study and these presentations. I was amazed at the many professional opportunities that came my way during the year. I presented a workshop at Connecticut Elementary Science Day at Wesleyan University in November. Bill Herbst invited me to attend the American Astronomical Society’s National Convention in Chicago in May to present the STARLAB planetarium program as a model for professional development in astronomy for teachers. Being selected to attend the NASA Educational Workshop at the Kennedy Space Center allowed me to experience incredible teaching methods in the area of space science and aeronautics. In July, I came full circle as I taught Astronomy in a Portable Planetarium, a PIMMS one-week course designed to show teachers how to use STARLAB in a K-6 setting. The 15 participants now have the opportunity to bring STARLAB to their schools during the 1999-2000 school year. The magic lives on! Participating in a PIMMS summer course opened windows of opportunity I never dreamed possible. But more importantly, it gave me a new-found confidence in myself and made me aware of the importance of interactive science for all ages. Back to Top
P I M M S Wesleyan University 178 Cross Street, Middletown, CT 06459-0200 860-685-6454 www.wesleyan.edu/pimms