Hi,
I'm Susan Elko from the Partnership for Systemic Change, a partnership
among four schools districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the Merck
Institute for Science Education (MISE) located in Rahway, New Jersey. Our
LSC is focused on grades K-8, but our greatest impact thus far has been in
K-6. I was a middle school teacher for ten years and then a school
district staff developer for another ten. Now I am the Manager of
Professional Development for MISE. I am most interested in "lurking"
(along with Scott Hays) in order to learn how other projects are working
with middle school teachers to
1) acknowledge a need for change in middle school science curriculum and
instruction,
2) connect the standards-based changes their colleagues in grades K-6 have
made to middle school teaching and learning,
3) explore new middle school science curriculum materials and instructional
practice,
4) critically analyze new materials and establish selection criteria that
will promote coherence with elementary programs, and
5) identify their own professional development needs.
This summer we have a great opportunity to work with key teachers from
middle schools throughout our Partnership during a four-day workshop. It's
our first time offering this kind of workshop and the goals are pretty much
what I stated above. Would love to hear ideas from all of you about how
you would design and facilitate this workshop in addition to learning lots
more global ideas related to middle school science.
Susan
Susan Elko
Merck Institute for Science Education
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