WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A STREAM ONLINE MODULE?
Expect a wide variety of experiences:
* Read and reflect on articles
* Watch and react to classroom videos
* Solve math problems and discuss results
* Collaborate with other teachers
* Access high-quality nationwide resources
* Get feedback from your STREAM Instructor
Expect a focus on teaching:
* Adapt and revise lessons
* Analyze lessons with colleagues
* Create lessons for specific standards
* Engage in structured observations
* Collect and analyze student work
* Try out activities in your classroom
More about the structure of STREAM online modules:
Modules are three or four weeks in length depending on their scope and purpose. The modules are entirely asynchronous and avoid the use of live chat, tools such as electronic whiteboards, or elaborate downloads. Each new module is designed around a specific cluster of mathematical concepts or a learning progression spanning several grades (e.g., Number Systems and Operations K-3; All about Fractions K-5; Ratio and Proportion 6-7). Pedagogy-oriented modules include Mathematical Practices, STEM-Centric Mathematics; and Teacher Learning and Leadership. Before their release, modules are closely reviewed and revised from a technical, editorial, mathematical, and pedagogical perspective to ensure consistency and quality.
Module participants (typically 20 to 20 teachers) complete two to three tasks each week, with a time investment ranging from six to eight hours per week. All tasks have due dates on Sunday or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Week 1 opens on Sunday evening; subsequent weeks open each Friday to allow flexibility for those who want to work ahead over a weekend. Participants access classroom videos, mathematics problems, student work, journal articles, and other resources via the Web. They communicate solutions and reflections in facilitated online discussion forums, and receive feedback from peers and instructors. Activities encourage interaction, discourse, and comparison and contrast of ideas. Each content module requires teachers to read and reference Montana’s Common Core Standards for Mathematics along with learning progressions and other documents that highlight rigor, relevance, and coherence in the standards. Most modules included a signature assignment that engages teachers in designing or teaching a lesson, observing and interviewing students during an activity, or collecting and analyzing student work.
Each module is fully facilitated by a Montana teacher hired and trained by the project. The instructor plays an essential role in monitoring participation, synthesizing discussion postings, and providing feedback. Besides monitoring and facilitating learning activities, the module instructors score participant performance using a set of rubrics assessing overall quality of discussion and reflection, overall completion of tasks, and proficiency on the signature assignment. These scores are used to award continuing education units for individual modules or graduate credit for combinations of modules.
Teaching Engineering Applications in Math and Science (TEAMS) Workshops
Hello Montana K-12 Educators!
Montana State University’s College of Engineering is presenting the Teaching Engineering Applications in Math and Science (TEAMS) Workshops in which MSU Engineering and Education faculty members present new, exciting, and innovated ways to incorporate engineering into your math and science curriculum. TEAMS has been running for 6 years and has had workshops in on the Ft. Peck, Flathead, and Ft. Belknap Reservations, as well as in Bozeman, MT. This year we are holding 3 workshops: one in Pablo, MT on July 7th and 8th; one on the Crow Reservation on July 21stand 22nd; and one in Billings, MT on August 4th and 5th. These workshop are one-and-a-half day workshops with presentations, activities, and demonstrations.
Participation is free, and participants receive $250 stipends and 16 OPI renewal units. Additionally, if TEAMSparticipants wish to enact an engineering lesson plan in their classroom during the fall, they can receive another $250 stipend.
