This morning I'm watching a video conferencing meeting between several AEA's together talking about a class they had led in the summer. They were sharing feedback, discussing participant performance on defined outcomes, technology and a course offering in the fall. There were 9 participants who were science consultants; How they offered the course, how many hours to offer it (evening or Saturday or summer) was a discussion. There is not money to release teachers during the school day. I'm learning about how tricky it is to get teacher training in. These consultants are enthusiastic about helping the teachers out. They also are discussing how to get the math teachers to work with the science teachers on STEM activities; They are coming up with a plan to spread the class out so the teachers don't feel like they're using up all their Saturdays They came up with four Saturdays (Dec.4,Jan.29, Feb.26, and April 16) to offer the course. They will begin the process now of reserving rooms and making final preparations.
After this video conference, we had another video conference on a possible book study. It was decided that they would,indeed, have a book study using two books called Taking Science to School and Ready, Set, Science. These two books were chosen because they were used to write the new National Science Standards that are coming out.
I spent a lot of time on the EIE kits today. I've been in contact with an ELP teacher that I think might like to use them. I need to find out more about how much they cost to check out and how they get trained.
