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Announcing a Brand New Grant

  • Announcing a Brand New Grant

    Announcing a Brand New Grant – Could This be You? (PreK-12)

    By Linda M. Fulmore
    August 23, 2017


    Develop Professional Learning for your District or School!

    Are you a teacher leader desiring to offer meaningful professional learning to other leaders or teachers at your school or district? As a mathematics coach, department chair, resource teacher, etc., you are often responsible for planning professional learning events. We know your job is essential and MET has a new grant to help you with the most important resource, money.

    With the support of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) and NCTM, a grant of up to $4000 is available to your school. However, the grant must focus on one of NCSM’s signature initiatives, formative assessment, digital learning, or equity-access-empowerment.  I’m sure you agree these are important components for any successful mathematics program.

    For more information, go to nctm.org/met. There you will find further details including membership requirements for both NCTM and NCSM. The deadline is November 6, 2017.

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    Catherine Abbott - 8/30/2017 8:26:21 PM

    Hi Ms. Fulmore,

    I am very interested in applying for this grant for professional development for the teachers at my school. However I have never done anything like this and I need your advice.

    The reason this grant sounds so right for our middle school is from last year to this we've suddenly lost half our math team, including our beloved, long standing Math Department Chair. The sudden change was not due to problems at the school, rather natural attrition hitting us at the same time (retirements, family moves and pregnancy) So, of our team of 12, 6 are new to our school and 5 of those teachers have less than 3 years experience. So we are in the process of rebuilding our team. I described to our new Department Chair, Ms. Barnes,  the topics covered at the Summer Institutes in Baltimore this year (I attended both and loved them) and also the purpose of this grant. Ms. Barnes agreed that finding money for team PD and to cover substitute costs would be very helpful.

    Here's what we were thinking about the training. Ms. Barnes said that she would like the PD to focus on formative assessment, or borrowing from Boaler's book "Mathematical Mindset", assessment for learning. That lines up well with one of "NCSM's signature initiatives". Because complex skills are not learned in a day and to enhance the "team building", we are hoping to find a consultant who can visit our school 3 to 4 times over 3 months to help our teachers learn formative assessment strategies, use them, and evaluated our teams implementation and analyze the effectiveness.

    Does this strategy sound doable? How do we find at consultant who can help us meet our goals? We thought if we could find a relatively local consultant, then more money could be spent on them rather than the travel. Does that sound reasonable? Are there other questions that I should be asking? Essentially, I am completely new to this process and need all the good advice I can get.

    Sincerely,
    Catherine (Cate) Abbott
    Math 8 and Algebra 1 Teacher, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School
    Beltsville, Maryland

    Linda Fulmore - 9/12/2017 5:38:53 PM

    Catherine,

     

    Your plan sounds like a good one. We cannot recommend a particular consultant; however, I would check with local universities or surrounding school districts to find someone with the expetise you need. You can also search for books on formative assessment to find authors who might be willing to support you. Read all guidelines and rubrics carefully. Good luck!.  

    Catherine Abbott - 8/30/2017 8:29:32 PM

    If you would like to correspond privately, my email is [email protected]. Thank you.