Summer Furlough..

One summer day in 1991, a group of us were huddled in Bill Barker’s office at Bowdoin College, working on a proposal for this huge grant for a statewide systemic initiative to improve K-12 mathematics and science education that the National Science Foundation had solicited.  This was a five year, $10 million dollar grant and we hoped we would get it as part of Cohort 2.  I remember I got to the proposal drafting session late and had wood shavings in my beard.  That summer was when the governor of the state had a feud with the legislature about the state budget and closed state government, laying off all state employees for several days.  It turned out that that was the summer we were building our house so I was able to do some carpentry to fill the furlough days.

It seems to me that Jackie Mitchell and Bill Barker, Dale Syphers, and Kathy Bunge (all Bowdoin College faculty and staff) and maybe Rol Fessendon were there and we emerged from the meeting with another draft proposal.  So we put the ‘days off’ to good use.

Tom Keller

Leaping into MMSA

“You’re going to work for NESN?” my husband asked with exuberance in his voice. While I confirmed that I would indeed be working for NNECN – it was a project with a slightly different acronym and purpose - the Northern New England Co-Mentoring Network (as opposed to the New England Sports Network as he had first thought!)  … and so my journey with the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance began!

Not uncommon to others employed by the Alliance, I was a classroom teacher – primarily 8^th grade with few years of grades 6^th, 7^th and 8^th, before taking the leap into the professional development world. As a practicing teacher, I became involved with MMSA initiatives (Governor’s Academy, NNECN and Maine Assessment Portfolio to name a few).  I, as many of my colleagues did, looked to MMSA as the provider of timely, quality professional development.  MMSA was the sort of organization that recognized the needs of science and mathematics teachers. They were there to support my development as a classroom teacher (pedagogy, content, curriculum-instruction-assessment!) and as a professional leader. When the opportunity arose in January 2004 to step into employment that helped other educators in the ways I had been helped, it was an exciting prospect! 

In addition to working as the state coordinator for the NNECN (Northern New England Co-Mentoring Network), early projects included writing the middle school lesson plans for the PBS series Quest: Investigating Our World. This was tricky work! Henrietta List, who crafted the high school lesson plans, and I would receive the episode script to learn about the contents of the show. We’d write up the materials based on an appropriate learning standard connected to the episode and cross our fingers that the footage we’d based the lesson on didn’t end up on their cutting room floor! I must say it was certainly exciting to watch the finished programs.

I’ve been fortunate to work on many, many different projects over my years here at MMSA. Along the way I have worked alongside an incredibly talented pool of people – dynamic classroom teachers, tireless administrators and inspirational leaders in science education – all truly committed to crafting the best opportunities for students to learn the “S” and “M”.  Here’s to another 20 years of science and mathematics learning!

- Lynn Farrin

 

Twenty-four teachers from the Northern New England Co-Mentoring Network (NNECN) attended the National Science Teachers Association Conference in Atlanta in April of 2004 as an “enhanced” mentoring strategy. The NSF-funded, 3-year tri-state program led by MMSA Senior Science Specialist Page Keeley, paired accomplished middle and high school science teachers from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont with teachers new to the field of science and mathematics teaching.

A Celebration

Does this logo look familiar?  Have you been involved as a participant or partner with an MMSA project in the past or currently?  Were you a part of MMSA's origin or one of the first employees?  Do the Acronyms SEC, EMT, SC4, LAD, CNECT, LEARN, PUC, PRISMS, SCITEC....  ring a bell?

If you would like to share your experiences or are interested in contributing please contact llarsen@mmsa.org or kmitchell@mmsa.org.