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.