ST1.9

STEM teachers and leaders participate in a continuous program of STEM-specific professional learning.

Self-Assessment: 3

Professional Development and continuous learning are an essential part of Mater Academy’s teacher development culture. At the beginning and end of each school year, surveys are sent to all faculty requesting their input on what Professional Development sessions would be the most useful to them for the new school year.

Additionally, several times a year Mater’s Genius Squad students host STEM specific training on various technological programs. Google Classroom, Spheros, Introduction to Photoshop, and Introduction to Coding are just a few of the many sessions that Genius Squad has held. In partnership with our Verizon Digital Learning Grant, Mater Academy is fortunate to engage in iPad-specific training provided by EdTech Teacher Professionals that focus on how the specific apps found on the iPad can be used in the classroom. Our partnership has been extended to Apple employees sharing their best practices with our staff during these sessions as well.

As Mater has grown its technological capacity, in the last few years we have seen teacher-led training emerge by our technologically savvy teachers. Using a “conference model,” teachers are able to pick specific sessions led by their peers who share their own best practices for using technology or integrating STEM in all disciplines. These trainings are held at Mater Academy during Early Release and Teacher Planning days to accommodate all schedules. These sessions are posted through the district’s web-based application, My Learning Plan, which allows participants to earn Master Plan points towards their teacher re-certification.

In addition to attending STEM and technology-based workshops at a local level, STEM teachers and leaders have also attended training at the National Level including participation in Project Lead the Way training for Medical Detectives, Design and Modeling, App Creators, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Cybersecurity. Teachers have also attended the National College Board AP Conference, National Science Teacher Conference, Future of Educational Technology Conference (FETC), Robotics Camp at Carnegie Mellon University, and the International Society for Technology in Education Conference (ISTE).

We are proud to say that our faculty has been invited to present at the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) as we were recognized for the past two years as a STEM School of Excellence Award Finalist. Also, one of our PLTW Teachers was recognized as an Outstanding Teacher of the Year and two of our PLTW Teachers were asked to present at the PLTW National Conferences. Ongoing Professional Development is a priority at Mater Academy that we hope to continue to grow and expand in order to be active mentors and supporters of our students in STEM and across all disciplines.

A STEM specific training is a part of our opening of school sessions and each year a topic is selected to review and share with all the faculty. At this opening of school session, the topic was the fast pace growth of technology and the engineering design process and how it can be implemented in all classes.

Professional Development Training Request for Digital Resources