The Educational Blogger Network (eBN)

The Educational Blogger Network (eBN) is a community of teachers and education professionals and supporters who use weblogs for  teaching and learning.

The blog community has some great ideas on how to use blogs to support deep learning.

New version of How People Learn

John Bransford's book, How People Learn from the National Academy of Sciences remains the most useful education book I have ever read. As a scientist, it required an amazing amount of effort to assimilate the science education literature. This book helped me develop my understanding of learning and the design of effective learning environments.

Well, there is a new edition of How People Learn with expanded chanpters on learning science and math. I look forward to reading this book.

Cohort I Kickoff Dinner

Well, we had our kick-off dinner last Thursday at the North Harris Montgomery Community College District District Services & Training Center.

Dr. Bonnie Longnion, Associate Vice Chancellor, Institutional and Resource Development talking to the program participants. Everyone seemed to have a nice time meeting the other teachers and faculty. We also appreciate the strong show of support by the NHMCCD administration.

Dr. Cathy Loving of the College of Education & Human Resources at Texas A&M talked to the participants about the research program associated with PLC-MAP.

Why publish a blog?

We (the directors of PLC-MAP) hope that you will be willing to publish your own blog, recording your triumphs and trials during your first years of teaching. Blogs are like online journals. My wife first taught me about blogs. She publishes a very popular blog about knitting, Amy Knits Texas. You may be interested in knowing why I think writing your own blog would be an excellent use of your time and effort.

Alternative certification programs are becoming an important source of new teachers in many states, especially in the sciences and mathematics. New teachers certified through alternative programs such as PLC-MAP, as do all new teachers, face significant challenges during their first years of teaching. I know this because I taught secondary school in Fiji, as a Peace Corp volunteer, after a whopping month of training.

The central aim of PLC-MAP is to support your teaching through our professional learning community. Not all new teachers, whether certified through traditional or alternative programs are supported in this way. Since these blogs can be read by everyone connected to the Internet, other new teachers who are professionally isolated may gain important support by reading (and commenting) on your own experiences. In this way, you can support your colleagues throughout the United States.

We are going to use the free blogger software available from eblogger.com. Creating you own blog requires little skill and only access to the Internet. By the first seminar, I will create a ring so we can link all our blogs together. Try it, it is pretty cool.

Introductions

My name is Bruce Herbert, and I am an Associate Professor of Geology at Texas A&M University. I am working with a team of researchers and educators from Texas A&M University, the North Harris Montgomery Community Colleges (NHMCCD), and urban, suburban, and rural school districts in the Greater Houston area to develop to support the development of an innovative alternative certification program to prepare math and science teachers. The project is supported by were awarded a 5-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Teacher Professional Continuum (TPC) program.

The project, entitled Professional Learning Community Model for Alternative Pathways in Teaching Science and Mathematics (PLC–MAP), seeks to develop an innovative alternative teacher certification program for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who wish to become teachers. I am working with Cathleen C. Loving (Co-PI) of Texas A&M, Dr. Bonnie Longnion (Co-PI) and Lovelyn Jeanes (Co-PI) of NHMCCD, and Dr. Michael Hinojosa (Co-PI) of Spring Independent School District.

The goals of the five-year project include the development of a professional learning community (PLC) of intern science and math teachers pursuing alternative certification, mentor teachers from area school districts, and science, math and education faculty from Texas A&M and North Harris Montgomery Community Colleges. The design of the PLC is shown above. The PLC seeks to increase the number, quality and diversity of middle school and high school mathematic and science teachers. We hope that this program can become a national model of collaboration among educational institutions to mentor the next generation of science and math teachers.