CTL at the 2015 NJEA Teacher Convention
At the 2015 New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) Convention, NJCTL presented at 11 different professional development sessions based on our findings and the success of both our Progressive Science Initiative (PSI) and Progressive Mathematics Initiative (PMI).
The turnout was great at each presentation, thank you to all who attended.
In one of the sessions, we talked about our methods and materials that support high levels of student achievement in our PSI physics-chemistry-biology sequence. PSI has led to high levels of AP participation and passing rates.
In four of our sessions, we did an introduction of how we use a small amount of direct instruction with our social constructivist philosophy. We showed the teachers where and how they can register to access our free PSI-PMI materials. Alignment to the NGSS and CCSS, including the integration of questions from standardized tests (e.g. PARCC) were also discussed in these sessions.
New this year, we hosted 4 professional learning community sessions for PSI-PMI users, we opened up the floor and allowed the participants from across New Jersey to collaborate together. The attendees explained how they use the materials on our site (www.njctl.org), in addition to their use of the methods and pedagoagy, and the resulting effects that they have seen in their classrooms. The participant driven collaboration and discussions during these sessions were excellent.
In our final two sessions, we talked about how to integrate student polling devices and various mobile apps in any BYOD setting. With the social constructivist philosophy in our PSI-PMI courses, our presentations fully support formative assessment where teachers can observe students, collect real-time classroom data using the clickers/mobile apps, and use the data to determine the next course of action in any classroom setting.
Aside from presenting at the conference, we also had a booth set up in the Exhibit Hall. As interested teachers came to our booth to learn more about NJCTL, they got their questions answered, signed up for the site, and learned how they could start using PSI-PMI in their classrooms. Having a booth on the convention floor has been great opportunity for CTL to share our PSI-PMI materials with teachers, but more importantly for us to have current users stop by the booth and tell us how things are going for them in their schools. We look forward to seeing you all next year!
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