NGLC-WPI

From TeacherWiki

On July 1 WPI starts and exciting project funded via the Gates Foundation. Join us!

ASSISTments wins funding from the Next Generation Learning Challenge whose primary funder is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

We are looking for 40 more teachers to apply for ASSISTments training this October. ASSISTments will take the wait time out of feedback! As your students work on their homework they get instant feedback. You will know instantly how well the individuals and the class did on each problem. We will help you get started by providing training in October and putting all of the homework for your textbook online for instant feedback to your students.

The Next Generation Learning Challenge funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation is designed to get new innovations into more classrooms. ASSISTments is free and available for all to use but it helps to get some initial training and have a community of teachers and trainers to work with as you are trying to implement. This new training program open to 9th grade Math teachers will do just that.

The time to act is NOW. We trained our first group of teachers this summer and are now looking to train another group of 20 teachers. Read the details of this program bellow then make sure you can say yes to all of the commitments. Finally click on the application and let us know you are interested in jumping in and joining the team.

"My students are doing homework on ASSISTments every night now, beginning each class viewing reports with students, working on problems from the reports. This routine is driving my instruction. I wonder "HOW did I do this before?" Did I just hope I was on target???" – Barbara Delany, 6th grade teacher, Bellingham MA.

"The ability to view student results in "real-time" is invaluable and has had a profound effect on my teaching style. " Donna Lee Tignor , high school math teacher, Montachusett Regional Vocational School.

"Using Assistment has made class run much more efficiently. It highlights areas of comprehension and misconceptions that need to be readdressed." Cortney Mulcahy, 8th grade teacher, Shrewsbury MA.

Description of the program

This grant is for the 2011-12 school year so we started this fall but we are looking for our second round of teachers now. We will recruit 40 9th grade math teachers to be in one of two cohorts, the Fall of 2011 cohort or the Summer of 2012 cohort. This is a randomized study and half of the applicants will get training in 2011 and the other half will wait until 2012. Through the whole process the members of the cohort will get support from a “collaborative learning community” of other 9th grade teachers in the program as well as the ASSIStments trainers. You will not only learn how to use ASSISTments but how to respond to the student data. This will be a blend of in person and online support. We will provide certificates of attendance to all participating teachers.

• Workshop (October 11 and 12, 8:00am to 4:00pm location TBA) to learn the system and integrate ASSISTments into your curriculum. Travel to the workshop, hotel if needed and meals will be provided for the two days.
• Homework assignments made for you and your students from your textbook that will be assigned using ASSISTments.
• Students will know instantly which problems they got right or wrong when they do class work or homework on ASSISTments. In many cases they will get assistance when they can’t do a problem allowing them to correctly re-learn or find out they need help from the teacher in class.
• Teachers will get instant reports You can look at and use to plan class and go over homework. Data like who completed their homework, what were the most common wrong answers, and percent correct per student and per problem will help teachers react formatively to the assignments.
• College credits (up to 3 credits) will be available for those that want to pay for them. The participants will be required to pay for those credits through the hosting university. All participants will get certificates that show how many contact hours you accumulate (first for the initial workshop and then again each months for the follow-on virtaul meetings).
• Stipends will be paid to participating teachers. Teachers can not receive payment for school days but we will pay for the substitute teacher. They will receive $70 per month for attending the online workshop, participating in the discussion board and any other work you do on ASSISTments each month.

Teachers must commit to following to be eligible to apply for this grant

We will give first priority to teachers who can commit to all of these. However, if you are interested, apply even if you can only commit to a few.

• I teach at least one 9th grade math class.
• Students have decent access to computers at school and at home (for home at least half have good access) .
• I am free to come to the workshop October 11 and 12 from 8:00am to 4:00pm, 2011. (Location TBA) Travel, hotel and meals will be paid as well as the school substitute.
• I can attend at least 80% of the online meetings the first Wednesday of the month from 7pm to 8:30pm. Teachers will be paid to attend.
• I can find time (one hour a month paid) to participate in the online discussion on using ASSISTments with the other 9th grade math teachers in the program. This discussion will be facilitated by experienced ASSISTments users.

If you can not say yes to all of these criteria do not despair! Keep an eye on our Events page for more or ask your administration to contact us and host one at your school.

How to apply for October 11 and 12 Training

If you can commit to the times above click on this link and give us information on the book you use and your contact information. We will make our decision as soon as possible.

We have space for 40.

Who are the partners on this grant?

NAESP, with Worcester Polytechnic Institute , Edutopia™ and the Connecting Education, Leadership and Technology (CELT) Corporation are finalists for a Next Generation Learning Challenge grant to expand use of a scientifically-proven, web-based formative assessment and tutoring system called ASSISTments™. The Next Generation Learning Challenge is funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

What is ASSISTments?

Here are a few links you can use to learn about ASSISTments.

• Overview: About ASSISTments will give you a introduction to ASSISTments.
• Listen to teachers talk about how they use ASSISTments at a the January 14, 2011, meeting of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Massachusetts.
• Video: Watch a video showing what ASSISTments looks like.
• Press : Here is a Boston Globe article on the back story behind ASSISTments featuring Neil Heffernan explaining why he keeps ASSISTments free.
• Maine Letters of Support: See letters of support from Maine's Commissioners office, the chief of math, chief of the laptop project, and other folks in Maine, including letters of support from 12 districts.
• To see some of the textbooks we already have in the system click here. As part of these grants, we will take the commonly used textbooks in Maine and put the answers into ASSISTments, so your school can do what they already do for homework and will have the benefits of immediate feedback.
• Listen to School Officials Talk about ASSISTments: This page has a video of teachers and principals explaining to Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville how they use ASSISTments.
• Research: Research results that show ASSISTments works to produce greater student achievement.
• Further Information: More information is available at our main teacher site.