SOUTH CENTRAL SERVICE COOPERATIVE

SCSC Receives More Than $1 Million in Grant Funds to Deliver Free Professional Development to Area Schools

By Mary Hillman

With school districts’ budgets tight and staff development funds reduced, South Central Service Cooperative (SCSC) will be using grant funds to deliver professional development in the areas of math, science and history at little to no cost.

SCSC received a Math Science Teacher Partnership (MSTP) grant from the Minnesota Department of Education to help middle level teachers (grades 5-8) refine their curriculum to prepare all eighth grade students to be successful in algebra coursework. Phase II of this grant will be focused on science teachers in grades 3-6 to work with the new Minnesota Academic Standards in science.

SCSC also received a multi-year million-dollar Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education to deliver professional development in American history.

Working in partnership with Bethany Lutheran College, Gustavus Adolphus College, the Minnesota Historical Society, Minnesota State University, Mankato and South Central College, SCSC developed Minnesota River Valley: Rich in American History (RAH) to deliver quality professional development to area history teachers. A cohort of 35 teachers of grades 4-12 from SCSC schools will participate in activities delivered by higher education and historical society partners and local historians. Workshops will be open to all SCSC teachers as space provides.

“We surveyed our member schools in February to determine what the needs were in our area regarding American history,” said Bridget Serig, project director. “It was shocking to discover that in the last five years, 81% of social studies and history teachers had received less than two days of professional development in their subject area. It gives SCSC and our partner institutions extreme pride to be able to design and deliver both local and American history content and teaching strategies to our teachers, which we believe will have a great impact on student learning.”

RAH will be composed of four strands: school year seminars, professional learning communities, a summer immersion experience and a summer institute.

School-year seminars will be content rich and focus on an annual theme, which are aligned with National History Day Themes. Teaching strategies, primary source research and lesson planning will be interspersed throughout each fall, winter and spring workshop. Workshops and classroom support will also be provided to assist teachers in implementing History Day into their classrooms.
Professional learning communities (PLCs) will meet in small groups to discuss historical texts and how to apply historiography strategies with students.

“Reading social studies and history texts, as well as primary sources, can be very difficult for students. One of the project’s primary goals is to provide teachers with a variety of reading strategies that will improve students’ reading skills and assist them in learning to apply higher level thinking skills to their reading,” said Serig.

Supporting this year’s theme, Diplomacy and Dialogue in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences; teachers will read From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776 by George C. Herring.

Each year will include a five-day travel experience. This year, cohort participants will travel via grant funds to Washington, D.C. to view National History Day events at the University of Maryland; visit the U.S. State Department and U.S. Diplomacy Center exhibits; Smithsonian museums; a night tour on the Capitol Mall; and other sites. Research collected along the way will assist in the development of a historical inquiry project at the culmination of the year.

Cohort members will also participate in a weeklong intensive summer institute to allow them to delve more deeply into topics of the year in both content and pedagogy. Participants will have opportunities for hands-on, experiential learning. A bank of lesson plans will be developed to share with other teachers, both in and out of the cohort. Area teachers will also be able to apply to attend summer trainings in the development or improvement of an AP U.S. History course.

Each year the grant will invite a nationally renowned history speaker to address, not only teachers, but students, college professors and their students, administrators, parents and the community. RAH will kick off its activities on Oct. 14, with a keynote presentation that is open to the public. Michael Ebner of Lake Forest College will address “Rich with Opportunities! When K-16 Educators Converge.” Other planned workshops include the fall cohort workshop on Oct. 15 at the Nicollet County Historical Society St. Peter Treaty Site and an “Ultimate Teacher History Day Workshop,” open to all SCSC teachers, on Oct. 29 at Gustavus Adolphus College.

To learn more about MSTP or RAH, please visit the SCSC Web site: www.mnscsc.org, click on “Professional Development/Educational Opportunities.” You can also follow RAH activities on its blog: www.mnrah.typepad.org.

Please take advantage of these grant activities and other notable professional development opportunities brought to you by South Central Service Cooperative. For more information, contact Bridget Serig or Mary Hillmann in SCSC Academic Programs.