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Partnership News
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October 2016
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I hope this fall is treating you well. In western Massachusetts, we are enjoying some sorely needed precipitation. The silence since our last newsletter cannot be blamed on the rain, snow, or even the drought, however, but rather on only one thing: the Partnership has been busy! You'll find details in the
Partnership Update below, but let me highlight here an important upcoming opportunity.
All the best,
Marla Solomon
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Partnership Update 
2015-2016 Accomplishments:
- Supported The History Exchange: an embedded four-way professional development model pilot created by Partnership Advisory Council members Jessica Johnson, Outreach Director, UMass Amherst History Department, and Kelley Brown, History Teacher and Professional Development Specialist, Easthampton High School
- Our second annual Education Dialogue: Teacher and Student Leadership for Racial and Social Justice was held March 7, 2016 with over 100 participants including teachers, administrators, teacher educators, college and high school students. Check out the Five College Consortium's Collaborations Spring 2016 newsletter for news and photos.
- Diversifying and strengthening the teacher workforce: The Partnership is facilitating this new network serving as an incubator for ideas and projects to help create a more diverse teacher workforce in western Massachusetts.
- Student Day of Poetry was held Dec 18, 2015, at UMass Amherst in partnership with MassPoetry, with 500 western Massachusetts middle and high school students and their teachers. This was the first time a MassPoetry Student Day of Poetry was hosted in western Massachusetts, thanks to the support and collaboration of Hampshire College's Childhood, Youth and Learning Program, the Smith College Poetry Center, the UMass Amherst MFA Program, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, and the Five College Consortium.
- WMMP Professional Learning Communities held both fall 2016 and spring 2017 with over 200 participants
- Doors to the World: designed and launched the Doors to the World website with a grant from the Longview Foundation
2016-2017 Projects and Activities:
- Doors to the World received an Irene and George Davis Foundation grant for the project, Building Young Children's Literacy in Holyoke and Springfield, for a 2016 Doors to the World Summer Institute with Holyoke and Springfield Public Schools PreK-3 teachers. During the school year, the participating teachers will design and implement family engagement and classroom activities using global children's picture books.
- NSF CSforAll: Engaging Districts to Plan, Implement and Assess
Scalable Models for Computer Science for All is a 2016-2018 UMass Amherst project in which the Partnership is helping to facilitate Holyoke and Springfield Public Schools' planning on how to integrate computer science into their curricula K-12.
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institutes: The Partnership received a grant for its 2017 Teaching Native American Histories, July 16-28, 2017.This two-week opportunity taking place in the Wampanoag homelands of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard will be led by Alice Nash of the UMass History Department and Linda Coombs, program director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center will explore five themes for teaching Native American histories and cultures. More information will be available soon. Application deadline: March 1, 2017.
- Western Massachusetts Mathematics Partnership will hold a Fall Institute October 29, 2016, and Spring 2017 Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). More information on Spring PLCs will be coming soon.
- Navigating Native Spaces: More information and registration here!
- More work on the diverse teacher workforce coalition
- Planning another Education Dialogue for 2017
The Partnership welcomes your participation in or ideas for our work.
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Educator Lessons: Karen Schweitzer
In this issue, we celebrate a recipient of the recently awarded 2014 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, Karen Schweitzer, a third grade teacher who has been teaching for 27 years at the Anne T. Dunphy School in Williamsburg, MA. In addition to her 34-year teaching career, she has spent the last 22 years participating in National Science Foundation projects. Schweitzer also provides professional development in mathematics and mathematics education for teachers throughout the United States. Karen is an active member of the Western Massachusetts Mathematics Partnership, a regional network of K-16 mathematics educators supported by the Five College Schools Partnership, and helps to plan and facilitate collaborative professional learning within that community.
In the classroom, she invites students to explore concepts, create solutions, and work collaboratively. Schweitzer believes that "even the youngest minds can engage with big mathematical ideas," and thus pushes for innovative work with primary students. She fosters a growth mindset in her students, encouraging them to always keep trying and to push through hard problems.
"The award affirms my passion for and skill in teaching math and reinforces my commitment to continuing this work in and out of my classroom," says Schweitzer. "I am so excited by this honor and the opportunities it will afford me to continue to engage in conversations about math education."
Awards are presented to one mathematics and one science teacher from each state each year. In addition to Schweitzer, John Heffernan, also of the Dunphy School, and Keith Wright of Hampshire Regional High School have been recent awardees.
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Opportunities for Educators
The Collaborative for Education Services is offering Election Day professional development opportunities. Check their
website for more information.
2016-2017 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series: The U.S. in the Age of Mass Incarceration. This exciting and important series offered by the University of Massachusetts Amherst History Department includes lectures, related professional development sessions for teachers led by award-winning social justice educator and Partnership Advisory Council member
Dr. Antonio Nieves Martinez, and support for curricular connections and transportation to lectures. The next lecture is Tuesday, November 1 - Concentration Camps, American Style: Japanese Americans and WWII. On the eve of the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 which authorized the removal and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, this lecture by
Franklin Odo, Amherst College, explores the history and legacy of Japanese internment. 5pm, Herter Hall 601, UMass Amherst.
Send relevant announcements of opportunities for educators for this newsletter to
Marla Solomon.
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