Unfortunately, we did not have enough enrollments to run all our scheduled courses this session.We will definitely run 5 courses, listed below.There are also 6 courses on our Watch List.These courses have minimal registrations but may run as people add or switch into them, increasing the enrollment.
If you have registered for an OPEN NH course that is on the Cancellation or Watch List and would like more information or to switch your course, please contact Stan Freeda, OPEN NH Project Coordinator (603-271-5132).
If you are interested in registering for a course on the Watch List, please call Stan or use our online registration system to register now as your registration may enable the course to run!
Summer 2009 Courses that will run this summer:
·BP-09 Learning and Teaching with Web 2.0 Tools
·LA-01 Best Practices for Vocabulary Instruction in the Elementary Classroom
·LA-04 Making the Most of Adolescent Literature
·LT-02 Supporting Literacy Development in Lower Elementary Classrooms
We still need your help with restoring the Year 5 funds for the Ready to Teach program, which supports e-Learning for Educators and OPEN NH. Please consider writing a letter and submitting it to our representatives in the US Congress.
The Ready to Teach funds support the OPEN NH project and NH e-Learning for Educators along with e-Learning for Educators projects in 9 other states.
I’ll include a sample letter that you can easily modify and use, if you’d like along with a NH story and fact sheet.
I/We write to request your support to continue funding for the Ready to Teach program in the FY 2010 Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The President’s budget proposes eliminating funding for Ready To Teach, which has been instrumental in preparing America’s teachers to succeed in the 21st century classroom.
Ready To Teach funds the development of digital educational content and services aimed at enhancing teacher performance and student academic achievement. The e-Learning for Educators project, funded through a Ready To Teach grant, supports online teacher professional development for educators in 10 states, including New Hampshire. These courses are aligned to state standards and are targeted specifically to address the unique educational demands of teachers locally, especially in high needs schools.
In our state:
n Over 1,000 of teachers have enrolled in e-learning courses.
n At least 12,300 of students have been impacted by teachers receiving e-Learning training, based on the state student teacher ratio of 12.3:1, which is not a measure of average class size.
n About 50% of teachers in OPEN NH courses are from high need schools eligible for Title I funds.
n 80 percent of teachers report that their students’ work is of “higher quality” after e-learning course completion.
In addition to providing courses that lead to gains in teachers’ content knowledge, e-learning for Educators addresses two major challenges of high-quality teacher professional development: capacity building and research on student academic achievement. e-learning is especially notable because it trains teachers to create coursework for other teachers. Additionally, in this upcoming year of the project, e-Learning will provide critical statistical data about the achievement of students who have been taught by teachers enrolled in e-learning courses. This information will be the essential basis for making sound policy decisions and making future investments in similar educational programs.
The Administration’s proposal to eliminate continued, line-item funding for Ready To Teach in FY 2010 would severely undermine the professional development needs of thousands of teachers in New Hampshire. It would also deprive students of effective teaching practices that prepare them for increasingly competitive academic and work environments.
Again, I urge you to support funding for Ready To Teach to continue the work in progress so that we can uphold our commitment to America’s teachers and students.
Sincerely,
NH Story and Fact Sheet
e-Learning for Educators in New Hampshire
In 2005, New Hampshire and eight other states began the eLearning for Educators initiative, part of a Ready to Teach grant awarded to Alabama Public Television (http://www.aptv.org/Learning/elearning). The goal of the initiative was to provide online professional development for educators in high need districts and rural areas where quality professional development may not be readily available. By April 2009, about nine hundred teachers (nearly 5% of all NH employed public school teachers) had participated in the eleven sessions of courses offered by the Online Professional Educators Network in New Hampshire (see www.OPENNH.org) to date. About twenty percent (20%) of those teachers had taken more than one course. Among the course catalog, teachers may choose content specific courses as well as courses on curriculum enhancement, best teaching practices, or those that meet the needs of special populations. Some of the courses were developed by EDC (www.edc.org) and are offered throughout the eight-state eLearning consortium, while other courses were developed during the project to meet specific in-state needs. The New Hampshire courses were developed by New Hampshire educators who understand the unique needs of their colleagues. Among the courses chosen by teachers, a significant number of registrations (43%) represent participation in courses developed by New Hampshire educators to meet determined needs within the state.
At least 17 school districts have had five or more teachers participating in the courses. One of those districts is comprised of a single K-8 school. Chester Academy (www.chesteracademy.org), with nearly 700 students and 50 full time teachers, has supported ten of its teachers (20%) in eLearning courses over the past two years, involving one or two teachers from each grade level.
At Chester, the ten teachers who have participated have found that they implement course knowledge right away into their classrooms. For example, one teacher revamped an existing literacy project within the curriculum with new website resources. Her students have loved the new virtual field trip that she incorporated into the project. Another teacher, as part of her final project for the course, reworked an existing history unit with historical resources available from the local historical society. Each course stimulated new ideas among the teaching staff for ways to integrate Internet resources into their school curriculum. While teachers might still enjoy and participate in face to face learning opportunities, they are beginning to choose online learning experiences because it allows them the flexibility and convenience of time and location, while providing some of the richest dialogue with their peers across the region.
Quick Facts about the 10-State e-Learning for Educators Initiative
Initially, eight states participated in the e-Learning for Educators project (AL, DE, KY, MO, MS, NH, PA, WV). In October 2009, the project expanded to include Maryland & North Carolina.
*Significant Accomplishments across the project:
The partner states trained 352 facilitators (online instructors) who have delivered more than 1,201 online professional development courses – far more than the target goal.
225 teachers have been trained to design online courses; these educators have created more than 80 new courses that are aligned with state/local-identified instructional needs
Almost 22,000 teachers have enrolled in courses and 16,627 completed courses for free or at a very low cost. Evaluation data were collected from 10,291 teachers.
On average, 32% of teachers in the online courses are from schools eligible to receive Title I School-wide funds but percentages vary by state from 60% to 7%.
Based on the most conservative teacher-student data gathered by the project, it is estimated that at least 700,000 students have been affected by efE training. If more liberal data are used to calculate student impact, 1,000,000+ students may have been impacted.
90% of teachers completing e-Learning courses felt the quality of the courses were excellent (56%) or very good (35%).
89% of participants feel they gained insight into new or different approaches to teaching from the e-Learning workshop.
82% of participants report they are very likely to take another e-Learning workshop.
56% became more skilled in using technology for instruction
42% learned new subject-area content
Of teachers who have taken e-Learning for Educators (eFE) courses and completed a 6 month follow up survey, 66% indicated that they had already used the material learned from the online course with their students. Of those who are already using the material:
Ø 90% agree that when they used eFE content in class, students appeared more
interested
Ø 89% agree that when they used eFE content in class, students had their diverse learning needs met
Ø 77% agree that students performed more difficult work
Ø 80% say that student work is of a higher quality
A follow-up survey administered six-months after course completion allowed teachers to detail lasting impacts of the e-Learning workshop on their teaching practice and classroom instruction. Here are comments from two teacher respondents:
“I have been able to address individual needs for each student using the material and resources from this workshop. I have also been able to more accurately assess individual student progress, rather than whole group progress, and plan accordingly.”
“Using what I learned in the workshop and including new technology, I was able to involve every student in classroom activities.”
Data Source:
Boston College (2009): Alabama Public Television e-Learning for Educators Annual Comprehensive Evaluation of the e-Learning for Educators Project
