A Distinguished Educator Fellowship entails meeting weekly with staff from Grow a Generation to progress on an Fellowship path that will include identifying a problem, crafting a mission and goals, developing a brand and website, corresponding with professionals, and producing artifacts that contribute to a larger, open source STEM educational environment. Each project has its own purpose. Past projects have included partnerships with libraries, NASA, the University of Pittsburgh Zebrafish Aquaria, and others. We have written a book as a classroom alongside mentors from St. Francis University and local historians. Watch some of the videos created by our Distinguished Educators. You can visit their websites to download and access for free the resources they created.
We have had the chance to partner with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and offer Act 48 (Professional Development) Credit for some of our projects :
- Standard 1: Objective: Create lessons and student resources to … specific to theproject.
- Standard 2: Adult Learning Theory: The teacher chose a problem that had immediate relevance to their teaching. They were involved in the planning and evaluation of their goals and progress and used their experience in the classroom to reframe progress.
- Standard 3: Danielson Framework: The teacher expanded their knowledge of content and pedagogy (1a, 1d), they exemplified and involved the students in their own learning (2b), students participation was the focus of the project (3a, 3b, 3c, 3e), the project involved seeking out other education professionals working on similar problems (4a, 4d, 4e),
- Standard 4: Refer to lesson plans for the standards addressed
- Standard 5: Best practices for professional development vary widely and the research that supports best practices is inconsistent and often contradictory. That being said, we try hard to establish a good relationship with each individual teacher and make them feel supported and valued.
- Standard 6: Our end of course assessment is a survey.
- Standard 7: Feedback is requested often throughout the fellowship and relationships beyond their conclusions.
- Standard 8: Effectiveness evaluations are conducted verbally with teachers, parents, students, and administration. Final artifacts are posted on a series of YouTubes and website the project website.
If you would like to discuss the possibilities available with a Distinguished Educator Fellowship, feel free to contact Dr. Ellen Cavanaugh drellen “at” growageneration.com for an application.
