LIFT2
I have been actively involved in a professional development program called LIFT 2 , an acronym for Leadership Initiatives for Teaching and Technology. This multileveled program offers instruction, collaboration, and support for improving and enhancing teaching by offering workplace experiences, graduate courses, and leadership team development.
The Metro South/West Regional Employment Board has initiated this innovative professional development program to improve student achievement in middle and high school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). MSWREB has developed partnerships among industry, higher education, and school districts. The major goal of this initiative is to engage students through project and inquiry-based instruction that incorporates technology to teach the 21 st century digital literacies and workplace skills
Spring 2004 was my start of this unique 18-month professional development program. The focus was on preparing teams of teachers to use technology effectively in their curriculum. The summer workshops goals were to develop our digital age literacy skills. We also had a wonderful opportunity to work in an industry setting. During our 5-week summer externship, we viewed first hand the 21st century skills used in the workplace. My assignment was working at Keyspan in Waltham in the role of an operations engineer. It was a great chance to expand my personal understanding of the culture of the business work while becoming proficient in technical and digital literacy. View what I learned from the externship experience and what 21st century skills are now used in our classroom.
From September to June 2005, we participated in workshops, seminars, online learning courses , and peer collaboration through Lesley University with the focus on building, testing, delivering, and assessing new curriculum units. The objectives of the two courses: Teaching for Understanding with New Technologies (TSNT) and Practical Strategies for Integrating Technology to Improve Learning (ITIL) we were to prepare, teach, analyze, and document a curriculum unit that is supported by new technologies. We published a portfolio that includes the unit design using the online Collaborative Curriculum Design Tool (CCDT), the project’s description, lesson plans, samples of student work and a journal about our experience. Use username: Dovile - password: Murray to view the portfolio.
Our goal was to plan and implement curriculum with new technologies to teach understanding to our classrooms. We engaged students through project and inquiry based instruction. We modeled 21 st century skills in the classroom, which included working with colleagues towards continuous improvement of curriculum and pedagogy.