Educators Week at Maine School of Science and Mathematics draws teachers to Limestone

    LIMESTONE, Maine — Recently, teachers from all over Maine seized the opportunity to become a student once again. The Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) hosted “STEM Educators Week,” a professional development summer workshop for science, technology, engineering and/or math teachers of grades 3-12.
The educators could choose between 20 different courses throughout the week to further expand their minds and their teaching practices and knowledge. This is the third year MSSM has facilitated the educator workshop.
“I enjoy the sharing that happens between all the teachers throughout the week. I think it’s really inspiring for them to be able to share their resources and gather resources from fellow teachers. It’s great they get to bring those resources back to the classroom this fall,” said the director of the STEM Educators Week, Lisa Smith.
Smith has heard numerous positive comments from the presenters and participants, many of them stating that it’s one of the best professional development opportunities they do throughout the year.
“All of the teachers want to share. They want to learn from each other. They’re really motivated teachers that really care about the learning their students do,” she described.
Courses ranged in topic from astronomy to engineering to the more adventuresome “Get WET! Water Resource Education for Teachers” course where teachers learned about aquatic invaders, stream surveys and macro-invertebrate sampling. On the first night, the teachers were treated to keynote speaker Greg Schwanbec, a physics teacher at Westwood High School in Massachusetts as well as a guest lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Bonnie Hadiaris is a sixth-grade math teacher from Saco Middle School who made the trek up to MSSM for the week-long summer camp. Hadiaris was interested in some of the unique courses the camp had to offer, including some about technology.
“I saw a lot of classes listed ways of teaching and technology is a little intimidating for me sometimes so I decided to come and learn and take something back to the classroom,” Hadiaris said. “I feel a lot more comfortable with technology now more than I ever did.”
She also stated her intentions to come back for the Educators Week next year.
“It was very relaxed, yet we were learning all the time,” she said. “You can’t do that during the school year so this was a great way to learn at your own pace. It was just a lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone,” Hadiaris added.
Additional information about the Maine School of Science and Mathematics can be obtained by visiting www.mssm.org.