The NNECN Center is committed to providing engaging, high-quality professional development that meets the specific needs of science and mathematics teachers throughout their career. The NNECN Center strongly believes in designing professional development opportunities as comentoring experiences, allowing all teachers to learn from one another.

For a complete listing of upcoming professional development offerings for novice, mentor, and those that work with new/mentor teachers visit the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance's Calendar of Events.



Annual New Teacher Conference
Specifically designed for new middle and high school science and mathematics teachers, the "Building Success for New Teachers of Science and Mathematics Teachers" new teacher conferences introduce teachers to new tools and resources for supporting standards and research-based instruction, teaching and learning scaffolds, and assessment probes for examining student thinking in their content areas. The Building Success Conference fosters the development a common language and knowledge base about teaching science and/or mathematics and assist novice teachers in making connections to national, regional, and statewide support networks, organizations, and infrastructure. Teachers are introduced to and encouraged to develop a professional teaching resource collection and have the opportunity to networking with mentors in attendance as learning colleagues, new teachers, and regional specialists in science and mathematics education.

Demonstration Lessons
During this workshop, teams of mentor and novice teachers learn how video demonstration lessons create and support learning communities focused on science and mathematics teaching and learning. Teachers become familiar with viewing ethics and a protocol developed for watching, discussing, and providing feedback for a colleague's lesson. The protocol uses Curriculum Topic Study (CTS) to "ground" teachers in the content and pedagogy around each lesson and also uses an observation worksheet developed using several tools familiar to teachers, including Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching.

Curriculum Topic Study (CTS)
Described as the "missing link" between science and mathematics standards, teacher practice, and improved student achievement, Curriculum Topic Study is a versatile set of tools and processes that allows novice and experienced teachers to become "grounded" in the content and pedagogy around the science and mathematics they teach; examine instructional implications for topics they teach, including effective contexts, phenomena, strategies; and developmental considerations, and examine the misconception research base that informs teaching and learning.

Formative Assessment Conferences & Workshops
Single and multi-day conferences and workshops introduce novice and experience science and mathematics teachers to the power of formative assessment for engaging students, improving student learning, and informing instructional practice. Teachers explore formative assessment techniques and strategies including probing for students' existing ideas using the misconception research base, questioning techniques and strategies, instructional models that link instruction and classroom assessment, grading vs. feedback, and technology use for assessment. Teachers leave this highly interactive learning experience with a collection of practical, effective strategies to implement in their classrooms.

Evidence & Explanation
Evidence and explanations make up important parts of the learning goals in national and state standards, but the research base shows that students have difficulty making claims, knowing what constitutes evidence, and connecting the results of experiments to the important scientific principles they intend to illustrate. This workshop examines the central role explanations play in making meaning of science; introduces a scaffold to help students learn a process for writing scientific explanations; and applies criteria, self-assessment rubrics, and feedback strategies to help students improve their written explanations.

Examining Student Thinking

Looking at student work with probes

Inquiry Scaffold

Online Workshops