Aldo Leopold Nature Center

Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Team Application

2016

Aldo Leopold Nature Center and

Madison Metropolitan School District

Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Team

About the Project

This leadership project contributes to an interactive on-line Aldo Leopold Nature Center ALNC portal to assist area teachers effectively teach about current environmental education (EE) issues, assist with the facilitation of EE, science, and multi-disciplinary field trips, and enhance teacher knowledge of state-of-the-science and educational consensus.

The Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Team will review and contribute to thedevelopment of an accessible and user-friendly interactive site for teachers: a one-stop-location for accessible information, organized according to teacher needs, and providing the activities and resources to seamlessly incorporate EE into their classrooms and curricula.

The portal will be organized by grade, topic, and subject area, and have clear connections to state and national education standards including Common Core, and Next Generation Science Standards.

Composition of Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Teams

Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Team will consist of educators who will work collaboratively with ALNC staff during 2016. The work is planned for three phases. Beginning with an orientation meeting in January, 2016 and continuing in three phases, spring, summer, and fall, MMSD teachers will advise and provide feedback on the Portal’s contents. Each phase to be reviewed will consist of 20 to 25 lessons. The group of Lead Teachers will consist of content-area teams for Grades K-12 in

  • Elementary – K-2
  • Elementary – 3-5
  • Middle School
  • High School
  • Special Education (elementary and middle)
  • ESL/bilingual (elementary and middle)

Roles and Responsibilities of Educators’ Portal Lead Teams

  • Teachers will receive descriptions and outlines of ALNC’s education programs, along with additional pre- and post-visit activities, current and relevant science articles, and other curated resources.
  • Teacher Team members will analyze the structure and content of ALNC curriculum, tools and resources for district-wide use.These tools and resources will be utilized across MMSD and beyond.
  • Teachers will provide feedback on ALNC curricular templates, so that they align with MMSD format and relevance.
  • Teachers will help define conceptual and grade-level EE building blocks and topics so that environmental learning can proceed via ongoing instructional scaffolding and provide feedback to reflect whether the content meets MMSD scope, sequence, and standards.
  • Teachers will provide evaluation of online portal to ensure utility, accessibility, and relevance.
  • Teachers will contribute feedback on ongoing content updates and refinement of webpage.
  • Aside from an orientation meeting, most activities may be done remotely. Teachers are expected to follow timelines and meet deadlines for each phase of review.
  • Teachers are expected to understand and contribute the content standards of their respective discipline.
  • It is estimated that teacher work time per lesson will be approximately two hours in duration.

Timeline

  • An Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Team Orientation meeting will precede each phase.
  • April – Teachers receive Phase I materials
  • Summer – Teachers receive Phase 2 materials
  • Fall – Teachers receive Phase 3 materials

Compensation

The Aldo Leopold Nature Center will compensate teachers at the rate of $30 for each completed lesson including attendance at the Orientation Meeting.

Application Process

  1. Teachers interested in participating in ALNC Educators’ Portal Lead Teacher Team should submit a cover letter, resume, and letter of reference from their principal or supervisor to Rita Applebaum, Doyle 116 () no later than Friday, December 18, 2015.
  2. Consideration will be given to those teachers working all three phases.
  3. Teachers will be notified in January via email.

Any questions, please contact Rita Applebaum.

Rita Applebaum

Coordinator, Environmental Education Outreach

Madison Metropolitan School District

545 West Dayton Street

Madison, WI 53703

663-1655

Virginia Wiggen

Nature Center Director

Aldo Leopold Nature Center

(608) 216-9372 / (608) 221-0404

Brenna Holzhauer

Director of Exhibits and Digital Curricula

Aldo Leopold Nature Center

(608) 216-9375 / (608) 221-0404