By Carmela Jones, MNS
“We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?” -
Steve Jobbs
According to some rough estimates (not necessarily, Nielson or scientific polling), only 5% of STEM teachers nationally are trained in this pedagogy. This blog is not a how-to Modeling Instruction pedagogy manual. Rather it is my feeble attempt to humanize a movement that should, in my opinion, be currently changing the world through STEM education. If I tell the stories of why and how different teachers made specific changes to their practice, then that might compel the powers that be to encourage institutionalizing educator training in MI so that significantly more than a mere 5% utilize this effective, award-winning methodology.
This is my effort at telling THE Modeling Instruction story. THE Modeling Instruction story is a collection of individual educator experiences around developing, learning, implementing, and dynamically improving their own teaching practice through the MI pedagogy.
It starts with my training being injected sometime shortly after the start of MI training implementation. I hope to also collect other teachers’ stories and will periodically share some of those. If you are a Modeling Teacher and anything like me, you cannot help, but share your MI story. Please feel free to email me at the URL on this blog (cjones.stemprofessionals@gmail.com). Between those current stories, I will rewind some and attempt to weave the tale of THE Modeling Instruction story.
The Readers Digest annotated version is that it all started with Malcolm Wells and Dr. David Hestenes at Arizona State University. Dr. Jane Jackson came on board to accelerate and manage the national teacher training. The phase 1 teachers went back to their geographic regions to mentor colleagues by forming partnerships with local institutions of all levels.
Then later, a small, group of rag-tag teachers in the ASU Master of Science Physics program had the audacity to think they could start an organization, the American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA), which barely survived, but did so through the efforts of a determined Colleen Megowan, Executive Officer. She put her head down and led the movement through near extinction, surviving its first major challenge. Details are forthcoming, I promise.
Add your name to those who support Modeling Instruction (MI) by liking & subscribing to The STEM Secret blog here (there's a subscribe button at the top and the bottom of the page: https://www.thestemsecret.com) and by liking & following The STEM Secret FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/theSTEMSecret/?modal=admin_todo_tour).
If you are a Modeling teacher, share your story by sending it to the email listed. If you know a great Modeling teacher, encourage them to send their story to the email listed. cjones.stemprofessionals@gmail.com.
If you are Modeling teacher and want to interact with other Modeling teachers with a question, an issue, a classroom experience, an announcement, or anything other MI teachers might be interested in, post it on the M2M (Modeler to Modeler) blog on the AMTA site. https://modelinginstruction.org/submit-a-blog-entry-to-m2m/
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