INAUGURAL NYC NSF GK-12 Grant Holders
Meeting
May 20th at
Our
inaugural New York City NSF GK-12 Grant Holders Meeting will be held at
A
fuller description of the program may be found at http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~sklar/gk12/may20.html
or http://raise.poly.edu/. A full agenda will be posted by early May.
Directions
to reach
Our
purpose is to bring together participants from the GK-12 programs funded by
NSF to discuss the major issues that challenge all programs and especially
those in urban areas. In addition,
we will provide an opportunity for representative examples of the work of
the four projects to be displayed and explained.
It is our intent to explore the major challenges and workable solutions
which affect all aspects of GK-12 work. A
“poster session” will display how the GK-12 Fellows support learning in area
classrooms. Ultimately, we hope to
define common goals and directions, provide broad access to resources, and
build an interactive community of teachers, Fellows and GK-12 programs in
the
You
may register to attend this meeting by transmitting an e-mail before May 10th
to Carmen Seda cseda@poly.edu
at Poly or to your institution’s representative: Prof. Elizabeth Sklar sklar@cs.columbia.edu,
or Prof. Leonard Fine fine@chem.columbia.edu,
or Prof. Theodore Brown TBrown@gc.cuny.edu. All participants must pre-register by this date.
In addition to your name, please list the following:
1. Your
e-mail address
2. Your
telephone number
3. The
institution with which you are affiliated, and
4. Whether
you are a faculty member, a Fellow, a teacher or a Dept. of Education representative.
We look forward to meeting you on May 20th.
NYC
NSF GK-12 Grant Holders Meeting
Instructions
for breakout discussion sessions
There
will be three breakout sessions: one for Fellows, one for the grant administrators
and one for the teachers. DOE attendees are free to participate in whichever
group they wish.
Time
Schedule/Agenda for discussion groups
General
guidelines and discussion rules:
•
Relate experiences to constructive points and advice that is useful to others
in the group. Keep your comments short.
•
Ask relevant questions to the topics and discussion issues at hand – stay
on track and avoid significant tangents.
•
Information that you found incredibly useful is most likely useful to others,
share it.
•
Try to prioritize and categorize.
•
Shy away from instance-specific discussion; try to generalize your experiences
and transform them into ideas that affect everyone involved.
Timing
First
2 minutes: Scribe volunteers or is assigned by moderator.
2-4
minutes: Moderator introduces topic, relevant questions, and gets discussion
started.
Keep
the discussions moving so all questions are discussed
2-12
minutes: each topic or subgroup discussion
Discussion
topics
•
What issues have arisen that could have been avoided with better information
and questions beforehand; better organization and coupling of participants?
•
What information is beneficial to me? How can my input prove relevant and
constructive to others?
•
In hindsight, what would I like to see changed in the GK-12 program?
In my aspect of it?
In other aspects? [Unclear as to what you mean]
•
If you have 30 seconds to impart GK-12 wisdom to newcomers, what would you
say? What pearl of wisdom do you wish you had been told upon starting your
GK-12 experience?
•
What is special about the urban environment in which you are working?
•
(For Fellows only) What are you taking away from this experience that will be
valuable in your future career?
For
each discussion session, here is a rough agenda to keep conversation moving
and get the most of the time blocks allocated. Moderators will be chosen and
notified prior to the meeting to help facilitate the discussion at each table.
Moderators will first choose a scribe, who will keep notes of the most important
unanimous statements of the group. (Bring laptops if you have them). The biggest
challenge and suggested solution will be presented from each session to the
entire group at the end of each 60-minute block. Note: Outline topics on whiteboard/poster
board
12-15
minutes
•
Continued discussion of next questions/issues of topic
•
Moderator begins to shape discussion toward what should be reported
•
3 major challenges, with 1 most significant challenge to report back. Focus
on specific suggestions for workable solutions
•
•
Repeat for next topic of discussion
31-
45 minutes
•
Repeat for next topic of discussion
•
At end: Collect scribe’s notes to submit