Week of January 5, 2009

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Week of January 5, 2009

Table of Contents

Building Your True Teacher Value in New Orleans
NSTA Legislative Update
Using Notebooks in the New Year
Submit a Session Proposal for an NSTA 2009–2010 Conference
Stay a Step Ahead of the Class with Spring Online Courses

Building Your True Teacher Value in New Orleans

Choose the best professional development you can find by attending the top Conference on Science Education nationwide for building skills and expertise in the classroom. NSTA's national event will be held March 19–22 in New Orleans. The finest science education leaders and experts will preside over diverse workshops, presentations, and seminars designed to increase content knowledge, sharpen inquiry skills, teach assessment, improve student performance, and assist you in your journey towards becoming the best educator you can be!

Plan to Attend NSTA's 2009 National Conference at Earlybird Rates

Register by January 9 at the most affordable rates! Members who register before January 9, the earlybird deadline, pay $190; nonmember fees are $264.

Check out a sampling of more than 1,500 sessions using the program scheduler. Have a look at just a few session titles:

Featured Speaker Bill Nye the Science Guy.
How Do We Know That Students Understand? Planning templates and examples provided.
A Teacher-Scientist Partnership Model for Professional Development—Learn how to implement a model that builds teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical expertise through rich and engaging professional development led by teacher-scientist teams.
Be a Model Scientist—Use concrete inexpensive models to enhance students' learning of abstract science concepts through hands-on activities that build on content knowledge.
The Multiple Dimensions of Scientific Inquiry in the PreK–12 School Setting—Transform your science class into an authentic research community by using multiple inquiry modes characteristic of research in the natural sciences.
Why Won't Jane Compute?—Learn how to use the new Institute of Education Science (IES) frameworks to improve girls' interest and performance in your classroom.

And then there are in-depth institutes, symposia, field trips, daylong programs, the exhibition hall, graduate credits to earn, networking, and more. Visit www.nsta.org/neworleans for information on the wide variety of activities and career-building events for science educators.

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NSTA Legislative Update

Read more about President-elect Obama's choices for education secretary and chief science advisor, what's in store for No Child Left Behind next year, and what will the bad economic news from the National Governors Association mean for K–12 education, in the latest issue of the NSTA Legislative Update.

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Using Notebooks in the New Year

If you’re turning over a new leaf for 2009 and you’re an elementary school teacher, consider how your students will perform in science and language arts after using science notebooks. Michael Klentschy’s title Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms demonstrates the strength of this concept and puts it into action.

Classroom teachers who want to begin using or who are currently including science notebooks as part of their instruction will find that Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms is a “must-have” resource for the development of scientific inquiry, literacy, and reasoning skills.

Connecting language arts to science through expository writing, the book presents proven techniques such as scaffolds, sentence starters, discussion starters, and other writing prompts to encourage students to build on current knowledge. Every step of the process is examined: introducing notebook writing to the class, creating questions to explore, making predictions, recording observations, making and defending claims, and using the notebooks to provide targeted student feedback. Also included are chapters on the specialized needs of English-language learners, offering specific strategies to increase proficiency and fluency in both science and language.

Visit the NSTA Science Store to view a sample chapter and to order.

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Submit a Session Proposal for an NSTA 2009–2010 Conference

Our 2009 area conferences include Minneapolis, MN (Oct. 29–31), Fort Lauderdale, FL (Nov. 12–14), and Phoenix, AZ (Dec. 3–5). In 2010 NSTA will hold its national conference in Philadelphia, PA (March 18–21). Deadlines for submissions are January 15, 2009, for the 2009 area conferences and April 15, 2009, for the Philadelphia National Conference. For more information, visit www.nsta.org/conferences and click "Presenting at NSTA Conferences." You can also pick up tips on submitting a successful session proposal.

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Stay a Step Ahead of the Class with Spring Online Courses

With the Internet at their fingertips, today's students are more information-savvy than ever. But it's easier for teachers to stay ahead and learn the latest in science and research through Montana State University's online courses. Spring 2009 courses include water quality, general relativity, soil science and winter ecological field studies, among several others.

All courses are offered through the National Teachers Enhancement Network, which has delivered online courses since 1992. NTEN courses stress an inquiry-based approach, and instructors are experienced in both online teaching and their science content. All courses are for graduate credits from Montana State, a top-100 research university.

Courses begin between Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, 2009.

NSTA members receive a 10 percent discount on most NTEN courses. For more information or to register online, visit www.scienceteacher.org. Courses may also lead to an MSU's master's degree in science education: See www.montana.edu/msse for details.

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