PLI #2

About the Session

Come join us to see how OpenSciEd’s materials can help you reveal your students’ brilliance. This professional learning institute will simultaneously prepare you to teach the first unit in the OpenSciEd middle school program and provide the support you need to advance your practice so that learning is both driven by student questions and leads to the foundational science learning they need to be successful. To do this, this session will put teachers in the student’s seat so they can feel what it's like to be a student whose thoughts and questions are valued in the drive to figure out puzzling phenomena. We actually do science together with the facilitator acting as the "teacher" and then dig in to see the coherence across the program and the details in the first units of OpenSciEd’s program.

In the morning, coaches, admin, and teachers will be together. In the afternoon, teachers will keep digging into the materials, and instructional coaches or administrators will have the option to move to a breakout room to learn more about the tools and resources that are available to support teachers in impactful implementation.

Tommy Clayton

Tommy Clayton is a middle school teacher with 11 years of experience in the classroom. He currently teaches 8th grade in NJ and has been utilizing the OpenSciEd curriculum for the last 5 years. Tommy was a pilot teacher as well as a development consultant on several of the OpenSciEd Middle School units. In 2019 Tommy joined the OpenSciEd Facilitator Team where he currently supports teachers using the OpenSciEd materials. In addition to facilitating professional learning events, he is also helping to develop materials for the integration of OpenSciEd with Google Classroom. During the 2022-2023 school year, Tommy is filming his classroom which will be used by BSCS to further improve OpenSciEd Professional Learning materials. Having the opportunity to work on both sides of the curriculum gives Tommy unique insights and experiences that he hopes to share with teachers and students on a national level.

Heather Galbreath

Heather Galbreath is a middle school science teacher with 24 years of classroom experience, and currently teaches 6th grade science at Lombard Middle School in Galesburg, IL. Heather has been using OpenSciEd materials in her classroom since the piloting phases in 2018 and can share many useful tips and tricks which will benefit others as they implement these amazing units in their own classroom. Heather has been a part of the OpenSciEd Facilitator Team for 7 years and has assisted other projects for OpenSciEd such as Facebook group moderation and Google Classroom integration. As a classroom teacher, as well as a professional learning facilitator, Heather is passionate about sharing experiences that will help support her fellow science teachers in shifting their instructional practices to best engage students as scientists.

Alicia Wedderburn, MPH, M.Ed.

I have over twenty years of experience as a science educator supporting students, teachers, school leaders, and district and state level administrators. I also partner with EdPrep programs and national education non profit organizations to help transform science classrooms through high quality standards-aligned instruction that is equity-based, student-centered and culturally sustaining. I am passionate about de-settling inequitable systems, routines, and assumptions in education and excited to share strategies and best practices with colleagues.

Renee Affolter

Renee Affolter has been supporting K-12 teachers in science education for over 20 years through the design, research, and delivery of professional learning for teachers and leaders.  She is currently a researcher and the Co-Director of the OpenSciEd Equitable (OEI) Initiative at Boston College where she is supporting schools across MA as they adopt OpenSciEd.  Renee helped with the design of the OpenSciEd middle school science curriculum and professional learning materials. Prior to this Renee taught middle and high school science and co-developed and implemented several MSP funded programs to support K-12 teachers.  Renee’s background is in biology and she holds a M.Ed. from the University of California Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Science Education from UMass Amherst.