Connecticut Math Teachers Benefit from Leadership Academy

“I’m here to learn more about specific topics that relate to my school’s curriculum,” DaPonte says. “It would be helpful to learn how to better teach geometry, statistics, data analysis and general problem solving skills.”

The program is funded by two grants from the Mathematics and Science Partnership Program of the Connecticut State Department of Education.

Each participant will receive a $1,200 stipend, a laptop computer and six graduate credits through Wesleyan’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program. They will attend a two week summer program at Ansonia High School and three weekend workshops at Wesleyan and SCSU.

The initial workshop was held in Exley Science Center on May 19 and 20. Each participant in the workshop received software packages including Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel. Participants were trained how to use these programs as instructional tools.

“I used PowerPoint in college for projects, and a little Excel, but I never used either one for teaching before,” DaPonte said, during a lesson on Power Point. “I’d like to integrate the technologies into classroom instructions.”

After completing the program, the teachers will train other teachers at their schools. The program’s success will be measured by the participants’ student achievements. Academy leaders will see if students who are taught by trained teachers do better on the Connecticut Mastery Test and Connecticut Advanced Placement tests.

Zebarth says Wesleyan sponsors outreach programs like this to improve Connecticut’s teachers, which will provide more learning opportunities for the state’s students. He also hopes the state’s top high school students will apply to Wesleyan and enroll in a math or science program.