PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ESWP’s success is linked to the high quality professional development opportunities provided to teachers via week-long summer institutes and through afterschool video conferencing providing teachers in isolated communities with the opportunity to interact with colleagues on a regular basis. ESWP staff work closely with the Inyo County Office of Education (ICOE) in the recruitment of teachers, dissemination of the project goals, the incorporation of state content standards, and multi-cultural pedagogy. Teacher professional development takes place through intensive summer institutes then continues through the school year by the use of videoconferencing, connecting participating teachers throughout Inyo County. The ICOE staff is instrumental in coordination and facilitation of the teacher professional development institutes and after-school videoconferencing. The goal of the ESWP professional development component is to better equip participating science teachers to meet the needs of all students. Toward this end, teachers learn to:

Align curriculum and assessment with standards Use hands-on, inquiry approaches to teaching Use strategies for helping students develop academic language Use research-based strategies to help students build deeper content understanding Increase awareness of multicultural issues in science education Develop familiarity with scientific tools that can be used in the field for monitoring Use strategies for addressing language learners in the science classroom

Summer Institutes: At the summer institutes, ESWP and the ICOE staff bring together teachers, local scientists and land management professionals to design standards-based, hands-on field and classroom science programs for students. As part of the institute, teachers receive training on best practices for teaching science. Past presentations have included: strategies to build academic language for ELL and other learners in science, issues in instructing Native American learners, field data collection techniques, hands-on practice analyzing collected data, use of historic documents as research tools and presentation of activity-based science kits for classroom use.

The following is one response from a teacher when asked to reflect on ESWP middle school program “The Eastern Sierra Watershed Project made my science classroom so much more fun and engaging for the kids and so satisfying for me as a teacher. I appreciated so very much the classroom science kits and activities provided by ESWP and all of the work that was done that made it possible for me to bring this curriculum to huge classes. The follow up meetings were rare times for professional reflection, sharing, and growing. In my 22 years of teaching and many exceptional opportunities for all kinds of professional growth over the years, ESWP was one of the best professional growth experiences I have had. Everything about it enriched not only my life as a teacher, but through my enrichment and the activities themselves, the lives and experiences of the students." After school follow-up meetings: Teachers who participated in the Watershed Project met after school to reflect on their science teaching practice. They share specific ideas for teaching concepts to their students as well as strategies for working with struggling students. Using the book Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (Marzano et al), teachers try a new strategy each month with their students, and share their observations and reflections with their colleagues. Because schools in Inyo County are spread over such a wide geographical area, teachers assemble at two sites, one in Bishop and one in Independence. Videoconferencing units in each location allow the teachers to join for the meetings. The Inyo County Office of Education facilitates and guides the teachers’ work at the follow-up sessions. As teachers develop lessons and activities connected with the Watershed Program, they share their work with their colleagues. Over time these teacher-created lessons become part of the program curriculum.