The COVID-19 pandemic hit during the very last semester of our 5-year NSF Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship (MTF) program (award #1540712)designed to prepare 14 STEM master teachers for three urban school districts.  This intensive program included a variety of graduate-level courses, leadership seminars and supervised field experiences to prepare for various instructional leadership roles – yet it fell short of addressing the unprecedented and urgent need to support remote teaching and address other new socio-emotional as well as academic needs caused by the pandemic.  To respond to these new demands, we were awarded a supplement from NSF to both help these newly minted STEM master teachers’ efforts to support their students and colleagues, and to learn from their experiences so as to improve the preparation of future STEM instructional leaders.

In this video, we showcase some of the remarkable innovations these teacher leaders were able to spearhead in their own classrooms and/or schools during the 2020-21 school year.  The value of these experiences went well beyond helping students and colleagues deal with the immediate consequences of the pandemic, as in most cases it suggested new solutions and approaches worth continuing post-COVID, which schools could consider adopting to better adapt to the “new normal” and enhance their students’ success. We will also briefly identify what helped these teachers prepare for these innovations.

NSF Awards: 1540712

Presented in: 2021 (see original presentation & discussion)