With the changing of seasons and the arrival of spring we are in the process of making plans for the 2016-2017 school year. We are currently waiting for approval of MAPSS for Year 2 and this will include an Expansion plan. Within the expansion we will begin partnerships with 5 new school districts in our region, these include: Surry County Schools, Stokes County Schools, Yadkin County Schools, Thomasville City Schools and Asheboro City Schools. If approved these 5 new districts will include 40 additional teachers. Therefore MAPSS would be covering 10 school districts and working with 120 teachers for Year 2. We are excited of the possibilities this approval would bring to our MAPSS grant work! *Note: Please remember that all Year 1 districts will remain in our Year 2 partnerships as well, our goal is to continue building capacity with the original 5.

The snow held us off for 2 days but we managed to make it to our MAPSS Spring Retreat 2016! We would like to thank all of our teachers that were able to attend this event during an extremely busy part of the school year. Once again we would like to thank WFU for hosting our group, as well as Dr. Joe Ferrara, Dr. Stan Hill and Dr. Larry Coble for their work and efforts that provided our participants with 2 days of reflection, collaboration and planning time with support.

• We learned from each other through sharing of experiences and planning opportunities.
• Dr. Ferrara helped us better understand how the 5 standards can be seen in formative assessment, a must for authentic instruction in all classrooms.
• Edmodo was used by all to increase learning from our professional learning network.
• As a group we learned how to begin writing our own problems and projects based on our curriculum needs.
• We were reminded that the MAPSS model for problem and project-based learning is unique. Our lessons should always be aligned to our content standards and as the teacher we must be purposeful in how implementation is designed.

Our MAPSS grant work this year has provided our participants with training revolved around their teacher leadership skills. Our teachers are pioneers in this work, and they can provide a consistent resource within their schools and districts because of the learning experiences they had this year. We have been fortunate enough to have Dr. Larry Coble, Executive Director of PTEC, to guide our teachers through this journey of leadership. During our Spring Retreat Dr. Stan Hill, also helped our teachers reflect on their experiences as MAPSS teachers this year. Teachers used a list of leadership statements to reflect and share how they have been impacted as a teacher leader. Below is a sample of the leadership statements created by Dr. Coble.

• "As teacher leaders, leading change effectively requires leader flexibility."
• "As teacher leaders, making mistakes and learning from your mistakes is a normal part of the leadership process."
• "The practical aspect of working as teacher leaders requires that you begin to take the responsibility for your own leadership development."

• As of today our participants have 6,263 total number of contact hours.
  
• The goal for the MAPSS grant was to ensure all participants received 80 hrs. of PD
• As of today the Average Contact Hours Provided Per Participant is 92.1
• PD events that have been completed: Summer Institute (10 days), Fall Retreat (2 days), Spring Retreat (2 days)
• Ongoing PD includes: Coaching sessions (virtual and face-to-face), Providing of Resources via Edmodo (our professional learning network), and teachers have lifetime access to the WFU/UTD online repository of problem-based and project-based cases.

The MAPSS Management Team must ensure that our grant is met with fidelity and provides all of our participants with an opportunity to be successful. However, we could not be successful without great participants that are willing to take on this journey. Likewise, our success is also dependent upon committed school districts that want to provide their teachers with quality professional development that will grow teachers and kids! Thank you to our Year 1 Partners: Alamance-Burlington Schools, Davidson County Schools, Lexington City Schools, Mount Airy City Schools and Randolph County Schools.

Email: pwillard@mtairy.k12.nc.us
Website: http://www.mtairy.k12.nc.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?type=d&uREC_ID=364776&pREC_ID=809487
Location: 130 Rawley Avenue, Mount Airy, NC, United States
Phone: (336) 719-6710
Twitter: @WillardPenny