Current Projects

Becoming America: The Defining the Role of Immigration Project (2009-2014)

A five-year, federally funded project which offers professional development to selected American History teachers in the participating school districts. The aim of the project is to help both native and non-native students see themselves reflected in the history of our country, thereby making American history more relevant to their own experiences by promoting a common cultural heritage. Read more...

Collaborating to Create a Science Learning Community (2010-2013)

A three-year, federally funded project which offers professional development to selected science teachers in the participating school districts. The aim of the project is to assist teachers, and ultimately their students, in better understanding scientific concepts using an inquiry-based approach that guides students in active science learning. Read more...

American History Online Professional Development Course (2010-2011)

This Teaching American History with Digital Media course presents topics in high school U.S. history from the 17th through the beginning of the 21st century. This project develops and revises an online course for educators, aligned with the Massachusetts History and Social Science Frameworks and incorporating the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies. The course development includes review of the American history content as it reflects the integration of 21st Century Skills and Social Studies. Read more...

 

Completed Projects

Federal Projects

Voices Rising Summer Institute Voices Rising Project

Voices Rising: Assimilation and the American Experience (2006-2009)

A three-year, federally funded project which offers professional development to selected American History teachers in the Everett, Malden, Medford and Revere school districts. Teachers receive training to enhance their skills in the teaching of American history and by learning to think and act like historians by using and analyzing primary source documents in their teaching of history. Read more ...

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (2003-2006)

Project LEARN/21C was comprised of a five-member Massachusetts consortium that included Salem State College (SSC); the cities of Everett, Malden, and Medford; and the Tri-City Technology Education Collaborative (TRITEC).

The project focused on:

  1. the creation of an effective curriculum/technology integration model for K-12 schools that involved teacher team development of interdisciplinary, web-based, project-based units (PBUs) that use the Internet as the primary resource for the completion of student PBU tasks. (Teams were comprised of preservice and mentor district teachers, and SSC faculty.);
  2. the implementation of these PBUs in K-12 classrooms by participating preservice and veteran teachers;
  3. the training of project participants in the use of web-based software to capture that implementation to determine PBU impact on student achievement; and
  4. the use of the PBU model as a catalyst for changing the SSC School of Education's ability to integrate technology throughout their courses and in the field training of their teachers.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) 2000-2003

In June 2000 Tufts and TRITEC were awarded a three-year implementation PT3 grant, TEACH 21C, to continue the work begun in the Y2K partnership. The university/K-12 school collaborative aimed to ensure that students enrolled in Tufts University teacher preparation programs became proficient in curriculum technology integration. Mentor teachers in the three districts worked collaboratively with Tufts pre-service teachers to create and implement project-based units that combined information processing skills, electronic resources, and the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. In addition, Tufts faculty taught curriculum/technology integration courses to assist them in achieving effective integration of curriculum and technology in the classroom.

The goal of this project was to create a K-16 model, whereby selected Tufts courses in both the Department of Education and the School of Arts and Sciences would adopt a project-based teaching strategy that integrated academic disciplines, technology, and sound pedagogy.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) 2000-2001

Project TEACH 21C, a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology United States Department of Education grant, was a university/K-12 school collaborative initiative designed to establish a new technology-proficient teaching force to help students internalize the lifelong learning skills necessary for productive lives as 21st century citizens.

The PT3 grant worked in conjunction with Tufts University, TRITEC, and the three urban rim communities of Everett, Malden, and Medford. It was the goal of the grant to address the issue of technology integration for new and seasoned teachers by having teams of teachers develop Web-based lessons in which students became active participants in seeking and applying information as they took responsibility for their own learning. To this effect, Teacher Learning Centers were established in each of the school districts. Each district was staffed with a full time director who provided curriculum/technology integration training and served as a resource to teachers throughout their district.

The 1999-2000 TEACH Y2K grant succeeded in producing several project-based, technology-infused units in the capacity building year of the grant, as well as creating a TEACH Y2K Website which showcased activities and accomplishments of the project and provided a means of communication and collaboration for teachers. Units developed by collaborative teams of teachers in each district were stored on the website so that the three communities and Tufts University could share them. Prospective teachers training in the districts were encouraged to become proficient using technology by participating in the development and implementation of project-based units (PBUs).

Massachusetts State Programs

Laptops in American History

Laptops in American History

This project provided training in the implementation of the Voices Rising project to teachers using a one-to-one WiFi student laptop environment in order to maximize demonstrated student learning on the soon-to-be-required U.S. History MCAS test. Read more ...

Project iTeach (2002-2004)

Project iTEACH, in conjunction with Tufts University, allowed teachers experienced in project-based unit (PBU) development and implementation in Everett, Malden, and Medford to create detailed classroom PBU implementation guides for fifty-four web-based PBUs in the tri-city database.

Each PBU in the database contains:

  1. a student component exploring an essential question or problem through research guided by selected web sites and culminating in a final student product; and
  2. a teacher component that makes explicit the district curriculum and technology student outcomes upon which the PBU was designed and how those outcomes are aligned with the state curriculum frameworks.

Project iTEACH also supported the creation of a series of training videos, produced in consultation with WGBH that portrayed successful PBU classroom implementation.

Adopting Best Practices (2001-2002)

This Adopting Best Practices Grant allowed the school districts of Everett, Malden and Medford to have its own project-based unit (PBU) implementation team, whereby six teachers who participated in the PBU development process over the previous two years trained their peers to implement the units over the course of the next academic year. Each of the three implementation teams consisted of teacher trainers who specialized in elementary, middle and high school PBU implementation- two trainers for each of the three divisions. In addition, a lead trainer for each implementation team was selected from among former PBU developers to coordinate the activities and professional development of the teacher trainers themselves; the three directors for the Teacher Learning Centers provided oversight of the entire process.

Technology Literacy Challenge Grant (1999-2000)

Partnering with the school districts of Everett, Malden, and Medford, Tufts' student teachers worked collaboratively with new and experienced classroom teachers to create project-based units. University-led, Teacher Learning Centers were created in each system to assist 12 pre-service and all new teachers to become proficient in curriculum/ technology integration. The math and science units the prospective teachers created, combined information processing skills, electronic resources, and the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.