Participants in University of Maine Innovation for Educators course receive Rethinking Remote Education Ventures awards
The Maine Department of Education has announced more than $2 million in pilot implementation funding for Maine schools that have created innovative pilot programs as part of the Rethinking Remote Education Ventures (RREV) project. Seven of the nine schools to receive funding completed the Innovation for Educators course offered by the University of Maine through RREV.
“The RREV program forges a powerful partnership between Maine’s institutions of higher education and the state’s PreK–12 educators, allowing us to share tools and systems that empower teachers and administrators to transform the student experience,” says Renee Kelly, Vice President of Innovation and Economic Development at the University of Maine, and one of UMaine’s RREV course instructors. “This collaboration is also about facilitating connections — between Maine schools, the state’s colleges and universities, members of the business community, and beyond. The University of Maine is proud to partner in Maine’s bold effort to create innovative learning opportunities for all students.”
In 2020, the Maine DOE was awarded $16.9 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Rethink K–12 Education Models Funding. As one of 11 states to receive funding, Maine embarked on the RREV project, which aims to generate innovative remote and responsive learning models to provide equitable access to high quality learning opportunities for all students. Maine DOE has partnered with higher education institutions in Maine to offer free courses in which preK–12 educators learn skills that will help them develop and realize ideas. As part of the course, they design pilot projects to submit for RREV Innovation Awards.
Schools that received awards in the first of several rounds of funding hail from districts across the state and will use the money to further develop their pilot programs. Teams that completed the UMaine course represent schools in communities including North Berwick (Noble), Camden-Rockport, Deer Isle-Stonington, Brewer, Paris area (Oxford Hills), Farmington area (Mt. Blue), and the Katahdin Region.
“This course in particular has been really, really helpful to have you prepared to pitch ideas to students or to other teachers, or to parents, administrators, school board members and to be prepared to answer all the questions that will come at you,” says Travis Tierney, who teaches high school English in the Mt. Blue Regional School District and completed the UMaine course with Mt. Blue pre-engineering instructor Jacob Bogar. Their district was awarded pilot implementation funding for the Oxbow Outdoor Pilot to provide outdoor learning experiences and also has plans to offer an innovation course for students, allowing them to earn college credits. “We met a lot of really fantastic people through the course who are doing similar innovative things around the state, who I did not know prior to taking the course. We were given a license to dream, and it’s been hard to dream over the past year, so that felt good.”
New sections of UMaine’s Innovation for Educators course will be offered this fall.
A news release is online.
Contact: Ashley Forbes, ashley.forbes@maine.edu