College Faculty and Partners to Interview NYS Master Teacher Program Finalists
Learn more about the program on the SUNY website.
Thirty-five finalists for the 2013-2014 cohort of SUNY New Paltz Master Teachers arrive for rigorous day-long interviews for the NYS Master teachers Program on August 28 and 29. The candidates are high-performing secondary science and mathematics teachers selected by the State University of New York Central Administration and the New York State Education Department from a pool of 74 applicants to the Mid-Hudson cohort.
Faculty from the School of Education and the School of Science and Engineering will make recommendations regarding which candidates will serve as Master Teachers in mathematics and science, sharing their expertise with their peers, and working to improve scientific and mathematical knowledge for New York State middle and high school students.
Next week’s interviews are a rigorous series occurring in three phases.
First, each candidate will share a presentation to a small group of peers based on science or mathematics research, or area of interest in her/his field of science or mathematics. This phase of the interview process focuses evidence of deep subject knowledge and presentation to a group of peers.
Personal interviews follow with interviewers in his/her academic subject area – a faculty member in the School of Science and Engineering – and a School of Education faculty member or educator from our partnership members.
The final step of the interview process occurs as a free written response to an essay question related to teaching and learning. Once the three stages of the interview are complete, interviewers will convene for debriefing and the selection of recommendations to SUNY Central as to which candidates scored effectively. SUNY Central will announce the cohort of selected Master Teachers in September. At that point, plans for professional development, leadership training, and subject area workshops will be finalized by the SUNY New Paltz Master Teacher Program co-directors, Rosemary Millham and Devon Duhaney, who have been working with Thomas Nolen in the Department of Geology.
Interviewers include, Rosemary Millham, assistant professor, Department of Secondary Education; Alex Bartholomew, assistant professor, Department of Geology; Thomas Nolen, Associate Dean of the School of Science and Engineering; David Hobby, associate professor and Chair, Department of Mathematics; Stacy Nunes, assistant professor and Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy; Devon Duhaney, associate professor, Department of Secondary Education; Nataly Chesky, lecturer, Department of Elementary Education; Dr. Natalie Cartwright, assistant professor, Department of Mathematics; and Joann Murphy-Genter, assistant director of the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center.
The Master Teacher Program is part of the NYS Math and Science for All initiative. SUNY New Paltz is one of four campuses to lead Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s NYS Master Teacher Program, a new statewide initiative proposed in the 2013 State of the State Address. The program is intended to encourage the state's best teachers to share their expertise with peers, to reward the state’s highest performing teachers, and to ensure that the best and brightest teachers stay in education.
Each Master Teacher will serve for four years, receiving a stipend of $15,000 each year. There is more information on the program and the initiative of which it is a part in the State University of New York website announcement.
