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May 25, 2007

ULM's DREAM offers paid, professional development opportunities for local teachers

Local teachers are encouraged to attend professional development workshops in July and August. The sessions, sponsored by the University of Louisiana at Monroe's Delta Regional Educator's Academy (DREAM), will be taught by faculty from ULM and Louisiana Delta Community College. Teachers will be paid for attending.

DREAM provides quality professional development for pre-K through 12th-grade educators in northeast Louisiana, and is designed to meet the needs of individual schools, said Virginia Eaton, director of DREAM. "For the past five years, DREAM has been helping teachers to fulfill their 'dreams' of becoming highly-qualified educators. We are looking for teachers who want tomake a difference and who are willing to spend part of their summers working to achieve that goal."

DREAM, which was founded at ULM in 2002 by Eric Pani, associate provost for academic affairs, and Eaton, director of graduate studies, currently works with the school systems in the following parishes: Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, Franklin, LaSalle, Monroe City, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, Tensas, Union and West Carroll.

The following sessions are open to teachers in both private and public
schools:

• The already-booked LaSIP session, "Making Mathematics Meaningful" will instruct teachers on how to integrate literacy and math, July 9-27 at ULM.
  
  
• The Tensas MSP session, "Math Science Partnerships" will take place July 9 - 27, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. in Vidalia. Twenty algebra and physical science teachers from Tensas, LaSalle, Catahoula, and Concordia are invited to participate.
  
• The "Franklin MSP" session will begin July 16 and end Aug. 3, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. in Rayville. Twenty-five algebra and physical science teachers from Franklin, Richland, East Carroll and Monroe City are asked to participate.
  
  
• The "Morehouse MSP" session is scheduled for July 16 - Aug. 3, from 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at ULM. Twenty-five algebra and physical science teachers from Morehouse, Ouachita, Union and West Carroll are invited to participate.

All participants will receive $20 per hour, and will be reimbursed for travel expenses. Obtaining college credit can be arranged.

ULM's Eaton, director of DREAM, and Natalie Campbell, associate director of DREAM, work to garner state funds for DREAM. For more information about the initiative, visit: www.ulm.edu/dream, call (318) 342-3301 or e-mail dream@ulm.edu.

More about DREAM:

Info provided by the DREAM Web site. On Jan. 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB mandates that states create their own standards for what students should know, test student progress toward those standards, and have all students performing at a proficient level within 12 years.

To do this, highly-qualified teachers are necessary. According to the U.S. Dept. of Education, such a teacher knows what to teach, how to teach, and has command of the subject matter being taught. Accountability for results is stressed under NCLB and is shared throughout the education system. ULM formed DREAM in 2002 to provide services to and develop partnerships with fellow members of this system.

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