Dr. Jenny M. Martin, an assistant professor of education at Bridgewater College, has been named the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Association of Teacher Educators’ School/University-Partnership Award for the project “Blended Instruction Field Experience.”
Martin and Mark Stevens, a Bridgewater graduate, seventh-grade social studies teacher in Fairfax County and doctoral student in GMU’s Learning Technologies Division, paired 50 undergraduate teacher candidates with 53 seventh-grade history students to produce a 1920s-style radio show script. The seventh-graders received several rounds of editing advice on the script, which they prepared as part of an authentic problem-based situation.
The project also was designed to give Bridgewater College teacher candidates experience mentoring middle-level learners. In their written reflections, Bridgewater’s teacher candidates said the most valuable component of the project was the one-on-one pairing with the seventh-graders.
“Mr. Stevens and I are honored, but the real credit goes to the students who engaged in the collaboration,” said Martin. “My hope is that this award and this project will encourage them to reach out to form partnerships with others. For teaching and learning, partnerships like this bring energy to schools.”
Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to more than 1,800 undergraduate students.
Share
Contributors
