Teacher Development Grant 2017-2018 Project Summary

Elizabeth Bruce

CentroNia • Washington, DC

Growing to Scale will support the expansion of strategies presented bilingually in the Theatrical Journey Playbook: Introducing Science to Young Children through Pretend Play (Elizabeth Bruce, in press) to scale by expanding a previously funded Teacher Development Initiative locally, regionally, internationally through CentroNía’s Institute. Four CentroNía Sites will participate, as will 3-4 PreK Colleague Centers through linkages with DC Public Schools, Public Charter Schools, and Early Childhood Centers. Importantly, CentroNía overwhelmingly serves low and moderate income and immigrant families, a majority of whom are Latino, African, African-American, or bicultural.

Participating educators will receive coaching and support from Master Teachers, who will develop training materials, including videos, and provide classroom kits to support theatrical play. The project also incorporates collaboration with engineering firms who will serve as pro-bono partners to conceptualize/design low-cost, multi-use, inter-changeable, space-saving devices as Journey teaching tools. The project will help to document teacher learning and benefits for students participating in the STEM and STEAM focused theatrical play.

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