Four highly regarded Idaho teachers (and IEA members) are participating in the prestigious Master Teacher Project, which was launched jointly by the National Education Association and BetterLesson. The project website was officially launched today and already features more than 3,000 classroom-ready lesson plans that are easily accessible for teachers in Idaho and around the nation.
Following an extensive application process, four Idaho teachers were selected for the Master Teacher Project.
Glenda Funk and Julia Withers
- Glenda Funk of Highland High School in Pocatello
- Julia Withers of Vallivue Middle School in Caldwell
- Merrie Rampy of Highland School in Craigmont
- Amelia Jamison of Vallivue High School in Caldwell
Merrie Rampy
Amelia Jamison
The Master Teacher Project is ambitious and rigorous. Participants are required to post a lesson plan every day—in narrative form and complete with student work samples, teacher resources, a video component, and different levels of tagging. The over-arching purpose of the Master Teacher Project is to create exemplary, teacher-designed courses that are in alignment with Common Core State Standards (known in Idaho as the Idaho Core Standards).
“Being a part of the project makes me a better teacher every day, and my coach challenges me to increase the rigor of every lesson I create,” said Withers. “I’m excited to have virtual conversations with the folks who will try my lessons, and I want to see how my lesson writing translates into another teacher’s classroom and personal style.” Withers teaches seventh grade English Language Arts and is in her firth year of teaching at Vallivue Middle School.
Rampy is in her 24th year of teaching and has taught at virtually every grade level in four different states. Jamison is a math teacher in her 11th year of teaching high school in Caldwell.
“The goal of the project is to put other teachers in the classroom of accomplished teachers by giving them access to an entire year’s worth of unit and lesson plans with all the resources they need to teach the class using those materials,’ said Funk. “In my utopian world the MTP will open doors to other unique, paying opportunities in education.”
Funk is a National Board Certified Teacher who holds an MA in English. She recently met her Master Teacher Project coach, Debra Block, while attending the National Council of Teachers of English in Boston. More about her involvement in the Master Teacher Project can be found in IEA President Penni Cyr’s blog, where she featured Glenda’s own blog on MTP as a guest piece.
The National Education Association and BetterLesson issued a press release today announcing that the Master Teacher Project website has gone “live”, including additional information about the project and quotes from key participants.
