The ThEMaT project announces the creation of the LessonSketch Research and Development
Fellowship program and the opening of the application process for this opportunity.
LessonSketch Research and Development Fellows will commit to the production of teacher
education modules. The project will support fellows with honoraria, travel to meetings, support in
using LessonSketch.org, and the opportunity to shape new developments of the LessonSketch
platform.
Modules
Each module will:
 Be designed for use in some component of teacher education (content courses, methods
courses, internships, reading courses, adolescent development courses, …).
 Target an important practice of mathematics teaching or an important knowledge base
relevant to mathematics teaching.
 Be built around representations of teaching practice: animations, slideshows, videotape
of classrooms, or student work.
 Provide pre-service candidates with opportunities to engage in at least two of the
following four activities: viewing representations of practice, examining decompositions
of practice, creating approximations of practice, and carrying out practice.
 Include a set of annotated LessonSketch agendas that a teacher educator can study and
then assign to their pre-service candidates as an experience, along with any needed
supplemental resources that can help pre-service candidates prepare for the experiences.
Timeline
LessonSketch Research and Development Fellowships involve two and a half years of active
work and support. Fellowship applications will be made available during the summer of 2013.
Applications will be reviewed and fellowships announced early in the fall of 2013. Fellows will
be introduced to the LessonSketch platform and will have regular support. They will produce
initial documentation of the goals of their module, pilot activities, draft LessonSketch agendas by
the summer of 2014, and will recruit colleagues willing to pilot these initial drafts and form a
LessonSketch Module Inquiry Group.
During the academic year of 2014-2015, fellows will support LessonSketch Module
Inquiry Group members in piloting the draft materials. The inquiry group will provide critical
feedback and suggestions for improvement, refinement, and further development.
The fall of 2015 will involve further piloting, as well as the engagement of a set of end
users throughout the country.
Support
LessonSketch Research and Development Fellows will be recognized for their creative efforts
in developing teacher education materials. They will be provided with support when using the
environment and will have an opportunity to inform the development of the platform. Finally,
LessonSketch Research and Development Fellows will receive a $8,000 honorarium per year for
up to 2.5 years for their development work; they will also receive travel support to project
meetings and to the AMTE conference to showcase their work.
The LessonSketch environment
The ThEMaT project has created a set of animations and LessonSketch, an on-line platform for
teacher education involving rich media artifacts. LessonSketch allows teacher educators to make
assignments asking their students to view and comment on animations, videos, and slideshows, as
well as to create their own slideshows. An authoring tool, Plan, allows teacher educators to create
agendas for those assignments, which they can then assign to their students and receive detailed
reports generated by the system.
The ThEMaT project
ThEMaT is a unique collaborative opportunity for mathematics teacher educators. The
LessonSketch Research and Development fellowships are opportunities to join an active group of
about 15 scholars who are working for the project and learning together. We seek individuals who
are highly motivated, industrious, and interested in examining the work of teacher education.
Successful applicants should be able to work in ill-structured environments and take
responsibility for development projects. Experience as a teacher educator, as a teacher, writing
fiction, analyzing discourse, producing multimedia content, programming, or creating graphic arts
are also a plus.
Application procedures
To apply, by October 1st, please send the following materials to dchazan”at”umd.edu:
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CV
One page description of principles that guide you in your work as a teacher educator.
Syllabus for the course for which you intend to design a module (can be a description of a
context other than a course, if relevant).
Using the above bullets, a one-page description of the focus of your module.
A list of colleagues you might recruit as members of a LessonSketch Module Inquiry
Group.
Applications will be reviewed by the project and notifications will be mailed November 15th,
2013.