Science professional development programs like the AMS Education online course, “Water in the Earth System” (WES), and its other teacher training programs, should receive a boost in the far Northeast states. The new NSF funded, multi-year “Teacher Renewal and Retention” program called the Northern New England CoMentoring Network (NNECN) will be working with science and math teachers and their mentors in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. As the Maine State Coordinator for the program, I will be working directly in many school districts in the state with their inexperienced science teachers and their teacher mentors. This provides opportunities to introduce science departments to AMS programs and other training options. In addition, the other state coordinators can be made aware of the AMS programs and the state contact persons.

There is a great deal of interest and effort in the state of Maine and the Northeast to provide improved mentoring assistance to beginning teachers and teachers who are changing to new science teaching levels and subject areas. Strong and up-to-date content programs for professional development will play a significant role. I would like to be able to make others in education aware of this unique new program as many of us struggle to improve teacher science content and teaching skills to meet the challenges of a standards-based and rapidly changing educational environment.