Check out this new resource! We now have slides ready for your state that include the Retirement Information for your state's pension plan and a slide that lists Scholarships and Loan Forgiveness opportunities for those planning to earn their teacher certification, or even teachers looking to go back for further education. Click on the map for a series of PowerPoint slides that are ready to drop into either the Busting Myths about the Teaching Profession or the Teaching: The Best Kept Secret! presentation.
Thank you to our new marketing expert, Ashley, for creating these top-notch brochures for our program! We recently tested the layout and photos with students and received excellent responses.
These brochures:
Include GFO messaging integrated into the design.
Depict various teachers in different versions, so you can pick the best option for your institution.
Are offered in PowerPoint, so you can update the colors to match your institution's branding.
Download these brochures today on the GFO Flyer Templates page!
Summer Fun with GFO
UTeach in Austin
Thanks to Glenn Waddell for his talk at #UTeach called "Get the Facts Out: Research, Resources, and Strategies for Recruiting STEM Teachers." Glenn shared rather surprising data about the teaching profession, then looked at strategies and resources for sharing the facts about the profession so students have accurate information about their career prospects. Great job Glenn!
Thank you also to GFO's own Dawson Lang for participating at UTeach and Noyce. Dawson loved talking to everyone at the table and hearing your stories. Great work Dawson!
Noyce Summit in Washington DC
Did you know? Half of all STEM majors are interested in teaching as a profession, and STEM students of color are more interested in teaching than their counterparts. Thank you to Drew Isola and Dawson Lang for presenting "Get the Facts Out! How to Increase the Number and Diversity of Your Majors" at the Noyce Summit 2023 in Washington DC.
A Short Review of Recent Evaluation Findings
The Busting Myths presentation is our most effective resource
When used as designed, the Busting Myths About the Teaching Profession Presentation positively impacts students’ perceptions of the teaching profession with a third indicating an increased interest in becoming a teacher after a single presentation. Across 54 student presentation pre/post surveys in 2022, students display shifts in attitudes, agreeing that teaching is a good career and disagreeing that teaching pays a lot less than other careers. One-third of students shift towards agreement that they want to be a teacher after attending a GFO presentation.
Awareness of GFO is high and growing.
On a variety of surveys, 40% or more respondents were aware of GFO. Awareness of GFO was particularly high among AMTE members; 56% of those surveyed were aware of GFO, and 16% mentioned GFO as a resource before it was mentioned in the survey. Even those survey respondents who are not aware of GFO indicate that they are likely to at least visit the website (60%) or might use the materials (43%), showing that faculty immediately perceive value in the project and what it offers.
Faculty are highly positive about GFO, finding it to be a uniquely valuable resource.
Faculty are enthusiastic about GFO and the materials, often citing the customizable materials and access to national and local data. For example, on a recent survey of GFO users, 98% agreed that they feel confident that the data provided by GFO is accurate and trustworthy, 96% agreed that GFO provides needed resources and supports that they cannot find elsewhere, and 88% agreed that GFO is highly relevant for their recruitment audience.
Please keep supporting GFO. Your hard work is paying off!
Check out this great summary of the many, many ways that your fellow members of the GFO Community are using GFO Resources and Messaging to promote their STEM teacher preparation programs and recruit more future teachers. Here are a few quotes.Read the full blog for more!
"Using the templates provided, I've created institutional-specific content for use in social media... Twitter and Facebook accounts associated with the department/university and also large Facebook groups of science educators across the state."
"I've used GFO materials with STEM faculty meetings to make sure that they have accurate information and to recruit them as allies. I use GFO resources to promote our undergraduate STEM education pathways as well as to recruit for my own graduate STEM education program..."
"It's been so effective that I actually went on to design a whole adulting unit, to help students better understand what they are looking at. The unit includes what retirement is (both defined benefits and defined contributions), what social security is, how to set up a budget that includes saving goals, how to estimate how much folks will need to live on at retirement, and what health insurance is and how it works."
STEM Teacher, Noyce Scholarship recipient, and blogger with The Small Town Stem Teacher, Katherine Flax recently wrote this inspiring post about how the Noyce Scholarship changed her life and led to an invitation to participate in the Voices from the Field panel at the 2023 Noyce Summit, Transforming Teacher Preparation and Retention: A Focus on Equity, Research, and Innovative Strategies.
A GFO Champion is anyone who shares facts about the teaching profession by using the materials and messages from the GFO project locally or nationally. A GFO Champion can be a current teacher, a faculty member, a teacher recruiter, or a careers advisor, or more!
It helps the project a great deal if you register as a Champion - and, you will appear on the community map, earn designations that can be included in your professional portfolio, and can make priority requests for local teacher salary and benefits data.
We are excited to welcome our 15 newest GFO Champions:
Lydia Fox, Geo & Enviro Sciences, University of the Pacific, CA
Jennifer Parsons, Physics, Tyler Jr. College, TX
Brynja Kohler, Math, Utah State University
John Bragelman, Math, University of North Georgia
Julie Talbot, Physics, University of West Georgia
Leslie Atkins, Physics, Boise State University, ID
Erin Servillo, K12 HR, East Windsor Regional School District, NJ
Robynne Lock, Physics, Texas A&M University - Commerce
Brittany Lane, Director, Graduate Programs, Metropolitan State University of Denver
Martha Day, Chemistry, Western Kentucky University
James Autry, STEM Education, University of Texas Permian Basin
Nathan Blom, STEM Education, Alabama A&M University
Kania Greer, General Education, Georgia Southern University
Stephanie Sheperd, Geoscience, Auburn University, AL
Jen Oswald, Teacher Education, Northwestern Oklahoma State University
Not a Champion yet? Learn more about becoming a GFO Champion.
Talk to us! We want to hear from you – your successes, challenges, questions and concerns! EmailGettheFactsOut@Mines.edu.
Get the Facts Out is an NSF funded partnership between the Colorado School of Mines and four national societies: American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. GFO is a unique project that is designed to reach STEM majors in a large fraction of all U.S. mathematics, chemistry, and physics departments and has potential to significantly address teacher shortages in these high-need STEM disciplines.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1821710 & 1821462. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Get the Facts Out, 1523 Illinois St., Golden, Colorado 80401
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