The Virginia Department of Education this week announced a $226,113 grant to a partnership program to prepare instructors to teach new math and science Standards of Learning.

The award is a continuation grant for The College of William and Mary’s Tidewater Team Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Center. Suffolk participates in the program.

The program started last year as a way to help seventh- and eighth-grade math and science teachers familiarize themselves with new Standards of Learning that were adopted by the state school board in 2009.

Margie Mason, a mathematics education professor at William and Mary who heads the Tidewater Team, said many teachers need help adapting to the new standards, which will be implemented in the 2011-2012 school year.

The program helps teachers learn improved techniques and styles to teach the new standards.

For example, Mason said teachers learn to use more hands-on methods like using boxes filled with cubes to teach volume and surface area.

“It turns out to be a much more effective way of teaching,” she said. “It makes it so much easier to apply. It really helps the kids to visualize it.”

The team started work last year when it recruited representatives from each school to be lead teachers.

Suffolk had representatives from King’s Fork, John F. Kennedy and John Yeates middle schools.

These leaders presented and gathered information on the new standards at a conference last fall and took the information back to their schools to train the other teachers.

“They each chose what their school needed the most and then tailored it to their school,” Mason said. “Each school has a different personality.”

She added the Suffolk teachers worked hard and did incredible things for their schools.

These teachers will report their findings at a three-day conference at William and Mary at the end of June.

The teachers and members of the Tidewater Team will discuss triumphs as well as problem areas with the new material.

“We’ll all work together to plug any holes that become obvious,” Mason said.

As a new method for this year, the team is looking to get more teachers involved by having online seminars every teacher can attend no matter where they are.

These webinars will be broadcast on the team’s website for teachers to view throughout the school year. Mason said she hopes the team will have one every three weeks.

The seminars will cover topics such as new inclusions on the SOLs and teaching techniques.

Mason said she thinks the program got a continuation because of its success rate.

“What we’re proposing is needed and authentic,” she said. “It has a good chance of succeeding and has the support of the schools.”

She added she especially enjoys seeing the results of the program like improved scores and changed teaching methods.

“It is so rewarding,” she said. “The teachers are so great to work with.”

For more information on the Tidewater Team, visit tidewaterteam.wm.edu.