Michelle McCarthy

 Michelle McCarthy

406-444-3537
Science Instructional Coordinator

Work-Related Duties:

  1. Works with teachers and other science education leaders to support science instruction in Montana schools.
  2. Keeps apprised of the Montana’s needs in science instruction.
  3. Updates disciplinary standards as needed, and processes Professional Development Certificates and maintains the PD unit Provider System.

Michelle has been with the Office of Public Instruction since August 2015. She was a middle school science, social studies, and math teacher at Bridger Schools. She also served as their RtI and Test Coordinator. She has also been a ½ time principal/teacher in a three-room schoolhouse.

As an adjunct faculty instructor at MSU-Billings and MSU Bozeman she taught undergraduate and graduate K-8 & 5-12 Science Methods and Ed Tech courses and was involved as a teacher leader in the Partnership to Reform Inquiry Science in Montana (PRISM) grant for six years. She earned her Bachelor of Science Education, SPED minor, and Master of Education at MSU-Billings. She completed the coursework for her doctorate at MSU Bozeman but never started the dissertation, so she ended up with an ABD.

Stephanie Swigart
 
 
 

 Stephanie Swigart

406-444-0736
English Language Arts and
Literacy Coordinator

Work-Related Duties:

  1. Project manager for the World Languages Content Standards Revision, The English Language Arts Content Standards Revision, and the ELA strand for the OPI Summer Institute.
  2. Manages the ELA webpage and the Standards Instruction and Professional Learning team’s monthly Compass Newsletter Bulletin. Stephanie is also working with the Education Innovations team to help review items and ELA passages for the Montana Alternative Student Test (MAST) pilot program.
  3. Collaborates with Montana education organizations such as the Montana Writing Coaches, and The Free Verse Project.

Stephanie’s focus at OPI is championing ELA-Literacy standards-based best practices to meet the diverse needs of all students, families, and schools. She is committed to building teacher-leader networks and expanding collaboration across the state. In addition to serving as the OPI liaison for the Montana Association for Teachers of English Language Arts (MATELA), she also collaborates with the State Coordinators of ELA (SCELA) across the U.S. to provide high-quality professional development and standards-based best practices to Montana educators.  

Since becoming an English teacher in 2010, Stephanie has taught every grade from 6th through College Writing 201. She earned her M.A. in English Teaching from the University of Montana in Missoula. As a member of the Montana Writing Project, an affiliate of the Writing Projects Under the Big Sky, and the National Writing Project, Stephanie served as the adjudicator coordinator for the Scholastic Teen Writing and Art awards. Stephanie is passionate about arts integration in the ELA classroom and has been the grant project director for the Montana Teacher Leaders in the Arts program to promote arts integration best practices to boost student success. She loves dystopian science fiction literature and hiking Montana’s trails with her fellow educator husband, daughter, and two good big doggos.