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August 30, 2006
What some teachers did over summer vacation
School's back in session and it's time to talk amongst ourselves about what we did during summer vacation. And not just students. USA Today has a great article about how many teachers spent their "vacations."
With NCLB standards requiring highly qualified teachers, many are spending their "down time" taking continuing education courses. One group of state Teachers of the Year "spent a week swapping ideas at a special workshop" that included "an airplane ride simulating a near zero-gravity environment." Bridget Kay Call of West Virginia summed it up by saying, "The speech teacher is speechless, and that's not quite like me." She also noted that it left her with an empathy for students who "struggle to describe the world around them." She also says, "If I don't keep growing, how do I expect my students to?"
"People think teachers are off for the summer, and they're not," says Kathleen Blake Yancey of the National Council of Teachers of English. In fact, many school districts require teachers to participate in summer courses. Programs like Teacher-to-Teacher offer teachers professional development and the interaction with their peers that they rarely have time for during the school year.
The article points out that in addition to the NCLB requirements, "businesses are demanding better prepared students, adding to the pressure teachers feel to keep up-to-date on the latest research and developments in their fields."
Posted August 30, 2006 2:06 PM |
Teachers
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