School's Out!

You were singing that Alice Cooper song, weren't you! Wow, that was a few years ago.

Okay, I'm back.

Summer break began June 2 for me. I'm one of those teachers who believes that we should use the summer to rest, recreate, and renew - NOT work during the summer. I believe it is our professional responsibility to do these three R's to be prepared for the the needs of the students by August. Resting and recreation allows my body and spirit to strengthen itself, but just as importantly, a teacher is obligated to pursue professional development to develop their mind. Critical to staying on the cutting edge is this continuing education or professional development.

I have four professional development goals for the summer.

1) I will be teaching a new reading class for middle school students at my alternative school. I'm not a reading specialist, but rather I am a licensed 5-12 language arts teachers. Amazingly, content area teachers were not taught reading strategies back in the day. Hopefully, Schools of Education have seen the light. Too many of our students are failing to read adequately. By the time they get to high school, they are not prepared for the amount or difficulty of reading for which they are responsible. In the 12 years that I've taught at the alternative school, it has been necessary to teach reading skills to all levels. I've learned the craft on the fly, reading books, talking to those who are in the know, and attending conferences. This summer, I want to formalize what I do to teach reading.

2) My second goal is an extention of another thing that I do at my school, but again the responsibility will take on a formality. I have been officially assigned the team leader for our school (8 total teachers: 5 in the alternative program 3 others in offshoot programs). My work this summer will be to design a big-picture vision for the pedagogical design of the school, then to backwards design monthly foci to lead teachers toward a cutting edge plan that takes our students' education beyond the textbooks and handouts. Team meetings will occur initially every two weeks. I will teach and lead my colleagues towards research based teaching principles, ultimately creating a team that learns about and makes these decisions about design principles and their application.

3) My third goal is to redesign one major unit. Every year, I take one or two large units and redesign and improve them. We recently retired two teachers in the alternative program. The two new teachers hired to replaced them were picked with a specific goal (see goal 2) in mind. They are able to take us toward project-based, problem-based, hands-on integrated units of study. Education research has proven that this is the best practice for motivating students to learn. My goal is to determine which units can easily be redesigned to incorporate other disciplines more fully into them. Or, even more exciting, to take these new teachers favorite projects from the last jobs and design a language arts curriculum to cooperate with their project. The new math teacher has an awesome pyramid project - well-known and well-copied within our school corporation. I'd love to research some literature that would support his project.

4) I also have an administrative license that requires updating. It expires in May of 2007. I am investigating a leadership academy that our corporation is beginning this fall. Otherwise, I will have to find some coursework to take. Our new state requirements will allow other ways to renew licensing, fortunately. Things like educational research and professional writing would be interesting ways to renew my license. Wouldn't it be nice if accomplishing my fourth goal would assist me in meeting my other three goals!!

So much for sleeping in, eating bon-bons and watching soaps. Not me!