Summertime, and the learning is easy. Scratch that—the learning is focused, rigorous, and intense. Teachers are put through the paces of graduate-level coursework—including focused reading, writing, and reflection—that is usually condensed into a few weeks.
What makes summer, typically a time of rest and leisure, so perfectly suited for educators' professional fine tuning? The great advantage of summer professional development is that "teachers get to walk away from everything else in their lives and give themselves entirely to a topic," says Roger Beckett, director of special programs at the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University in Ohio. "That kind of intense study is the best way to achieve deeper understanding." The center provides free summer institutes for secondary social studies teachers as part of a Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
With a range of available summer professional development opportunities provided by school districts and independent organizations, sometimes the problem isn't deciding whether you want to take a summer course, it's whereand on what topic.
The Road Trip
So you want to be a rock and roll teacher? Check out the Summer Teacher Institute sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Cuyahoga Community College (http://www.rockhall.com/programs/institute.asp) in Cleveland, Ohio. The week-long session helps teachers use American popular music as a hook to draw students into core subjects. Craig Woodson, senior director of education for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, says the institute provides a wide range of lessons, from a general history of rock music to specific strategies for using popular music in particular content areas. Recently, institute speakers have used rock and roll to tackle instruction tied to standards. Teachers and students agree—that rocks, says Woodson.
Every summer, the Asia Institute at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) hosts a two-week seminar centered on a particular theme in Asian studies. This year, guest lecturers and college professors will converge on the UCLA campus to discuss Asian literature. Participants will explore the classics and newer works, as well as how Asian literature is translated into film and television and how it can be used to better understand social relations and cultural norms.
Clayton Dube, assistant director of the UCLA Asia Institute, says Asian studies is an area where U.S. teachers receive very little preservice training. They know it's important to understand other cultures, but they don't always have practical strategies for delivering information about Asia to their students. When they leave UCLA's summer institute, Dube says, teachers not only know "the logic of how Asia fits into the construction of our world and society but also have the confidence and means to try these new lessons with their students."
Hands-on Learning
Drawing practical applications from summer learning is key, experts say. Sally Clement works as the education and outreach coordinator for the Semiconductor Research Corporation and helps run the Secondary Math and Science Teacher Summer Institute offered by the University of Arizona and the National Science Foundation. The three-week institute promises opportunities to experience cutting-edge research, explore real-world industrial applications, and develop new classroom curricula. For example, in one of the research labs, teachers are investigating a process called planarization—a sophisticated polishing process—and are using an instrument called a profilometer to measure the smoothness or irregularity of a surface.
An earth science teacher from Gridley Middle School in Tucson used her experience at the institute to develop a lesson that involved mapping and modeling the ocean floor. She modeled "rifts, volcanoes, trenches, and so forth, using a shoebox and popsicle sticks to illustrate depth," says Clement. Essentially she studied what a profilometer does at a microscopic level and carried it to the macro level. She took a "really high-tech instrument and found its application in her middle school classroom," Clement adds.
Destination: A New Location
It is essential for teachers to work with high-tech instruments in professional settings outside the classroom, Clement says, because it gives them a real sense of the "kinds of professional uses there are for the math or science they're teaching in the classroom." At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., educators are using the museum setting and visual arts technology to explore the connection between storytelling and learning, and the ways K–12 teachers can use pieces of art with storytelling activities in the classroom. Julie Springer, coordinator of teacher programs at the National Gallery, says, "Museums can offer a unique forum for learning how to integrate teaching with objects—in our case, artworks—across the curriculum."
Every summer, the museum offers a curriculum-friendly topic that relates to the National Gallery's collection. In the last two years, Springer says, "I've been very interested in helping teachers better understand the visual arts through online technologies." This year, teachers will be asked to create an electronic story as part of the course. "The Web is a new filter for the age-old practice of storytelling," says Springer, and the approach is "very relevant to middle and high school students." During the course, teachers will use concepts taught by Joe Lambert of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, Calif., (http://www.storycenter.org) to make multimedia stories about an art topic.
Lasting Impressions
To maintain skills learned in the summer months, educators need ongoing school support, sources say. For example, Bonnie Bundy, coordinating supervisor of staff development, runs a three-day summer retreat focusing on leadership for the 200 principals in Prince George's County, Md. Prior to the retreat, a leadership planning committee meets monthly to provide support for principals and to identify specific areas of concern for further investigation during the summer.
To help seminar participants stay in touch and exchange ideas, the Asia Institute uses Web discussion boards. Some participants also create Web boards for their classrooms. For example, a world history teacher who attended the program created a Web discussion board so his students could collaborate with students in Germany, China, and Japan.
Collaboration continues for some teachers who met at National Gallery of Art institutes, Springer says. For the past 10 years, these teachers have created "an international student art exchange" and hosted an annual exhibit called "A World United Through Art" in different cities around the world. They've been committed to this international exchange, says Springer, because they found it enriching to come together from all over the world and study together. Summertime is the best time to forge partnerships that will last long past Labor Day, says Antoinette Kellaher, coordinating supervisor in the Department of Staff Development in Prince George's County Public Schools. Teaching "is not a 10-month job," says Kellaher. "This is a yearlong job, and part of that year is professional training. You must commit to lifelong, year-round learning in this profession."
It's important that summer learning does not happen in a vacuum, say experts. Coordinators need to constantly reflect on whether the training they offer in the summer is actually used in the fall, winter, and spring. Several years ago, UCLA organizers surveyed past participants on the effectiveness of the Asia Institute's courses, "and we noticed that we received low marks under ‘I'm using this stuff with my students, today,’" says Dube. In recent years, the institute has changed its approach to systematically provide information and tools that teachers can use in the classroom.
Fertile Minds
Time for reflection, a change of location, new and engaging learning tools, and the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse crop of educators all make the summer a season ripe for professional growth. "In the summer," Dube reflects, "teachers don't have the challenge of doing their jobs while learning. Summer learning gains are in leaps and bounds."