I had forgotten how 'frivolous' summer can be for a teacher. Before I went shopping today with my mother, I noticed in the Lake City Reporter that 600 teachers from around the surrounding counties are involved in a SUMS (Students Understanding Math and Science) workshop. It dawned on me that for the first time in many years, I'm not involved. The reason: Only those teachers who teach Science and Math can attend. Better yet. I didn't want to. For many years I used my 'vacation time' attending workshops. I was always an eager participant and ended up presenting in a few of these workshops.
The second week of the SUMS workshop is dealing with Science. Now that, I can deal with. In all probability, the instructors will teach teachers how to teach science with hands-on thinking, writing, and organizing activities. For years I trained teachers in 'higher-level thinking and planning activities' for children in content areas such as Science and Social Studies, so I don't feel left out in the dark. It will probably be some of the same-old-same old; but if it isn't, I have friends who will share the new information with me.
Nevertheless, I felt pretty good about doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that and not having to interrupt my summer vacation with an inservice workshop. I still have three more years of teaching process writing if all goes well.
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