Sunday, July 24, 2011 — Programs in Connecticut, Nation Spur Teens to Teaching. WINDHAM, CT: About 20 Connecticut high school students are spending much of their summer vacation in the classroom. It's an increasingly common scene nationwide as educators, seeking new ways to recruit teachers in critical shortage areas, are embracing a "grow your own" approach by introducing the profession to teens as early as middle school. And while many of the programs are too new to determine how many of the teens eventually enter the field, the longest running--such as Eastern Connecticut State University's program--have tracked many of their alumni through college and into jobs as teachers, guidance counselors and school social workers.
Getting classroom experience is a core part of the curriculum at the nation's 1,400 teacher colleges, but for high school students, learning the nuts and bolts of teaching often must wait until after graduation. The programs, including Eastern Connecticut's 15-year-old Summer Institute for Future Teachers, aim to change that by giving teens an early chance to try student teaching, learn to draft lesson plans and work with different grade levels. Education leaders hope it serves two purposes: identifying the most promising future educators and potentially filling the gaps in areas with chronic teacher shortages. The most critical areas nationwide include bilingual education, special education, science and technology, math and urban teaching jobs.
Students who complete the programs are not locked into teaching, but organizers say they leave with a stronger sense of whether it's a good fit for them. "I know I want to do this, but I never really thought of how I would create a lesson plan or set up a classroom," 17-year-old Zenobia Adgers said on a recent day as she and other SIFT participants teamed with Windham Middle School teachers to work with children at a summer school literacy program.
For FULL STORY, go to: the Chicago Tribune, 7/23/11 http://chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ct-futureteachers,0, 998161.story
Thursday, July 21, 2011 — San Ramon High School Students Take On Major Research Projects. DAVIS, CA: Michael Peng is spending the summer under a microscope. He is working side-by-side with researchers at UC Davis, logging 9-to-5 days in the molecular and cellular biology department lab examining the structure of a protein on HIV cells. The goal is to eventually apply the science to find a cure. "Being at the lab is just so exciting," he said. "There's a great synergy." Michael is a 15-year-old junior at California High School in San Ramon and one of 40 students selected for the university's Young Scholars Program. Grace Pan, 16, a student at Dougherty Valley High School, is also in the class.
The half-century-old program pairs high school students with professors to work on original research. Michael and Grace are part of a group of about 350 students from across the United States and other countries to apply to this year's program, which costs $5,000 and earns students five units of college credit. Michael, a library volunteer, said he wanted to explore his interest in science and the UC Davis program was one of the rare ones that accepted incoming high school juniors as well as seniors. "I really wanted to do something with my time and, not only that, contribute in a scientific field for the betterment of the human race," he said.
After arriving for the program June 19, the students spent two weeks hearing from faculty on a variety of subjects, from evidence of life on Mars to the theory of learning, to butterflies as an indicator species in California. "Everything they exposed you to were new things you've probably never heard of," said Grace, who is working in the department of plant biology mapping gene expressions and protein levels of tomato plants.
For FULL STORY, go to: the Oakland Tribune, 7/20/11 http://insidebayarea.com/education/ci_18507536
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 — Bronx High School Students Raise $74,000, Trek to Mali to Build School. BRONX, NY: A group of South Bronx high school students who raised $74,000 to build a school in West Africa caught a plane last weekend to help cement their good deed. A dozen students flew out of New York for Mali, where they will dig the foundation and lay brick for the walls of an elementary school. It'll be christened the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics Mali--named after the place where the students normally hit the books. "There are a lot of people in this world who have nothing. We wanted to do something," said Justin Acosta, 16, who'll be a junior in the fall.
The students, who'll labor away for 13 days as part of a program run by buildOn, a nonprofit, have spent the school year volunteering in their own community--cleaning parks, serving meals at soup kitchens, attending to the elderly at nursing homes. "It just boggles my mind--the human will to serve and contribute," said Edward Tom, principal of the Bronx high school, which requires 300 hours of volunteer work in order to graduate. "I'm extremely proud." The students raised nearly $10,000 themselves, running bake sales and other fund-raisers at school, as well as hitting up friends and relatives. The students had donations matched by foundations. Missy Shields, a buildOn official who worked with the students, also asked guests at her wedding earlier this year to donate to the trip.
In Mali, the students will stay with host families who have no running water and work in the hot desert sun, where temperatures run well above 100 degrees. None of the students said they were worried. Their fund-raising will continue when the trip is over--long enough to cover the rest of the costs of the Mali school. They also hope to raise money to build another school next year--the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics Nepal.
For FULL STORY, go to: the NY Daily News, 7/17/11 http://nydailynews.com/news/2011/07/17/2011-07-17_bronx_se z_hello_mali_center_for_science__math_builds_a_school.html?r=news
