November 2008 Winner
Summer Workation: exciting summer opportunities for teachers
Summer Workation provides teachers with challenging and stimulating summer opportunities. By linking teachers with high-profile workations (working vacations), we want to help teachers expand their horizons and be the best they can be. Learn more: sw.org
Simply put, tags are keywords used to identify an idea. Just click on one of the tags below to find like-minded ideas.
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Q1: What do you think of the idea?
(10 pieces of advice)
by riversmom11.28.08 | 10:35 AMI love this idea. I think teachers will love this idea. You are providing a tremendously important service to students as well because their teachers will now have the opportunity to see what kinds of jobs they should be preparing the students for... instead of teaching from text books (sometimes five or more years old).
Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
11.23.08 | 06:51 PMI also think that this is an awesome idea. You take a lot of the hard work out of finding summer work for teachers. I imagine the end of the year is a very busy and stressful time for teachers so your service could make their transition much smoother. Also it appears that with your goal of surveying the teachers about their interests and experience that you will be able to find a place where they will be a good fit.
I imagine that lots of companies that have a need for extra help in the summer would love to hire teachers, professional, educated people who will feel refreshed to be doing something different than what they were doing the rest of the year.
If you google summer jobs for teachers you will find lots of links but I didn't really see anything that is similar to what you want to do.
Good luck with the idea.Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
by colbron111.11.08 | 02:13 PMI think that this is a great idea. I had two grandparents that were teachers, and if they weren't involved in summer school programs, they would be struggling during the summer months. It is very important to take care of our teachers. For one, they don't get paid very much, and two, they are the ones that are educating our future generations!
Here is a website that is for teachers to find teaching jobs. You can use this to find summer teaching jobs for those that are looking for teaching work during the summer.
http://www.risenetwork.org/home.aspxAre you sure you want to report as abuse?
11.10.08 | 09:48 PMVery Very Cool :)
- www.StretchThatDollar.comAre you sure you want to report as abuse?
by nbanta11.09.08 | 01:30 PMHey Emiliya,
That's a great question! Summer Workation is focused on teacher growth - we will connect teachers with any opportunities that will allow them to grow and as a result become better teachers.
I think volunteer opportunities certainly fit in this category. I have found many young teachers (who often aren't supporting a family) are most interested in volunteerations (as we sometimes call them.)
You can check out a sample of a few workations at: http://www.summerworkation.org/sampleworkations
Thanks!Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
by nbanta11.09.08 | 01:26 PMThanks for the link Will. The externship program shows how teachers can professionally develop in unconventional ways.
Summer Workation hopes to catalogue what is out there and create a multitude of new programs.
A couple key differences would be:
We hope to give teachers more than professional development hours. In most cases we will give them a salary for their work!
We also hope that the experience will last more than 18-25 hours. Most workations will ideally be for 6-8 weeks for one or multiple summers.
Let me know if you come across any other interesting models like this!!Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
by Emiliya
11.09.08 | 11:12 AMI think this is a great idea. Would this only provide work opportunities that are paid or would there be volunteer opportunities as well?
Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
11.08.08 | 07:49 PMIt's a cool idea. There are many programs like this scattered in communities all over the place. Here is one I know about. http://www.bie.k12.de.us/Externship.htm
It would be great to aggregate it all if you could.Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
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Q2: Do you have any workation ideas?
(7 pieces of advice)
by riversmom11.28.08 | 10:33 AM
I think "needs assessments" are always important when entering into something new. If you are too good at something, you will be bored. If you don't see the need for it, you wonder why you are even wasting your time. For me, a workation would be about learning and growing. I think most teachers probably think like this because most are lifelong learners. With that said, teachers can fill out a survey that helps match their needs and wishes for professional improvement... then, they would be matched by an electronic system to workations relevant to those needs and desires. Example: Many teachers want to have interactive classroom websites but don't have a clue where to begin. Computer programming and graphic design is a great workation for them.
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by dvmurrell11.25.08 | 08:24 PMTeachers have to do inservice instruction days. The workstation experience could replace some of those inservoces allowing the teacher to take a few days off during the year as the inservice need would be met by the workstation. Obviously this cannot replace all inservice days as some are mandatory and generic to that specific school.
Also teachers in the workstation might bring back an in service to their faculty or to all their peers not just the students.Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
by dvmurrell11.25.08 | 08:22 PMI think the workstation must be free to the teacher and pay a stipend. at minimum. I think there may be some large businesses that could offer the teacher an "internship" adapted specifically to generate info or products something the teacher could take back to students. The business and teacher would collaborate and have some follow up in the classroom such as a demo or other work folk coming to the teachers class with information.
Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
11.23.08 | 06:47 PMI think some of the best workation ideas for high school teachers would be ones that put them to work in the field that they teach. Have science teachers do something to do with science, etc. I found that the best teachers I had were the ones that had real world experience. This was especially true of business teachers. The real world knowledge gives the teacher more credibility and more examples of ways to help students understand.
Also they could work at places that benefit the community.
If they want to do things that aren't working with kids they could maybe look for research jobs or technical jobs. Your idea of matching teachers based on their interests may really help you to pair them up very effectively with a great job.Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
11.22.08 | 05:18 AMIncorporate some workcations that use creative/artistic media. That way teachers can learn techniques they can incorporate into the curriculum. Which increases the arts and also helps the teachers find a different way to communicate with students.
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by rhackett11.12.08 | 11:44 PMHey nitesh, it's hackett, I hope everything is going well. I like your idea. Have you ever heard of Marva Collins? She is this amazing teacher who runs some schools for poor delinquent kids in the South Side of Chicago and is widely respected for her ability to reach people who have been cast out by the system and labeled as failures. She has even been offered the position of Secretary of Education by two different U.S. Presidents (I think Reagan and Bush Sr.?) but declined their offers because she loves teaching so much. She has a book called Marva Collins Way. You should check her out. Tal Ben-Shahar (the positive psych guy) absolutely loves her. I think she may do teacher trainings and if you could get in touch with her somehow she would probably have some great ideas, maybe even be willing to offer some kind of workation program through your site. I think teachers, especially those just starting out and especially those who work in impoverished communities, would probably be really receptive to learning from and/or working with such an inspiring figure. Here is the lin…morek to her website: http://www.marvacollins.com/
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by colbron111.11.08 | 02:09 PMSince a lot of these teachers are good at working with the youth, I would think that they could utilize their skills by working at summer youth camps/day camps, especially the younger teachers.
http://www.coolworks.com/
There are also other resources online that could help you find the jobs to make available to your group of anxious to work teachers. Here is a job website that is specifically for finding summer work, which I think will be very helpful for you:
http://www.summerjobs.com/
Here is another site that could be helpful for finding summer jobs, but is probably more for the younger teachers once again:
http://www.backdoorjobs.com/Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
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Q3: What is the best way to recruit teachers?
(6 pieces of advice)
by southpark13
12.01.08 | 11:36 AMThe best way to do this is to network locally. I think that starting locally, perhaps even instituting a program in your local district would be the best way to start and also allow you to grow to other locations and districts. I like the idea of meeting with benefits officers. Perhaps if you could find a way to make this a program that decreases payroll for districts as other firms would pay the teachers for their work over the summer. This may or may not be possible, but it would allow for your program to be much more attractive for districts.
Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
by riversmom11.28.08 | 10:28 AMI would meet with benefits officers from the districts that you are piloting this program. I would see how you could get into their current monthly/bi-monthly mailings to teachers in their district. Many programs like this go through benefits officers even though they are truly "benefits."
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by dvmurrell11.25.08 | 08:38 PMThere are two excellent ways to promote this. First you might use the State web sites eg: in Texas it is TEA, More importantly you need to present the concept to the administrative staff for the school district and once administration has buy in to the concept they can bring energy to the district's teaching staff around this. I also suggest that a certian number of hours at a workstation might provide for a small pay increase by the district/state
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by rorowe11.24.08 | 08:07 PMI was a fulltime orchestra director, and "mail" gets processed quickly. (I'd worry about tons of leaflets being ignored...)
Having info up for "summer opportunities", or a flyer in the faculty lounge would be a great start. Word of mouth would be very important, I think.Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
11.23.08 | 06:41 PMThe best way to recruit teachers is probably to advertise at schools. You may even want to make one teacher a representative at each school and give them a discount on the service. This way they could spread it by word of mouth to all of their colleagues. One resource that may be able to provide you with information about mailing information to teachers or getting you into a teachers convention would be the NEA:
http://www.nea.org/index.html
I think your idea of starting at 2-3 schools as a pilot program is pretty smart, that way you can use your success there as a testimonial to get more schools on board.Are you sure you want to report as abuse?
by colbron1
Congratulations. I heard through the ideablob grapevine that you won the November contest. I wish you a lot of luck.
Awesome...I am 100% confident that this idea would work..and i'm really proud of its creator...He truly is a visionary...
Awesome! Hope you win.
It's a wonderful and important idea to create a framework that provides better summer learning opportunities for teachers- the bedrock of our education system!
I think another aspect of this is program is that teachers can be reminded of the pressures and reality of a job outside of education. Working with a different clientel, especially if they are the same age as the teacher, causes a different outlook on how you deal with people. Second, depending upon the job, the application of what they teach in their lives can do nothing but benefit their teaching in the classroom. Lastly, those outside of education can have a chance to interact with people in education and maybe modify their ideas of who teachers are and what they are all about, as many have not interacted with a teacher since they left high school. Good luck.
This is a genuinely innovative idea. I think it could yield great benefits for teachers and students alike! Such a program would be a great asset to our educational system where teachers are underpaid and need help finding productive opportunities for summer.
What a great way to revitalize teachers and improve the quality of their instruction!! Wonderful idea!
I was very impressed by the opportunities that Summer Workation promises to offer teachers. I am extremely excited by the postive impact this idea could have on our educational system! Good luck!
Why didn't anyone think of this before! Teachers are such great resources and their skills should be used all year around!!! Genius!
I LOVE THIS IDEA! TEACHERS ARE OVERWORKED AND UNDERPAID! Without a teacher, NOBODY would get anywhere in life! Got my vote! I need votes now!
I think this could extend to all school employees who work directly with the kids (ie counselors etc)
This would be of great benefit to teachers. Wish this existed now for all my charter school and teach for america buddies. good luck!
Anything we can do to improve the quality and reward of teaching is a worthy cause! Workation seems like a great first step. I hope to see more ideas toward this end on ideablob in the future!
My sister spent four years teaching elementary and middle school students, split between Teach for America and working in a Newark, NJ charter school. From our conversations, something like Workation would not only appeal to teachers, but it would also it would make a direct improvement in teacher quality and development that would make a visible difference in our schools.
Wow! I think this idea has a lot of potential! My cousin, who is a teacher, said that the benefits of a summer workation not only will reach teachers, but also will extend to students! Good luck!
Wow! I think this idea has a lot of potential! My cousin, who is a teacher, said that the benefits of a summer workation not only will reach teachers, but also will extend to students! Good luck!
This is a great idea! In high school, I recall speaking to younger teachers about the difficulties they encountered in finding something productive to do over summer vacation. Turning these vacations into workations is in my opinion the best way to address the issue!
What a solid idea! I'm especially impressed at how well you've thought out turning $10,000 into actual good.
This is exactly what teachers I know have been looking for! Great job.