I Believe in Teacher Field Trips – Do You? Plus Summer Teacher Stipends Opps - Get Paid to Visit National Attractions

Do you get excited for professional development days?  I'll let you reflect on that a moment....what meetings do you attend?  What opportunities do you get to grow as a professional?  What technology training do you receive?  What conversations do you have?

Can you recall a great professional development day?  Was it hands-on?  Engaging? Fun?

Now imagine a Teacher Field Trip Day. The Science department spends a day at a museum doing hands-on experiments and research.  The K-2 teachers visit a local children’s museum to learn about a new exhibit on frogs.  The Language Arts teachers spend the day with the educational department at the Art Museum discovering how to incorporate art and poetry.  The health teachers visit a hospital to meet with nutritionists and psychologists on teen health.  The elementary PE teachers travel to a dance studio to learn folk dances for a spring unit.  The social studies teachers visit three historical landmarks and mark them with GPS for a student project. 

The power of teachers being able to receive professional development from local resources is amazing, but where would you start putting a day like this together?

• Start with investigating what resources are within an hour?  Zoos? Museums? Universities? Health Clubs? Major Industries?  Many of these have community outreaches and some specifically for teachers that few know exist.  Call them to see what opportunities are available.  You might be surprised to find they are very willing to partner with you for classroom projects.  Even if your student field trip budgets have been reduced, these contacts might be able to Skype or UStream into your classroom for free.
• Take a look at your curriculum standards.  How would you improve your classroom instruction by participating in a teacher field trip?
• Brainstorm what you need to learn.  You might need to learn a specific skill (a dance, how to use a new piece of equipment, how the GIS society uses GPS) or need to discover how the professional world is using new technologies (forensic scientists, robotics, Auto CAD, graphic design, banking systems).
• Consider forming a partnership with the resource.  Would that person be an expert in the field for a student project?  Could your students gather data for that resource (we had 5th graders gather data on bagworms at a local nature center for an entire year)?  Does that resource sponsor a charity your students could support through a community service project?
• Build a plan to use the new information in your classroom while your enthusiasm is high.  Teacher field trips are rare opportunities, so take advantage of the knowledge as much as possible.

Now consider if you were paid to take an in depth Teacher Field Trip to one of America's landmarks.  Would you volunteer to take a workshop at Ellis Island?  The Constitution Center?  Pearl Harbor?  The National Gallery of Art?  On a sailboat at sea?  Believe it or not, these opportunities do exist!  

Here are a few:

NOTE: Many of these applications to attend are due in mid-March 2009 and a couple in mid February, so jump on these opportunities straight away.

A Revolution in Government: Philadelphia, American Independence, and the Constitution, 1765-1791 – July 2009 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A Rising People: Benjamin Franklin and the Americans – July 2009 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Abraham Lincoln and the Forging of Modern America – July 2009 Edwardsville, Illinois

Aiming for Pensacola: Riding the Underground Railroad in the Deep South – July 2009 Pensacola, Florida

America’s Industrial Revolution at the Henry Ford – June and July 2009 Dearborn, Michigan

Changing the Constitution: Politics and Law in American Constitutional Development– July 2009 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Crossroads of Empire: Cultural Contact and Imperial Rivalry at Old Fort Niagara – July 2009 Niagara University, New York

Ellis Island: Public Health, and the American Workforce, 1891–1924 – July 2009 Budd Lake, New Jersey (download application here)

Emily Dickinson: Person, Poetry, and Place – July 2009 Amherst, Massachusetts

Gilder Lehman Institute of American History –Many Offerings July-August 2009 New York, New York.  Deadline to apply is February 17, 2009

Huckleberry Finn in Post-Reconstruction America: Mark Twain’s Hartford Years, 1871-1891 – July 2009 Hartford, Connecticut

Inventing America: Lowell and the Industrial Revolution – August 2009 Lowell, Massachusetts

Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and Her Eatonville Roots – June 2009 St. Petersburg, Florida

Library of Congress Summer Institutes – 4 Different Opportunities July-August 2009 Washington, D.C.

Maritime America in the Age of Winslow Homer – This is a 4 week institute covering maritime studies running from July-August 2009. Dartmouth, Massachusetts.  Application information can be found at: http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/mawh/

National Gallery of Art Crosscurrents of American Art: 18th and 19th Centuries – July 2009 Washington, D.C.

Partisans and Redcoats: The American Revolution in the Southern Backcountry – July and August 2009 Spartanburg, South Carolina

Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, Memorial – July and August 2009 Honolulu, Hawaii

Remembering the Alamo: Landmark of American History and Culture – June and July 2009 San Antonio, Texas (Scroll down to the left)

Shaping the Constitution: A View from Mount Vernon, 1783-1789 – June and August 2009 Arlington, Virginia

Smithsonian Science Education Academies for Teachers – 4 Different Opportunities July 2009 – Washington, D.C.

Stony the Road We Trod: Alabama’s Role in the Modern Civil Rights Movement – June and July 2009 North Birmingham, Alabama

Teacher Institute in Early American History – July 2009 Colonial Williamsburg.   This opportunity costs a pretty penny, but I think it would be a phenomenal experience.  I’m telling you. someday I’m going to attend this workshop.

Teacher to Ranger to Teacher – 8-10 Weeks during Summer 2009 – Various National Parks across the USA.  Teachers would work in the National Park during the summer.  Housing is provided at some locations, plus a $300/week stipend.

The American Skyscraper: Transforming Chicago and the Nation – June and July 2009 Chicago, Illinois

The Constitution, Today and Tomorrow – June 209 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta – June and July 2009 Cleveland, Mississippi

War of Invasion—War of Liberation: Occupied Nashville and the Civil War and Emancipation in the Upper South – June 2009 Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Women's Suffrage on the Western Frontier – July 2009 Laramie, Wyoming

If anyone does take me up on this idea of a teacher field trip I would love to hear of your adventures.  I'm hoping this sparks some creative opportunities and collaborations for everyone.