Few Teachers ‘Lie Around’ in Summer

When people I meet learn that I’m a teacher, they often say, “Oh, it must be great to just lie around all summer!”

Well, they’re half right. Yes, it is great to have a 2 1/2-month break from one’s regular job, but few of us lie around.

In fact, conversations with some of my colleagues at Santa Monica High revealed quite a range of summer plans.

Teaching something somewhere was a popular choice, partly because it’s a way to pay bills even though we’re not paid for two months. But it’s also enjoyable for some teachers.

For example, this will be the third summer that English teacher Meredith Bilson leads a freshman composition course at Santa Monica College. “I love teaching the course because that means that in a 12-month period I’ve taught ninth (grade) through college,” she explained, “and it’s interesting to teach the same ideas and skills to different levels.”

Staying off the hardwood proves too hard for Ken Sprague, basketball coach and African studies teacher. “I’m holding three basketball camps this summer,” he said, “one girls’ and two boys’, so I’ll be coaching basketball in the three leagues and a tournament.”

And he doesn’t just mean a casual game of hoops here and there--it’s eight hours of basketball every day.

Some teachers like to instruct a drastically different age group in the summer, and government teacher Leonard Vincent is one of them. “I work for the Emeritus College at (Santa Monica College), and I teach a course for senior citizens in political science and current events,” he said.

That means Vincent also spends a lot of time reading to keep up with the students, because, he says, “they always have read everything you can think of--every magazine, every newspaper--and they’re very bright.”

Almost all the teachers I talked to said they’ll be switching roles and “playing student” for at least part of the summer. Some, like English and philosophy teacher Berkeley Blatz, will be studying to expand their knowledge of their specialty.

Blatz has come up with a very agreeable way to learn. “I’m spending four weeks in Salamanca, (Spain), on a New York University study trip for the Spanish novel,” he said. “I’ll read different novels in Spanish and see how I can weave them into (my literature courses) next school year.”

Other teachers will attend classes or seminars to learn new teaching methods.

Catherine Baxter, math teacher, will learn about team teaching, which puts teachers of related fields in the same classroom. “I’m going to Project Enterprise, which is one of the subject-matter projects that integrate math and science teaching,” she said.

Tackling technology is another popular learning experience for summer, and it tops math teacher Carolyn Shine’s agenda.

Shine is going to a math conference “to learn how to teach calculus with computers,” she explained. “Then I’m going to practice to become really proficient at it over the summer.”

A summer of calculus? Now that’s a devoted teacher!

Besides taking classes and workshops, a lot of teachers engage in self-education over the summer.

“I spend three months reading books, primarily history, to prepare for the next year,” said Ken Kearsley, social studies teacher. “I’ve got a shelf of books--’books that must be read’ and ‘books I want to read.’ ”

A 900-page biography of Winston Churchill is among the summer projects Kearsley intends to tackle.

Of course, teachers like to relax and have fun, too (which may surprise some of our students), so summer isn’t all learning and earning.

The “free-time” activities mentioned most were traveling, exercising and fixing up the house.

As for me? I’m frantic about meeting a deadline for writing a textbook manuscript that has been put off too long.

But I also like to spend each summer studying some subject that I’ve always wanted to explore, but couldn’t fit into my college schedule.

This summer it’s philosophy, so my train of thought will travel from A for Aristotle to Z for Zeno--with daily stops at V for volleyball!