Enrichment Courses Let Teachers Be Students

For a week, Sara Telona learned the choreography for Mexican folklore dances, mastered the words to folk songs and took a crash course in marimba and xylophone playing -- all part of classes that can help her renew her teaching credential.

While skeptics may wonder what all that has to do with her duties as a third-grade, dual-language teacher at Grand View Boulevard Elementary School in Los Angeles, Telona sees a strong connection.

She said the workshops, taken earlier this year at the California Assn. of Bilingual Education Conference held in San Jose, helped her connect to her students, many of whom are from Oaxaca, Mexico.

“Our instruction is not just limited to the classroom, it expands outside the classroom,” Telona, 30, said. “To deal with certain types of students, you really have to extend yourself as a teacher into their lives, because you want to improve their education, and you can’t just do that in six hours of instruction.”

Such professional development courses and workshops are part of many teachers’ lives long after they finish their regular degrees and credential programs. Classes like these help educators keep their licenses or get raises -- even if some class topics seem unconventional.

In addition to standard courses such as classroom management and reading fundamentals, teachers are studying such things as: how to recognize gang signs and graffiti; the world of sharks; the science of insect infestations; and how to fumigate classrooms.

The classes are offered by colleges and universities, school districts, teachers unions and private companies. Some are taken online and many are independent study, with material and work sent back and forth by mail. Tuition can be as low as $45 and as high as $725.

Although the courses are offered throughout the year, summer is the busiest season.

“There’s a lot of stuff out there that’s not necessarily beneficial,” Mary Bergan, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said of some of the unusual courses. “But the best teacher is the best learner who sees new things and looks for new ways to do things and present his or her material.”

A California teacher who earned a credential after August 1985 must take 150 hours of these classes every five years to renew it. And many school districts also give salary boosts for course completions. For example, teachers can get a raise in the Los Angeles Unified School District after 14 units of study, which can range from five to 14 courses.

But not all the classes win approval from principals and district officials.

Justo Avila, administrative coordinator for personnel services and research branch of human resources for Los Angeles Unified, said that in the 2002-03 school year, the district sent out 6,000 letters informing teachers that they were denied part or all of a course’s credits. Some of the courses denied included yoga for educators, stress management and improving finances. Teachers can appeal in their efforts to earn raises between $50 and $2,500 a year.

The classes must be directly related to a teacher’s assignment and meet such district priorities as improving student reading and writing, and educating students with disabilities.

“If you’re a math teacher, you can’t go out and take art,” Avila said. “We only give credit for work you did improving your skills.”

The gang course, offered by the Enhancement Courses firm in Costa Mesa in affiliation with Loyola Marymount University, has been accepted for credit by several school districts because it directly relates to students.

Teachers watch videotaped lectures from Orange County gang experts, read one of three books exploring the culture of specific gangs, and learn common street terms and hand signs.

For their final project, teachers must create a gang awareness presentation for their students, school or community.

“It’s not simply enough to know one’s content area,” said Shane Martin, acting dean of the school of education at Loyola, which offers its own variety of classes for teachers, and about 200 independent study topics in partnership with Enhancement Courses. “It’s not even enough to know one’s pedagogy. But teachers need to know how to work with the very culturally diverse community we live in, and this requires another set of skills.”

Other course topics include animal behavior, baseball and sharks.

“I just don’t pull [these courses] out of the hat,” said Enhancement Courses Director Don Jacobs when asked how he develops the courses. “With each course there’s an evaluation sheet, and [the teachers] suggest courses. They’re one of our biggest sources of ideas.”

To complete the course “Sharks: Myth and Facts,” the teachers must watch a National Geographic video about the great white shark and read three books. Then, they answer several fill-in-the-blank sheets and write an essay on how their lives would be affected if sharks became extinct.

“If you teach long enough, everything you’ve ever learned, you’ll use,” Jacobs said. “We use nothing [in our courses] that teachers cannot use in the classroom.”

First-grade teacher Christy Davidson has taken six independent study courses at the University of La Verne’s Professional Development Course Program, including one about dolphins and whales, and another about understanding moods of students and teachers. She wants to use them for salary advancement but says her love for learning prompted her continual enrollment.

“If I can use this and learn from it, of course I’m going to take it,” said Davidson, who teaches at Agnes Baptist Elementary School in Modesto.

She said the “I’m So Stressed I Could Scream” course taught her stress reduction techniques and helped with classroom management. Instead of disciplining her slightly rowdy class after lunch, Davidson started reading a book to calm students and herself.

While some educators might say the course helped Davidson more on a personal level than in the classroom, Davidson doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s not just about the students,” Davidson said. “If you can’t open up and learn more about yourself, how are you going to help your students?”