Summer School for the Teachers

From the BCCT.

Teachers eager for workplace experience
There were more applicants for the program than money to fund it.
By JOHN ANASTASI

The Bucks County Intermediate Unit and Bucks County Workforce Investment Board want to expand a summer program that places teachers in local businesses and nonprofit agencies connected to the subjects the educators teach.

The “Educator in the Workplace” program received 300 applications but could only place 10 teachers last year due to finances. The two organizations devoted $5,000 to the program, which covered the $500 stipend given to each educator.

“There was an amazing response from teachers in Bucks County,” said JoAnn Perotti, the IU’s strategic planning and communications director.

The program helps teachers gain some hands-on experience in the fields and subjects they teach, said Perotti. For instance, a Pennsbury social studies teacher interned at the David Library of the American Revolution and a Bucks County Technical High School cosmetology teacher worked at a local hair salon.

Ultimately, the program is designed to better prepare students to enter the workforce since their teachers can return to the classrooms with ideas to incorporate into their lessons.

“It gives them a better idea of what the business world is looking for,” Perotti said.

It also gives the teachers better connections with the fields they teach.

Lori Salley, the cosmetology teacher who interned at Wiggle Worms Children’s Hair Salon in Northeast Philadelphia, recently had the salon owner speak to her class. Sharon Vetter, who interned at the David Library, had her class do research at the Upper Makefield foundation.

“I can see it expanding and expanding,” Perotti said of the program. “It gives teachers the opportunity to see the real world outside and how it relates to the classroom.”

The program is only limited by the money it takes to pay the teachers. During a meeting of the workforce investment board, Perotti said the teachers seem more eager to receive their Act 48 credits than the $500 stipend. Pennsylvania’s Act 48 mandates that public school teachers obtain a certain number of continuing education credits per year.

Work board member Clark Shuster, CEO of the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce, suggested eliminating the stipend if the teachers care more about the Act 48 credits than the $500. That, he said, would open up the program to more teachers. The board and IU will continue to study that possibility, officials said.

Workforce investment board executive director Liz Walsh said she’d like to see the program begin to target industries that are growing in Bucks County — particularly biosciences and alternative energy.