May 1996 Program Recognizes 'Critical Role of Teachers'
The Northwest Laboratory has launched a Teachers in Residence program that will allow teachers and researchers to collaborate and share expertise."This program recognizes the critical role of the teacher," says Dr. Ethel Simon-McWilliams, NWREL Executive Director. "The teacher is the single most important factor in providing effective education for children."
Each of the Laboratory's eight programs will have its own teacher in residence, and the tasks assigned to them will depend on program needs. Residencies will vary from two to six months and will take place onsite. Compensation arrangements will be made on a case-by-case basis and negotiated between the Laboratory, the teacher, and the teacher's school district.
Jeannie Wray, the Laboratory's first teacher in residence, teaches visual arts and law-related education at the Blackfoot Sixth Grade School in Blackfoot, Idaho. Wray, who is at the Laboratory for two months in the Technology Center, is helping design a Web site focusing on technology resources for teachers. Still in the development stage, the Web site is envisioned as a place where teachers can share curriculum, participate in discussion groups, and find links to other educational Web sites.
"It's been a wonderful opportunity for me," says Wray. While at the Laboratory, she has improved her Internet skills; attended a workshop in hypertext markup language (HTML) and a conference of the Northwest Council for Computer Education; and had new ideas for using technology, particularly the Internet, in her classroom, building, and district. "A lot of teachers in my district are intimidated by the Internet," she says. "It's my goal to go back and help them."
Dr. Steve Nelson, Director of the Rural Education Program, says his program will use teachers for such tasks as helping to form strategies for sustaining rural schools, collecting and analyzing data, doing literature searches, helping to develop study designs, and drafting and editing reports. "The concept is a good one-get more school people intimately involved right here, with their sleeves rolled up," says Nelson. "We want people ready for a change, ready to pick up some R&D skills, ready to share their rural experiences with us," Nelson says. "We want our stuff to be grounded."
Each of the Laboratory's programs will require specific qualifications for the residency. The announcement for residencies in the Technology Program, for instance, appeared on the Internet. The Rural Education Program, desiring teachers from areas defined as rural by the Census Bureau, targeted 1,700 schools in the region which draw 75 percent of their student body from unincorporated areas or cities of less than 2,500.
Recruiting truly rural teachers to come to the Laboratory has been a particular challenge. "We want grounded, practicing rural staff who come from a rural area and plan to return there," says Nelson.
For more information about the Teachers in Residence program, call the personnel office at (503) 275-9500.
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