This week is the Plate Tectonics workshop for a grant that I am a co-principal investigator on.  The workshop is at the Penn State University Park campus and filled with 17 elementary/middle/high school teachers from school districts in State College, Reading, York, and Philadelphia.  One of the goals of the workshop is to give teachers the content knowledge and pedagogical ideas for teaching plate tectonics in the classroom.

This is not the first workshop I’ve been a part of.  This is the second National Science Foundation grant where I’ve co-taught workshops for teachers on geoscience topics.  Teaching teachers is very different from teaching students, but it is just as rewarding.  These teachers are giving up their time in the summer, even relocating for a week and living in a hotel or dorm room to bring the latest-and-greatest content and innovations back to their schools.  These teachers are passionate and truly care about student learning.  I’m amazed every time I work with teachers how they can balance all parts of their job in and out of the classroom.

I’m sad that my time with the teachers this summer has finished – but, there will be more interactions during the academic year, and more workshops next summer!