But teachers get the summers off!! How many times do we see that in op-eds and online conversations? Those who make that comment obviously have never been a teacher, a family member of a teacher, or friend of a teacher. As a teacher, I never had a summer “off.” My classes did not end until the middle of June, I spent time reorganizing materials, revising lessons, and getting the lab in order. And then we started up again in August with inservice and work days to prepare for the first day of school, which started the week before Labor Day.

So what do teachers do on their “days off”? Even on family vacations (Did you ever forget yourself and call them “field trips”?), we’re always looking for ideas and resources for our classrooms. You can tell who the teachers are at amusements parks (figuring out the physics principles at work), on the beach (identifying shells and other critters), and on the hiking trails at state and national parks (with binoculars and guidebooks). We take our families and friends to museums, planetariums, science centers, zoos, nature centers, botanical gardens, and arboretums. In our beach bags or backpacks, we might pack a mystery or romance novel, but we’re very likely to include science-related nonfiction and professional books and journals. Even at historical sites, we look for applications of science to share with our students (for example, while my husband and I were touring and exploring the history of the Gettysburg Battlefield, I was also photographing the lichens on the monuments and birdwatching on Little Round Top). We stop the car to photograph interesting rock outcrops or fantastic cloud formations. Our souvenirs include rocks, sand samples, fossils, pressed wildflowers, maps and brochures for bulletin boards, books for classroom libraries, photographs for our lessons, and thoughts and reflections about improving what we teach. (SciLinks: Amusement Park Physics and Roller Coasters, U.S. National Parks, Identifying Trees, Identifying Rocks and Minerals, Clouds, Science of Surfing, Water Safety)

For teachers, a stay-cation often involves teaching summer school, working on curriculum updates and new lessons, graduate classes, workshops, webinars, independent study, and using social media to form professional learning communities (see the NSTA discussion forums, e-mail listserves, its Facebook presence, and #NSTA on Twitter). As NSTA members, we can access all of the journals, so summer is a good time to catch up on what’s happening at other grade levels: Science & Children, Science Scope, The Science Teacher, and the Journal of College Science Teaching.  See NSTA Recommends for even more print and online suggestions. To brush up on or learn new topics, NSTA’s Science Objects are self-study units related to content, and they’re free to anyone. 

On my summer list is to continue to use the NGSS@NSTA hub with just about everything there is to know about the Next Generation Science Standards. The site includes classroom resources, videos of aligned lessons, curriculum planning ideas, professional learning opportunities, and access to the standards themselves. I’m really interested in the new enhanced eBook Discover the NGSS: Primer and Unit Planner with “interactive activities, assessments, demonstrations, videos, beautiful images and concrete examples that explain and will foster a deep learning and understanding of the science standards.”       

Too many books and e-resources, too little time! 

It would be interesting for us to collectively document the time we spend, the topics we investigate, and expenses we incur during the summer as we update our knowledge, skills, and classroom resources. We could show the public that most of us educators spend a great deal of our summers on edu-cation.

(updated from June 2011)

Photo: MLB

Gardening with children may turn up questions voiced by the children or suggested by their behavior. As you observe children in the garden or a natural area, take a few notes about what they look at or touch. Model how you wonder about a phenomenon in the garden by saying it aloud, such as, “Is this sprout taller today than it was yesterday?” Not all questions can be investigated by children. “Why are most leaves green?” is a question that can be researched in books or online, but not investigated by young children. Children can investigate “Are there any leaves that are not green?”

The December 2010 issue of Science and Children addresses questions in many articles. Linda Froschauer, Field Editor of Science and Children, writes in the Editor’s Note “Investigable questions are important elements of lessons that promote inquiry and help students construct meaning. Good questions help students make links between what they know, what they want to find out, what they observe, and how their observations fit within the context of their learning and development.” Asking questions, and planning and carrying out investigations, are two of the Science and Engineering Practices identified in A Framework for K-12 Science Education, one of the foundational documents for the Next Generation Science Standards.

Here are some other questions that children can investigate in a garden:

Do all vines go around a pole in the same direction?

Do day lily flowers close up at a certain time in the evening or do they stay open longer if they are in bright light indoors?

Why are there holes in this leaf? Is something eating it?

What happens to a leaf when rain falls on it?

“Where are seeds made?” is a question to investigate over time by making observations of more than one plant. While drawing a plant in the garden children may notice more than when walking through the space. A simple “journal” of a sheet of paper folded in quarters and a marker are all the materials needed to give children time to observe and think about what’s happening in a garden.