STARR TEACHERS SPENT YEAR ON ROAD TEACHING THEIR PEERS

The calendar in the office of STARR teachers Martha Short and Judith Gau shows it has been a busy year.

Each has logged some 18,000 miles traveling to schools from Arnold to the Arkansas line. They've conducted hundreds of presentations and talked with thousands of people, most of whom are teachers just like themselves.

Short, who teaches at Jackson's North Elementary School, and Gau, who teaches at Cape Girardeau's Franklin Elementary School, and Susan Watkins, who teaches in Farmington Public Schools, are concluding their year on the road as STARR teachers.

STARR, Select Teachers As Regional Resources, prepares teachers to teach teachers.

Each spring, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education selects 36 master teachers who commit to a year-long study followed by another year of sharing their expertise with others.

Missouri is divided into nine regions. Three STARR teachers work in each region.

During the first year teachers stay in their classrooms. They attend courses over the summer and at other times during the year. They bring back the information and try it out in their classrooms.

During the second year, teachers are on sabbatical leave from their home districts and lead training sessions for school staffs and students studying to become teachers. The programs are free to school districts.

The state pays for a replacement teacher to work in the STARR teacher's classroom during the year.

Gau and Short said the experience has been priceless.

"We've had an extraordinary opportunity to interact with national experts on a wide range of topics," Gau said.

"We couldn't afford this kind of training," Short said.

State resources and money give STARR teachers access to top names in educational research.

Spence Kagan teaches cooperative learning. Nancy Letts teaches Socratic seminars. Pat Dukawitz teaches authentic instruction. Pat Wolff teaches brain research. Linda Albert teaches cooperative discipline.

"Not only do we have access to these people, we also have access to some of the best educators in the state, the other STARR teachers," Gau said.

When questions arise about specific topics or situations, the STARRs call each other for advice.

STARR teachers are available as a resource to any public school district.

"They decide how long the program will be. They decide the topic. They decide the time of day," Short explained. "Sometimes we are there after school. Sometimes we are there early in the morning."

Some school districts have scheduled training once a month. Some have picked training themes and scheduled

"There is no limit to what teachers can learn," Gau said.

"The biggest asset we have is that we are classroom teachers," Short said.

"We don't claim to be experts," Gau said. "We are teachers relaying information from the experts."

The three STARR teachers will be fallen STARRs in the fall. Gau and Short plan to return to the classroom.

"It's been extremely exhilarating," Short said.

"We hope to return even stronger teachers than when we left," Gau said.

"Maybe now I'll be able to reach hard-to-reach kids," Short said. "I have new strategies and people to call and ask for advice."