Three local teachers to take part in select training

Three local teachers are soon to be STARRs.

No, not the Hollywood kind. The "Select Teachers As Regional Resources" kind.

Cape Girardeau's Susan Hekmat and Jackson's Joyce Penland and Tammy Brotherton have been chosen for the two-year professional development program through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The teachers will spend the next year attending monthly training sessions on a variety of issues, from student motivation to state testing and classroom teaching techniques. During the 2005-2006 school year, they'll take a leave of absence from their teaching jobs and instead travel to school districts throughout the region training other teachers.

"I thought it would be wonderful to expand my knowledge and also share it with other faculty," said Hekmat, who teaches 10th- through 12th-grade English at Central High School. "I wanted to learn other ways to reach my students."

Teachers apply for the program and are then interviewed by a selection committee put together by DESE.

"I know it's a huge commitment, but it's so exciting. I'm just overwhelmed with information already," Hekmat said. "I wanted to come back right away and try ideas out, but there are no students to try them out on right now."

'A wealth of knowledge'The opportunity benefits not only the STARR teacher, but also his or her home district.

"When they come back they're such a wealth of knowledge," said Dr. Rita Fisher, assistant superintendent of the Jackson School District. "They bring back the training they receive and spread it here."

Linda Blankenship, a third-grade teacher at North Elementary in Fruitland, was a STARR teacher during the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years.

"It's really intense professional development, and it changed the way I teach," Blankenship said. "I'd recommend it to anyone."

Blankenship said the program changed the way she looks at children and prompted her to concentrate more on individual rather than group learning. She's done various workshops in her own district this year to share what she learned from STARR with fellow Jackson teachers.

There is one downside to the program, say administrators and participants. Sometimes STARR teachers don't return to teaching.

"We do run the risk of losing them because they're so well-trained," Fisher said. "They get used to that feeling of freedom, and it's hard to go back to a classroom."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128