Professional Development During Summer Break?

Why yes!  And I'm the one who scheduled them, too.  Sometimes I just frustrate myself.

I've been off from school for the second week now, but for the next two weeks I've got two professional development opportunities going on.  I swear, those are the only ones.

In my defense, they're both applicable to the social studies that I'm now teaching, and one of them was an offer that was hard to refuse.  

Next week I'll be participating in a program at the university just 20 minutes away on Acadian History.  I've taken the course before when I was in college, but this is different and geared for teachers to be able to apply this information in their classrooms.  It won't cost me anything because my district is providing me their vehicle for the week, and lunch is covered for me as well.


The week after I'm going down to another university, one I haven't
been to before, but about 6 hours away.  This is on how to use the ArcGIS program in my geography class.  This one covers everything.  Meals, lodging, travel, and after I finish the work I'm expected to do, I get a stipend too.  Can't turn that down either.  Fortunately, I won't be going downstate alone.  I'm picking up a professor at another university about an hour away, so she can help me find where we need to go.


Both will be work, and I'm still working on my plans for this fall, so anyone who imagine teachers on summer break always by the pool or at the beach doing nothing all the time are seriously mistaken.