Teachers converge in Swampscott for training exercises

SWAMPSCOTT – Beetle races and Barbie Bungee Jumping were on the class schedule this week at Swampscott High School.But with students on summer vacation, it’s the teachers’ time to learn.”These labs, even as an instructor, are fun to do,” said Swampscott High School Science Department Chair Bernard Kravitz. “(Teachers) are working really hard and loving it.”Thirty-one teachers from around the country have joined Kravitz and Swampscott High School physics teacher Bill Carter at the high school since Saturday to learn how to train teachers in strategies and activities for improving students’ skills in math, science and English.The training is run by two nonprofit organizations – Laying the Foundation, from Dallas and Mass Insight Education, from Boston – that develop materials, fun activities and assessments to prepare middle and high school students for Advanced Placement (AP) courses by their senior year, said Barbara Plonski, director of school services and advancing college readiness at Mass Insight’s Science and Math Initiative.”There are so many more children that can be successful if they are reached at an earlier age,” said Plonski. “These are strategies that will allow you to meet the student (at the grade level) where they are ? Even if you don’t take the AP, which is definitely the goal, you are less likely to have to take a remediation class” with these activities.Kravitz and Carter will help train eight other Swampscott teachers this summer and more teachers during the school year, said Maureen Bingham, Swampscott’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and professional development and grants.Their training, which is a three-year process, and the training of their colleagues, was funded through a $97,000 Race to the Top grant, Bingham said.Carter said that the pre-AP physics training that he began last year has already paid off for students.”I started implementing the lessons (this year) and they were so successful,” Carter said. “These methodologies work at all levels ? and we want to move them all up.”Plus, he said that the training was fun because they get to actually perform the labs that they assign students.”I really like the hands-on approach,” Carter said. “It makes it all worthwhile.”