Summer is no time for rest

Teachers don’t slow down outside of classroom

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Cassie Bowen⁄Special to The Gazette Coach George Wunder leads students Derek Debandi (left) and Ryan Simms, both 9, of Sykesville, in dribbling exercises on Thursday morning during basketball camp at Century High School in Sykesville.

It doesn’t matter that the cheering follows the crack of a bat as the ball races for the fences or a well-executed double play, neither of which she played any part of.

The mere sound of thousands of baseball fans cheering on the Baltimore Orioles cheers up the Liberty High School chemisty teacher as she works in the fan assistance department at Camden Yards, especially after a long day in front of the chalkboard.

‘‘There’s always so much energy and excitement in a ballpark,” she said. ‘‘You hear the claps, and you get your second wind.”

Nolan is but one of 2,116 of Carroll County teachers who are spending their summer doing something they love, coaching youngsters,or gearing up for the next school year while students kick back and relax.

She works with the O’s part-time when the season begins through the end of September as the season wraps up.

Nolan doesn’t work every home game because teachers need a break from their full-time, hectic schedules. ‘‘You work crazy hours as a teacher. Full-time is just too much to do in the summer. You need a mental break,” Nolan said with a laugh.

She has been teaching at Liberty High for six years, and this is her third season with the Orioles. Before joining the black-and-orange crew at Camden Yards, Nolan worked one summer at a retail department store.

‘‘That was just not for me,” she said with a laugh. Nolan also spent a summer working at a Towson University research program. She was excited about that opportunity, Nolan said, because she shared the experience with her students. But that wasn’t as much fun, she said. ‘‘You were working by yourself. I’m a people person.”

There’s plenty of people to be around at a baseball game. ‘‘It’s the customer service of the ballpark,” Nolan said.

In fan assistance, she helps lost children and parents reunite. The department guides handicapped fans to their seats, answers questions, leads people to the bathroom or the medical stations, and even handles complaints.

‘‘You name it, we’ve got it,” Nolan said.

Nolan said she enjoys helping people, and that every day is something different – both in teaching and at her Orioles job. ‘‘Every day there’s something different. It keeps you fresh.”

From the diamond to the court

George Wunder, a physical education teacher at Century High School, spends part of his summer at coach basketball camps for all ages at the school.

During the school year, he also works as a support counselor for at-risk students. For six years, Wunder has taught at the high school, previously working at Mount Airy Middle School.

He and Brian Tombs, an English teacher, along with basketball staff, started the camp about six years ago when Century High opened. ‘‘We wanted to reach out to the community with a larger program,” he said.

Throughout the summer, elementary and middle school students learn the skills of basketball in the week-long camp, even if they have never shot a basket before.

Two three-day shooting camps are also held during the summer, Wunder said. Players will get a DVD of their shooting to review at home to see how they are doing, he added. During the summer, he also coaches a county-wide all-star team comprised of promising high school basketball stars.

The camp is so popular that by the summer time the sessions are full, Wunder said. Parents can begin registering their children in January by visiting the Century High School varsity Web site at www.leaguelineup.com⁄Century.

‘‘One of the cool things for me as a coach is to see the high school kids and younger players playing together,” Wunder said. ‘‘The younger kids look up to them [the older players] as role models. They work together.”

He credits his assistant coaches and Tombs for helping make the camps successful. ‘‘They do a fantastic job,” Wunder said. ‘‘We’re very fortunate to have [the camp] as a success. It always fills up.”

Hitting the books

Other Carroll County teachers are extending their teaching skills.

Some teachers at Parr’s Ridge Elementary are hitting the books in preparation for the school’s second year. The primary school, which houses kindergarten through second grade, opened last school year.

A handful of teachers from each grade level are spending the summer working on writing skills and ways to help their students improve.

Patty Hultquist, the school’s media specialist, leads the group, which met last week for three days to discover ways to become better writers. They’ll meet a couple of more times this summer, and will continue meeting throughout the school year to check on their students’ progress, Hultquist said.

At a faculty meeting this spring, teachers and staff discussed studying their students’ writing to make it more consistent and help their students enjoy the skill, Hultquist added.

The Parr’s Paper Mates, the writing committee, was formed with money from a Carroll County Public Schools grant that encouraged schools to build on writing skills throughout the year.

The writing study group focused on the teachings of Lucy Calkins, a founding director of the Teachers College Writing Project, Hultquist said. Calkins has developed a primary writing unit that gives teachers and other literacy educators skills to encourage students to become better writers, she said.

The teachers said they learned plenty of things to use next school year and learned a little bit about themselves as writers, too.

‘‘I think it’s exciting,” said Vanessa Stewart, a new second-grade teacher at Parr’s Ridge Elementary who previously taught fifth grade at Spring Garden Elementary in Hampstead. ‘‘We learned about being writers, and what it feels like to be a writer.”

The teachers discussed offering a writers’ workshop to their students and how to keep them talking about writing.

‘‘The big thing I’ll walk away with is how important it is [for students] to talk about writing before they write it.”

Michelle Balko, a second-grade teacher, previously taught in the pre-kindergarten program that was available at the school last year. ‘‘Being a writer myself, I learned about sharing memories with students to get them talking about it.”

For Stewart, the class is a chance to learn about her new school. ‘‘Being new to teaching second grade, I want to know as much that is going on here at Parr’s Ridge.”