Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1958-07-17
In Workshop
Teachers Study
New Methods
BY Dorothy WaIeski
Staff Reporter

college degree is only the beginning of a
school teachers education A good teacher spends
the rest of his life learning how to teach.
This "back to school for school teachers"
movement is one of the prime reasons behind
Superintendent C. Taylor Whittier's plan to re-
organize the school year on 12-month basis
There are two methods by which teacher
may continue his education. One is attending a
college or university, taking credit courses and
eventually qualifying for a higher degree. The
other is taking part in in-service training pro-
gram such as the Summer workshops now in
existence.
Begun many years ago under former Super
intendent DR.. Edwin T, Broome, Montgomerys
Summer workshops have been used to keep the
teaching program or course of study" up to date
and also improve teaching technique.
Every Summer small groups of teachers get
together to either revise the course of study or
learn the latest methods of teaching
DR.. Whittier considers this experience so
valuable that he hopes to extend it beyond the
"mere handful" of teachers now participating to
all county teachers whether they are on the TO-
month 12-month schedule. OF course not every
teacher would participate every year but at least
so percent of them could under the extended pro
gram.
AS an experiment the program should be kept
tier feels. The workshops could be under the direc
ton of county personnel, they are now, led by
outstanding professors from outside.
Leaders in special subjects are used as con-
SultantS now but only on two or three-day basis
Another possibility is to send teachers to
colleges and universities around the county
that offer outstanding courses i'm their par
ticuIar fields.
Whatever the method the program accepts
the county's responsibility to help teachers keep
abreast of the modern world where not only tech
niques but facts themselves become obsolete.
The need to keep up to date in science is the
most obvious and at the same time the most
extensive.
A simpler example is a one-week workshop
on the latest method of changing from manu-
script to cursive writing. If every third grade
teacher in the county had this training the transi-
ton would be made easier for every child in the
county and prevent the many handwriting prob
lens created.
Periodic workshops for reviewing reading
methods at the various grade and subject levels
is another must" that could be handled easily
in year around program
One need that is receiving increasing at
tention from the community is a better pro-
gram for Montgomerys many gifted children.
Here again all teachers could benefit from a
workshop on the techniques of Identification
ana recognition OF such children plus methods
of handling and encouraging them.
Aside from these possibilities the superinten-
dent recommends study of the Summer work
shops that have been going on at Walter Johnson
High since 23 These his teaching training
program in embryo"
Five days week, teachers, principals and
supervisors in the county school system have been
meeting in workshops four on the secondary
level under Dr. George Osterwise, four the
elementary level under Dr. Mary L. Grau and
Miss Frances Mitchell, and two general work
shops on a new handbook of administrative poll
cies and procedures and revised guide book for
new teachers
There are two types of workshops. The first
has the aim of producing a new course of study
to be used in the schools next year with follow
up workshop next Summer for the final revision
To this end, there 10 teachers under super
visor Jacob Rabinovich working on a new course
OF study in United States history, 18th grade;
eight teachers under Edmund Burke secondary
science; five teachers led by Noble Fritz office
practices in the commercial course, and 16 teach
ers and principals under Miss Mitchell new ele-
mentary mathematics course of study
The second type of workshop will not produce
a course of study but will teach new technioues
and methods of using new materials in certain
subjects.
Eight teachers working with Mrs.
DOthWiui, SUPERVISOR, ana Dr. FRANCES
Hansen of the District Teachers College to
learn new ways of teaching geography con-
tent
AS in all of these "non-productive" workshops
these teachers will then return to their areas and
pass on what they have learned to all the teachers
there.
For example, there is a right way and wrong
way to question children maps and pictures
illustrating geography concepts. A teacher could
spend threequarters of an hour trying to pinpoint
what could be brought out in a few minutes with
the right Specific" question.
In an elementary math workshop ID teachers
are learning how to use hand operated computa-
ton machines. Experiments elsewhere have
proven that children improve rapidly in math
through the use of these machines. They are also
making various materials such as fraction kits
and counting blocks which have been demon
strated as helpful to children learning their
numbers.
The largest workshops has 26 alanantarv