Teachers go corporate
Fellowship program gives teachers 'outside' experience

by Alexandria Rocha

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This summer, a handful of Palo Alto teachers did the unthinkable: They put their lesson plans away and went to work in Corporate America.

The teachers are part of the Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education's summer fellowship program, which has placed nearly 200 teachers from around the Bay Area at local corporations this season.

During their eight-week fellowships, or externships, the teachers take on projects in a wide range of corporate departments, including marketing, information technology (IT), and staff development. The teachers then apply what they learn to a separate school-related project.

For example, Brandon Wright, a sixth-grade teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in East Palo Alto, is becoming well versed in state-of-the-art technology in the IT department at Synopsys, Inc. in Mountain View. When he returns to school this fall, he plans to advocate for more high tech in the classrooms.

"You get into your comfort zones when you're teaching. This has gotten me out of that. It has opened me up to a whole bunch of ideas in technology," he said.

Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) was founded more than 20 years ago by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley and a consortium of Bay Area companies. The goal of the industry-education partnerships is to give teachers the proper resources they need to improve science and math education.

IISME officials say the program benefits both teachers and their sponsoring companies.

For teachers, a fellowship takes them out of their comfort zones and gives them a better understanding of the skills needed in a modern workplace. Plus, teachers are paid up to $7,400 for their work. Corporations get a seasoned temporary employee who works on one specific project and a chance to clarify the skills needed for the future's workforce.

"I became a learner this summer. That puts me back in the frame of mind as my students, learning something that's hard for me," said Libby Beddoes, a seventh-grade math teacher at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School. "It's a different world from teaching -- definitely."

Instead of collecting homework on the weekday mornings, Beddoes arrives at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in San Jose around 9 a.m. She turns on her computer and begins researching various company Web sites, such as TiVo and Motorola, as part of her market research project this summer.

While researching sites, Beddoes is also collecting information for her schools project, which in IISME speak is called an "educational transfer plan," or how each teacher will transfer what they learned in the field back to the classroom.

Beddoes plans to design a "Ms. Beddoes homepage" on the JLS Middle School's already existing site, using some of the techniques she picked up from corporate Web sites. She also learned how to use the Web development software Dreamweaver this summer.

Beddoes also wants to bring some of the co-worker dynamics at Hitachi GST back to JLS.

"The main thing I will take away from observing the people I work with is how well they work together and the respect level they have for each other. I think about that a lot actually and how I can create that in my classroom," she said.

Michele Miller, a technology teacher at the Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School on San Antonio Road, is learning how the Silicon Valley Bank in San Jose develops and implements staff training programs this summer.

She will apply those methods to improve the Day School's robotics program. She is focusing on improving the program's pace, how the students work as a team and how problems are managed.

"You're seeing it in the real work environment and how it will apply to the educational environment," she said.

Not all IISME fellowships have teachers working on individual projects. Many place teachers on a team. Wright, for example, is on a team of six teachers, developing an internal Web site for Synopsys, Inc.

He has been most impressed by the level of technology used.

"You come in here for a board meeting and everyone has a laptop, there is a projector, and everything just flows well," he said. "I thought: We need this in every classroom."

Wright plans to tap into the wide range of companies looking for partnerships with schools in the area of technology. He will first begin researching grants that may help bring in more digital projectors.

Wright shares Beddoes' sentiment about returning to the classroom -- as a student.

"I'm probably the least experienced on my (fellowship) team. At my school, I'm probably one of the most experienced with teaching," he said. "It was nice to be a beginner again."

For more information on the Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education, visit www.iisme.org.

Staff Writer Alexandria Rocha can be e-mailed at arocha@paweekly.com.