Teachers All Over California Benefit from Imperial County’s Local Teacher Talent
In June 2002 Gail Zeigler was one of 583 teachers from Imperial County attending a training. The topic was reading instruction, using the language arts curriculum that had just been adopted by her district. Gail is a 3rd grade teacher from Oakley School in the Brawley Elementary School District. Little did she know that only one year later she would be training other teachers all over the state to improve the way they teach reading.
Gail’s training was the result of California Assembly Bill 466 (AB466) – The Governor’s Reading Initiative that began in 2002. AB466 dedicates funds to provide comprehensive training to K-6 teachers on the foundations of reading instruction and the state adopted language arts curriculum materials. Locally the program is operated by the Reading Implementation Center (RIC) at Imperial County Office of Education (ICOE).
The 5-day, 40 hour summer institute gave trainers the opportunity to see Ms. Zeigler in action as she supported the learning of other teachers. In addition to the week-long institute, the program also calls for 80 hours of follow-up training and coaching during the school year. Gail was asked to be a county-wide trainer for the Houghton Mifflin Reading series for 3rd grade teachers to provide the follow-up training. The ball was now rolling and everything happened very quickly.
Gail was one of three local teachers selected by TeachScape, an online professional development company, to be filmed as she taught a model language arts lesson in her classroom. The video is now used for teacher training across the state. Gail was also recommended by Diane Lyon, ICOE’s RIC Director, to serve as a statewide trainer. As a result, Gail spent the 2003 summer training other teachers up and down California, including Imperial County. Gail says she is “grateful for the opportunities that the AB 466 training opened up for me, the on-going professional development has helped me become a more effective reading teacher.” Her students at Oakley and the entire teaching community in Imperial County benefit from her growing expertise. Special thanks to Diane Lyon for bringing this story to our attention.