Teacher Summer Plans Take Shape
Huntington School District teachers are expecting to be busy this summer. While there will surely be time for relaxation and recharging of "batteries," there will also be plenty of other activities to enjoy.
Camille Tedeschi, a Huntington High School social studies teacher will devote a good chunk of her summer vacation to traveling, with four trips planned. The first two trips will be with Education First Tours and will see Ms. Tedeschi leading a group of students to Belize and then a different group to Berlin, Prague, Lucerne and Paris.
Ms. Tedeschi's third trip will be to Italy, including stops in Naples and Ischia. The fourth and final trip is to South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Dame Forbes, a Huntington High School science teacher will be teaching various levels of chemistry and conducting staff development for the teaching staff in several schools in Singapore and Malaysia. "It will be a tremendous summer," she said. "I am busy preparing right now."
Huntington High School music teacher Jason Giachetti will be teaching in the Huntington Arts Council's summer enrichment program and gearing up the Blue Devil marching band for the fall season. "I'm planning to spend as much time with my wife and new daughter as possible and finish up some writing projects I've started; some for school and some for publication," he said.
Lauren Desiderio has big plans, too. The Huntington High School social studies teacher is headed to San Francisco and the Napa Valley in California the first week of the summer vacation.
"The month of July I am pretty busy," Mrs. Desiderio said. She is involved in conducting a field hockey camp at Harborfields and with Strong Island field hockey club program practices and tournaments.
"I'm also going to Atlantic City, seeing the Zac Brown Band in concert, attending Anthony Troffa's wedding, taking a week-long AP World History course and possibly another class," Mrs. Desiderio said. "I will try to get to Pennsylvania to visit my family. I'm also definitely going to a Mets/Phillies game and we are supposed to go to the Outer Banks in August. In between all of that, I also work at the Bethpage Golf Course during the summer. I'm sure the summer will fly by! My pre-season for field hockey starts on August 26 and then we are back to school before you know it!"
Huntington High School art teacher Pamela Piffard will also be leading students on the Education First Tours trips to Belize and Europe along with Ms. Tedeschi. There are 26 teenagers traveling to Belize and 33 signed on for the trek to Berlin, Prague, Lucerne and Paris. "After that I plan to relax and write lesson plans for the new class I will be teaching in September," she said.
During the first four weeks of the summer, Frank Battista, a music teacher at J. Taylor Finley Middle School will be teaching three classes in "The Art of Aviation" in the Huntington Arts Council's enrichment program as well as a jazz band class. "The aviation class teaches kids how to fly RC planes, aircraft history, building RC planes, etc." he said. Once the summer program wraps up, Mr. Battista said he plans to take it easy and, hopefully, take a vacation somewhere.
Huntington High School music teacher Veronica Mainville also plans to work in the Huntington Arts Council's summer program. "I'm teaching musical theater, Glee club, pop and show tunes vocal workshop and a beginning flute class," she said. "That only runs until the end of July. During August, I'll be travelling and visiting family."
Finley English teacher Kimberly Schiller is taking a few Teq courses this summer to gain more knowledge about SMART Boards. She also plans to travel to Maryland for a conference, teach and mentor students in the district's summer virtual learning program and work with the New York Labor History Association.
"Fun-wise, I'm going to read as many books as possible, go to as many concerts as I can and spend a week in Denver," Ms. Schiller said. The Finley teacher was recently elected to the executive board of the New York Labor History Association. "We're working with the group Workers Unite! to hopefully host a film on Long Island soon," she said.
Allison VonVange, a Woodhull Intermediate School sixth grade teacher will be going on the annual VonVange family vacation. "This year we are renting a log cabin in the mountains of Tennessee," she said. "There will be 16 of us! After that, I'm going to relax and watch my flowers grow!"