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whether they are doing their jobs effectively.
• Despite all of the stresses, many educators love teaching. They are fulfilled, and they are good at it. Strong classroom preparation can help more young teachers build their confidence and skills.
• In general, the yearlong hands-on training makes sense. But those who run education programs at our universities and those who hire new teachers should put their heads together and think of ways to overcome some road-blocks.
• Like other great ideas in our state, this switch in training needs money. If it's a good program, we need to pay for it. Students who spend their days working deserve compensation in addition to experience. Time in the classroom often means they don't have time to work other jobs, yet they still have the expenses of paying for

their college credits.
• It might take creative thinking, but educators need to come up with a way to compensate the student teachers. Lower costs for those credits? A stipend? Outside financial support through grants or corporate backing?
• While the Board of Regents hasn't taken action on any proposal that has potential teachers spending three years on campus and one in a school district classroom, the concept seems worthy. We urge the university system to work out the details.
• ___
• Watertown Public Opinion. July 5, 2012
• Living with the heat
• Man, is it hot out there.
• If you haven't said or heard that in the past week or so, chances are you've been inside with little or no contact with those who have ventured out into the heat. Temperatures like we've been experiencing are not unusual during the summer, but they are unusual this early. Generally, sustained temps in the 90s and 100s happen later in July or in August.
• So what's the deal?
• Since at least 1988, scientists have warned that climate change would bring, in general, increased heat waves, more droughts, more sudden downpours, more widespread wildfires and worsening storms. In the United States, those extremes have been happening for several weeks. More than 2.1 million acres have burned in wildfires, more than 113 million people in the U.S. were recently in areas under extreme heat advisories, two-thirds of the country is experiencing drought, and earlier in June, deluges flooded Minnesota, Florida and other states.

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