It may be summertime, but for many Butler County teachers, vacation has not yet begun.

The past couple of weeks, many teachers have been working at various businesses around the county as interns. The goal

to take practical experience in a business and bring that knowledge to students.

The program through which they have been working is the School-to-Career program, and it is only one of the many ways teachers are able to help their students learn more than just what the books teach.

The Greenville Advocate was fortunate enough to have Greenville High School teacher Mollie Smith work a full week in the newsroom here to help her students publish a better newspaper. Students who work on the GHS paper, The Tiger Journal, hopefully will have an improved paper because of Smith's experience.

In addition, elementary teachers from surrounding counties participated in a week-long seminar at GHS, which was sponsored by the Alabama Reading Initiative. Their goal was to learn new and improved methods to help Butler County elementary students improve their own reading skills.

We are lucky to have such hard-working teachers in Butler County. Not only are they willing to go the extra mile to help our children become better students, but their genuine concern and love for their jobs shine through to show that they also are great role models.

Ladies and gentleman, your efforts now will make all the difference in years to come when these children are our county leaders.