Wired
Protecting E-mail Privacy

Dear Web Editor,

Is employee e-mail and other personal information on a school district's network protected from search or review by the district?

Don Mack
Technology teacher
Laramie, Wyoming

Increasingly, we spend more and more time communicating with our colleagues and friends and planning our lives while at work, using e-mail and other digital network services provided by our employers. We generally use these tools as if they were private and secure. What you need to know is that e-mail can be retrieved, online chat and other messaging tools can be recorded, and keystrokes can be logged.

But to what extent does your employer have the right to monitor your communications, and do you have any privacy rights? The short answer is, it all depends on your school district's policy on network usage, often referred to as an "Acceptable Use Policy" or "AUP." Most AUPs contain provisions that allow employers to monitor e-mail and other digital communications. Many AUPs also explicitly state that users don't have any privacy rights in their communications.

Potential liability is one of the leading reasons employers seek to monitor employee communications. This is a legitimate concern, especially in districts that permit employees' personal use of district-provided electronic tools.

E-mail messages, including deleted e-mail, are discoverable in a lawsuit. Because employers are exposed to liability in many ways, districts often believe they have little choice but to monitor school employees' use of district-provided electronic tools.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a 1986 amendment to the Federal Wiretap Act, broadly prohibits intentional interception of electronic communications, including e-mail. But the ECPA has so many exceptions that it offers employees little protection from employer monitoring.

For example, under the exceptions in the statute, network providers-- including employers--can intercept electronic communications to ensure the proper functioning of the system, to protect the provider's rights or property, or with prior consent from a user. Consequently, the ECPA isn't a substantial obstacle to employers who want to monitor their own networks.

Given these loopholes, some local Associations have attempted to bargain privacy protections for employees into their collective bargaining agreements or, in non bargaining states, into the AUP. To date, these efforts have produced mixed results.

In the end, the best advice is if you want something to be private, don't use your employer's network. Period.

Quick Tip
Tired of finding your e-mail account clogged with spam--those annoying unsolicited e-mails you get from people or businesses? One way to protect yourself from electronic junk mail is to add a few extra characters to your e-mail address whenever you visit a Website that asks for it.

For example, if your e-mail address is john@doe.com, tell a newsgroup that your address is john@REMOVE.doe.com. A list administrator may notice that your e-mail address is incorrect, but an automated e-mail address collector will never know.

Got a Question?
Ask the Web editor at webeditor@list.nea.org. Or send your questions by regular mail to NEA Today or by fax to 202/822-7206.

Talk to Us
Have a nifty classroom tip or lesson plan that uses technology? E-mail it (under 200 words, please!) to wiredclassroom@list.nea.org.

Is there a Website, CD-ROM, or piece of software you can't live without? E-mail your favorites--and why you love them--to myfavoritetech@list.nea.org.

Or send your responses by regular mail to NEA Today or by fax to 202/822-7206.

Those published here will receive a sparkling NEA Today mug!

Techno Tips

Online Dictionary
The Website www.dictionary.com is my favorite. At the top of the site, you type a word into a search box, then select whether you want to search for the word in the dictionary or the thesaurus. The dictionary and thesaurus are extensive and could make excellent references and/or replacements for bound copies.

Amie Gruzs
High school teacher
Westerville, Ohio

Student Art
The site www.artsonia.com is much more than a place to showcase student artwork. You can visit this site to find art lessons, comment on your favorite piece of art, nominate your budding artist for "Student Artist of the Month," and purchase items that feature student artwork. The site also features artwork from 101 different countries.

As part of a project on teamwork, my class held an art competition to design artwork that embodied what we believed about our class team. We had Artsonia print T-shirts for us that featured the student design. All the entries that did not win also appeared on this site.

Betsy Norris
Sixth-grade English teacher Shelbyville, Tennessee

Teaching Compound Words
To summarize a class lesson about compound words, I made several Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides that show two words written together to form a new word. Students read the slides together on our classroom's large screen monitor. Students also can use the slides for independent practice.

I extended the lesson with two online games: a compound words drag and drop game located at www.mrsmcgowan.com/quiz/compoundwords.htm and a multiple-choice activity at www.mrsmcgowan.com/quiz/compoundwords1.htm. My first graders access the webpages from our class Website.

Marci McGowan
First-grade teacher
Spring Lake, New Jersey

Editor's Pick

European Voyages of Exploration

During the 15th and 16th centuries, seafaring countries of Europe expanded their influence in the world through exploration--Portugal and Spain led the way. A University of Calgary tutorial introduces students to these two pioneering nations, their motivations, their actions, and the inevitable consequences of their colonization. The tutorial examines the geographical, technological, economic, political, and cultural patterns of the era. Go to www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/.

Inside Scoop
Facts on NEA's September 11 Website

What's up on what's offered.

Launched August 19, NEA's Remember September 11 Website attracted thousands of visitors with its teacher-designed lesson plans and documents of American democracy, all searchable in an Internet "library" database so parents and educators could choose from a wide variety of age-appropriate material for K-12 students.

Unfortunately, some in the media severely misinterpreted the site's content, perhaps intentionally. Some NEA members who heard the media might have been confused. Here, we sort through the facts.

What is actually on the site?
More than 100 age-appropriate lesson plans and links to more than 60 outside resources that adults can use as they choose with their children and students.

The site is a celebration of America--and American values, like respect for law, freedom, and individual liberty. Rich with praise for heroism and calls to patriotism, the site provides links to the array of September 11-related information, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, words to "God Bless America," and flag etiquette. Also included are links for presidential speeches, defense and anti-terrorism agencies, and memorial sites to the victims.

NEA built its site by drawing on the experience and expertise of its members and its partners in educational excellence--the American Library Association, the Public Broadcasting System, the American Red Cross, and others.

So what's the big deal?
A Washington, D.C.-based newspaper singled out one of over 150 links on NEA's Remember September 11 site. This link notes the importance of understanding the difference between members of religious and ethnic groups and terrorists who share the religion or ethnicity.

The newspaper took some of the material from that one link out of context, distorted it, and then misreported it as NEA's viewpoint. The newspaper's inaccurate criticism seeped out to other media, spreading the distortion.

What is NEA's position?
NEA stands firm with our fellow Americans in condemning terrorism and its conspirators. In July 2001, NEA took a stand against the Taliban. And immediately following the September 11 terrorist attacks, NEA and the American Federation of Teachers set up a joint NEAFT September 11 Fund to assist children of the victims and other members affected by this tragedy. By this past summer, $765,000 had been disbursed to individuals, along with $21,000 to New York City schools to replace blast-damaged copiers.

Can I decide about the Website for myself?
Absolutely. Just go online to http://neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/september11/.

Can NEA members expect more media tiffs in the future?
"NEA can be a target for those who resent our successful advocacy of public education," says NEA President Reg Weaver. "But we all need to stay focused on the higher ground--on the fact that we have a responsibility to give all children access to a quality education.

"That," says Weaver, "is the main story."

Resources
Increasing Access Through Technology

Digital media support lessons that adapt to each child's learning needs.

Excerpt
"The challenge posed by greater diversity and greater accountability is to enable students with widely divergent needs, skills, and interests to attain the same high standards. . . . Fortunately, technological advances have equipped educators with tremendous new instructional resources in the form of computers and digital media."

Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning
By David H. Rose and Anne Meyer (with Nicole Strangman and Gabrielle Rappolt)
216 pp. $26.95 paperback
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Way back in the 1980s authors Rose and Meyer, along with researchers at their nonprofit Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), began exploring how technology could be used to help students with disabilities. By the early 1990s, they had developed an award-winning series of electronic books. Students could have text read aloud by a computer, "turn pages" with a voice command, and select a new text to read with the click of a switch.

That work led Rose and Meyer to an "a-ha" moment: Rather than make students adapt to an inflexible, text-supported curriculum, why not change the way curriculum itself is developed via new technologies?

Thus was born the idea of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). As the book explains, universal design refers to built-in accommodations such as ramps, sidewalk curb cuts, and automatic doors that benefit a range of users, from those in wheelchairs to shoppers pushing grocery carts. In the UDL model, digital technologies are marshaled to meet the diverse needs and abilities of students by providing multiple ways of accessing information and demonstrating their understanding.

The book is broken into two parts. Part One provides a clear review of UDL's scientific and theoretical underpinnings, including recent brain research that explains why particular lessons or classroom tasks challenge students in different ways. The section is helped by a few well-chosen illustrations and by anecdotal sidebars that buttress the argument against instruction and assessment that rely exclusively on "fixed," text-based media.

Part Two looks at the practical applications of UDL principles. How can classroom learning goals and standards be shaped and expressed to include all students? How can new media enable all learners to reach these standards by various paths? How do digital technologies help teachers design fair and ongoing assessments that support individual learning goals?

One example highlights CAST's Thinking Reader software for reading instruction. For some students, the computer highlights text and reads it aloud; others can get a definition of a word they don't understand with a mouse click. Occasionally, a cartoon genie appears onscreen and prompts them to think more deeply about the text--say, to summarize or predict. Students type their responses into a log at the bottom of the screen that helps their teacher assess their progress. Teachers who use Thinking Reader closely monitor students and provide targeted guidance.

At a time when federal law says special-education students must have the opportunity to learn from the same curriculum as their peers, and when state standards require schools to improve outcomes for all students, this book provides fresh suggestions for how new tools can help educators meet those goals and improve K-12 education across the board.

--David T. Gordon
Editor, Harvard Education Letter

From the NEA Professional Library

Excerpt
The entire front perimeter of our school has been divided into 11 whimsical "literacy" gardens, each based on a popular children's book. After choosing a book and theme for their gardens, students used a computer drawing program to help them map out a design. Then they conducted research by going online to gardening Web sites for kids.

Teaching with Technology
The Teacher-to-Teacher Series
96 pp. $9.95 NEA members
$12.95 nonmembers
#2915-1-00-FN

In a world where schools are wired and students surf the Net with ease, teachers know that it's not enough for kids to be computer literate; they also need to be information literate. Teaching with Technology helps educators shift their focus from teaching about technology to integrating technology as a learning tool for core subjects. Classroom and computer resource teachers, along with library/media specialists, share their strategies for revamping instruction and helping students develop the critical thinking and interpersonal skills they need to become better learners.

To order, call 800/229-4200, or check the Web at www.nea.org/books.

Books by NEA Members

Getting School-Wise: A Student Guidebook
By Carol A. Josel
This book, written by a veteran teacher and learning specialist, outlines a valuable set of teaching strategies and skills in a fun and accessible format. Organization skills, learning styles, and how to teach students to be effective listeners are just a few of the topics covered that will help improve student and teacher performance. 176 pp. $29.95 from Scarecrow Press, Inc. To order, call 800/462-6420 or go to www.scarecroweducation.com.

Collaborating To Meet Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for K-6
By Toni Buzzeo
Written for library media specialists and their teaching partners, this book presents comprehensive units in a standardized template that can be adapted and used in librarians' own collaboration efforts. Easy to read and use, the book also lists the benefits of collaboration, as well as ways to overcome obstacles. 224 pp. $39.95 from Linworth Publishing. To order, call 800/786-5017 or visit www.linworth.com.

Internet-Based Activities for High School Mathematics: Real-World Content and Applications
By Tracy Kearnes and Beverly May
Two veteran math teachers connect real-time data from the Internet with algebra and geometry concepts in this workbook. Choose from eight activities that include step-by-step instructions, Web addresses, questions, and word problems. 74 pp. $12.95 from the Science and Mathematics Network. To order, go to www.sciencemathnetwork.org.

Tears Are Wept, Memories Are Kept: A Remembrance Book for Bereaved Children and Families
By Eleisa Trampler, Mary Hernandez, and the Children of Colorado
Retired Denver public schools teacher Eleisa Trampler compiled this book of sentiments and drawings by K-12 students in Denver area schools to help others deal with the loss of loved ones. The book also has space to record feelings, thoughts, and memories of a special someone. 222 pp. $14 from Maval Publishing, Inc. To order, go to www.maval.com.

Discipline Without Stress, Punishments, or Rewards
By Marvin Marshall
Learn how to reduce stress, motivate others, foster responsilibity, and ad-vance learning with strategies that promote collaboration and eliminate the reward/punishment system of discipline. With experience in teaching, administration, and counseling, the author offers practical solutions to problems in education and parenting. 300 pp. $39.95 from Piper Press. To order, call 800/606-6105 or go to www.piperpress.com.

TV Tips

Bang, Bang You're Dead
Showtime, Sunday, October 13, 2002, 8-9:30 p.m., ET, check local listings.
Based on William Mastrosimone's play of the same name, this drama offers an unflinching look at youth violence and the problems of achieving social and emotional health in schools today. The film depicts events in a high school where violence is pervasive when a drama teacher and his students try to stage a production of Mastrosimone's play. A guide to the film produced by KIDSNET includes an action workshop for educators, helping professionals, parents, and teens, and is available at www.KIDSNET.org. Parents/teachers should preview the program by themselves to determine if it's appropriate to show to their children/students, and they should lead follow-up discussions after any viewing.

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
PBS, Tuesdays, October 1-22, 10 p.m., ET, check local listings.
This four-part series explores the complexities that defined life during the Jim Crow era. The first major documentary to examine this oppressive era, the series spans the years from the end of the Civil War to the start of the modern Civil Rights movement in the 1950s.

Discovery Kids on NBC
NBC, October 5, 10 a.m., ET, check local listings.
Discovery Kids cable network and NBC will debut a Saturday three-hour programming block inspired by shows from the Discovery Network. "Walking with Dinosaurs and Kids" uses computer animation to recreate the sights and sounds of the prehistoric world. "Croc Files" stars Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, who investigates all types of wild animals. "TLC's Operation Junkyard" features teams of kids who use trash to create functional machines, such as catapults. "Black Hole High" invites viewers to investigate strange events and scientific mysteries at an unusual school.

Sporting Physics
ESPN2, October 7, 14, 21, and 28, 5:30 a.m., ET, check local listings.
Designed for middle and high school students, this series of four, 30-minute episodes features professional athletes demonstrating math and physics concepts, such as algebra and friction, through sports. Programs and lesson plans can be used in the classroom. Lesson plans are available at www.sportsfigures.espn.com.

Nick News: Special Edition
Nickelodeon, October 7 and 30, 6 a.m., ET, check local listings.
Linda Ellerbee created this series of specials from the NEA and Peabody Award-winning news program for kids in grades 4-6. In "Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan," she explores life in Afghanistan after Taliban rule. She takes questions from American kids on her visit to the country and talks with Afghan children in their homes, in school, at play, and at work. The program can be taped and used in the classroom for 10 years. A lesson plan is available at www.teachers.nick.com.

November Warriors
History Channel, October 28-31 (one episode per day), 6 a.m., ET, check local listings.
This four-part program chronicles the history of American presidential elections and can be used in class for two years, along with a lesson plan at www.historychannel.com/classroom. The first episode, "Noble Dreams/American Realities," outlines the first battles for the presidency. Part 2, "Trial By Fire," explores the "free vs. slave" issue in the Lincoln/Douglas presidential race and looks at whistle-stop campaigning and the intro- duction of a third party. Part 3, "The New Arena," traces presidential campaigns from the 1930s to John F. Kennedy's election in 1960, and the final episode, "The Modern Campaign," looks at more recent presidential campaigns, up to Ronald Reagan's.

Liberty's Kids
PBS, Mondays-Fridays in October, check local listings.
This animated series introduces 7 to 12-year-olds to the exciting stories and people behind the birth of the United States. Each program presents historical events seen through the eyes of two teenage apprentices who work in Benjamin Franklin's print shop and experience the American Revolution firsthand. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for one year. A companion website is available at http://pbskids.org/libertyskids.

Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers
PBS, check local listings.
This five-part series examines how children learn to read, why so many struggle, and how adults can help them. Each 30-minute episode illustrates a stage of the reading process, incorporating the latest research and featuring top U.S. reading experts. Shows highlight children's book authors, including Norman Bridwell (Clifford the Big Red Dog) and Kate Duke (Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One). Launching Young Readers is part of the multimedia initiative Reading Rockets, which offers information to parents and educators so they can help kids become avid readers. For more, go to www.readingrockets.org.

Web Winners

Staying Healthy
Use this site to teach children healthy habits early. Focusing on four health themes--Eat Well, Stay Fit; Open Wide; Dealing with Feelings; and Head Lice Advice--the site offers units with activity sheets for kids and information for adults. The themes are also connected to an episode of the PBS series "Arthur." Go to http://pbskids.org/arthur/grownups/health_tips/index.html.

Frog Dissection?
Leave your facemask in the drawer and grab a virtual scalpel instead. This site walks you through the dissection of a common bullfrog. Interactive animations, Flash objects, educational text, and a soundtrack make for a unique, odorless learning experience. Set aside at least 60 minutes to click your way through Frog Guts. Go to www.froguts.com.

Lesson Plans
The Lesson Plans Page collects over 1,000 ready-to-use lesson plans, primarily at the elementary level, that were developed by students and faculty at The University of Missouri. Launched in October 1996, this site serves elementary school teachers, preservice teachers, and parents. Go to www.lessonplanspage.com.

America's Library
With more than 4,500 items from the Library of Congress' collection on its website, America's Library is a good place to go to learn about American history and culture. Each of the site's five sections contain different activities to keep kids engaged and learning. Go to www.americaslibrary.gov.

Tracking the Payback
Campaign donations, special interest groups, and lobbyists. They all have a lot of influence on Congress and what laws are passed. Check out this site to see who's giving money to whom and how much they are giving. Published by the nonprofit, non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, this site is useful for students learning about campaign contributions and lobbying. Check it out at www.opensecrets.org/payback.

Cyberspace Copyrights
Use this interactive activity to quickly learn about copyright issues on the World Wide Web. Visitors view 11 questions students, teachers, and parents may have about using Web images, sound recordings, and text in papers, presentations, and Web projects. Go to www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf.

Reading
Giving Migrants the Gift of Literacy

When the students and parents are migrants, how can you make every season a reading season? One Florida member shows the way.

It's 9:30 a.m. at Denee's Trailer Park in Apopka, Florida, and while many migrant parents are working in local fields, fisheries, or nurseries, others are huddled in the trailer-turned-classroom where NEA member Sonia Mariani-Hendrickson is about to start a lesson on literacy. For the next two hours, the parents and young children will play together, talk together, and most important, read together.

Mariani-Hendrickson is on a mission to help parent and child gain the basic skills needed for a lifetime of pleasure with words. "We know that when parents are able to read to their children, play word games, and sing songs, it's another step toward literacy," says Mariani-Hendrickson, coordinator of the Title I Early Intervention Outreach and MigrantRead Program for Orange County, Florida. "This is particularly key when you have migrant parents, because they play such a key role in their child's education."

The Florida program is based on the MotherRead and FatherRead Program in Raleigh, North Carolina, where instructors use children's books, nursery rhymes and stories, and the parents' life experiences to help teach. "Because most of our migrants come from Mexico," says Mariani-Hendrickson, "we help them develop reading skills in Spanish first, then move to bilingual books, and finally to English books. It's a gradual process, but very effective."

The tutors also show by example, demonstrating the skills of wordplay and songs, and of reading with children. "The first thing you need to do is assess the parent's own level of literacy and cultural knowledge of things like native nursery rhymes," says Mariani-Hendrickson, who made a point of learning those rhymes herself. Then she showed the parents how to use them to teach their children. "Slowly, they acquire the language and the skills," she adds.

The process appears to be working. Mariani-Hendrickson, who has run the program for two years, says an average of a dozen parents and 10 children participate in the weekly sessions--impressive, given the transient nature of the population. Some, for example, are around only during one agricultural season, but Mariani-Hendrickson and her staff pound the pavement, aggressively luring them to the program by selling not just literacy, but other perks, too.

"We offer support services, such as health screening, additional tutoring, and access to community services," says Mariani-Hendrickson. "The migrants now see the benefits of our outreach effort."

And the children? Mariani-Hendrickson counts the successes one child at a time. One five-year-old boy recently answered all of her questions and reading cues--encouraging prog-ress. He then modeled the reading skills for his younger siblings, a sure sign that the learning will extend throughout the family.

Students at the middle school and high school benefit from the program, too. So-called "advocates" meet with them for after-school tutoring, counseling, and mentoring, and also offer a special leadership program and transportation home. "These advocates are now sought out by the parents, as well," says Mariani-Hendrickson. "They now feel they have an ally in the school system in this program." That's rewarding, she says.

"It just shows you that when it comes to reading and achievement," Mariani-Hendrickson says, "even the most transitory of students--the migrant student--won't be left behind."

--Anita Merina

You Can Do It, Too!

How can you help migrant students in your area? Here are some tips to help you get going:

Find the migrants and their families where they work and gather. Let them know your program is available to them. Getting the word out is key.

Try to link the literacy program to other services such as health care.

Create a comprehensive program that reaches students at all levels--early literacy for young readers and middle or high school programs for struggling older readers.

Gain the migrants' trust by reaching them at their level. Use their cultural knowledge and resources to create lessons. Respect their culture and stories--they will be a plus to learning.

Be persistent. It takes time to gain trust while working with different language and skill levels and cultural experiences.

President's Viewpoint
Our People Power

It's time to organize and mobilize to elect pro-public education candidates--without regard to party affiliation.

"Don't hassle me with politics and campaigns. I just want to close my door and teach." In my many years as a teacher and Association leader, it seems like I've heard that refrain a million times!

While I understand why some of our colleagues say this, I respectfully disagree. Why? Because the harsh, cold reality is that just about every important decision involving our schools and classrooms is ultimately made by politicians.

Our elected officials decide whether to increase school budgets--or to slash them. They decide whether vouchers will be in place, thereby stripping already financially strapped districts of much needed dollars--or whether they will be rejected. They decide how much schools will pay--or not pay--to attract quality personnel. They make hundreds of decisions--decisions that determine the fate of our schools and the children we teach.

My friends, we have a professional responsibility to mobilize in the political arena. I guarantee you that other major professions and groups--doctors, lawyers, the National Rifle Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and so many more--are actively involved in the political process. And we must be, too. After all, we are not a special interest. We are a very special interest, because we are standing up for children and public education.

And let us be clear. We don't care whether a candidate is a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent. In each race, we have a duty to size up the candidates objectively, and then support the one who stands most strongly for children and public schools. I am heartened that in recent years we have found more and more Republican candidates who fit that bill. I expect to find many more this year and in the future.

The stakes in this year's election are incredibly high. Because of the recent economic downturn, state legislatures across America are swinging the budget ax--canceling after-school programs, increasing class sizes, and freezing salaries. Public education detractors, energized by the Supreme Court's pro-voucher ruling last spring, are pushing their privatization schemes more fiercely than ever. The new federal education law is ratcheting up the mania to test, test, test.

We must speak up! We must strategize, organize, and mobilize! We must flex our people power! We are 2.7 million members strong--one in every 100 Americans. NEA is everywhere. We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles in more than 13,000 communities all across America who teach the students.

And we offer a powerful vision--a vision that is at the heart of the American dream. We want every child to have access to a quality public education, free from fear or intimidation, in an atmosphere that is safe and conducive to good teaching and learning. We can only realize this vision if we are active in the political arena, if we speak up, organize, and work our hearts out this autumn for pro-public education candidates.

So let me make a request. I want you, as an individual, to get active and get involved. I also want you to speak to 10 other people in your community. Tell them about all the good things happening in your public schools. And urge them to support the candidates who will keep those good things happening in the future.

In short, in this year's election, I am asking you to make a difference. I know I can count on you!

Comments? E-mail Reg Weaver at RegWeaver@nea.org.

People
Creating a Community Cookbook

David Quinn definitely knows what's cooking. In fact, he probably gave you the recipe.

Quinn, a high school English teacher from Seattle, Washington, oversees the Internet's number one food Website, allrecipes.com. Quinn's site offers more than 20,000 recipes for novice cooks and gourmet chefs alike. The site also includes nutritional information, meal plans, coupons, and cooking tutorials. With more than 3 million unique visitors each month, allrecipes.com sees more traffic than sites for Martha Stewart and the Food Network.

"We're a community cookbook," Quinn says.

Quinn's food empire started in 1997 with a single Website, cookierecipe.com, which he and his partners designed so their wives could trade cookie recipes. That site won Yahoo's site of the day and site of the month awards. The Seattle Times named cookierecipe.com the best free Website of 1997.

Visitors to the site also wanted to exchange recipes for other treats. Quinn and his associates responded with cakerecipe.com, pierecipe.com, and breadrecipe.com. In 1998, the group merged all of the sites into allrecipes.com.

"We just listened to the users," Quinn says. "We weren't thinking 'let's make lots of money.' We were thinking 'let's build this really cool product.'"

Allrecipes.com now includes recipes for appetizers, soups, and entrees, as well as desserts. Users also can link to recipes developed by the company's partners, including Kraft, Hershey's, and Betty Crocker.

--Kristen Loschert

Riding for Research

When Delaware NEA members Charlie Michels and Mike Firch started cycling together six years ago, they never expected to go on a search for an AIDS vaccine. But during the past two years, the two educators have raised more than $22,000 for AIDS vaccine research by participating in benefit bike rides.

"When Charlie and I decided to do this, it was a way to help promote what seemed to be an underdog," says Firch (shown here right), a guidance counselor at Seaford High School. "Something for AIDS vaccines doesn't get a lot of support or attention."

Michels, a technology education teacher at Chipman Middle School, agrees. "It's not that this cause is any more important, it just caught our attention, and we jumped in with both feet."

The two friends completed their first benefit ride in August 2000 when they rode 510 miles across Alaska. Last year, Firch completed a second AIDS vaccine ride in Montana. This summer, they spent two days riding across Delaware to promote the cause.

Both Firch and Michels ride several times a week and lift weights to prepare for their marathon rides. But the emotional demands of the benefit rides far outweigh the physical ones, they say.

"When I first went to Alaska I thought I was going there to ride a bike for a wonderful cause," says Firch. "But when I was there I experienced a spiritual, emotional, and physical sensation that continues to move through me on a daily basis."

Michels draws strength from fellow riders. "You might be at the end of a long climb, and there's a dozen riders at the top cheering you on," he says. "The trick is to take that feeling and bring it back home."

--Kristen Loschert

Teacher at Sea

When Dana Tomlinson boarded the Ka'imimoana as part of the Teacher at Sea program, she wanted to act like "a fly on the wall," silently observing the ship's 30-member crew. But Tomlinson, a sixth-grade teacher in San Diego, California, quickly became a part of the team, helping with the various experiments conducted on the ship.

Tomlinson first learned about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Teacher at Sea program from a fellow teacher. When she saw that one of the voyages traveled to the Galapagos Islands, Tomlinson was hooked. She always had dreamed of visiting the islands, a dream she fulfilled at the end of her voyage.

During her month-long trip, Tomlinson taught students around the world about the data scientists gathered on weather disturbances in the Pacific. During live Web broadcasts, Tomlinson interviewed crew members and explained to students the importance of the scientists' research. She answered students' questions by e-mail and posted a daily log and digital pictures on her Website.

"I was taught how to use different devices aboard the ship and, to me, that was the ultimate hands-on experience," Tomlinson says. "My whole experience was great, and teachers should definitely try and do it once, because it is a real-life laboratory and you learn so much every day."

--Urmila Subramanyam

Passing on the Art of Story

To retired elementary teacher Judy Wolfman, of York, Pennsylvania, storytelling is the quickest way to teach creative writing. But it wasn't a lesson she learned right away.

"During my teaching years I really struggled to get students to write stories about themselves," explains Wolfman, an NEA-Retired member. "I would teach them all the basics of writing, but when it came time to put pen to paper, they just couldn't do it--until I made a change that made the difference."

Wolfman began using her skills as a budding storyteller and children's author to help students discover their own creative talents. "I learned that many of my students in my inner city school came from an oral tradition where stories were handed down," says Wolfman. "That's when I knew storytelling might be a way to reach them."

Wolfman gathered stories, added some activities, and students began to respond. She let students develop their own stories as well, by giving them prompts, beginning sentences, and characters to use.

Since retiring in 1993, Wolfman has taken her lessons on the road. She now gives creative writing and storytelling workshops to students and teachers.

--Anita Merina

Tennessee Coin Celebrates Music

In June 2000, Tennessee member Shawn Stookey had his fourth- through eighth-grade art classes create sketches for the U.S. Mint's 50 State Quarters Program. Stookey created his own drawing as an example for the students at Lakeview School in New Johnsonville. When the students sent their submissions to the coin commission, Stookey added his sketch to the pile, not thinking much of it.

By April 2001, the Fine Arts Commission of Tennessee had selected his drawing from more than 1,000 submissions as the design for the state quarter. After the governor approved the design, the state unveiled its quarter at a January reception to honor Stookey's work.

His theme for the coin weaves together Tennessee's musical heritage. The design includes a trumpet (for the blues of Memphis), a guitar (representing the Grand Ole Opry), and a violin over a songbook (signifying bluegrass). The U.S. Mint modified Stookey's original sketch, but he doesn't mind the changes. They make the design more dynamic, he says.

Stookey admits that people don't always believe he designed the quarter. "They kind of look at me for a second and are like, 'yeah right,' and I have tell them it really was mine," Stookey says.

--Urmila Subramanyam

News
Big News from the Bluegrass State: Teacher-ESP Unity

NEA's Kentucky affiliate gives education support professionals full membership rights, recognizing that education has become a team effort.

Not very long ago, education support professionals sat--and seethed--together at a table in the back of each Kentucky Education Association delegate assembly. Although they were dues-paying NEA members, these ESPs were denied the right to vote on new KEA officers, resolutions, new business items, or any other piece of assembly business.

Kentucky support professionals, you see, weren't considered professional enough to be full KEA members, even though they were the equal of any teacher in the governance of NEA.

"I always felt like a stepchild sitting in the back, being given handouts," recalls J.D. Jones, a school law enforcement officer in Fayette County. Fortunately for Jones and other Kentucky ESPs, a growing number of teacher leaders shared this discomfort.

"It disturbed me--these people sitting in the back of the room as if this [were the pre-civil rights era in] Selma, Alabama," says Brent McKim, president of the 5,000-member Jefferson County Teachers Association, KEA's largest local affiliate. "Teachers have come to respect the value of ESPs over the course of time and recognize that the challenges today are so much greater. We really need a team approach in education."

The team spirit finally prevailed at KEA's 2002 delegate assembly in April, when elected teacher delegates--including the entire Jefferson County delegation--voted by 71 percent to amend the Association's constitution and bylaws to recognize ESPs as "full, active, voting" KEA members.

By September 1, the old Kentucky ESP Association (KESPA) had dissolved and ESPs had become part of a newly created unit of KEA, District 13.

This "blending" boosted the 29,000-member KEA by 3,200 full new members. Now, watching with great interest from the wings, are more than 45,000 unorganized ESPs across Kentucky.

After a 15-year struggle for full rights, 2002 was a great year for Kentucky support professionals. All five winning teacher candidates for KEA office found one thing to agree on: ESPs must be full Association partners.

New KEA President Frances Steenbergen and Vice President Kenton Cooper, both elected during the 2002 delegate assembly, made ESP inclusion a centerpiece of their campaign platforms. Both proudly note that they hold commercial driver's licenses--handy for class field trips beyond the confines of rural districts.

"I know what it takes to drive a school bus," says Steenbergen, a family and consumer science teacher from Barren County. "And I know what it takes for a support professional to work in the classroom. My sister-in-law is a classroom aide who doesn't make much money--she got a 25-cent raise for ten years of experience."

Steenbergen and Cooper have pledged to turn KEA into a certified/ classified "team," beginning with a district-by-district drive to build membership and make local affiliates more active.

In June, the new KEA leaders chaired membership conferences in both Louisville and Lexington, at which teachers and ESPs alike brushed up on the basics of member recruitment and drew up district organizing plans.

This was the very first time in KEA history that teachers and ESPs had participated as equals in an Association meeting.

J.D. Jones was at the Louisville conference, just soaking it all in. "I once felt like a stepchild. Now I've moved up to the head of the table," Jones says with a grin. "Now I feel accepted as part of the family. It's a great feeling!"

What KEA Brings to Support Professionals

The Kentucky Education Association's full inclusion of education support professionals combines valuable human resources at a time when KEA confronts challenges familiar to many NEA state affiliates, including a state budget shortfall, substandard educator pay, and soaring health insurance rates.

First and foremost, this merger will mean strength in numbers in dealing with lawmakers and school superintendents alike. "Together, we're better," stresses Henderson County head custodian Nancy Toombs, president of KEA's newly formed District 13. "With all the attacks on public education we have to all be on the same team."

"Now, when we go to the state Capitol to lobby, legislators can't divide and conquer teachers and ESPs," adds special education teacher Kenton Cooper, the KEA vice president.

On top of added political clout, ESPs now have the "prestige of being members of the largest education organization in Kentucky," says KEA President Frances Steenbergen. "In everything we do--be it working on a statewide membership plan, applying for KEA grants, or participating in Association conferences, workteams, or committee assignments--support professionals are part of us as full voting members.

"We'll also offer ESPs all of KEA's professional development opportunities," Steenbergen pledges. "If a teachers' local conducts a brain-based research workshop, we expect them to invite classified employees."

Three Things Support Professionals Bring to KEA. . .

What can education support professionals offer the Kentucky Education Association?

Just for starters, they bring:

1. Tenacity. "Kentucky ESPs never give up," says District 13 Executive Director Betty Watson. "They show tenacity in the face of all odds, which is why they're so successful in activities like lobbying."
   "We do have staying power," agrees Fayette County law enforcement officer J.D. Jones. "ESPs tend to stay on the job a long time. After 20, 25 years, they still want to drive that bus or clean that building. You seldom hear grumbling, except about pay--that's the number one issue." Stand clear when they talk about that one.
   "Health insurance costs are a big issue in our county--people can't afford to live!" points out Hardin County District 6 bus driver Wilma Hawkins. "We have drivers leaving for new jobs with better pay and benefits, leaving behind new drivers at greater risk for accidents. We're hoping and expecting to work alongside teachers in the next legislative session for better health benefits."
2. Grassroots lobbying skills. Kentucky ESPs are rooted in the communities where they work and often enjoy a first-name relationship with legislators--who frequently ask for endorsements and invitations to ESP meetings.
   In lobbying, support professionals are quick to deliver troops where needed, strong communicators, research-savvy, and, says teacher lobbyist Brent McKim, "honest, straight-shooting people."
   Starting with absolutely nothing, members of the old Kentucky ESP Association (KESPA) successfully lobbied from 1993 to 2000 for legislation guaranteeing ESPs important new rights and benefits--including due process in termination, permanent status after four years of continuous employment in a district, 12-month retirement credit and expanded sick leave benefits, and coverage (with professional development dollars) under Kentucky's Safe School Act.
   And in the 2001-02 legislative session, KESPA and KEA members joined forces to successfully lobby for a mail-order pharmaceutical plan that saves school employees money on maintenance drugs and saves the state treasury $6 million over two years.
   "We're teaching teachers how to share their message with lawmakers," says KEA District 13 President Nancy Toombs. "At the same time, we're holding politicians accountable, especially the ones who forget why they're there. We ESPs have a perch in the Capitol building--we catch legislators right at the top of the stairs!"
3. Devotion to kids--and excellence. To see more of her daughter, Bridgette Hollingsworth recently left a position as a skilled surgical assistant to become a Hardin County District 6 driver.
   This new ESP questions why she makes $9.06 an hour--for a five-hour day--to transport society's "most precious cargo, children," while local sanitation truck drivers earn up to $15 an hour. Children "are worth more than garbage," she says. "We're carrying our future on those roads."
   Hollingsworth, who plans to become more active in KEA, sees Association involvement as a way to fight for the future of children and public education. "We can organize to make teachers better teachers, custodians better custodians, and everybody's school safe and protected," she argues.
   That's the kind of drive that earned ESPs a place in the Kentucky Education Association.
   "Professionalism has more to do with attitudes than degrees," concludes Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association. "Excellence is about knowing what you can do and taking pride in your work. KEA and NEA's focus on improving the quality of our members' work sets us apart from other labor organizations."

Kudos To ...

. . . the New Jersey Education Association, which now includes 44,000 ESP members--13 percent of its total membership and the highest percentage of any NEA state affiliate.

Speaking at this year's state ESP conference, NJEA President Edithe Fulton said: "I tell people from other states that for the past 23 years, ESP members have been welcomed into NJEA as organizational equals with their K-12 and higher ed colleagues, and I'm enormously proud of that fact."

. . . members of the Ithaca (New York) Paraprofessionals Association, who have won a 21 percent wage increase for the year beginning July 1. The lowest paid IPA members will see their wages rise by $2.40 per hour this coming year, and by almost 50 percent over the next three years.

A teacher's aide receiving $6.72 per hour went to $9.36 on July 1 and will go to $10.05 in 2004. A teaching assistant who started at $7.46 goes to $9.98 in this new school year and to $10.69 in 2004. In three years, the median wage for an aide will rise to $11.65 and for an assistant to $13.15.

For 18 months, IPA campaigned for this increase alongside other affiliates of the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition, composed of 31 community, religious, and labor organizations. But this would not have been possible, say IPA leaders, if these workers were not unionized and absolutely determined to win a living wage.

"These negotiations have been about dignity, respect, and hope," says IPA President Debbie Minnick. "We have held out for a contract that would give us all of these. We have bargained starting pay that increases by approximately 50 percent over the next three years, and raises for current paras that are far more than what they would have received in normal negotiations."

. . . members of the Florida Education Association, who have persuaded legislators to shelve a bill mandating that school districts "review" food service, transportation, and maintenance/operations services; request proposals from private firms; and complete written analyses comparing the private bids to current in-house costs.

Bill HB 217, FEA members pointed out, created unfunded mandates and falsely assumed that current support services are fully funded. Moreover, this legislation did not require review of currently privatized services, consider the hidden costs of privatization, or provide for transparency in contractor cost accounting and decision making.

Privatization: Look before legislating!

News
Needed: A Voice in Stuff That Matters

NEA members in California and Maryland push for a greater role in decisions that affect students' futures.

If you work for a certain kind of school district, you're probably fed up with top-down curriculum decisions based on fads, scripted teaching programs, powerless teacher committees, and a test-driven mentality that devalues classroom creativity.

Earlier this year, NEA affiliates in two states, California and Maryland, challenged this disturbing trend by seeking collective bargaining law changes that would give educators a greater voice in student learning. A report on this work in progress:

• During California's last legislative session, Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), with support from the California Teachers Association (CTA), introduced Bill AB 2160. This bill would have enhanced the state's strong teacher bargaining law, which now permits negotiations over issues such as health, welfare, and salaries; transfers and reassignments; school safety; class size; school calendars; and teacher evaluation.

  AB 2160 was a bold proposal to expand the scope of bargaining to include decision-making procedures for a comprehensive list of "professional" issues. Those issues included, among other things, the selection of course content, curriculum, textbooks, and instructional materials, and the development and implementation of local educational standards, professional development plans, and parent involvement programs.

  This cutting-edge legislation put NEA's Golden State affiliate way out in front of a national movement for change. That didn't sit well with a powerful lobby that wasn't ready for such change: every California management group from school board members and district administrators to labor-unfriendly newspaper publishers and corporate CEOs.

  Through a massive public relations campaign bank-rolled by the California Business Roundtable, the opposition derided AB 2160 as a "radical grab for power" by CTA officials, predicting it would shut classroom teachers and parents out of decision making, "put the brakes" on education reform, quadruple collective bargaining costs, and "create a hostile environment" in school districts.

  For those who know anything about the mutual, give-and-take nature of collective bargaining, these wild charges are simply stupefying.

  CTA twice accepted bill amendments to answer the opponents' objections. The final version of AB 2160 called for "academic partnerships" at the district level to reach "binding agreements on the substance" of professional issues, while guaranteeing teacher participation in decision making, a substantive role for parents, and safeguards for the separation of decision making on professional issues from the collective bargaining process.

  But despite a strong CTA grassroots lobbying campaign, AB 2160 sponsors fell six votes short of those needed to advance the amended bill, and legislators shelved it.

  "We were surprised by the mean-spirited, nasty, anti-union rhetoric directed at CTA, the bill, and its sponsors," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "This response told us a lot about the battles ahead."

• While CTA members dust themselves off and plan for the next campaign to expand their professional voice, they can draw inspiration from NEA colleagues in Maryland, who last spring gained legislation that moves their education bargaining law much closer to California's gold standard.

The Maryland State Teachers Association (MSTA) won passage of Senate Bill 233, which expands the scope of teacher negotiations beyond pay and working conditions to any "other matters that are mutually agreed to by the employer and employee organization."

These "other matters" can involve absolutely any issue from curriculum to student discipline, with the exception of class size and the school calendar. But the new law does provide latitude to bargain over student-teacher ratios, classroom support, and the number of days in the school year.

Equally important, the law extends bargaining rights for the first time to education support professionals on Maryland's Eastern Shore--who endure lower pay and far fewer rights than counterparts in the rest of the state--and gives all Maryland ESPs the right to bargain for due process in discipline and dismissal.

MSTA waged a comprehensive two-year campaign to pass Senate Bill 233, encountering many of the same objections as CTA, right down to bogus charges that the legislation was a "grasp for control" by union officers and would shut parents out of contract talks.

But MSTA members stood their ground, arguing, among other things, that increased teacher participation in professional decision making doesn't equate to a dilution of authority, and that Senate Bill 233 would promote curriculum "stability."

"It seems every time we change superintendents, we change curriculum," Calvert Education Association President Ann Brown told legislators. "We do not object to change, [but we do] object to the complete overhaul of the educational system, throwing out what teachers have worked so hard to put together."

MSTA's convincing arguments won some impressive allies, including the governor and lieutenant governor, more than 100 bill co-sponsors in the legislature, and a majority of the State Board of Education, which regulates teacher bargaining.

MSTA Vice President Clara Floyd says member education on the need to expand bargaining rights and grassroots lobbying made all the difference.

"Legislators had to understand that this is more than just a 'union' issue--it's a member issue," Floyd stresses. "It impacts both student learning and the retention of quality educators."

--Dave Winans

For more on the California Teachers Association's campaign to give teachers a voice in their profession, go to www.cta.org/cal_educator/v6i6/ feature_teachers.html.

Life Without Bargaining: "An Awful Way To Live and

If you live in a non-bargaining state, talk in California and Maryland about expanding the scope of collective negotiations might be pretty frustrating.

During this year's NEA Representative Assembly, Texas delegate Michael Miller worked hard to educate colleagues from bargaining states about the reality of working in a state where nothing is negotiable.

"We're handed a one-page 'contract' each May with no dollar amount--until the budget is set," says Miller, a reading specialist and NEA local affiliate president in the Grapevine-Colleyville district, near Dallas. "And we're not sure what our benefits will be in the next year because of the possibility of a financial crisis."

Even without legal negotiating rights, Miller works hard to represent his members, "teachers who do really great work with kids." A while back, he even convinced his superintendent to create a pay scale that rewards the experience of veteran teachers.

But good working relationships with administrators aren't enough. Educators need the right, set in law, to bargain a binding, collective agreement.

In Missouri, another state without a bargaining law, "nothing is binding," says Peggy Cochran, executive director of Missouri NEA (MNEA). "A school board can change any condition under which we work, except salaries, at its next meeting. Some of our largest local affiliates have bargaining agreements, but they could lose them tomorrow.

"It's an awful way to live and work," Cochran emphasizes. "Bargaining ensures you have a voice. That's why we've been campaigning for a bargaining law since 1970."

MNEA has plenty of NEA support. "We're interested in winning bargaining rights--then expanding them--wherever we can," stresses Lynn Ohman, NEA director of bargaining and member advocacy. "Without bargaining, you can't even begin to provide a consistent voice for local Associations in job security and education policy."

"If you just have 'rights' given to you by the employer, they could be taken away tomorrow," adds Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Association, NEA's largest state affiliate. "You need a formal process, a voice in writing, and it needs to be in legislation."

--D.W.

Four Good Reasons To Give Educators a Voice

In too many school districts across the nation, professional or "education policy" decisions are the non-negotiable prerogative of administrators--due to court or arbitration decisions, weak or non-existent bargaining laws, or simply an age-old reluctance to share authority. Here, from California and Maryland, are four powerful arguments for reversing this disturbing trend:

1. Teachers need to be treated as the professionals they are. "In California, we have a teaching workforce in which everyone is a college graduate, 50 percent have advanced degrees, and the average experience is 12-1/2 years," points out California Teachers Association President Wayne Johnson. "It's just ludicrous for teachers to have that education and experience, yet have no say over the curriculum, textbooks, and things going on in their classrooms!"
2. Educators' know-how makes them central to a child's success. "The public understands that teachers are where the rubber hits the road," says Pat Foerster, president of the Maryland State Teachers Association. "We need to drive decision making down to the district and classroom level. Classroom teachers understand how children learn and have a huge responsibility for determining what works. To exclude teachers--and support professionals--from important decisions on needed programs and resources is totally backward and potentially damaging."
3. Take away the joy of teaching, and teachers will leave. "The joy of teaching has to do with working with kids, with the creativity of the whole thing, with seeing the light in students' eyes when they 'figure it out,' says California Teachers Association Vice President Barbara Kerr, a kindergarten and first-grade reading teacher. "If teachers don't take back their say in curriculum, there will be no more joy in teaching, and there won't be anyone left who wants to teach."
4. Teachers--especially the new ones--are already leaving. California state Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg, a former classroom teacher and school board member, reports that many new California teachers are leaving the profession before their fifth year. "Teachers are not quitting because of low pay; they knew they would be paid badly before they entered teaching," Goldberg says. "What [new] teachers did not know is that they would be treated like 'tall children' and be systematically denied any partnership in the academic decision making in their own classrooms."

--D.W.

News
NEA's Kind of Candidate

Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone says the federal government should fund education mandates. That's one reason NEA backs his re-election.

Early this year, President Bush signed into law the costly Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which calls for annual reading and math tests, sanctions for schools that fail to display "adequate yearly progress," and strengthened quality provisions for teachers and Title I paraeducators--while failing to fulfill a 26-year-old federal promise to pay 40 percent of the cost of special education.

The statute's mandate, "no child left behind," is critical, but one the feds haven't fully funded and cash-strapped state governments may never be able to meet.

Like other congressional candidates recommended by NEA, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone is pushing to make the federal government--which now pays only 9.4 percent of the nation's public education costs and 17 percent of the cost of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)--as accountable as any educator for student achievement.

This two-term senator challenges his colleagues to choose between increased education funding and tax cuts for the very wealthy. Wellstone opposes vouchers and voucher-like private tuition tax credits and "strongly advocates both guaranteed full funding for IDEA and increased resources for essential programs such as Title I," says NEA lobbyist Joel Packer.

"Senator Wellstone keeps saying, 'You can't improve education on a tin-cup budget,'" adds NEA Government Relations Director Diane Shust. "That's a major reason he and most of the Minnesota delegation voted against the final version of ESEA."

Yet Minnesota's senior senator has not stopped trying to improve this law. With NEA support, Wellstone won passage of an ESEA amendment specifying that the new annual tests must measure higher-order thinking skills and serve as useful tools for educators.

Packer, who observes Wellstone in action, says this lawmaker's a hard-working pragmatist who cares deeply about kids and public education.

"Senator Wellstone works the issues and reaches across the aisle to build coalitions," the lobbyist concludes. "Plus, he visits classrooms and is in direct touch with educators' concerns."

"Paul Wellstone is always in classrooms; not many senators do that," points out Jean Jones, a first-grade teacher and union steward at Prosperity Heights Elementary in St. Paul. "He hears about the realities we face, especially in urban areas, where the only thing that seems to matter is standardized test scores."

Wellstone hears about it all, including poorly funded special ed mandates that force districts to raid general education budgets, pitting student against student. And Education Minnesota members constantly inform him about class size increases and program cuts, teacher layoffs, and health care cost hikes that erode educators' paychecks.

All this feeds the senator's determination to push for more federal assistance for education and a health care system that covers every American.

Desiree Payne, an executive board member of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, welcomes the senator's call for full IDEA funding. "The learning disabled are not getting adequate support," she says.

And Payne, an employment services counselor at the St. Paul Workforce Center for Employment and Training, notes that added federal resources would be helpful in her own work. "I work with welfare recipients, mostly minor moms who must attend school," she says. "We never know what our budget will be from year to year."

Jones, who has endured cutbacks in her own Title I school (a reduction in teaching positions recently increased her class size from 19 to 27) and the teacher-bashing of Governor Jesse Ventura, is moved by Senator Wellstone's concern for educators.

"In his campaign ads, Paul has said that teachers and their work need to be valued," says Jones. "Teachers need to hear both things."

Jones serves on the governing board of the Minnesota AFL-CIO (Education Minnesota is also affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, which is part of the AFL-CIO), where she gets to see another side of Paul Wellstone.

"Paul identifies with working people and their families, knows labor issues and what's at stake, and has a labor voting record that's second to none," Jones says. "He walks picket lines and it's not for show. He'll pi