2006-02 February 2006 http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/ 2006-02 February 2006 XHEMS 20050506 RD February 2006 NEA Today - Global Learninghttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/globallearning.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/globallearning.htmlThu, 26 Jan 2006 05:00:00 GMT

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Global Learning

Student Exchange

Use the Internet to enrich lessons and connect your students to peers around the world.

By Cindy Long
global06.jpg
Ninth grader Chelsey Paradis is a student in the Belfast Nigh School global classroom.

It’s halfway through first period on a Friday morning at Belfast High School in Belfast, Maine, and ninth-grader Chelsey Paradis stares musingly at her laptop screen. While many high school freshmen are thinking about weekend plans (or the lack thereof), Chelsey considers more worldly matters, such as whether expressing doubts about the future success of the Republic of Dagestan might seem insensitive to her online classmates who live there.

As students in a global classroom, currently studying the literature and geography of Eurasia, Chelsey and her classmates are connected via the Internet with peers in three ninth-grade English classes from different parts of the former Soviet Union—Azerbaijan, the Russian republic of Dagestan, and the city of Vladimir. Students on both continents have just finished reading a translated version of “My Native Tongue,” by award-winning Dagestani poet Rasul Gamzatov. Their assignment is to write about whether the diversity of languages and culture found in the region will hurt its chances of success. Chelsey wants to be candid, but diplomatic. When writing for a worldwide audience, she has learned to choose her words carefully.

Presenting students with such challenges is part of the aim of the yearlong project, in which the kids in Maine and their Russian peers collaborate on writing projects. The curriculum—including literature readings, lesson plans, and writing assignments—is shared via a Web site, discussion boards, and digital photography. After completing an assigned reading, students respond to the literature with a two- or three-paragraph essay that becomes part of a longer, final paper they will write for each geographical region studied. The essays are also posted on the site’s discussion board, called the Café, where the Eurasian and American students read and respond to each other’s work.

By participating in this cross-cultural exchange, the American students can make deeper connections to the literature and develop a better understanding of the geographical areas they study—all through their communication with teens who live there. The Russian and Azeri students, who are learning English, can hone their language skills. Most important, the experience allows all students to knock down the walls of traditional classrooms and physical locations to challenge the stereotypes and preconceived notions they may have about each other.

Global02.jpg
Students from the Zagatala, Azerbaijan wave the flags of their country along with the American flag.

The Maine class, team taught by three NEA members— special education teacher Michael Bailey, English teacher Gregory Applestein, and geography teacher Butch Richards—is conducted like an advanced course. “More than 50 percent of the students are learning disabled (LD), but this course is not about coloring maps,” says Bailey, who started the global classroom with the help of Project Harmony, a nonprofit organization pursuing online engagement and cultural awareness between school-age children in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the United States. “Too often LD students aren’t challenged to an appropriate level. The most rewarding experience of the global classroom has been to see those bright students shine in their ability to grapple with worldwide questions.”

Going Global

Bailey first linked up with Project Harmony while visiting Azerbaijan as part of an American Councils on International Education program designed to create learning partnerships between U.S. and Eurasian schools. Project Harmony was housed in the same building as the American Councils, and soon Bailey was in the office of the Project Harmony director, sketching out his ideas on a piece of scrap paper about a shared curriculum between his students and a class in Azerbaijan. A few weeks later, with help from the Project Harmony technical staff, the global classroom Web site was launched.

Global04.jpg
Special Education teacher Michael Bailey says one of the most rewarding experiences of the global classroom has been watching his learning disabled students improve their writing and higher thinking skills.

Bailey believes that the partnership challenges his students and enriches their learning. “They’re not just reading a report in front of the class, but ex- changing ideas with peers from across the globe,” he says. He adds that his students’ writing skills—especially their grammar and spelling—have improved, because they know that the kids reading their work are not fluent in English.

Back in first period at Belfast High, Chelsey Paradis works on her essay for the Café. Soon after she begins writing, she raises her hand. “I don’t think they’re going to make it without being able to talk to each other,” she says. “But I don’t know how to say that without hurting their feelings.”

“It makes it more difficult when you have an audience, that’s one of the challenges,” Bailey explains.

Chelsey seems undecided on her position, and while she mulls it over, her classmate, Jake Denham, posts his essay to the Café, concluding that “having a diversity of languages would hurt Russia’s chances of revival.”

Within his essay, he asks his Russian classmates for their insights: “How big of a problem is [the diversity of languages] for you? Is it hard to talk to people right now? Do you want to re-unite?”

Aishat Dedisheva is a student from the Dagestani class. Like the poet Gamzatov, she is Avar, which is the language she speaks at home. In Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, some 36 languages are spoken. According to legend, the horseman who rode across the world handing out languages threw a bagful into the mountain gorges of the Caucasus region and told the people to sort themselves out. To this day, they’re still trying.

Most of the Dagestani students come to school knowing only their native tongue and must learn Russian as a second language before even beginning to learn English. While older generations fear the languages of their ancestors might be lost, the young people embrace Russian. Gamzatov, the students point out, falls somewhere in between.

Global03.jpg
Belfast High School English teacher Gregory Applestein leads a discussion in the global classroom.

“In his poem ‘Native Tongue,’ Rasul Gamzatov writes how he loves his mother tongue—the Avar language…and at the same time he loves the Russian language, the language of human intercourse in Dagestan and Russia,” Aishat writes in the Café. “I can say that the languages of two Avar villages not far from each other differ greatly and we understand each other with difficulty. So the Russian language is consolidating and serves to the success of the regions and Dagestan.”

Finding Common Ground

Through the class—the only one of its kind at Belfast High—the ninth- graders stretch the boundaries of their experience and develop an awareness of the world largely unheard of 10 years ago in a small-town American school. Many of the Maine students have never traveled outside of New England, let alone to Russia.

“The global classroom experience not only helps kids grow as students of literature and geography, but also as human beings,” points out Applestein.

Belfast High School student Joel Watson is in a band and wants to travel the world. He says the global classroom has opened his eyes and changed his perspectives about the people of the Caucasus region. “The kids in Dagestan are mostly Muslim, and after 9/11, a lot of us thought of Muslims as terrorists,” Joel says. “But the kids there didn’t know much about us either. They thought we were a bunch of greedy rich kids. Now we see we’re really similar. We have a lot of the same struggles and even the same ideas.”

GET CONNECTED

Online resources to help link your classroom with the world:

Global SchoolNet Foundation
www.globalschoolnet.org

KidLink
www.kidlink.org

International Education Resource Network
www.iEARN.org

Project Harmony
www.projectharmony.org

Global learning is a growing trend.  

Read about two other global classroom projects!

Visit the Belfast Global Classroom site:

Watch a Video of former Global Classroom students:

What surprised some of the Maine students was that their Muslim classmates confront the threat of terrorism on a daily basis. Armed guards stand watch outside schools to prevent attacks like the one on a school in Beslan in September 2004, when armed rebels held students and teachers hostage during a siege that killed nearly 350 people, half of them children. Meanwhile, Chechen separatists have infiltrated Dagestan in their efforts to break away from the Russian Federation. They’re targeting police in shootings and trying to recruit supporters, sometimes from the area’s high schools. Teachers, including the Dagestani global classroom teacher, Mikhail Nokhov, try to dissuade their students from joining the rebels. Nokhov hopes that fostering understanding among differing cultures will help his students resist such pressures.

The English teacher explains that he was eager to participate in the project after meeting Michael Bailey in July 2005 at a Cold War seminar in England. “We [became] friends and he invited me to take part in his global classroom,” Nokhov says. “I agreed because it is useful for the students to have pen pals in an English-speaking country, which will make them pay more serious attention to learning English.” Not only that, he adds, but “they will learn about many other things that they are interested in, not from the textbooks or from me, but from the American boys and girls who are the same age. I hope that it will…bring them closer in understanding.”

Still, there are technical obstacles Nokhov faces. “We have no Internet access at the schools,” he says. “The number of computers is limited and they are of an old type.” His students either go to the Internet café in town or to his house after school to get online.

Project Harmony is determined to help teachers like Nokhov overcome technical limitations in Dagestan and across Russia. The organization has already made great progress in Azerbaijan. Through its Azerbaijan Connections and Exchange Program, funded in part by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Project Harmony has created “Internet Computer Centers” in 72 schools in 17 regions of Azerbaijan.

Shukufa Najafova, the English teacher in the global classroom’s school in Azerbaijan, took advantage of the program. A year ago, Najafova had never used a computer. But with the help of a local English-speaking Peace Corps volunteer, Najafova submitted an application to Project Harmony and was awarded with six computers, a printer, scanner, digital camera, and high-speed Internet connection. Now she and her students are Internet whizzes, regularly contributing photos of themselves and their region to the Belfast High global classroom site and participating in Café discussions.

“None of this was possible before,” Najafova says. “Now our school is connected with the world—we sit here and talk with America. It is so good for us.” And, clearly, good for the American students too.

 
]]>February 2006 NEA Today - Global Learninghttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/global_video.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/global_video.htmlThu, 26 Jan 2006 05:00:00 GMT ]]>February 2006 NEA Today: Global Learning Sidebarhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/globalsidebar.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/globalsidebar.htmlTue, 17 Jan 2006 05:00:00 GMT

Next stop... The World!

A small elementary school, named for its place on the border of Delaware and Maryland, leaps across global borders every day.

patti.jpgPatti Weeg, Title 1 Computer Teacher at Delmar Elementary School in Wicomico County, Maryland, helps her students cross international borders every day, allowing them to make new friends in countries spanning the globe, from Japan and Tasmania to Peru and South Africa. We caught up with her to ask her a couple of questions about her work.

How do you define a global classroom?

A global classroom has no walls and no doors –it is open to the world around us.  In the global classroom you will see excited students talking about their friends in another part of the world.  You will hear stories of how they are working together on a project or sharing information about their school day, their cities, countries and cultures.  Instead of teaching skills in isolation, the global classroom gives them real world meaning. The global classroom provides students with an audience and a purpose for what they do.  Online projects provide a place for students to "publish" their work for the world

Why should educators create global classrooms?

Building a generation of students who are aware, concerned and involved global citizens is a challenging task. The future is in the hands of the students sitting in our classrooms - tomorrow's leaders. Teachers who bring the world into their classrooms develop a global perspective for themselves and help their students become more aware of the world around them.  Students learn how to understand our differences and celebrate them.  In many cases they find that they are not really very much different at all from their online friends in another part of the world.  Their hopes, dreams and fears are very much the same.  Communicating online with other learners around the world is one small step that can help bring about positive global change and world peace. 

Visit the Delmar Global Classroom!

Back to main story

TravelingEd.org

A Site with a Global Vision

In 1998, 27-year-old Jennifer Coveny quit her job and sold everything she owned to travel the world. To keep tabs on her whereabouts, her worried mother -- NEA member and 3rd grade teacher Diane Coveny from Moultonborough, NH -- came up with an activity for her class called “Where in the World body-home-2005_01.jpg is Jennifer Coveny?”  Students tracked Jennifer’s path around the globe and learned about the countries and cultures she visited through email, digital images, and Internet research.

“Upon my return to the States, I visited their classroom and I was like a celebrity!,” Jennifer said. “The kids were so excited and engaged – and I was completely shocked at how much they had learned about the world just by following my trip and participating in the activities that my mom created.”

Jennifer decided she wanted to share the mind-opening effect that travel offers to kids who may never get to actually experience travel themselves, and she wanted to use the Internet to do so on a wide scale.  A year later, TravelingEd.org was born.

Using online curriculum designed around the real life adventures of international travelers, TravelingEd is bringing the world into classrooms to strengthen the geographical awareness and cross-cultural competency of school children with lesson plans, resources and other Web-based educational activities.

TravelingEd.org leverages the power of the Internet to create a global classroom where students can interact, communicate, collaborate and learn from other students and resources not contained in their textbooks or the within the walls of their classroom, allowing for different learning opportunities.

“I believe that creating cultural awareness and opening children’s minds to the real world is hugely beneficial in developing a well-rounded person capable of critical thinking and global awareness,” Jennifer said. “Globalization, a term overwhelmingly discussed and debated these days, affects us economically, politically and culturally in a great many areas of our lives – the wars in Afghanistan  and Iraq, the European Union and NAFTA, cheap labor in China, SARS and the Bird Flu are just a few examples…. The more cultural and global awareness we can develop in children, the more they will be able to compete and thrive in an intelligent and constructive manner in society.” 

Visit Travelinged.org!

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An A-Plus for Student Leaders!

Who will take home this year’s Student Program Annual Awards?           

Last year, University of Evansville (UE) education student Hannah Sitzman dazzled her professors—“an outstanding student whose commitment to her profession is exemplary,” one said—with her academic and leadership skills. As president of the Indiana Student Education Association and its UE chapter, she was recommended “warmly, highly, and enthusiastically” for the NEA Student Program Annual Awards.

But who will this year’s Hannah Sitzman be?

Which emerging leader will take home the Outstanding Local Student Leader Award this year? Surely you know another student equally as talented, motivating and motivated, and deserving of NEA’s highest honors?

Now is the time to answer those questions—as well as consider which student programs and newsletters deserve recognition. For information about the application and award requirements, check out NEA's Student Program website.

The NEA Student Program Annual Awards honor an outstanding local advisor, state organizer, local student leader, and state student leader, as well as an outstanding class project. Awards also are given to excellent local and state programs, local and state newsletters, and a local Web site. In addition, recognition is given to new local chapters. This year, the awards will be announced at the annual meeting in June in Orlando.
Photo: Christian Lopez
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Book Focus

Remembering Rosa

In this beautifully illustrated children’s book, simply entitled Rosa, author activist Nikki Giovanni writes, “She sighed as she realized she was tired. Not tired from work, but tired of putting white people first. Tired of stepping off sidewalks to let white people pass, tired of eating at separate lunch counters and learning at separate schools.…She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for it.” You need not ask, “Rosa who?” Civil rights legend Rosa Parks, who died last October 24, sat down on a Montgomery bus one Thursday afternoon in December 1955 and then refused to give up her seat, as the law once required, to a white man. In choosing to stay seated, she stood up for civil rights and changed the world. Giovanni’s book, published by Henry Holt and appropriate for all ages, is a glorious tribute.
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Girl Bullying

Tell Us More

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Ha! Social aggression among school-age girls is on the rise—and can be vicious. Have you witnessed girls torment peers through name-calling, spreading rumors, revealing confidences, or cyber-bullying? Have you seen their victims withdraw, miss school, and suffer academically? Tell us your story and how you helped address the problem. Please reply to neatoday-reply@list.nea.org.
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Trade Secrets

The skills you use on the job can help another member with a dilemma on the home front.

No Sweat!

This month: David Montera, a speech and debate teacher at Pueblo Centennial High School in Colorado, presents his best advice for speaking in public.

If you feel nervous about speaking in front of people, remember: The message is always more important than the messenger. By concentrating on the points you want to make rather than focusing on yourself, your confidence will naturally increase.

Mean what you say. As Lyndon B. Johnson said, “What convinces is conviction.” If you don’t believe in your own message or possess passion for it, don’t deliver it.

Drive your point home. There is nothing wrong with repeating the same idea two or three times with different words, in different ways, to make sure it is understood and remembered. For example, you could say that “schools are underfunded,” that “dollars are needed for supplies,” and that “the debate team is forced to fund-raise to meet expenses,” all in the same speech to hammer the message home.

Illustration: Getty Images

Got a tip to share?
If you'd like to submit tips from your on-the-job experience, e-mail Cynthia Long with your name and local, a brief description of what you do, and your top three tips.
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Online Tutors:

A Click, and a Continent, Away

Hours before dawn, in New Delhi, India, a call center is abuzz with computer operators assisting American customers, an ocean away. But they’re not the tech geeks or customer service reps you might expect, dealing with frozen computer screens or questions about credit card bills—instead, they’re helping school kids with homework.

In the latest twist on outsourcing, a growing number of Indian companies are providing educational services, such as online tutoring, to American students, and at a fraction of the cost. While some domestic companies, like Sylvan or Tutor.com, charge from $40 an hour, the Indian companies—leveraging a huge population of highly educated, tech-savvy, and often low-wage workers—charge between $10 and $25 an hour for the same services.

Students connect with their tutors using technology such as VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) so they can actually speak to each other, and electronic whiteboards so students can draw diagrams, work out problems, and erase mistakes, just as they would on notebook paper. Typed questions and answers between student and tutor can be seen instantly on both computer screens. For more information, visit the Growing Star website or the Edumatics website.

Illustration: Don Bishop, Photos (clockwise): TR Image, Noel Hendrickson, Steve Smith
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Capitol Report

Universal Trends

Developing countries are increasing the number of college graduates they produce and rapidly closing the lead that “advanced countries” have long established in elementary school enrollment rates, literacy rates, and other education benchmarks, according to an analysis by The Conference Board.

Primary school enrollment rates for low-income countries, which include places like Haiti, Samoa, and Senegal, have risen from about 65 percent in 1970 to about 94 percent in 2001. But less than half of the students in those countries go on to get a high school education, and less than 22 percent get a college degree.

Still, if these trends persist, the Conference Board predicts that the emerging world may have almost 100 percent literacy by 2035.

Turkish Union Can Stay

A Turkish court announced late last year that the teachers’ union Egitim Sen could stay operational, after it removed from its statutes an article that advocated teaching children in their own language— even if it’s Kurdish, not Turkish. The union had been found guilty in May of constitutional violations and was subsequently supported in its battle by Education International, of which NEA is a member.

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Always on Her Mind

That’s Dedication!

An Alaska teacher, mauled by a brown bear while walking her puppies late one Sunday afternoon, had a single thought before surgery: Please call my principal and tell him to get a substitute teacher for the next day, she told a hospital nurse.

Colleen Sinnott, a special education teacher at Tustumena Elementary School in Kasilof, was walking with her husband along a rural trail when the bear charged and slammed Sinnott to the ground. She suffered a deep gash along her head and shoulder injuries.

The fact that she was thinking of her students, and not herself, on her way into the operating room didn’t surprise her school’s principal, John Halverson. “She’s very professional and responsible,” Halverson told the Anchorage Daily News. “She hasn’t missed five days of work in the five years I’ve been here.”

Photo: James Gritz
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It’s time for a road trip!

Reading Across America

It was September 1805 when Lewis and Clark ran out of food in the Bitterroot Mountains, butchered their horse for dinner, and sadly named a nearby stream, “Hungry Creek.” Surely they thought they would die. But exactly 200 years later, the students at Timber Ridge Middle School in Plainfield, Illinois, reading about the adventurers’ journey, gave them some help.

John Piechocinski, Timber Ridge’s head custodian, leads an annual NEA’s Read Across America program in which students count the pages they’ve read as miles in a journey. Last year, as they added up pages, Piechocinski added up miles and moved Lewis and Clark across a map in a school hallway. One year, they took a virtual trip to every ballpark in America. “We get parents involved, the community involved, and the kids really enjoy it,” says Piechocinski.

This year, NEA’s Read Across America, a yearlong, nationwide initiative to promote reading, will celebrate Read Across America Day on March 2. For more information, book lists, and resources to use in the classroom, go to the Read Across America website.

Illustration: Lance LeKander and Kris Wiltse
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What were they thinking?

Poor Jimmy Hopkins. Bullies push him around at school until he just can’t take it anymore, and he lashes back—getting into fights, pushing heads into toilets, and taunting his classmates with abandon. (He even hits teachers!) That’s the premise of Bully, a new video game by Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, due out this spring. How cool is that? Not very.
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Going Home

Visiting students at home can help you at school.

Your students spend hours every day at school with you, on your turf, but how much time do you spend in their neighborhood on theirs?

If the answer is very little, that’s a mistake, says Carmen Mercado, an education professor at Hunter College and the City University of New York. For more than 20 years, Mercado has encouraged teachers to visit their students’ homes to identify intellectual resources that can be applied to school curriculum.

Too often, teachers assume their students—especially poor and minority ones—don’t have resources at home for learning. They do, Mercado says. And knowing what they are can promote “culturally responsive teaching,”

as well as infuse your students with a sense of confidence and dignity.

“For example, many students lead trans-national lives, going to and from Puerto Rico in some cases. This is a tremendous resource,” says Mercado. “A teacher can go into a Puerto Rican home and observe the student’s language skills, knowledge of religion or art or history, and then connect that back to the curriculum.”

Photo: Christian Lopez & Ryan McVay
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Notepad

Wal-Mart Shenanigans

Can’t lift heavy boxes or spend hours wrangling shopping carts? Then you’re not fit for a job at the country’s largest retailer. According to an anonymous copy of a draft memo to the Wal-Mart board, which was sent late last year to the non-profit group Wal-Mart Watch, the company has a new strategy to cut health care costs. After crunching the numbers, it seems it comes down to weeding out the associates likely to drive up health care costs and eat profits. Hiring young, healthy workers, decreasing the number of “expensive” full-time workers, and adjusting 401(k) programs will help them in their everlasting quest for higher profits.

—Desiree Miller

The Burden of Proof

If there’s a question about adequate services for children with disabilities, it’s parents who have to prove that their children have inadequate individualized education programs, according to a Supreme Court ruling late last year. It’s not the school districts’ responsibility to prove that the child’s needs have been met. The ruling could create a change in policy in many states, and make it more difficult for parents with few resources to mount challenges.

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The Language of Love

Remember when star-crossed teens professed their love in poetry? “What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” said love-struck Romeo.

This Valentine’s Day, as modern love notes are sent via cell phones and instant messages, check out our hip and handy glossary to adolescent love speak:

143 is “I love you.” (Get it? One letter, then four, then three.)

14324*7 is “I love you 24 hours seven days a week.”

ILUVUMED is “I love you MY EDUCATOR!” (Well, not really, though it should be! It’s “I love you more each day.”)

ILUWAMH is “I love you with all my heart.”

IBCNU is “I’ll be seeing you.”

And, one to avoid, IH8U—“I hate you!”

Photo: Nancy Honey
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Not your Grandmother’s Knitting Club

When program specialist Judith Symonds began knitting in the hallways of her Maplewood, New Jersey, elementary school, she unwittingly hooked into a new trend.

After seeing her clicking away, both boys and girls clamored to pick up needles of their own, so Symonds stitched together an after-school program for parents

and students called Knitting Together a Community. As activities go, this one is cheap and portable, and Symonds has found it helps parents weave common ground with their children. At the same time, it also helps students learn to focus on tasks at hand.

Symonds’ school, the Seth Boyden Demonstration School, isn’t the only place this classic pastime is catching on. Students of all ages are wrapping themselves in handmade scarves and mittens—just like Julia Roberts and other celebrity knitters—as school-based clubs pop up across the country. For information about starting one at your school, contact the Craft Yarn Council at www.craftyarncouncil.com.

—Mary Robbins
Photo: Corbis
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The Digital Divide

Students with home computers are 6 to 8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school, says a new University of California, Santa Cruz, study. That’s bad news for Black and Latino students: About 50 percent of them have access to home computers, compared with 75 percent of White students.

Photo: Corbis
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Mixing Wealth for Academic Health

One North Carolina county sees scores jump with economic shake up.

Jacob, a third grader whose dad is a convenience store clerk, probably doesn’t know that his classmate, Nayima, has a mom who’s the president of a bank and takes home $125,000 a year. He also has no idea what that has to do with his recent B+ in math. But educators in Wake County, North Carolina, do—and they couldn’t be happier.

They’re crediting a 5-year-old system of busing that integrates schools based on parental income—rather than race—for helping to significantly boost test scores.

Last spring, 80 percent of Black third- through eighth-graders scored at grade level on the state’s standardized tests. A decade earlier, only 40 percent had. This evidence of economic integration’s benefits comes at a key time for Wake County. Twenty-seven percent of the students there are poor, up from 20 percent in 1998.

But these results aren’t surprising to many researchers. Decades’ worth of evidence suggests that exposing kids at all economic levels to middle class educational values provides a better learning environment for all, says Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation, a New York-based non-profit that touts economic diversity in schools.

“You want an environment in which peers are highly motivated and have big dreams and whose parents are very involved in their education,” says Kahlenberg.

Photo: Nathan Ham
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]]>February 2006 NEA Today - State Reporthttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/statereport.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/statereport.htmlFri, 13 Jan 2006 05:00:00 GMT

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State Report

100 Percent Deception

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt is pushing for legislation that will limit the way school districts can spend money. Dubbed the “65 Percent Solution,” it would require districts to spend at least 65 percent of their budget on items related to student instruction such as teacher salaries, textbooks, computers, and sports—regardless of district needs. That would leave only 35 percent for all other costs, including libraries, building maintenance, transportation, administration, and psychological and health services. Blunt wants legislators to put a referendum before voters in November 2006. “It offers no solution at all,” says Greg Jung, president of the Missouri National Education Association (MNEA). According to 2002–03 figures of five sample school districts, only one adhered to the 65 percent goal. Similar legislation has been proposed in at least 15 other states. 

By the Book Campaign 

Alabama After seeing how a living wage campaign increased salaries and boosted membership in Birmingham City, members of the Jasper City Education Support Professional Association (JCESPA) organized their own campaign in October 2004. A year later, membership increased by 10 percent to 119, and wages went up 1.5 percent above the state increase of 6 percent. That 1.5 figure updated a local salary schedule that had been in place since 1980. Their success tactics included community coalition building and use of comparable ESP wage figures with 10 school systems from the region with similar economic characteristics. “We compared apples with apples, not oranges,” says UniServ Director  and campaign manager Natasha Jackson.

TABOR is Toast

Colorado In 1992, Coloradans amended their constitution by installing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). The plan’s rigid ceiling on state spending made drastic budget cuts inevitable. The cutbacks caused Colorado to drop from 35th to 49th in the nation in K–12 spending as a percentage of personal income. Also, in-state college tuition increased 21 percent over the last four years. Last November, voters passed a referendum that suspended TABOR for five years. “This does not solve Colorado’s K–12 funding problem,” says Deborah Fallin, spokesperson for the Colorado Education Association (CEA). “It only keeps it from getting worse.” Colorado’s failed budget experiment arbitrarily cut funding on schools, roads, and health care. Other states are confronting similar reduced spending plans.

How To Snag Top Teachers

Pennsylvania Though the Homer-Center Education Association (HCEA) has only 71 members in a 1,000-student district, all of them are “good leaders and good people,” says Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) UniServ Director Bob Paskowski. Together, they gained a starting teacher’s salary of $42,566 this school year, escalating to a possible $52,012 in 2009–10. Also part of the deal: higher raises via an 11-step salary schedule. Little wonder that this district—despite its rural location—is now a top-tier destination for teachers.

State Legislators Need Initiative 

Idaho At the start of the school year, almost half of Idaho’s teachers were working without a contract. Idaho Education Association (IEA) bargaining teams in 29 locals were trying to secure new contracts for 7,276 of Idaho’s more than 15,800 teachers. In most cases, the barrier was insufficient public funds. Yet, by the end of November, IEA negotiators were able to win contracts for members in 22 of those locals. “It’s been four years since legislators have put any new money into education,” says IEA President Sherri Wood. “Educators are fed up with watching pay decrease as insurance, gasoline, and electricity costs rise.” Teachers and ESPs don’t blame district officials. “It’s not the districts’ fault. It’s the Legislature,” added Wood. IEA is leading the way for a November ballot initiative aimed at increasing education funding.

Securing Funds for the Future

Arizona K–12 public education is allotted millions of dollars a year from revenue generated by the leasing and sale of more than 9 million acres of state trust lands. Currently, the land is managed by a commissioner appointed by the governor. The Arizona Education Association (AEA) wants to change this in an effort to protect those funds and the environment. Together with conservation groups, AEA is spearheading a signature campaign for a November ballot initiative. Titled Conserving Arizona’s Future (CAF), the initiative aims to conserve natural lands, create a board of trustees (to include educators), and force developers to build quality projects. The initiative will provide a secure funding source for public education for generations to come, says John Wright, AEA president and CAF treasurer.  

]]>February 2006 NEA Today - Spotlighthttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/spotlight.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0602/spotlight.htmlFri, 13 Jan 2006 05:00:00 GMT

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Spotlight

Pension Perils

Two states approach retirement security from opposite directions.

Talk about a Continental Divide. As a result of freshly signed legislation, new West Virginia educators hired as of July 1 last year were channeled into a defined-benefit retirement plan; yet on July 1, 2006, Alaska newbies are to be pushed into a defined-contribution plan.


Is your retirement nest egg in peril? Newly hired teachers in Alaska will be forced into a defined-contribution plan starting in July, while newbies in West Virginia have the security of a defined-benefit pension plan.
The difference? With defined-benefit plans, you know exactly how much of a monthly benefit you’ll receive after you retire, and that amount (determined by a formula that factors in your years of service and final average salary) is guaranteed. With defined-contribution plans, the amount you receive is not predictable and there are no guarantees: You and your employer contribute money to an investment account, and it’s up to you to decide how the money is invested (plans typically offer a mix of stock/bond mutual funds and other investment options). When you retire, the amount left in the account represents your retirement income.

One Step Back

In fierce lobbying, NEA-Alaska (NEA-AK) stressed that the state’s new defined-contribution scheme would impoverish teachers and support professionals, force a “brain drain” from Alaska, and remove the “safety net” of the state’s teachers, who do not receive Social Security. But this state affiliate stalemated with lawmakers determined to shirk the state’s 50-year commitment to pay a third of local government retirement costs.

At press time, NEA-AK had a proposal before the Legislature to delay implementation of the plan until July 1, 2008; a vote is expected in the current session. Meanwhile, the state affiliate has joined a coalition of other labor organizations that hired an actuary group to determine the impact of funneling employees into the proposed defined-contribution plan. “We believe that doing this will add to, not reduce, the state’s liability, since a smaller pool of employees will be contributing to the remaining defined-benefit plan,” says Bill Bjork, president of NEA-AK.

The coalition is also interested in having the actuary determine the viability of developing an alternate, hybrid plan that would combine a defined-benefit plan with post-retirement health insurance.

One Step Forward

In contrast, the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) had the lessons of history on its side. In 1991, the Mountain State made the same blunder as Alaska, herding all newly hired educators into a Teachers Defined Contribution (TDC) retirement plan and closing the older, defined-benefit Teachers Retirement System (TRS) to new participants.

Big mistake. TDC participants were offered no education or training in how to invest their money; investment options were few, limiting participants’ ability to diversify; and the plan’s administrator failed to issue accurate, timely statements. WVEA “tracked the defined-contribution plan’s terrible job,” reports WVEA Executive Director David Haney, “and we lobbied for several years to provide safeguards for TDC plan members and to change the law.”

Their hard work paid off. Last year, WVEA won legislation that places all new hires in the traditional TRS system, closing the defined-contribution plan to new members. In early March 2006, existing TDC members will vote, by a simple majority, whether to stay in the defined-contribution plan or join TRS. WVEA insisted, however, that before a vote is taken, the public retirement board must deliver a comprehensive education program to voting members that includes individualized statements, showing what their benefit would be under TRS and TDC.  

The members, of course, will decide, but two facts are undeniable: The entry of new hires has pumped new funding into the defined-benefit plan, and actuaries have predicted that a merger between the retirement plans could save the state some $1.4 billion over 30 years. How is that possible? The state’s cost of maintaining the defined-benefit plan is only 4.3 percent of payroll, compared to 7.5 percent under TDC. This would give members a stable retirement system “that is not contingent on the stock market,” says Haney. WVEA’s goal, he concludes, is to “obtain a safe, secure, and predictable pension plan for all school employees.”

—Dave Winans

For more on how to protect your retirement benefits, check out NEA's Retirement Toolkit.

Photo: GettyImages

 

 

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On TV

African-American Lives

PBS, February 1 & 8, 9–11 p.m. ET. Check local listings.
The lives considered here are those of accomplished African-Americans: a neurosurgeon, an astronaut, a sociologist, and a movie star. But the emphasis is on the past, as Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., joins geneology experts to trace each subject’s lineage through American history, all the way to Africa.

BonHoeffer: Agent of Grace

PBS, February 6, 10 p.m. ET. Check local listings.
In another time, Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have been remembered as an ecumenical organizer or for his theological writings—but during World War II the Protestant scholar found himself a leader in the small Nazi resistance movement in his native Germany. “We are the silent witnesses of evil deeds,” he wrote. “Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough to find our way back?” Imprisoned for helping Jews escape to Switzerland, Bonhoeffer was hanged in 1945. For more information, visit PBS' website.

Colonial America

Discovery Channel, February 7, 5 a.m. ET/PT.
This program explores the formation of the American colonies, difficulties of colonial life in Jamestown, Virginia, and the history behind the famed Salem Witch Trials. You can tape and use in the classroom for one year.

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Do We Need Black History Month?

Nickelodeon, February 8 & 24, 6 a.m. ET/PT.
Watch a lively discussion on Black History Month and the importance of teaching Black history in this episode of the popular TV news magazine for grades 4–6.

Save Our History: Voices of Civil Rights

History Channel, February 13, 6 a.m. ET/PT.
Listen to the story of the Civil Rights Movement through compelling personal narratives. This series is a national history education and preservation initiative that raises awareness  and support for preserving local heritage. Tape it and use in your classroom for two years. For more information visit the History Channel website.

July ‘64

PBS, February 14, 10 p.m. ET. Check local listings.
In 1964, a three-night riot erupted in two Black neighborhoods in Rochester, New York—the culmination of decades of poverty, joblessness, and racial discrimination. Using archival footage and interviews with eyewitnesses, this show explores the genesis and outcome of three devastating nights in the Civil Rights era.

Concepts in Geometry and Measurement

Discovery Channel, February 15, 5 a.m. ET/PT.
This episode, “Coordinate Geometry,” examines the uses of math during the Age of Exploration and looks at practical applications for coordinate geometry, with segments on archaeology, polar coordinates, space exploration, and the inner workings of computers. Tape and use in the classroom for one year.

TLC Elementary School: Understanding Good Citizenship

TLC, February 24, 6 a.m., ET/PT.
From the series for K–8, this episode explores the concept of citizenship in a democracy, including who qualifies as a citizen, how to become one, rights and responsibilities, and selection of leaders. Tape and use in class for two years.

Modern Marvels: George Washington Carver Tech

History Channel, February 27, 6 a.m., ET/PT.
Part of a series examining structures and innovations around the globe, this segment explores the life and work of the African-American visionary inventor. Tape and use in your classroom for two years. Teaching materials are available at the History Channel website.

On TV listings are provided by KIDSNET, a national resource for children's media in Washington, D.C., www.kidsnet.org, and by Cable in the Classroom's Access Learning magazine at www.ciconline.org.
Photos/art:  Staatsbibliotek zu Berlin; Discovery Education; library of congress; Lucky Duck/Nickelodeon.
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Read Across America

Coming Soon to a Classroom Near You—

Originally created as a one-day event to celebrate the joy of reading on March 2, Dr. Seuss’s birthday, NEA’s Read Across America has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day of the year. This year’s celebration brings resources to help you reach out to parents, teen readers, and the Hispanic community.

More than 45 million children, teens, and adults took part last year in NEA’s Read Across America Day. Are you ready to make this year’s event even bigger and better? The 2006 Resource Kit offers posters, ideas, and reproducible certificates and bookmarks. Go to NEA's Read Across America website to request your kit or to download the contents. Here’s a sneak preview of what you’ll find:

  • Reading Rocks! poster. In this age of iPods and Game Boys, Webcasts and reality TV, can reading really hold its own among teens? The answer is yes—if you have the resources and support for teen literacy! Our Reading Rocks! poster has tips for getting teens excited about reading, Web sites with resources for teen readers, and a great tip sheet for hosting a teen poetry slam.
  • ¡Lea con La NEA! poster. As educators, you’re always looking for resources to help your English-language learners do their best. Our ¡Lea con La NEA! (“Read with NEA”) poster includes tips in Spanish for parents to encourage their children to read, a reproducible Certificate of Participation, and Web sites for educators.

Don’t forget to pledge your participation! Tell us about your plans by going to http://home.nea.org/readacross/raaedit.cfm. You can also sign up to receive a free e-newsletter with the latest literacy news from NEA’s Read Across America and our partners—just send a blank e-mail to join-nea-raa-enewsletter@list.nea.org.

Photo: Paula Chavez-Talley
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In Print

American History, Up Close and Personal

Spanning more than 500 years, Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States presents stories that history often overlooks—those of women, people of color, Native Americans, workers, and others who struggle for equality and justice. Through speeches, letters, poems, and songs in this comprehensive historical survey they are at last given a voice. 665 pp.

The Real Story of Rosa Parks

The recent death of Rosa Parks has unleashed a spate of remembrances—but how many are accurate? In She Would Not Be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, author Herbert Kohl contends that framing Parks’ actions as merely those of a tired woman ignores her bravery and commitment to political activism. Kohl aims to set the record straight in this study of the people, events, and groundwork that led to Parks’ momentous decision on a city bus. Includes a teacher’s guide and extensive resource list. 126 pp.

Toward a Kinder, Greener World

For teachers looking to incorporate environmental studies into their curriculum, Teaching Green—The Elementary Years: Hands-on Learning in Grades K–5 offers grade-appropriate strategies and project ideas to foster green appreciation. Editors Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn compile background information on environmental issues with practical instructions and activities that address a range of topics. 256 pp.

Please Be My Friend

Whether meeting for a playdate in kindergarten or hanging out in the high school cafeteria, students with learning disabilities are especially vulnerable to rejection. Author Richard Lavoie suggests ways to help children whose social skills are suffering in It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success. Besides pointers on how to spot a learning disability, Lavoie discusses how a disability can affect a child’s social development and offers strategies that teachers and parents can use to help children transform self-defeating behaviors. 359 pp.

And Nothing Was Ever the Same

On a gray, ordinary morning, a boy wakes up and prepares for another ho-hum day, but nothing can prepare him for the revolution about to take place in his class. Along with an old Victrola, the new teacher brings a key that will unlock the boy’s imagination. In Once Upon an Ordinary School Day by Colin McNaughton and Satoshi Kitamura, the children in Mr. Gee’s class learn that music makes pictures in their heads, and that writing about the pictures gives their stories flight. Ages 4–8. 24 pp.

I’m Not Crazy—It’s Everyone Else!

The world can be perplexing when you’re a 10-year-old with ADHD. Rainy Tucker tries to pay attention to grownups and rules, but it’s hard to stay focused. Rainy by Sis Deans presents a sweet, sunny girl with an endless supply of energy that sometimes takes her where she doesn’t want to go. Left at camp for the summer, Rainy must negotiate tricky friendships and stay out of trouble, while remaining true to herself. Ages 9–12. 191 pp.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know Me

To the legions of fictional boys struggling through adolescence, add Brad Stanislawski. As the new kid with an unpronounceable name who towers over his shorter classmates, Brad doesn’t see how things can get worse, but in Mary Bartek’s Funerals & Fly Fishing he’s about to find out. Unforeseen circumstances ruin Brad’s summer, and he’s sent to stay with a grandfather he’s never met—and who, Brad is horrified to discover, runs a funeral parlor. He also loves to fish, and through this shared pleasure they move tentatively toward friendship. Ages 9–12. 148 pp.

Bring Out the Best in Your Preschoolers

Laverne Warner and Sharon Anne Lynch, professors of early and special education, provide strategies for addressing behavioral issues before and after they arise in Preschool Classroom Management: 150 Teacher-Tested Techniques. The authors address 150 issues and their solutions, with advice on how to foster communication that allows children to make good decisions, have positive interactions, and learn more effectively. Useful for those both new to early education and those more experienced. 224 pp.

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Heads Up from NEA Member Benefits