Learning: ESP on the Team
Michigan Para Sets Steady Course

Phyllis Clark has the same goal that all educators do--to help her students succeed. But 'success' has a special meaning for the autistic students in Clark's classroom.

Michigan paraprofessional Phyllis Clark finds her work with autistic children fulfilling. She also finds time to help out in her community and with her NEA local affiliate.

Working with autistic children is a challenge that many would find daunting. But not paraprofessional Phyllis Clark.

Clark now works with five autistic-impaired students in the Learning Center at Durant-Tuuri-Mott Elementary in Flint, Michigan.

It's work Clark knows well. For the past 16 years, she has been with the Genesee Intermediate School District, a special education district that maintains Learning Centers in a number of schools in Flint.

Generally speaking, autistic children have difficulty with social interaction and communication. Their activities and interests are often restricted.

One of the biggest hurdles for autistic children, explains Clark, is learning how to control their behavior when changes occur in their environment and routines, as happens all the time in a normal school setting.

Clark's interest in special education began back when her sister was a student at one of Genesee's Learning Centers. A teacher at the center persuaded Clark to try working as a substitute, and that subbing soon led to regular employment.

Clark is now completely immersed in her work--and her Association.

With the support of principal Dan Berenzi, Clark and her close colleague, teacher Cheryl Martin, involve the entire school in providing the least restrictive education environment for their five autistic-impaired students.

"For our students to succeed in a regular classroom,'' explains Clark, "they need as much support as possible.''

Before mainstreaming any Learning Center student, Clark and Martin work with the classroom teacher and the regular education students, helping them understand what to expect from the student. Mainstreaming starts gradually, with Clark accompanying each mainstreamed student to the new class.

Two recent Learning Center students, Clark points out, began their mainstreaming experience by spending just 15 minutes a day in a regular classroom. Now they're mainstreamed full-time.

"They've developed their social skills so well,'' says Clark, "that they no longer need me to accompany them."

Working with autistic students is a demanding, full-time job, but Clark finds time to take on other challenges. She's a past president of the Genesee ESP Association, a Michigan Education Association and NEA convention delegate, and an MEA ESP Board member.

Clark is particularly interested in minority issues, both within and outside the Association, especially in October. Each fall, she throws herself into organizing the celebration of Multicultural Diversity Day, which falls on the third Monday in October.

This observance, originated in Flint by NEA member Cleorah Scruggs, is now celebrated in districts all around the country.

This year's Diversity Day celebration in Flint included a gala dinner that coupled African drumming and Asian dancing for a broad turnout of community organizations and local leaders.

The fall also finds Clark organizing "Christmas in October." She'll collect clothing, books, toys, and other household items, pack the goods up, and then distribute them as presents to needy local families.

Clark is so dedicated to getting goods to people in need, says MEA UniServ Director John Van Dyken, that she collects extra bars of hotel soap from fellow Association members when they get back from out-of-area conferences.

Clark is also working hard to improve her own professional skills. Since starting work as a paraeducator, she has earned an associate's degree in childhood development/special needs and is now enrolled in early childhood development at a local university.

What's Clark's source of greatest satisfaction? The children in her classroom, she answers quickly.

"Helping students get some type of control over their lives, so that they can succeed in society, and live in the world as 'normally' as possible," sums up Clark, "is what really makes it all worthwhile."

Team Player
Someone Has To Do It, Well

Salem, Oregon, kidergarten aide and Association activist Rhody Deetz says support staff and teachers are a winning team.

Name: Rhody Deetz

Job Title: Kindergarten aide at Pringle Elementary School in Oregon's Salem-Keizer Unified School District

Association Positions: I am currently Pringle's building representative and an executive board member within the Salem Education Association as instructional assistant director.

This year, I was asked to serve as a delegate to our state and national Association Representative Assemblies. After attending the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago, I felt empowered and I'm really excited about the new initiatives that we discussed.

Motivations for becoming involved: When I first became a building rep, it was because no one else was going to take on the job. People worried about being intimidated in this position, but it's been an empowering, enlightening, and rewarding experience.

I really feel passionate about being involved and want to motivate other classified staff members to be active in working with teachers to improve education. We really need to work as a winning team. This position has given me the opportunity to bring information to the classified staff.

Upcoming projects: I am working on the Youth Summit Committee, which is looking to sponsor a youth summit for middle school students in the spring. The summit would help middle school students solve problems without resorting to violence.

Resources

Bus Driver Inspiration
It may not be easy being green, but a Connecticut bus driver suggests that it's not easy being yellow either.

On her Web site, "It's Not Easy Being Yellow," Paulette Garosshen provides inspiration, advice, and humor any bus driver could use.

One part of the site includes a tongue-in-cheek "Bus Driver's Prayer," which asks for help with the number of distractions a driver will face on any given school day. The site also offers links to bus-related resources.

You can find the site at http://pages.cthome.net/schoolbusdriver/.

News To Use
Mailshell is a Web service that provides a convenient area that can help you subscribe to a wide range of E-mail newsletters. The site can also help stop junk mail with its filtering technology. A free service. www.mailshell.com.

How Fast Is Fast?
Wonder how speedy that supposedly "fast" new Internet connection really is? A quick and easy test at Cable-Modem.net determines the bandwidth of your cyber pipeline. See www.cable-modem.net/features/oct99/speed.html.

All About Our Government
Here's a site that's got it all--all of the key information about the federal government, that is. The United States Government Manual, 2000/2001 has everything you probably want to know about all the departments and subunits of the federal government. You can find this useful site by putting this address into your browser: www.access.gpo.gov/nara/browse-gm00.html

Just Out From NEA
If you're having trouble navigating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), then The New IDEA Survival Guide is for you.

The book's easy question-and-answer format leads you through a number of scenarios that illustrate the most pressing concerns about IDEA '97.

You'll find plenty of practical advice in the pages that you can use immediately in dealing with everything from discipline to managing paperwork.

Order from the NEA Professional Library by calling 1/800/229-4200 (ask for item #2016-2-00-F). You can also download the book free at www.nea.org/books.

Going the Extra Mile

Kathie Axtell, a paraeducator and the president of the Educational Assistants Association, recognized early on the need for local students to have computer access outside of their classrooms in Olympia, Washington.

All that was needed, Axtell says, "was some money to make the vision come true."

Axtell found that money--by winning a $7,500 grant from the Washington Education Association to help build the Evergreen Villages Neighborhood Center.

Dozens of local elementary, junior high, and high school students now have access to new computers and high-speed Internet connections.

Students can even save files onto a computer linked directly to the Olympia schools. The center also offers language and cooking classes, computer workshops, and citizenship courses to all local residents.
 

Last July, Florida state bus driver James Roark won his division of the 30th School Bus Driver International Safety Competition, held in Oakland, California.

To win, Roark had to maneuver his bus through a 10-event obstacle course that included parallel parking, negotiating his bus through a tight alley, and driving around cones with a three-inch clearance. Roark also needed to complete a 40-question written test.

A member of the Seminole County School Bus Drivers Association, Roark began entering "road-e-os" in 1992, just three days after completing bus driver training. Roark now teaches new drivers how to perform well in these popular contests.

"It's gotten to the point where I sometimes like training more than I like driving in these competitions," says Roark.

Annually, about 220,000 school bus drivers take part in road-e-os at the local and state levels.

Eighty-nine drivers from the United States and Canada competed in the California competition won by Roark.