Learning: Innovators
Teaching Africa In U.S. Schools

A Maryland teacher creates a K-12 resource

Africa remains the most poorly taught region of the world in U.S. schools, says NEA member Brenda Randolph. That's why Randolph, a media specialist at the Silver Spring International Middle School in Maryland, has created the Africa Access Review, an online journal that reviews and annotates more than 800 materials on Africa for K-12 classrooms.

"My awareness as a global citizen began with children's books," says Randolph, who remembers when one mother literally threw a book at her. That book, a work filled with disparaging stereotypes about Africa, had been given to the mother's child to read.

"That's when I went from being a passive librarian," says Randolph, "to being an activist."

Now Randolph is challenging cultural stereotypes by exposing teachers to accurate, balanced information about the African continent. Her Internet-based journal reflects the cooperative efforts of over 80 different African studies scholars in the United States and abroad.

"Much of what is taught about Africa is based on old Western icons," says Randolph. "But Africa is about people, not animals and huts."

Kids can learn more about these people through a variety of activities, she adds. Elementary kids can engage in a Taste of Africa festival. Seventh graders can learn about African cultural renaissances. Seniors can explore the global economic connections of cotton production.

In collaboration with the African Studies Association, Randolph has also created the Children's Africana Book Awards, to honor outstanding authors and illustrators of books about Africa published in the United States.

For More:
Visit the Africa Access Web site at www.mcps.k12.md.us/specialprojects/africa_access/.

A Passion For Labor History?

Jim Green, a labor historian at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, is committed to building a more just society, and he believes the story of labor's past can inspire people to act today. Over the course of a career that reaches back to the 1960s, Green has found ways to tell that story outside the ivory tower.

Most professors stick to classrooms. How about you?
I have a classroom, too, but I've also worked on documentaries like The Great Depression and Eyes On The Prize, and on parks, museums, and celebrations of historical events, where people can see and feel the movements that brought us the eight-hour work day, Social Security, and the weekend.

Is there more interest in labor history than there used to be?
People seem to be hungry to connect to social change, and electoral politics is not capturing that interest.

Labor history shows how people can make their own history. In our history, there have been a lot of wrongs committed against people. Some of those were righted, and not by people waiting for elected officials to create reforms. People created social movements that compelled those reforms. Civil rights wasn't only a court case.

If workers hadn't organized, we wouldn't have the rights and protection on the job or the standard of living we have today.

How have you worked with teachers?
Many teachers want to teach labor history, and they have opportunities to do so--for example, Labor Day, other holidays and anniversaries, International Women's Day, and so on.

Usually, teachers don't want university people to provide curriculum. What they want is resources--books, tapes, photos--not lesson plans. And there are a lot of good materials available now.

For More:
E-mail Green at james.green@ems.umb.edu. Order his recent book, Taking History to Heart : The Power of..., for $15.96 plus s&h. Green recommends Who Built America?, which can be ordered at www.ashp.cuny.edu/index.html, and the Bread and Roses Cultural Heritage Project at www.bread-and-roses.com/index.html.

Shop Class In the 21st Century

Innovator:
Michael Fitzgerald

Job:
Technology educator, Driver Middle School, Winchester, Indiana

Bright idea:
Few adults understand how a bridge or a house is put together and why they don't collapse. That's because they haven't taken Michael Fitzgerald's "Technology Education" class. In what used to be called "shop," Fitzgerald teaches children how the world around them works.

"It's not 'this is a piece of wood, or metal, and this is what you can make from it,'" says Fitzgerald. "We're modeling the real world."

Fitzgerald has students assemble a 16-foot geodesic dome and an equally large model of a bridge, both from scrap plywood.

"I can't take my students outside to build a house," he explains, "but I can model the concepts behind framing in my classroom."

With only $5 per student for materials, Fitzgerald scrounges a lot in construction dumpsters.

"My friends call it, 'trash technology,'" he says.

Fitzgerald's approach involves more science and math than traditional "shop" and, in the process, helps students reach high academic standards. His students learn about gear ratios and pulleys, study the aerodynamics of dragsters in a wind tunnel, and observe how energy can be transformed.

Shop, traditionally, was a boys' subject, while the girls went off to cook and sew. But Fitzgerald says he designs teaching units that can appeal equally to both.

Impact:
Fitzgerald has taught 2,000 students a basic understanding of the technology around them.

For More:
E-mail Fitzgerald at m.fitzgerald@juno.com or visit www. techdirections.com. Check the Web site of the Inter-national Technology Education Association at www.iteawww.org.

NEA Produces Crisis Communication Guide for Educators

Innovator:
Becky Fleischauer

Job:
NEA Communications staffer

Bright Idea:
Becky Fleischauer has developed the NEA Crisis Communications Guide and Toolkit to help educators deal constructively with their students, the community, and the media in the face of crisis and tragedy.

Fleischauer has had first-hand experience with crisis aftermath. After the school shooting in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, the NEA local affiliate, the Jefferson County Education Association, asked her to come out and help members deal with the media.

"I was struck by the immensely powerful acts of compassion and generosity and the activities to foster healing and a sense of community," says Fleischauer. "The teachers, school staff, and local Association were there for their students and community in important ways."

"When Hurricane Floyd hit later that year," Fleischauer notes, "we saw the same thing."

Fleischauer has captured the best crisis practices and tools and compiled them into four books: Being Prepared: Before a Crisis, Being Responsive: During a Crisis, Being Diligent: Moving Beyond Crisis, and Hands-on Assistance: Tools for Educators.

"We've learned that interviews with children immediately following a traumatic event are damaging," says Fleischauer. "Children involved in a traumatic event need to talk with a counselor, not a reporter."

How to deal constructively with media is another lesson offered in this new NEA guide, which has received the International Association of Business Communicators Silver Inkwell award.

For More:
The NEA Crisis Communications Guide and Toolkit is available to read free on the NEA Web site. Point your Web browser to www.nea.org/crisis/.