People
National Teacher of the Year

Vermont's Michele Forman doesn't take knowledge lightly.

When one of her world history students at Middlebury Union High School in rural Vermont asked why they didn't learn more about the Arabs in school, Michele Forman saw an opportunity. She participated in a summer institute in Arabic history, literature, culture, and language.

She also spent nine weeks in a strict immersion program at the Middlebury College Language School of Arabic, where she lived in the dorms. For seven days a week, 16 hours a day, Forman plunged into the language, bound by a pledge to speak only Arabic.

Four years ago, she brought her new language--and understanding of the Arab culture--back to her students. That's when she started teaching a noncredit course in Arabic language and culture three mornings per week. More than 20 students now participate each day--not because they have to, but because they want to.

"Vermont is small, rural, and ethnically homogeneous when compared with the rest of the nation," says the National Board Certified teacher. "Since I can't regularly bring my students into the larger world on a regular basis, I bring diverse experiences and cultures to them."

Forman, who helped write the National Standards for World History, also speaks regularly to her students about teaching in Nepal asa Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1960s, as well as her recent travels to West Africa, India, Korea, Greece, and Turkey.

In addition, the 21-year veteran advises the Student Coalition on Human Rights group, which organized the first Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration march in Vermont several years ago. Their motto: "Dignity and respect for everyone in the school."

She works hard to bring trust and excitement to her classroom and school.

"Without mutual trust, students are wary of accepting the risk and vulnerability of learning," she says.

As Teacher of the Year, Forman makes no apologies for planning to use the position as a bully pulpit.

"I want to make sure classroom teachers have a voice, particularly because education is so highly politicized," she says.

"There are a number of issues that concern me: vouchers, education funding, teacher accountability, high-stakes testing, and retaining new teachers. Policymakers need to listen to us because we bring a perspective that no one else can."

Esther Mohler Ho, a retired 70-year-old speech and language specialist in Dublin, California, schools, is like many of her retired peers: She'll be spending part of her summer traveling.

But for this NEA Retired member, this trip won't be for leisure. It will be to save lives.

She plans to spend several weeks in Chiapas, Mexico--her fourth return to the rural area with the Christian Peacemaker Teams--where low-intensity warfare is being waged against indigenous Mayans by paramilitary and military forces.

Ho calls it a "hidden war" where the country's ruling elite--with the backing of international corporate giants--are at odds with the poor, fighting for control of land that contains precious natural resources like water, oil, and rainforests.

In the past few years, more than 20,000 Mayans have been forced from their homes in this fight. Scores of people, including women and children, have been slaughtered.

While she hopes that the country's new president, and a new Chiapas governor, will follow through on their promise to bring peace to the region, Ho knows that for now her presence as an international observer makes it safer for the indigenous Mayans.

"When a villager was asked to describe our presence to a visitor, he told the man: 'They don't do much except walk around and talk to people. But if they weren't here, we would all be dead,'" Ho says.

(Photo shows one of many pyramid-style temples that make up the Mayan city of Palenque in northeast Chiapas. See page 47 for resources about the conflict.)

Heeding the Call to Antarctica

Not all of us would jump at the chance to experience firsthand the "bottom of the world." Antarctica simply isn't a place that appeals to everyone.

But that didn't stop Palatine, Illinois, science teacher Sharon Hooper (above, left).

She joined former astronauts James Lovell and Owen Garriott last year as part of a ten-member scientific team collecting meteorites and core samples of Antarctic ice and sharing their findings through distance education with students back home.

Hooper made daily phone calls to her school from a satellite-linked telephone, and her tales of adventure were broadcast to classrooms. Students also conducted classroom experiments that Hooper replicated, and results were compared. "The experiments gave our students the opportunity to compare real-world data with their own results," says Nancy Hayes, district science coordinator.

"Be involved, take risks, and you will someday be paid back a thousand fold," says Hooper. "I was nervous thinking about going, but who wouldn't be? My advice for teachers who may find themselves with an offer like mine is to accept it as fast as you can. When someone asks, 'Is there anyone who would like to . . . ' don't wait for them to finish. TAKE IT."

Local businesses, organizations, and colleges all became involved in the project. Students learned about snowfall, Antarctic winds and temperature, plant and animal life, and much more.

Hooper believes the project expanded the horizons of students, staff, and parents.

Said one eighth grade girl, "I don't ever want to go to Antarctica, but it was cool finding out about the place from somebody who was really there."

Creating a Caring Community

Can remembering someone's birthday, creating a "Get Well" poster, or going the extra mile to comfort a classmate who has suffered a serious loss really have an effect?

Absolutely. No student should feel left out, left behind, or otherwise rejected. That's the premise behind Lenoir City High School's "We Care About You Club." The eastern Tennessee club's founder and advisor, physical education instructor Dave Moore, readily admits, "It's not really a club. It's a way of life."

A former basketball and football coach, "Coach Moore" says he's seen too many young people who felt rejected--or worse, tormented --by peers.

Moore's a man who hates to see kids suffer. Loneliness and disconnection, he believes, can have a powerful effect on youngsters, possibly leading to incidents like the shootings at Columbine.

The Lenoir Care Club is no membership organization, but everyone's a member, Moore says. "Everyone is either giving care or receiving care."

The result has been less violence and vandalism. The club has made a difference. For more information: e-mail Wecarelschas@aol.com or call VOL/966-CARE.

Born from Imagination

Nearly a decade ago, Arizona teacher Ginny Kalish's fourth grade students created "Rachel"--an imaginary classmate.

"She was born in a cloud of chalk-dust," says the bilingual teacher at Palomino Elementary in Phoenix. "One of the boys looked at what I scribbled on the chalkboard and said, 'Does that say Rachel?' After that, whenever anything suspicious happened, or when something was missing, we would blame it on Rachel."

Taken with her student's interest in this character, Kalish wrote a book about Rachel, and self-published 500 copies in 1991.

In 1999, after she was named Arizona Teacher of the Year, she submitted the manuscript to Zephyr Press, who released the book--Rachel Rude Rowdy--earlier this year.

Kalish, a member of NEA's Reading Task Force, says the book teaches elementary students about good and bad choices, causes and con-sequences, and empathy and compassion. It also provides teachers with multiple intelligence lessons, journal and discussion suggestions, and questions for further thought and review following each chapter.

"Rachel is an obnoxious fifth grade girl who does mean things, but through activities and lessons, students learn to step back and look beyond her immediate behavior,'' says Kalish. There are reasons why she makes her classmates' lives so miserable."

Rachel is also someone kids can relate to: "Let's just say some of Rachel's actions are based on what I've seen in class," says the 21-year veteran. "It gets to the heart of treating others how you want to be treated."

Like devoted fans at a rock concert, Kalish's current third through sixth grade students are demanding more. They've even offered to help her write a sequel, which she may do this summer. But for now, she's just impressed with their emotional growth. She's also thrilled how the book has affected their desire to read and write.

"They now plead with me to do reading and writing activities about Rachel," she says with pride. "To me, that's success."