Departments: Resources
Educators Defying the Odds

Taking the non-traditional route to school reform isn't always easy, but the payoff can be worth the trip.

EXCERPT
"All good teaching begins with a respect for children, their innate curiosity and their capacity to learn. Curriculum should be rooted in children's needs and experiences. Whether we're teaching science, mathematics, English, or social studies, ultimately the class has to be about the students' lives as well as about a particular subject. Students should probe the ways their lives connect to the broader society, and are often limited by that society."

Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice, Vol. 2
Bill Bigelow, Brenda Harvey, Stan Karp, and Larry Miller, editors
A Rethinking Schools Publication 244 pp. $10

If you believe the primary responsibility of a teacher is to teach children how to think, rather than to pencil in the right bubbles on a standardized, multiple-choice test, then you will love this book.

In the most practical and creative pieces in this collection of essays, teachers walk us through how they took on a classroom challenge and used it to teach their students how to question reality and act upon what they have learned.

What does a teacher do when faced with textbooks that are so bland that they drain all life out of the past, even the civil rights struggle, and fail utterly to engage our students?

High School teacher Mark Sweeting tells how he took the textbook headline "Nation Relocates Japanese-Americans," and engaged his students, using the antiseptic word "relocates" as a jumping-off point for a serious discussion of what really happened: The Japanese-Americans were arrested, their property was confiscated, and they were loaded, at gunpoint, onto buses and trains and transported to internment camps far from their homes.
What do you do when the issue of race surfaces in your classroom? Do you pretend it is not there, like the rhinoceros in the living room, and move quickly on to a less emotionally charged subject? Or do you confront it?

Kindergarten teacher Alejandro Segura-Mora details what he did after one of the darkest-skinned students in his class blurted out: "Maestro, my mom is giving me pills to turn me white."

What do you do if a student or a student's parent dies? Do you remain silent? Is death, like racism or poverty, an unfit subject for the classroom?

Elementary school teacher Kate Lyman relates how she ignored her principal's advice and talked directly with her students about the death of their classmate Jessica, eliciting from the children a number of excellent ways to remember her.

Rethinking Our Classrooms is a book which recognizes that creating a classroom of hope, like teaching itself, is a complex and demanding task. And by providing the testimonies of terrific teachers who have succeeded, it inspires and informs us.

-David Sheridan

New from the NEA Professional Library

Let's Team Up: A Checklist for Paraeducators, Teachers and Principals
Kent Gerlach64 pp., $5.50 NEA members $6.95 nonmembers
#2163-0-00-FN

This unique checklist is written to help paraeducators, teachers, and principals understand their roles and responsibilities as they relate to each other. It's filled with helpful tips for teachers on working effectively with paraeducators, practical suggestions for paraeducators on clarifying their jobs and their relationships with students and school staff, and great advice for principals on the administrative supervision of paraeducators.

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

EXCERPT
A Winning Team
The interdependent working relationship of today's paraeducators, teachers, and principals is often like a jigsaw puzzle. Unfortunately, they don't have a picture on the front of a box to know what the puzzle is supposed to look like when it's finished. The most successful schools operate as a team. School personnel understand the importance of a good working relationship and are focused on team goals. They form relationships that are built on good communication, trust, respect, and recognition. When paraeducators, teachers, and principals team up to connect the pieces of the puzzle, students are the ultimate beneficiaries.

Books by NEA Members

Class Encounters
By Mark Meuser
Starting with his nerve-racking first day of teaching, Meuser takes us through his 27- year teaching career and shares what he has learned from his students. Some stories are humorous, while others describe the problems faced by students. Meuser shows the importance of good teacher-student relations and how they can lead to real success in schools. $17.95 Order from: Rivercross Publishing, Inc., 6214 Wynfield Court, Orlando, FL 32819, or call 407/876-7720.

By the Neck Until Dead: The Gallows of Nuremberg
By Stanley Tilles with Jeffrey Denhart
Lieutenant Stanley Tilles shares his story for the first time as the last living witness of the executions of German war criminals at Landsberg and Nuremberg. With the help of writer Jeffrey Denhart, his graphic account of this historical event includes previously unknown facts and original pictures. $12.95, plus $2 s&h from JoNa Books, Box 336, Bedford, IN 47421 or check the Web at www.kiva.net/~jonabook.

Leaving This Life Behind
By Howard Levine
Levine, a special education teacher for over 20 years, writes a unique novel exploring life after death through the intricately woven narratives of Sharon, a mother who dies too young; Paul, a father who struggles with life; and their three year-old son Kenny, who is learning disabled. $14.95, available at your local bookstore or call Creative Arts Book Company at 800/848-7789.

Character Kaleidoscope: A Practical, Standards-Based Resource Guide for Character Development
By Mirka Christesen with Susan Wasilewski
This resourceful guide is full of creative ideas that will integrate character development into your middle or high school curriculum. Written by two teachers who helped make the Wake County, North Carolina public school system a National School of Character, the guide includes reproducible worksheets, lesson plans, and lists of resources. $29.95 from National Professional Resources, Inc., 25 South Regent Street, Port Chester, NY, 10573, 800/453-7461.

The Truth Test
By Lori Pollard-Johnson
Teacher and writer Pollard-Johnson brings you a delightful story about the new boy in school who learns the true meaning of friends and how to be a friend, the hard way. 75 pp., $5.90 plus s&h. To order, contact Perfection Learning Corporation Customer Service at 800/831-4190 and ask for Item No. 5902801.

TVTips

Africa
PBS, September 8, check local listings.
PBS and National Geographic present an eight-part series that explores the African continent through the eyes of Africans. From the Rift Valley to the deserts of the north, from the rainforests of Cameroon to rugged Ethiopia, from the coast of Swahili to the changing climate of South Africa, the program examines the diverse people, cultures, religions, art, history, and wildlife of Africa.

Valley of the T-Rex
Discovery Channel
Sunday, September 9, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.
Dr. Jack Horner, renowned paleontologist, travels into Hell Creek in the badlands of Montana in search of the largest complete skeleton of a Tyranno-saurus Rex ever uncovered and discovers the remains of other creatures that once populated the valley, evidence that leads him to question the conventional theories regarding the Tyrannosaurus Rex. With the use of fossil finds and computer animation, the world of the T-Rex is brought to life, explored, and questioned.

Band of Brothers
HBO, Sundays, beginning September 9, 9:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.
Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's nonfiction book about a World War II U.S. Army unit, and drawn from hours of interviews with survivors, along with the letters and journals of the soldiers, this ten-part miniseries tells the story of Easy Company. Beginning with their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942, the series follows the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, which parachuted into France early on D-Day morning, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and captured Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. For support and outreach materials, visit www.hbo.com.

Don Quixote
Hallmark Channel
September 16, check local listings.
Jon Lithgow stars in this adaptation of Cervante's Don Quixote as the passionate, but fool-hearty romantic who loves his books about knighthood and chivalry so much he can't separate them from reality. In an attempt to cling to the old stories that his books tell him, he outfits himself in armor and sets off on an epic journey accompanied by his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, to find his true love, lady Dulcinea. Don Quixote travels the Spanish countryside, fighting both real and imagined enemies, leaving him bruised and battered, but no wiser.

Hispanic Power
CNN, CNN Newsroom
September 17, 4:30-5:00 a.m. ET, check local listings.
According to census projections, Hispanic-Americans will make up the largest minority population in the United States in the very near future. This CNN Newsroom presentation explores the dramatic shift in U.S. population, the effects on both Hispanic and non-Hispanic teenagers, as well as the growing Hispanic power base in the areas of businesses, politics, the arts, and more.

Evolution
PBS
September 24-27, 8:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.
This eight-hour series travels around the world to examine evolutionary science and its profound effect on society and culture. Darwin's theory of natural selection, the vast changes that spawned the tree of life, the role of mass extinction, and the power of sex to drive evolutionary change are examined. This series also addresses the emergence of the consciousness, the success of humans, and the perceived conflict between science and religion in understanding human life. A companion Web site at www.pbs.org/evolution contains links to resources, answers to questions, and interactive online lessons.

English Composition: Writing for an Audience
PBS, check local listings.
Two sequences make up this series of 26 half-hour programs for upper level students. The first sequence, "Thinking/Writing," shows how arguments, narratives, and definitions can be used with critical thinking to improve communication in a variety of genres. "Writing Process" considers the nature of writing as a continuous process, along with the development of a personal voice, reading as a writer and a thinker, and using quotations and citations.

People Like Us: Social Class in America
PBS, September 23, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.
This special takes a direct look at social class, something most Americans never think about, but which can affect their lives more than ethnicity or appearance. The companion Web site at pbs.org/classinamerica provides lesson plans for math, health, and social studies, and links to other resources, along with an opportunity to test preconceptions about who belongs where on the social scale and ideas about how social class works in America.

School
PBS
September 6, 9:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.
Narrated by Meryl Streep, this four-part series examines American education from an historical perspective, beginning with the spread of tax-supported public schooling in the 19th century. Other episodes consider the education of immigrant students, the struggle for equal educational opportunity, and the recent wave of school reform led by politicians, free-marketers, and business leaders.

In the Mix-Steroids
PBS, September, check local listings.
This half-hour television magazine show for young adults explores the dangers involved in the use of steroids by teens, both boys and girls, to enhance athletic performance or physical appearance.

Web Winners

Extreme Adventure
Learn about people and mountains with Nevada teacher Claudia Berryman-Schafer and her team of climbers trekking up a Himalayan mountain. You'll find photos, links and answers to questions from students at www.nde.state.nv.us/ chooyu/.

Learning Teachers
The 21st Century Teachers Network is a nonprofit organization that helps K-12 teachers learn and effectively integrate technology in the curriculum. It connects teachers with resources to assist them in creating teacher-driven professional development programs. http://www.21ct.org.

Black College Data
Finding information and resources for the historically black colleges and universities in the United States comes easily at www.hbcu-central.com. Site includes an alumni, high school and current student registry, extensive HBCU listings and links as well as message boards.

New to the Job?
New Teacher? Here's a Web site just for you. It includes a "Survival Kit for New Teachers" and lots of information for student and substitute teachers. The Texas-based outlet offers an electronic newsletter as well as a catalog. www.inspiringteachers.com.

Paint by Number
Lived long enough to remember the old paint by number kits? "Every Man a Rembrandt" was the assertion. Stroll down memory lane on this site, or discover a curious 1950s phenomenon for the first time at www.americanhistory.si.edu/paint.

Your Magazine
Did the last issue of NEA Today not make it to your mailbox? Or did it get sucked into the black hole in your desk? No problem, look online. May- be you want to submit a letter to the editor, place an ad or check the archives. You can do all those things online, too, at www.nea.org/neatoday/.

Treating the Cold
You can learn how to prevent, treat, or deal with the complications of the common cold. Nuke the bad stuff.