People
United In Song

Florida's Marie Jo Thum is proving that music has a deep power to both heal and connect.

Two weeks after September 11, the music teacher at Coral Sunset Elementary School in Boca Raton wrote and recorded a song for her students to help them address and affirm their feelings about the tragedies.

Today, "Rise Up, America!" has become a patriotic anthem for children across Palm Beach County. It's also gaining national attention among students and teachers.

"Words didn't seem enough to comfort and console my students after 9-11," says Thum, who has composed more than 100 songs during her 31-year teaching career. "Music is how I express my own life, and writing the song was my way of helping the children validate their feelings."

The children reacted so strongly to the song that Thum arranged for them to record it on their own CD, which also contains the Pledge of Allegiance and "Yellow Ribbons," a song she wrote during the Gulf War.

Proceeds from the $10 disc have been going to the September 11 Fund, a charity providing aid to terrorist attack victims' families.

"I've been getting calls from teachers and students across the country who say the song is providing a much-needed outlet," she says. "It's made the world smaller, in a way. Children across the country are connecting and uniting."

The song includes the lyrics: "Rise up, America! Rise up and shake the dust! We uncover, we discover, courage, kindness, love and trust. We are taller than a building; We're united shore to shore; So we must rise up, America! Stand prouder, love stronger, shine brighter than before!"

Thum says she's heard her students singing it on the playground, in stores, and even in church choirs. "I think we've all learned that when the worst happens, people dig down deep for their best. We've become kinder and more compassionate because of what happened September 11. We became united like a family, and if this song has helped facilitate that, then I've accomplished what I wanted to."

For more: E-mail Thum at eaglerun@bellsouth.net or visit the Web: http://home.bellsouth.net/personalpages/PWP-mjthum.

Guatemala Comes to Milwaukee

As part of a sister city project, the principal and four teachers from the Flavio Rojas Elementary School in Chichicastenango, Guatemala trekked to Wisconsin last November and shared their culture with students in Waukesha.

The Guatelmalans came in part to personally thank Wisconsin NEA member Christine Diaz-Arntzen (left) and her husband, who had gone to Chichicastenango in the summer. The couple packed camping gear, a tent, two sets of clothing--and 900 books for the 900-student school.

"For many of these children, it was first book they'd ever had," says Diaz-Arntzen, coordinator of the sister-city project between Chichicastenango and Waukesha.

Diaz-Arntzen, other school staff, and the students raised $500 to purchase the books. The publishing house Scholastic then matched that amount. The Guatelmalan visitors returned home from their most recent visit with even more books.

The celebration in Wisconsin marked a growing relationship. "In the past, we've painted the school, created a playground, and built 20 bathrooms--they only had two for 900 students,'' adds Diaz-Arntzen."We're building a real bond between the two communities."

Helping Immigrants Achieve College

Two years ago, one of Gerry Maak's former students--brought to America from Mexico as a child by her undocumented parents--went to register for classes at the University of Utah. She was turned away because of immigration laws that prohibit undocumented persons from attending college unless they have a student visa, can afford to pay out-of-state tuition, and can prove that they can pay their living expenses.

"This student grew up in Utah and she won scholarship money to attend college," says Maak, a Spanish teacher at Park City High. Maak spent months meeting with the University's board of regents and president to try to change the policy. "While everyone agreed that it was totally unfair," says Maak, "there was nothing we could do because it's a federal law."

So the 20-year veteran took her cause to Capitol Hill and solely lobbied Representative Chris Connors and Senator Orrin Hatch, both of whom will introduce bills in 2002 to change the "terribly out-of-date immigration laws," she says.

"We are raising a generation of people who will be a huge underclass in society because they are not allowed to receive financial aid, even if they want to go to college," she says. "We're telling our immigrant students to strive for the American dream, and then policy turns them away when they go to reach for it."

Though she's gained the ear of Congress, Maak doesn't consider herself a political activist. "I wasn't looking for a political cause," she notes, "but now I can't stop thinking about it."

In October, Maak received a Milken Family Foundation 2001 National Educator Award. She's putting the $25,000 prize money into an endowment fund to help her school's undocumented Latino students attend college when the laws are finally changed.

A Mission of Quality

Since September, Texas physics teacher Celani Dominguez has been helping some of the world's premier scientists better understand K-12 education.

As an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, which offers math and science teachers year-long fellowships to serve on Capitol Hill and in federal agencies, Dominguez is working through the Department of Commerce at the Maryland-based National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Her assignment: to study the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program--a coveted tool used by thousands of organizations to improve performance--and make recommendations to help the program better understand the needs of education organizations.

"Education has traditionally shied away from business tools in the past, but the Baldrige criteria has so much to offer educators," says Dominguez, who's taught at Reagan High School in Austin. "I believe the tools could help us put best practices and quality programs into schools that need it most."

The nine-year veteran, who is finishing her doctorate in educational administration with an emphasis in public school leadership, wants to return to Texas when she's done with her fellowship to put her learnings into place.

On to Active Duty

Veteran's Day held special significance for Pauline Geraci, an adult basic education teacher at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater. She's now on active duty in the U.S. Army.

Geraci was mobilized after the tragic events of September 11. Her orders specify that she will serve a minimum of one year on active duty, that she will initially go to Japan, and that she will work in public affairs. She doesn't know whether she will eventually serve in Afghanistan.

The new orders left her scrambling. She had to pack, make arrangements for her four pets (her fiancé will watch them), and to organize her work so that someone could fill in for her--not an easy assignment.

Geraci has used several grants from the Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning to advance the cause of her at-risk students. And it's these students who will miss her the most. As one of them told her, "There is no one else like you, Ms. G. I don't know how we're going to replace you."