In Focus
Bargain Play

Students learn the lessons of labor by 'becoming' workers, employers.

High school students are now bargaining for seniority, medical benefits, and even higher wages. Well, sort of.

They're participating in a program created seven years ago by two Los Angeles teachers and now being expanded nationwide by the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, Maryland. Called the Collective Bargaining Education Project, its showcase component is a day-long simulation in which students assume the roles of workers and employers.

Funded with public and private dollars, the project seeks to close a critical gap in high school learning--labor history, workers' rights, and social justice. And by all accounts, it's working.

"Many teacher activists see a big hole in the curriculum regarding working people," says project coordinator Valerie Ervin. "Since it's not there, we need to put it there. Teachers are crying out for innovation."

And so with guidance from "coaches"--real-life labor and management personnel along with mediators--students spend most of a day crafting a contract for employees of imaginary "Getwell Hospital." Meanwhile, their teachers learn how to weave labor issues into a social studies and history curriculum.

During one recent simulation involving 120 students from Maryland high schools, teachers marveled at how quickly students took to playing their roles--and how much they learned. "It got very intense," said Joann Malone, a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. "Some groups resolved things easily. Others wouldn't give up and had to get a mediator."

The Meany Center began the project 18 months ago, modeling it after the Los Angeles effort created by teachers Patti Litwin and Linda Tubach. Said Malone, "It's so hands-on--just outstanding."

For more: E-mail Valerie Ervin at vervin@georgemeany.org or call 301/431-5413.

Lessons of Vietnam

As long as they can remember, teachers Melissa Heady and Connie Wilke have been intrigued by the Vietnam War. Heady's father and father-in-law served in the war and Wilke remembers young men from her hometown who died fighting. This summer, both got a chance to nurture their interest at the first ever Teach Vietnam Teachers Network conference in Washington, D.C.

The experience, they say, was one of the richest--and most emotional--they've ever had.

Sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation (VVMF), the four-day conference marked the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Vietnam Memorial Wall and kicked off what the foundation says will be an annual effort to help teachers preserve war history in schools. Some 90 teachers participated.

"We wanted to give teachers the resources to teach multiple perspectives about the war," says Tricia Edwards, director of Teach Vietnam. So they tapped the expertise of everybody from historians to Vietnam veterans.

Heady, who heads the history department at East Jessamine High School in Nicholasville, Kentucky, said the talks by the soldiers were particularly riveting. She has long guided her students through oral history projects on the war. Now, she says, she'll use the Virtual Wall and other Internet resources offered by VVMF to "transport that emotional element into my classroom."

Wilke, a fifth-grade teacher at Bell Oaks Upper Elementary School in Bellmawr, New Jersey, had facilitated student chats with local veterans and spearheaded a successful $6,000 project to build a war monument in her schoolyard. Now she plans to have students interview families of local young men who died. "My hope is that my students will be able to say these were not just names, but people who played Little League and did the same things they do," says Wilke.

--Lauren Fischer

For more: Contact Tricia Edwards at tedwards@vvmf.org or visit www.teachvietnam.org.

Celebrating Self -- Creatively

Students at James A. Shanks High School in Quincy, Florida, are no strangers to academic struggle. Most are poor or come from broken homes, and many have special education needs.

But teacher Tammy Williams-Hinson says she refuses to see deficits when she comes to school. "I tell my students every day they are fantastic and striving to be fabulous," she says. And then she gets them pumped up for learning, mainly by turning her English classes into laboratories for self-discovery and fun.

Her activities have packed a lot of punch--and gotten notice, too. In the last two years she's won Innovation and Fine Arts Grants from The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education and has been a star to her mostly African-American students.

The reason: Williams-Hinson says traditional ways of developing reading and writing skills don't always resonate with her students. So she aggressively mines topics, such as the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age, that not only inspire personal pride but can be brought alive with music, art, and other hands-on projects.

So far her biggest success has been with the African-American cultural celebration, Kwanzaa, which she uses to teach everything from writing and computer skills to Kwanzaa principles, like purpose and unity. "The seven principles of Kwanzaa sum up what it takes to be a quality citizen," she says, "and through fostering a communal environment I allow my students to be themselves."

The 28-year-old teacher--she was Gadsden County's youngest ever District Teacher of the Year--uses literature and film about Kwanzaa to develop reading and thinking skills tied to state achievement standards. She guides students through desktop publishing projects, helping them develop T-shirts, flyers, banners, Power Point presentations, and a website related to the schoolwide "Kwanzaa Extravaganza" that is her final, showcase event. She also gets parents and grandparents to teach students how to sew and make a Kwanzaa quilt. Now a Kwanzaa CD-ROM--and a field trip to an African-American arts festival in Atlanta--are in the works.

"I want to give my students a hands-on, different approach to learning so they won't get stuck," says Williams-Hinson. "I want to give them learning that goes beyond what they are getting at home. They deserve it."

--Leah Lakins

For more: Contact Williams-Hinson at twchinadoll@ aol.com. Apply today for a grant from The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education at www.nfie.org.

And Now at a Computer Near You...

NEA members can reap new rewards at a portal designed just for them.

Heard rumors of an owl sighting? This time, believe it.

OWL.org, NEA's long-awaited portal for members, launched in August, and already more than 12,000 NEA stalwarts have registered.

The main draw, say planners, is the portal's capacity to link NEA members with each other through discussion boards and chat rooms and help them focus on issues they really care about. "We really want to create a community--a place our members can engage in lively conversations to benefit their personal classroom experiences," says Lynn Coffin, director of communications for OWL.org.

Coffin acknowledges there have been bumps along the way--the portal has been two years in the making--but so far "we've had some fabulous feedback."

In addition to the discussion boards, the portal offers access to lesson plans and teaching tips. It gives member discounts for online professional development courses and for other goodies such as clothes and books. It also gives a heads-up to members about upcoming PBS education programs and offers a quick link to job placement services.

But what really excites, says Coffin, is the portal's potential. Unlike www.nea.org, the NEA Website geared mainly to the public and press, OWL.org offers state NEA leaders the chance to tailor content to fit the special needs of NEA members in each state. Local legislative matters, political advocacy efforts, conference information, state ESP news, even reports and resources that may have been too costly to post on local and state websites--all can be posted to the portal in ways that uniquely serve state members. Coffin calls the portal a "strategic resource" states can use for accomplishing key goals.

George King, director of communications for the Illinois Education Association, says members there understand the portal is a work in progress and are "really enthused" by its promise.

Of course, getting every NEA member on board--not to mention working out the technological kinks that come with such new ventures--"won't happen overnight," notes Coffin. But, she says, "it's a very exciting process."

--Marilyn Milloy

Want to register? Go to www.owl.org, click on "register" and follow the steps. If you have comments or questions, contact Lynn Coffin at lcoffin@nea.org.