Dear Web Editor,

I have a Power Macintosh G3 tower computer. It's a couple of years old now and I'm thinking about getting a new/faster computer. Is there a way to upgrade what I have without buying an entirely new system? Plus, if I get an entirely new system, what do I do with the old one?

Bryan Massengale
Elementary music teacher
Dayton, Tennessee

To decide whether to upgrade your system, start by asking yourself, "How comfortable will I be working under the hood of my computer?" If your answer is very comfortable--and you really should be before attempting an upgrade--then upgrading your computer may be a good option.

A variety of factors, more than can be covered in this column, influence whether an upgrade succeeds and makes economic sense.

The biggest difference you can make to your computer's performance is to increase the speed of the hardware. You can do this by 1) adding more RAM (random access memory) to the computer and 2) replacing the CPU (central processing unit). For our novice readers, the CPU is a chip that functions as the computer's brain and manages all of the computer's operations.

Adding more RAM usually is a simple, effective, and reasonably inexpensive way to boost the speed of a computer. The additional RAM makes the computer less reliant on its relatively slow hard disk. Consequently, applications such as graphics programs and sophisticated word processing programs, which are memory hungry, run much faster.

Replacing the CPU is a slightly more difficult task. The process requires careful research to select the correct upgrade for a given computer, and it usually is a little more difficult for the nontechnical user to make the replacement. In addition, it can often be an expensive upgrade.

If you decide to replace the CPU, start by determining what speed and what kind of CPU chip you need. A computer's CPU speed is measured in megahertz (MHz)--the higher the megahertz assigned to a chip, the faster it can process information. Because companies constantly update specifications and availability of their product, I suggest you check with the manufacturer to verify current upgrade options.

Check out www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/ for the latest information and tips about upgrading your Apple G3 PowerPC. Windows OS users should check out PC World's online upgrade guide at www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,38605,00.asp.

If you decide to buy a new system, consider donating your old computer to a school. Although not all schools accept outdated computers (the need for technical support to maintain older hardware often outweighs its benefits to the classroom), those that do benefit by decreasing the student-computer ratio. What do you get in return? Aside from knowing you're helping kids gain access to a powerful learning tool, your donation may qualify you for an additional tax break.

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Editor's Pick

America's Story
Want to have some fun with history? Check out www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi, an entertaining and educational website sponsored by the Library of Congress. The site includes games, activities, and stories about America's favorite pastimes, sports, and hobbies; various eras in American history; each of the 50 states; and "Amazing Americans" such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Harriet Tubman, and jazz great Duke Ellington. This is a "must see" site for students and teachers of American history.

Techno Tips

Digital Slide Shows
I keep a digital camera on my desk that students use to record events and activities in the classroom. They might photograph other students working on a project, a visitor to the room, or anything else that excites them.

Then, when they have some free time, they go to the computer, download the pictures, and assemble them into short PowerPoint® presentations. They make a title slide with a name for the activity featured in the photographs and the date for each presentation.

One computer in the room is connected to a classroom monitor, and students can show their presentations on the monitor as looped slide shows. The slide shows are a hit with parents at open houses and parent-teacher conferences. We also post some of the slide shows on our classroom website so parents can see what is happening in our classroom.

Kathleen Nicholson
Fourth-grade teacher
Amherst, Wisconsin

Web-Based Word Puzzles
Instead of having students do the same activities each week to practice their spelling words, I created spelling folders for my students that contain lists of 25 different activities they can do. Two of the activities listed ask students to use the spelling words in a crossword puzzle or a word search, which a fellow student then completes.

I found a great website to help them with these tasks: http://www.puzzle-maker.com. The students love going to the site to make their word searches and crossword puzzles. The site includes clear, easy-to-follow directions for each kind of puzzle. I also use the site to make word searches and crossword puzzles in other subject areas. You can make math puzzles, cryptograms, falling phrases, and double puzzles at the site as well.

Corinna Erickson
Sixth-grade teacher
Wabasso, Minnesota

Educators are forever battling over how to present American history. Should we show the good with the bad, or should we strive to develop patriotism by accenting only the positive in our national story?

It turns out Americans have an unusual level of consensus on that question. The public opinion research organization Public Agenda asked a random sample of 1,500 adults: "When teaching American history to kids in middle and high school, do you think it's better to place the country in the best possible light, or do you think it's better to teach the bad and the good, warts and all?"

Ninety percent picked "warts and all."

Public Agenda didn't ask about teaching elementary school kids.

Looks like we should 'fess up about George Washington and that cherry tree.

For more, see www.publicagenda.org/aboutpa/aboutpa_press_release_detail.cfm?list=48.

Look, Ma, No Books

One in six teachers say they do not have enough texts for every child, and nearly one in three don't have enough for students to take home, according to a survey of teachers conducted by NEA and the Association of American Publishers.

Where is the book shortage most acute? No surprises here: It's twice as bad in urban areas as non-urban, and nearly twice as bad in schools with large numbers of low-income and minority students.

Of the teachers who are short on texts, 61 percent say they try to compensate by buying supplemental materials with their own money.

And 27 percent report the shortage disrupts classes. Said one, "It was chaotic having the kids share books and not having books to take home to do work."

For more, see www.publishers.org.

Robo-Readers

Several states are trying out computer programs to score student essays on state tests, reports Education Week.

A computer "doesn't need a cigarette break, doesn't need a cup of coffee, and scores the first and last essay the same," explained a software company executive.

The programs first try to figure out what's in the minds of human scorers. They read hundreds of scored essays to see what is similar about essays that got the same score. But since they can't actually think, the programs don't look for clear reasoning or gripping storylines. They stick to writing features that mechanical minds can fathom, including spelling, punctuation, syntax, and so on.

"Ultimately, it comes down to vocabulary," says the same company exec.

Uniforms Out of Fashion?

They had bipartisan support--both President Clinton and President Bush favored them. But school uniforms, just recently the rage, are already going out of style, according to a New York Times report.

It seems that many kids and parents never really liked the idea. "Parents want uniforms. They just don't want uniforms for their kid," a California principal told a reporter.

Two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that uniforms were required in about 20 percent of public and Catholic elementary and middle schools and in 10 percent of high schools. (The CDC didn't think wearing uniforms was sick. The numbers were gathered as part of a survey of school safety measures.)

Neither state nor federal authorities track these numbers so there's no way to quantify the rise or fall of uniforms, the Times says. But the reporter contacted some districts that adopted uniforms in the 1990s with high hopes to learn what went wrong.

Public school parents can't be required to dress their children in uniforms--that violates free speech--and when some children aren't forced to wear them, other children put the pressure on their parents to relent. Some parents offered uniform waivers to their offspring as rewards for good grades or stuffed them in Christmas stockings.

Still, some schools, especially in big cities, are holding the line. That includes about three-quarters of the elementary schools in the Times' hometown.

For more, see www.nytimes.com/2002/09/13/education/13UNIF.html.

What makes a good teacher? The debate rages about what kinds of training and credentials translate into effectiveness in the classroom.

Education Secretary Rod Paige stirred a hornet's nest recently when he called for revamping the system for licensing teachers. Dismissing education coursework mandates as "burdensome," Paige called for new paths for college graduates to enter classrooms without traditional preparation. Coming on the heels of a new federal mandate for teacher quality, Paige's comments rekindled a debate over what qualifications teachers need to serve students successfully. This month's Scoop separates the rhetoric from the research.

What is Paige's position?
In delivering his first annual report on teacher quality to Congress, Paige asserted that "state certification systems allow into the classroom too many teachers who lack solid content knowledge of the subjects they will teach." Instead, certification standards are overloaded with required courses in pedagogy that "act as an unnecessary barrier for those wishing to pursue a teaching career," he argued.

The debate over certification requirements is particularly important because the massive new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), passed last year, mandates that by the end of the 2005-06 school year, all teachers of core academic subjects must be "highly qualified," and all teachers will have to be fully certified (in other words, not working under an emergency or temporary waiver).

Under ESEA, new elementary teachers must have a bachelor's degree and pass a state test to demonstrate their knowledge of reading and other areas of the basic curriculum. New middle and secondary teachers must have a bachelor's degree and demonstrate competency in each subject taught. This demonstration can take the form of passing a state test, completing an academic major, or other options. States are now developing their responses to the teacher quality mandate, and their decisions will affect all teachers in some way. Paige favors requiring less preparation for teacher candidates in education methods.

What does research say about the relationship between teachers' credentials and training and their effectiveness in the classroom?
Abundant evidence exists that professional training and credentials matter. A new synthesis of research by James Stronge of the College of William and Mary states that:

• The proportion of well-qualified and certified teachers within a state is one of the most consistent predictors of student test scores in reading and math.
• Teachers with traditional education preparation are better able to recognize individual student differences; those without education coursework frequently have difficulties with classroom management, student motivation, and using specific teaching strategies.

Further, the notion that graduates of traditional teacher preparation programs are weak in subject matter is unfounded. Art Wise, president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), cites a landmark study by the Educational Testing Service of scores on its Praxis II exam, which 23 states used to measure the content knowledge of teachers seeking certification. Of 270,000 candidates tested, 91 percent of graduates from NCATE-accredited institutions passed the content exam, compared with 73 percent of candidates who did not study teacher preparation.

What about teachers who enter the field via alternative programs?
Alternative programs that place people in classrooms before they are fully certified vary considerably, and the research on their effects is scanty.

A new study published in the electronic journal Education Policy Analysis Archives examined nearly 300 recently hired primary teachers, comparing those who had regular certification with those who were "undercertified" (teaching under emergency, temporary, or provisional certificates).

According to study authors Ildiko Laczko-Kerr and David Berliner, students of the certified teachers achieved significantly better than the students with undercertified teachers in the subjects measured (reading, language, and mathematics). How much better? Students of undercertified teachers--including some who were in the highly touted Teach for America program--showed about 20 percent less growth per year.

Experts also are concerned about the preponderance of undercertified teachers in poor schools. Poor and minority students are two to three times more likely than students in wealthier districts to be taught by unlicensed, inexperienced teachers. All students deserve a certified teacher and the boost that will bring to their achievement.

If you're already certified, how does the ongoing debate affect you?
Teachers stand very little chance of improving their salaries and working conditions if policymakers and the public accept the idea that teaching requires little more than enthusiasm, knowledge of a subject, and a dollop of coaching or night courses. NEA President Reg Weaver notes, "The sooner we begin treating teachers as respected professionals, the sooner we will attract and retain quality teachers. Gimmicks, short cuts, and lowering standards are not the answer. Respect, funding, and support for the teaching profession will put a quality teacher in every classroom."

--John O'Neil

For More:

• NEA provides a helpful summary of new federal provisions for teacher quality at www.nea.org/esea.
• To learn more about effective teacher preparation, visit the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education homepage at www.ncate.org.
• The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future has developed criteria it urges states to use as they define teacher quality. For more, go to www.nctaf.org.
• Read Laczko-Kerr and Berliner's articles in the Education Policy Analysis Archives at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n37.html.
• See James Stronge's synthesis of research in Qualities of Effective Teachers, available through the website of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development at www.ascd.org/framebooks.html.

In groundbreaking rulings, the courts have sent school boards a clear message: Do more to stop gay bashing or pay the price.

Derek Henkle was spit on, beat up, and called names. Simply because he's gay. But the last straw for the Reno, Nevada, high school student came when classmates threw a rope around his neck and threatened to drag him behind a pick-up truck, just like James Byrd Jr.

Even after he transferred to two other high schools in the Washoe County School District, the harassment continued. His pleas for help were ignored, with one principal warning him to stop "acting like a fag."

So Derek Henkle dropped out and sued the school district, claiming that the district violated his constitutional rights by failing to stop the peer harassment.

Last August, the Washoe County School District agreed to pay Henkle $451,000 and to adopt sweeping changes to its policies and programs.

Peter Obstler, Henkle's attorney, proclaimed that the case "sends a message to the nation's schools that the harassment of gay and lesbian students will not be tolerated and that the failure to respond to that harassment has serious financial consequences for school districts. Simply put, 'If you bash, you pay.'"

Among other things, the district agreed to require students and staff to receive training about sexual harassment and intimidation.

In an equally important new development, several courts have recently ruled that school districts have to take action to stop students from harassing teachers because of their sexual orientation.

Last August, for example, a federal district court in New York held that the Comsewogue School District violated the constitutional rights of Joan Lovell, a lesbian teacher, by "failing to take reasonable measures to prevent students from harassing her due to her homosexuality."

Lovell alleged that students called her "dyke" and "disgusting" and that two female students began to hug each other when they saw her in the hall. When Lovell complained to her principal, Joseph Rella, he failed to punish the students or take any other remedial action.

So Lovell sued both her school district and Rella, claiming a violation of her right to "equal protection" under the federal Constitution. She argued that school officials suspended students for acts of racial harassment, but did nothing to the students who called her "dyke."

The court agreed, ruling that it is "well-established that governmental discrimination against homosexuals...violate[s] the equal protection clause."

In Wisconsin, however, a teacher had less success in his lawsuit against the Hamilton School District. Tommy Schroeder claimed that school officials failed to do enough to stop the harassment he suffered because of his sexual orientation.

He alleged that students called him "queer" and "faggot" in the hallways and on bus duty and wrote graffiti in the bathroom identifying him as a "faggot." He also maintained that students and parents made anonymous, harassing phone calls to his home.

District officials claimed that they punished the offending students whenever they could be identified. But Schroeder argued that the school administration should have done more--namely, they should have required all students and staff to attend workshops on sexual orientation discrimination.

In a ruling last March, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument. Although agreeing that school officials had a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to stop the harassment of Schroeder, the court held that they did enough by punishing the known harassers and had no duty to implement diversity training as Schroeder had requested.

In California last August, a teacher won a $1.1 million settlement from the San Leandro Unified School District, which had disciplined him for speaking to his students about equality and respect for gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons.

Two parents had accused high school teacher Karl Debro of attempting to "brainwash" his students and make them "become gay." In response, school officials reprimanded Debro, who is married with children.

Debro sued, claiming a violation of his free speech rights and his obligation under California law to combat all forms of bias, including homophobia.

On August 8, 2002, a jury awarded Debro $500,000 for emotional distress. On the eve of the punitive damages phase of the trial, the school district settled the case for $1,155,000.

The school district also agreed to remove the reprimand memos from Debro's file and institute a comprehensive training program on diversity for students and staff.

A new NEA booklet, "Know Your Rights: Legal Protection for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Education Employees," summarizes recent legal developments and offers practical advice for persons who believe they have been the victim of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identification. The booklet is posted at www.owl.org and copies will be mailed to NEA state affiliates. Limited numbers of complimentary copies are available from NEA Human and Civil Rights (202/822-7700).

--Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

Florida Voucher Program Struck Down

In a blow to voucher proponents, a circuit court judge last August declared that Florida's voucher program violates the state constitution's ban on the use of public money to aid religious institutions.

The decision was announced just six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected NEA's arguments that the Cleveland voucher program violates the federal constitution's Establishment Clause.

But Leon County Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey concluded that the pertinent clause of the Florida constitution goes further, providing that, "No revenue of the state...shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church...or any sectarian institution." This language, Judge Davey wrote, "is clear and unambiguous. There is scant room for interpretation or parsing."

The state has appealed the ruling, and the court has allowed the voucher program to continue pending the appeal. The court, however, ordered the state to post a $2.5 million dollar bond to repay adversely affected public schools if the lower court decision is upheld on appeal.

A decision is not expected until sometime in 2003. NEA is sponsoring the litigation.

--M.D.S.

Why standardized tests are the worst way to hold schools accountable--and what the alternatives are.

In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization
By Deborah Meier
200 pp. $23 hardback; Beacon Press (www.beacon.org).

Many NEA members who read this insightful, eloquent book share Deborah Meier's sense of disbelief that our public education system is not really trusted to educate children. Sadly, a "fundamentally new level of distrust" of schools has imposed on public education a perverted notion of accountability driven by testing, standardized schooling, and more and more bureaucracy.

With passion and grace, Meier argues that the kind of accountability seen in state after state, and reinforced by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is bad for schools, educators, and most of all, for children. It diminishes the power of public education, belittles educators' professional judgment, and ignores what we know about how best to organize schooling and educate children. It will not educate all children, or close the achievement gap, or transfer to students the "democratic habits of mind" that are key to the future of a democratic, pluralistic society, says Meier.

But there is an alternative--trustworthy public schools. These are schools that parents, the school board, and the broader community trust to make important decisions on behalf of children. They are small, personalized schools with strong family ties. Organized around fundamentally different relationships between students and teachers, teachers and families, and teachers to each other, they accept being held accountable for their work because they are in charge of making major workplace decisions.

Meier has founded and run several trustworthy schools, first in East Harlem at the celebrated Central Park East School, and more recently in Boston. In Schools We Trust is dotted with stories of the successes, failures, and lessons learned from these schools, all of which are public schools built around trusted adults. Meier shows what these schools are like and why trust is connected to social and academic learning.

Meier also makes a compelling case why the alternative to trusting schools, "trust through testing," is the worst way to hold schools accountable. She masterfully debunks the "quasi-science of testing," including the current generation of standardized tests that are linked to state content standards.

These tests are inappropriate measures for evaluating schools' effective- ness, she argues. Instead, we should evaluate local schools by collecting evidence in multiple forms about the schools' and students' performance. Bring in expert and lay reviewers to examine the evidence, which might include standardized test scores but also would rely on professional judgment and seek second opinions much as is done in medicine.

Should we strive to create schools built on trust in an era of standards and accountability? Absolutely. Is it possible to create such schools? Yes. Deborah Meier has done so, and her book is full of suggestions for creating schools that we as educators would trust to educate our own children.

Creating and sustaining such schools is hard work. Trust, Meier reminds us, must be continually earned, and in the end is all about accountability, but accountability that makes sense.

--Marcie Dianda
NEA Student Achievement Department

Excerpt
"We are witnessing a radical redefinition of the task of public education, driven by the widespread belief that by focusing our attention on externally imposed tests we can both produce higher achievement and restore public trust in our schools....quite the opposite is true: the increasing use of standardized tests both undermines achievement and increases the distrust we have for teachers, students, and our own judgments."

From the NEA Professional Library

Meeting the Challenge: Special Education Tools that Work for All Kids
158 pp. $15.95 NEA members
$19.95 nonmembers
#2022-7-00-PL
Meeting the Challenge gives busy educators the tools they need to teach a class full of students with various skill levels and special needs. Teachers will find effective strategies to use with students struggling to overcome academic or behavioral difficulties. The book provides a tool kit of specialized resources to prepare every educator to meet the individualized needs of any student. The tool kit includes sample checklists, IEP goals, co-teaching lesson plans, rubrics, behavior intervention plans, conference planning sheets, and other resources teachers can copy and use or modify to make their own.

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

Excerpt
After you collect data about your student's performance, you're ready to analyze it. Keep these guidelines in mind:

Visually represent your data. It's amazing how a series of scores can look like paint drippings when listed on a sheet of paper but turn into a clearly defined picture of your student's skill levels when presented on a chart or graph. Line and bar graphs are particularly effective ways to present a series of percentages.

Look for obvious gaps. Analytic rubrics and checklists can help you identify gaps in student learning....

Books by NEA Members

Essential Ingredients: Recipes for Teaching Writing
By Sandra Worsham
Explore the differences between "school" writing and "real" writing and learn to make both forms work for K-12 students. The author, a 30-year teacher of gifted and at-risk students, includes many of her mother's recipes and childhood stories in this volume filled with proven teaching tips, activities, and exercises to get students hooked on writing. 188 pp. $23.95 from the Association for Curriculum Development. To order, go to www.ascd.org.

Little Kids-Powerful Problem Solvers: Math Stories from a Kindergarten Classroom
By Angela Giglio Andrews and Paul R. Trafton
A preschool and kindergarten teacher and a math professor celebrate the math capabilities and achievements of young children through stories that describe kids' learning, problem solving, and reasoning. Quotes from NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics appear throughout. 101 pp. $13.50 from Heinemann Publishing. To order, go to www.heinemann.com.

Venango Tales: Life in the Small City
By Peter Greene
The author--a teacher, musician, and dad--chronicles his life in Frankin, Pennsylvania, a small city of nearly 8,000. The book is a collection of weekly columns from two local newspapers in which Greene discusses the charms of living in a small town, his experiences as an educator, and other observations. 302 pp. $19.95 plus s&h from XLibris. Go to www.xlibris.com/VenangoTales.html or call 888/7XLIBRIS.

Fox and Fluff
By Shutta Crum, illustrated by John Bendall-Brunello
Author, storyteller, and children's librarian, Shutta Crum tells the story of big, bad Fox--who eats chickens--and Fluff--a cute chick who believes Fox is his papa and won't leave. So what's a tough guy to do? Take on the challenge of fatherhood and find out how much he has to offer. Add one story to your classroom where the fox turns out not to be the bad guy. 32 pp. $15.95 from Albert Whitman and Company. To order, call 800/255-7675 or 847/581-0033.

Ben and the Bully
By Sandra Patterson
Writing for children ages 8 to 12, school psychologist and elementary teacher Sandra Patterson explores the feelings of children who have difficulty being accepted by peers and provides hope that they can be accepted. In her book, Ben overcomes his own fears and uses positive actions to face a bully. 92 pp. $15.50 (hardback), $9.95 (paperback) plus s&h from 1^st Books Library. To order call 888/280-7715 or visit www.1stbooks.com.

TV Tips

Freedom: A History of Us
PBS, January 12, in primetime, check local listings.
Through archival film, artwork, rare photographs, and first-person accounts read by an all-star cast, this series of eight, one-hour episodes tells the finally triumphant story of American freedom seen through the eyes of patriots, pilgrims and pioneers, slaves, women, immigrants, and laborers. The series begins in the summer of 1776 as the original 13 colonies stake everything on independence from England--and freedom. Later episodes include Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society," the Vietnam War, the march to Montgomery, Nixon and Watergate, the hostage crisis under Jimmy Carter, the end of the Cold War, the growth of terrorism, and the attack on the World Trade Center. The series is based on the book series of the same name by Joy Hakim (Oxford University Press).

Biography Special: The Impressionists
A&E, January 7-10, daily at 7 a.m., ET, check local listings.
Filmed on location around the world and featuring interviews with world-renowned art historians, this four-part program tells the story of a revolution in art through the eyes of its most important practitioners. Parts 1 and 2 explore the origins of impressionism, when a group including Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Claude Monet began to paint using short strokes, commas, and dots to rapidly capture a moment in time. Parts 3 and 4 chronicle the end of the impressionist movement, including the Prussian occupation of Paris in 1870 and the deaths of Pissarro, Renoir, and Monet. Episodes can be taped and used in the classroom for two years with an accompanying lesson plan at www.aande.com/class.

Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor
A&E, January 13, 8 p.m., ET, check local listings.
Actors Aidan Quinn and Kelsey Grammer are featured in this two-hour Revolutionary War drama that traces the events that lead to betrayal by one of the Continental Army's most decorated soldiers. Arnold was considered a great general on both sides of the battlefield and a trusted and distinguished soldier of General Washington's army, but Congress failed to acknowledge his contributions to the war effort. Losing the support of his peers and heavy in personal debt, Arnold became bitter. After marrying a British sympathizer he began to question his commitment to the American Revolution.

Just Deal
The N, January 13, 8 p.m., ET.
A new teen sitcom follows the friendship of Dylan, Jermaine, and Ashley, three teens from different backgrounds that attend the same high school. Dylan and Jermaine have been best friends since the sandbox, but their relationship shifts when Ashley arrives. Smart, funny, and pretty, she demonstrates through her actions and upbeat attitude that everybody's got problems--you just have to deal.

Blue Planet: Seas of Life
Discovery Channel, January 27-31, daily at 9 a.m., ET.
Explore the world's oceans and their widely varied inhabitants in this Assignment Discovery series. Traveling to every continent on the planet, this compendium of life includes sea otters, leafy sea dragons, whale sharks, bottlenose dolphins, half-moon fish, the world's largest colony of gray seals, and more. Tape and use in the classroom for one year.

Save Our History: American Lighthouses
The History Channel, January 31, 6 a.m., ET.
This program looks at some of the most famous lighthouses that line America's coasts, recounting their historical significance and looking at the efforts being taken by preservationists to save them. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for two years with an online lesson plan at www.historychannel.com/classroom.

The Weather Classroom: Hurricanes
The Weather Channel, January 27 and 30, 4 a.m., ET.
This series helps students explore weather phenomena in ways that would not be safe in person and can be taped and used in the classroom forever with a lesson plan at www.weather.com/education. "Hurricanes" flies with hurricane hunters to study the basic ingredients of a hurricane, uses satellite images to track hurricanes, and talks with eyewitnesses to the destructive force of a hurricane.

I Spy
HBO Family, Saturdays in January, 8 a.m., ET (repeated 1:30 p.m.), check local listings.
This animated play-along adventure series for children ages 4-7 is based on the I Spy books photographed by Walter Wick and written by Jean Marzollo. The series adds an interactive game and whimsical characters to the riddles in each 30-minute episode. Both the book and the TV program are based on the idea that children's creativity and visual skills can be enhanced by encounters with everyday objects like plastic forks, buttons, paper clips, and toy cars.

Science Friday Kids Connection
NPR Fridays, 2-4 p.m. each Friday, ET. Broadcast via radio.
"Science Friday," hosted by science journalist Ira Flatow, discusses the most current scientific issues of the week. To support each show, KIDS-NET has produced an online middle school science curriculum that correlates each program topic to national science standards and offers learning activities and resources. The radio program is available on NPR stations nationwide and via Real-Audio on www.npr.org. The curriculum is available at www.kidsnet.org and www.sciencefriday.com.

Web Winners

Websites for Teachers
This site has thousands of links to websites and resources for teachers, all ranked by popularity. Find links to lesson plans by subject, offers for freebies, and even a site with hundreds of essays and term papers to help you determine if your students are cheating from the Internet. Go to www.sitesforteachers.com.

K-5 Math Challenges
This kid-friendly site from the DuPage Children's Museum consists of math problems written as stories about Aunt Mathilda. Students can post solutions and receive a reply from Aunty Math about their solution strategy. Based on the NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, the site has modifications and information about the math involved in each problem for parents and teachers. Go to http://auntymath.com.

The Power of Story
The Circle of Stories website from PBS honors American Indian storytelling and the importance of that tradition by using documentary film, photography, artwork, and music to explore this custom. The site presents songs and stories from several tribes and uses RealAudio, video, photos, graphics, and Flash animation to enhance compelling words and rhythms. Go to www.pbs.org/ circleofstories/.

Preschool Possibilities
In search of fresh themes and activities for your preschoolers? This site contains more than 150. Choose from pets, dinosaurs, the grocery store, Dr. Seuss, shapes, and more. Each theme contains related songs and activities as well as ideas for art projects, snacks, bulletin boards, and field trips. Recipes and articles are also included. Go to www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/.

Back to Nature
This nature Web guide contains an extensive listing of field guides for animals, plants, flowers, and seashells. Visitors can check with wildlife, birding, and backyard experts and search the Web for news articles and photography related to their favorite species. Other features of this National Wildlife Federation site include step-by-step guides to creating backyard habitats and weekly news features. Go to www.enature.com.

Slavery and the Courts
If you're looking for material for Black History Month, you may want to check out a new addition to the Library of Congress website, "Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860." This collection features some 100 pamphlets, books, speeches, and court transcripts and documents regarding the experiences of slaves in the American colonies and the United States. Access the collection under the American Memory section of the Library of Congress site at www.loc.gov.

Money Matters
Money--we need it and spend it all the time, but what are its origins? The British Museum's World of Money site explores the history of money, how it is made, and how it's affected humanity. Games, timelines, and graphics add depth to this interesting resource. Go to www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/worldofmoney/.

Education support professionals, you give your hearts to our public schools and students, and your struggle for better pay, health care, and professional development is our struggle.

I want to let you in on a little secret of mine. Whenever I go to a school for the first time, I try to get there early so that I can visit with our ESPs.

There is a reason why I do this.

I want to find out whether the ESPs are comfortable, confident, and secure in knowing that they are important members of the school team, because that tells me a lot about the school.

For me, there is no such thing as "just a" cafeteria worker or "just a" custodian or "just a" bus driver--no way! Every single person who works in a school or a school district office makes a contribution to the students' education. And every education support professional that I know seems to do many jobs.

One minute a school secretary might be trying to get the principal organized, and the next minute she may be comforting a feverish child who is waiting for his mother to pick him up from school. At the same time that a cafeteria worker serves lunch, she might be coaxing a smile out of a sad-faced child. A custodian may go from fixing a broken boiler to helping a student fix a broken bike. And when not behind the wheel, a bus driver might very well be collecting warm winter clothes for children who do not have them.

ESPs work closely with our students and care deeply about what happens to them. It's that simple. You are the unsung heroes of our schools. Almost always underpaid and often underappreciated, you help to create an environment in our schools that is safe and conducive to learning.

I've always been a great believer that "attitude determines altitude," and you spread that positive, can-do attitude that can lift up an entire school. What's more, you provide our schools with a vital link to our communities because most of you live where you work. You often know a student's parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles--and you know the hopes and dreams they've invested in their kids. You can play a crucial role in getting families more involved in their children's education.

As a teacher, there is something else I've long appreciated about ESPs. You really sympathize with how hard we must work. I remember one special education paraprofessional telling me: "The teacher I work with does the IEPs, the behavior modification plans, and the paperwork required by the state and federal governments. I assist her in implementing her plans. But at the end of the day, she has to take the job home with her."

I wish that I could wave a wand, and every single ESP in every public school would instantly receive the living wage and health care coverage that you deserve--and the professional development that you hunger for. I cannot. But please know that I am focused and committed to NEA working diligently to achieve these goals for you as well as other educators.

I am also focused and committed to doing everything we can to see that classroom paraeducators receive the education and professional development they need to fulfill the requirements of the newly reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I say we turn the challenge of this new law into an opportunity.

NEA is a family made up of ESPs, teachers, higher education faculty, and student and retired educators who work together in the name of children, students, and public education--that's what we are all about. Whatever affects one of us, affects us all. That is why NEA appreciates and honors you!

Comments? E-mail Reg Weaver at RegWeaver@nea.org.

Indiana teacher Richard Beamer trusts his students with his life. Last fall Beamer fulfilled his longtime dream of flying west at treetop level--in a plane built by his fifth-grade students at Southwood Elementary School.

Under Beamer's guidance, students assembled an ultralight, 1930s-style, tube and cloth airplane that took Beamer, a licensed pilot, from Wabash, Indiana, to Seattle, Washington. He traveled for five weeks with a laptop computer and e-mailed journal entries to students during his journey. Beamer received a $2,000 grant from The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education to help fund the project.

In addition to preparing for Beamer's trip, students learned how to make webpages, correspond by e-mail, and write online reports about their teacher's progress. Beamer incorporated aviation themes into his reading, writing, math, and geography lessons as well.

Beamer's classes had followed other teachers' adventures on the Internet for years, until Beamer decided it was time his students designed their own project. In 1999, his students constructed an ultralight airplane that Beamer flew from Wabash to Bloomington, Indiana. The next year, his class assembled a plane that took their intrepid instructor to San Diego, California, and back. For a change of pace in 2001, Beamer canoed down the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to Memphis, Tennessee, sending pictures and journal entries to his students along the way.

To follow Beamer's adventure, visit www.msdwc.k12.in.us/ses/2002seattle/seaindex.htm. To find out more about NEA Foundation grants, visit www.nfie.org.

--Irene Arce

Brain Busters

Every Saturday afternoon, students in Pennsylvania can tune in to see classmates flex their academic muscles on a television quiz show developed by Richard Rosen.

"Capital Blue Cross Brain Busters," which began airing about a year ago, features two high school teams in an academic showdown. The show launched its second season in October.

During the half-hour show, Rosen, who also acts as the show's host, challenges students with questions in "every conceivable subject area," he says, from science and literature to pop culture. The team with the most points at the end of the game advances to the next round of competition, until one team triumphs at the end of the season. Members of the championship team split $10,000 in scholarship money and $2,500 cash. They also receive tickets to Hershey Park for students at their school.

"We're trying to elevate our participants to heroes, just like we do with athletics," says Rosen, who teaches gifted students at four elementary schools. "We're committed to academic excellence."

--Kristen Loschert

Table Tennis Anyone?

Rhoda Samkoff is familiar with the phrase "ping pong," a term coined by the Milton Bradley Company back when the leisure activity was confined to the parlor. But what Samkoff plays is table tennis, the highly competitive worldwide sport that has become her passion during the past eight years.

Samkoff, a social studies teacher at Glenwood Elementary School in Millburn, New Jersey, turned to a local table tennis club after an ankle injury forced her to quit ice dancing. Table tennis, which is an Olympic sport in almost every country except the United States, has enabled Samkoff and her team to meet people from all corners of the world. Her training partner, Anani Lawson, hails from Togo, Africa, and Samkoff has traveled to Manchester, England, to face opponents. Last year, Samkoff placed fourth in the women's event at the New Jersey State Championships.

Each school year at Glenwood begins with a table tennis exhibition, where Samkoff and a guest player entertain and impress teachers and students with trick shots set to music. But Samkoff also enjoys "infusing the sport with a new generation of eager players" through her after-school table tennis club, the only one in the Millburn school district. As a certified instructor, she wants to "lend credibility" to the sport and offer students the chance to learn skills in a casual environment, where gender, strength, and skill level do not matter. The school maintains a lengthy waiting list of students eager to join the club.

Samkoff ends each school year with a student tournament. Winners receive trophies from Samkoff's private collection, ones she's collected from her own competitions through the years.

--Lauren Fischer

All Smiles

As a teacher in Johnson City, Tennessee, Carol Transou noticed how children with dental problems often were teased and, as a result, shied away from classroom activities that brought them attention.

"You might have children who do really well, but when you call on them, they put their hand over their mouth," says Transou, an NEA-Retired member. "You know that teasing is the reason." Poor children were predominantly the ones who couldn't have their dental problems corrected, Transou adds.

That memory pushed Transou to launch Project Smile, a local program that provides selected low-income students with dental care and braces. The Sunshine Lady Foundation gave an initial grant of $10,000, provided that Transou raise a matching amount locally. Johnson City dentists agreed to help with routine care and all five local orthodontists agreed to outfit students with braces at cost. The students' parents pay a nominal fee or an equivalent in-service, and Project Smile picks up the rest of the tab--about $2,000 per child.

Transou has raised more than $50,000 for the program so far.

"I'm hoping we can help to make some life changes for students," she says. "This could certainly be something that gives a child an opportunity for a better life."

--John O'Neil

Creating Champions

Logan High School teacher Tommie Lindsey Jr. sets high expectations for his students as he prepares them for California's forensics competitions. And they meet his standards by delivering powerful speeches and cogent arguments, and, ultimately, by winning.

Lindsey's efforts received national attention in the PBS documentary "Accidental Hero--Room 408," which aired in September. The program documents the inspiring role Lindsey plays in the lives of his students, most of them minorities from low-income families. By developing the skills they need to win in forensics, a field traditionally dominated by affluent white students, Lindsey's students prove that students of color can succeed. His teams have won four state championships in the last seven years.

Lindsey's students learn more than just how to sustain coherent arguments. They learn about diversity and teamwork, while they build self esteem, poise, and confidence. Nearly all of Lindsey's forensics students go to college.

Lindsey enjoys watching reluctant students blossom in the forensics program as they develop the necessary skills to succeed. "It's satisfying to take the student who many others considered a troublemaker and watch him turn into a champion," he says.

--Irene Arce

Pennsylvania NEA members grapple with a state school 'improvement' law that mirrors ESEA. The lessons: take risks, but take care of your rights.

Under Act 16--ironically labeled the Education Empowerment Act--Pennsylvania state officials can cite struggling public school systems for their "history of poor test performance," place them under external control, send them minimal improvement grants, and then subject them to every painful penalty from "reconstitution" to partial privatization.

Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) officials say that Act 16, passed in 2000, strongly resembles the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) through its narrow focus on standardized testing, its escalating penalties for failure to raise test scores, and its underfunding of a very worthy objective: improved academic achievement for all students.

Act 16 and ESEA differ in one key aspect: the former focuses on whole districts, the latter on individual schools. That aside, charges PSEA staffer Bob Brown, the two laws are "punitive and so close to being the same it's scary."

While history will judge if ESEA meets its promise of "no child left behind," the recent history of Act 16 offers NEA and its state affiliates strong reasons to negotiate strong educator and student protections in ESEA implementation.

Here's how two PSEA affiliates are grappling with this difficult state law:

Chester Upland: Edison Schools Make a Mess. In 2000, an appointed Act 16 "control board" running the struggling Chester Upland district contracted with a private firm, Edison Schools, to run 9 of 10 schools, right down to the level of assistant principal.

While expressing misgivings over privatization, the 491-member Chester Upland Education Association (CUEA) negotiated employee and union security rights with the district and initially supported the Edison experiment as the schools' best immediate hope for improvement.

But today, CUEA members are waging a community-wide campaign to end the annual Edison contract because state scores--ESEA's quality gauge--in the nine Edison-run schools actually declined from October 2001 to April 2002.

Under Edison management, "we believe that the environment for teaching and learning has deteriorated," says CUEA President Gloria Zoranksi. The company, she charges, has "underdelivered" on many promises, from professional development to computers, while eliminating non-teaching support positions and closing Chester Upland's alternative school--returning disruptive students to the classroom, some directly from incarceration.

"Suspensions, truancy, and other problems related to discipline have skyrocketed," says Zoranski, "while students who want to learn are frustrated."

Harrisburg: Cooperation Makes a Difference. Despite the challenges of Act 16, the 650-member Harrisburg Education Association (HEA) is proving that a struggling district can make progress under an ESEA-type law. The right formula, says elementary music teacher and HEA President Rich Askey, is "a balance of labor-management cooperation and protection of teacher rights."

Harrisburg, the state's lowest-scoring district when it was "designated" by Act 16 for state takeover, has had some lucky breaks. The state placed the system under the direct control of Mayor Stephen Reed, a strong supporter of teacher-administrator cooperation and a rallier of business and community support for the city's schools.

Initial results: Student retention is up, the high school has seen a 20 percent enrollment increase, facilities are improving, and business and foundation grants are flowing into the district.

Reed ensured that HEA members had a voice in the hiring process for a new superintendent. As a result, Harrisburg schools are now led by Gerald Kohn, an advocate of labor-management harmony who, like the mayor, publicly declares that teachers should be "honored" and supported, not blamed for schools' troubles.

In one short year, Kohn and his teacher partners have put Harrisburg on the path to real improvement.

The district has a new K-3 literacy campaign, a unique preschool program that pairs district teachers with Head Start staffers, two effective district truancy centers, and professional development that is relevant to teacher and program needs--including a graduate course in literacy now taught to K-3 teachers (on paid early-release time) by the University of Pennsylvania.

"When I walk around the buildings, I sense a better teacher attitude and see more things going on in the classroom," reports Askey with deep pride.

The high school's enrollment is up because "students communicate to parents this change in attitude," points out Superintendent Kohn. "Teachers are supported and now have hope rather than despair."

Askey stresses that the cooperation is bolstered by a collective bargaining agreement that includes strong language on teacher transfers and professional development and guarantees union representation and discipline only for "just cause."

"We've got a good contract, we're not afraid to defend that contract, and we're not afraid to file grievances if needed and to quickly bring about resolutions of concerns," Askey says. "We've also got a good [Association] Rep Council. We teach and support our reps, to ensure our contract is kept strong."

HEA "represents teachers in the best way--what's best for children and teachers together," says Kohn. "I must credit the HEA president and executive committee for taking a leap of faith [to work with me]. It's paid off for all."

Now there's no place for Harrisburg to go but up. It takes awhile to change a culture, Askey says, but genuine school improvement can happen through "teamwork, effort, caring about kids, and money--don't forget the money."

--Dave Winans

For more, contact HEA President Rich Askey at rwaskey@comcast.net.

ESEA: Another Reason To Expand Bargaining Rights

If there's a lesson to be learned from Pennsylvania NEA members' experience with Act 16, an ESEA-type school improvement law, it's that "the time to be concerned about preserving educators' rights and voice is now, not a couple of years down the road, when the first wave of struggling, resource-starved schools are labeled as 'low performing,'" says Don Morabito, a staffer in NEA's Collective Bargaining and Member Advocacy unit.

While each state will set its own bar for what constitutes "adequate yearly progress" under ESEA, many NEA affiliates aren't waiting for adverse consequences. Driven by its grueling experience with Act 16 penalties in struggling districts--everything from extended work schedules to charter school conversions--the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) is advising local affiliates to bargain over the "impact" of these actions on pay, hours, and working conditions.

And NEA is advising all affiliates to negotiate through either collective bargaining or "other processes of bilateral decision making" over a broad array of ESEA-related issues, such as "just cause" for discipline, educator accountability, professional development, transfers, outside service providers, paraeducator duties, school calendars and overtime protections, mentoring, and public disclosure of teacher qualifications.

Granted, basic education policy issues are still non-negotiable in many, many districts, due to court or arbitration decisions or weak or non-existent state bargaining laws. But because of ESEA, "the question of expansion of the legal scope of bargaining will become ever more critical," stresses Morabito.

ESEA may open up more opportunities for collaborative bargaining, over issues such as accountability, testing, and teacher quality. "In this kind of process, legal 'scope' is never an issue--the parties just raise an issue and ask, 'How do we solve this?'" says Tim Fitzgerald, an NEA bargaining consultant.

Whatever the path to joint decision making, "we need to talk about who else is responsible for test scores," concludes PSEA staffer Bob Brown. "We need to ensure that parents, the community, and school districts share responsibility with teachers and education support professionals for student achievement. Parents need to provide a nice place for their kids to do homework, and there needs to be a reason for students to want to come to school and take those tests!"

--D.W.

[Your Dues Did It]
An NEA Conference Hastens Change in Harrisburg

Labor-management cooperation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, got a jump start last spring when a team of teachers and administrators attended NEA's 2002 Challenge of Change Conference.

This unique gathering, held annually in Colorado Springs, brings together teams of school stakeholders--such as Association members and staff, school board members, administrators, and community folks--to examine "how to change by doing things differently," says NEA Training and Organizational Development staffer Sarah Root.

The key to this conference: lots of team time to work together. Team members work together on a specific question or a project they bring along. Some teams have attended for a number of years. This is their retreat time.

"This event was instrumental in creating the strong relationship we now have between teachers and administrators," says Harrisburg Education Association President Rich Askey. "NEA accorded us the support, the time, and the environment to have in-depth, real conversations and to meld as a team."

So strong is this relationship that joint Harrisburg teams now attend NEA's annual Priority Schools Conference, focused on turning around struggling schools.

The next NEA Challenge of Change Conference will be held on March 21-25. The deadline for team registrations is January 30.

For more information, contact Dan Hand at 202/822-7107 or at dhand@nea.org.

No matter what your politics, you can be proud of the way NEA and its affiliates mobilized member support for pro-public education candidates.

Depending on your political viewpoint--and NEA members are scattered across the spectrum--the November election results were a disaster or a delight.

But no matter how you cut it, Campaign 2002 was an organizational triumph for NEA and its state affiliates, respected for their unique--and influential--member-driven candidate recommendation process, time-tested and tuned "get-out-the-vote" operation, and teacher/ESP voting rate that averages 70 to 75 percent in race after race.

By focusing exclusively on issues of children and public education and strongly supporting candidates--Democratic, Republican, or independent--who demonstrated support for benchmark NEA positions, Association activists exerted enormous influence in state and Congressional campaigns across the United States.

At press time, NEA/state affiliate campaign work had helped push recommended candidates over the top in close governors' races in Arizona, Kansas, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. The result: The majority of NEA's 2.7 million members will now live in a state with a pro-public education governor, ready to work with teachers and ESPs to humanely implement the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

And the new, closely divided 108th Congress will include several lawmakers who won by razor-thin margins with critical Association support, including incoming Senators Tim Johnson (South Dakota) and Jim Matheson (Utah) and House members Tim Holden (Pennsylvania) and Dennis Moore (Kansas).

The bottom line: In 50 gubernatorial and congressional races targeted by NEA and state affiliates, wins and losses were split evenly at 25. And the Association succeeded in 13 of 16 state ballot initiatives or referenda targeted for passage or defeat by the NEA Ballot Measure/Legislative Crisis Fund (see "Public Votes 'Yes'").

Move beyond the numbers, and the real bottom line is this:

NEA put your PAC donations to good use. NEA's 2002 campaign effort, financed through $6 million in voluntary member contributions to the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, involved a high degree of NEA-state affiliate coordination and a long, long list of tasks--topped by targeted member mailings (3.5 million pieces), extensive member and public polling, phone banking, field visits by NEA Executive Committee members, and "media buys" for recommended candidates in key Senate races.

Pulling it all together--and providing as-needed assistance to state affiliates--was a field staff of 56 NEA organizers. "These people left home and family to work in the states for two-and-a-half months," says NEA Government Relations Director Diane Shust. "They made a tremendous sacrifice because they believe in the cause and our members."

NEA state and local affiliates mobilized their members. Just one example: With assistance from two NEA staffers, the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) helped re-elect all of its "targeted" gubernatorial and federal candidates--Governor Tom Vilsack, Senator Tom Harkin, and Congressmen Jim Leach and Leonard Boswell.

Through volunteer phone banking by teachers and teacher associates and grassroots organizing spearheaded by Association faculty reps, "our local accomplished 90 percent of what we wanted to do in this campaign," reports Gary Anhalt, president of the Cedar Rapids Education Association (CREA), ISEA's second largest affiliate.

"We got right down to the classroom level and made person-to-person contact," Anhalt stresses. "We told each member, 'We need your help in this campaign. Make sure somebody else goes to the polls with you.'"

Anhalt, a professional development facilitator for the Cedar Rapids district, says CREA members got a big morale boost from Democrat Rob Hogg, a pro-public education candidate for the Iowa legislature.

"Rob's actual margin of victory was 542 votes, and when you look at the numbers, you can see we made a difference with our actual member vote," Anhalt notes. "Rob worked hard on a person-to-person campaign and energized our members. CREA hosted an open house for him, and members worked on phone banks for him, put signs in their yards, and talked Rob up in daily exchanges in the community."

NEA followed--and will continue to follow--a bipartisan strategy. CREA, ISEA, and NEA worked equally hard to re-elect pro-public education candidate Jim Leach to the U.S. House of Representatives--just one of NEA's 25 recommended Republican candidates for federal office.

"Congressman Leach is an independent thinker who can help us on educational issues," says Anhalt. "We must continue to make contacts with moderate Republicans and continue to work with them."

"Our work with moderate Republicans will become even more important as we work on budget issues in the new Republican-controlled Congress," adds NEA lobbyist Joel Packer. While the GOP needs at least 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate, Packer explains, it only needs to muster 51 Senate votes to approve a budget resolution--which sets spending parameters for every spending item from education to homeland security.

"It's safe to say that Congress will move to extend all of last year's federal tax cuts [through a budget resolution]," Packer predicts. "Meanwhile, the overall budget situation is likely to deteriorate and the projected deficit will be large, creating further constraints on education spending plans."

For more on developments in the 108th Congress--and what you can do--go to www.nea.org/lac.

Public Votes 'Yes' For School Funding, Quality

With NEA financial support, several state affiliates promoted or opposed ballot initiatives that involved education funding, quality of education, a minimum wage for ESPs and other workers, and abuse of the initiative/ referendum process by public education opponents. A sampling of successes:

• Arkansas: Voters defeated a constitutional amendment exempting certain items from sales tax, which would have reduced revenue for public schools.
• Arizona: Residents approved propositions removing the current limitation on how much state sales tax revenue can be spent on education and directing earnings from public lands that are above the 2000-01 level to public education.
• California: Taxpayers endorsed propositions authorizing a $13 billion school construction and renovation bond issue and increasing state grant funds by up to $550 million annually for before- and after-school programs.
• Colorado: Voters defeated a state constitutional amendment "eliminating all other English language acquisition programs," including ESL (English as a Second Language) and bilingual and dual immersion programs, in favor of a one-size-fits-all segregated immersion program that would require all students to learn English in one year.
• Florida: Residents endorsed constitutional amendments requiring the state to offer free, voluntary, and high-quality prekindergarten to every four-year-old by 2005-06 and set a maximum public school class size--and provide funding to meet this level by 2010.
• Oregon: Voters passed ballot measures to increase Oregon's minimum wage to $6.90 in 2003 and adjust it for inflation in future years and to prohibit payment for initiative or referendum signatures received (for more, see "Kudos To").

Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone (1944-2002): He Was One of Us

"I speak out because education has consumed my adult life and education is my passion. I speak out because I was an educator for 20 years before I became a senator. I speak out because as a senator I have been in a school almost every two weeks for the past 10 years and have seen the inequality so many children confront. I have also seen how much difference a good school and a good teacher can make for a child."

--Senator Wellstone at Teachers College,
Columbia University, March 31, 2000

[Kudos To...]

...MEA-MFT--the merged Montana affiliate of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)--for spearheading Stand Up For Education (SUFE), a statewide coalition. Through pre-election radio spots and billboards, SUFE urged voters to ask political candidates the "tough" questions on educational issues such as funding, teacher recruitment/retention, and affordable higher education.

Voters asked the right stuff and voted the right way. A record number of pro-public education candidates--including 11 MEA-MFT members--were elected to the Montana legislature on November 5.

...the Oregon Education Association for its victory in the battle for an honest ballot initiative system. In a civil lawsuit initiated by OEA and AFT-Oregon, a jury has upheld three fraud and racketeering charges against Oregon Taxpayers United (OTU) and related organizations, and awarded the unions damages totaling $842,000. Because the racketeering charges were proven, under statute, the damages will be automatically tripled to just over $2.52 million.

OTU and its allied groups--run by less-government, less-tax crusader Bill Sizemore--have put education- and union-bashing initiatives on the ballot, including measures tying teacher pay to student test scores and banning payroll deduction for everything from union dues to charitable donations.

The jury found that the defendants forged signatures on initiative petition statements of sponsorship for potential ballot measures, forged signatures on initiative petitions used to qualify measures for a ballot, and filed false state and federal contribution and expenditure reports.

...the Washington Education Association, for standing up to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an anti-public education, anti-union think tank that falsely charged NEA with ignoring an EFF lawsuit directed against NEA support of ballot Initiative 732. Approved by Washington voters in 2000, this measure guarantees annual cost-of-living raises for public school employees.

Recently, Washington courts overturned a default judgment against NEA and dismissed the EFF suit, before finally reminding EFF that "the courtroom is not a ballgame" and ordering the group to pay fines and reimburse NEA for legal costs. "It is clear to me," wrote Thurston County Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Berschauer, "that if [EFF] was operating with good faith, they would have never done what they did in this case..."

...the 235-member Maple Heights (Ohio) Education Association, for bargaining a new contract in November after a tough nine-week strike. Maple Heights teachers faced daunting odds, including 200 teacher/strikebreakers paid $165 a day, to improve both pay and professional respect--undermined by punitive teacher drug testing and sick leave documentation requirements, high class sizes, and the administration's frequent failure to provide substitute teachers.

MHEA members stayed united and educated themselves and the community on the issues at stake. They won the backing of parents, local politicians, and their Congresswoman, and even earned supportive editorials in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Among other things, the new Maple Heights agreement provides a 3 percent pay increase for this year and 3.5 percent next year, and requires "just cause" for discipline, seniority rights for layoff and recall, and payment for emergency work during the duty-free lunch period.

Under the contract, elementary art, P.E., and music teachers can't be removed from regular assignments to sub for other teachers. The pact also improves sick leave, insurance, and tuition reimbursement benefits.

A teacher opens the school door to discover one of her students has been shot.

by Karen Pumphrey

I thought he was kidding. Eighth-grade boys have a way of kidding about the most serious matters. It's part of their charm. And this boy was definitely charming--the kind of kid you love to have in class.

Just the previous Friday, he had smiled as he endured the good-natured chiding of his classmates. He had created a collage that I had assigned to another class, not his. As he pulled it from his binder, the other students pointed out that he had wasted his time. He had done a superfluous assignment "for nothing." He sheepishly began to put it away. I stopped him and told him I'd count it as extra credit. Suddenly, his classmates wished they had made the same mistake. "Ha," he grinned, satisfied that his effort would pay off after all. I dismissed the class to their buses. The weekend was underway.

The following Monday, October, unfolded routinely. Although a sniper had terrorized the area, the weekend had been quiet. Those horrific events felt alien somehow, anyway. They were happening in other places to other people. Not very far away, to be sure, but not here either. Benjamin Tasker Middle School, nestled in the leafy suburbs of Washington, is the kind of place where teachers are content, students are safe, and parents are satisfied. (Insofar as teachers can be content, students can be safe, and parents can be satisfied.) The weightiest concerns usually involve bathroom passes and hallway traffic patterns.

Hurrying through the hallway to a meeting, I heard a loud "bang" on the front door and then yelling. I assumed that some of the rowdiness that sometimes accompanies the bus ride was being carried a little too close to the building. I headed to the door intending to admonish the offenders. I opened the door and was surprised to find no one near it. I saw the boy close to the curb, doubled over and on his knees. "What are you doing?" I asked, somewhat annoyed that he was carrying on so dramatically.

"I'm shot," he said, as he went down on his side. I was unsure what to think. Was this kid playing with me? Would he joke about something like that given recent events?

"Are you kidding?" I asked, half believing and certainly hoping that he was doing just that.

Shot? Kids don't get shot. Kids don't get shot in front of their schools. Kids don't get shot in front of their schools on an ordinary Monday morning in safe and sheltered suburbs. Not good kids who do extra credit homework. Not nice kids who smile and joke, and play and write, and draw and laugh. Shot?

I looked to where he was clutching his abdomen. There was nothing to indicate that he was injured except the look on his face. I looked around--no one else was in sight. I knew he was in pain, but surely, I thought, not shot. All the news of the sniper must have made him think he was shot. Maybe he pulled a muscle. Maybe he had appendicitis.

I leaned over and told him I'd get some help. As I stood up, I noticed a car, which I assumed had brought him to school, backing up toward us.

I went back in the building and told the secretary to call an ambulance. I told her a student was shot out in front of the building. Even as I said it, I still didn't believe it.

Within seconds I was out front again, accompanied by the principal, administrators, and every teacher in the vicinity. We returned to the curb to find...nothing. No student, no blood, no indication that anything was wrong. If it wasn't for the backpack left against the bricks I might have thought I was hallucinating. The car that had dropped the boy off was pulling out of the parking lot.

"He was right here. He said he was shot," I explained to the puzzled assemblage. Maybe he was kidding. I hoped he was kidding. We all hoped he was kidding.

The call came from the medical center down the street confirming the gunshot injury to the student. His aunt had taken him directly to the facility. He was in critical condition. Within minutes the school was transformed into a fortress. Administrators diverted the buses, and security personnel put emergency plans into effect. Police seemed to outnumber students. Helicopters hovered over the campus, and in the surreal atmosphere fear was palpable. For the first time, I realized that the "bang" on the door was actually the gunshot.

The media blitz was immediate. Our quiet, anonymous middle school was on every channel in the country. The world changed for us as a community and as a school that day. The world changed for me as a parent and teacher. It will certainly never be the same for the victim.

Oh, my God, he wasn't kidding

Karen Pumphrey teaches science at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Maryland. One of her 13-year-old students was one of 13 victims in a series of sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in October. The student is recovering. For resources on dealing with crisis in schools, visit www.neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/.

Editor's Note

Everyone who works in schools knows there's a certain rhythm to the school day.

There's the academic part, and, after school, a whole other rhythm of sports and extracurricular activities clicks in.

For the most part, schools in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were able to stay on their academic schedules during this past fall's six-week sniper ordeal though they frequently operated in lock -down mode. But while the academic pace of schools continued in a more or less normal way, the after-school rhythm was thrown way off.

School officials were forced to call off many games. Practices, if they were held at all, were held indoors. As weeks passed and the fall sport season slipped away, school administrators took some unusual steps to get athletes back on the field of play.

On one October weekend in Northern Virginia, hundreds of high school athletes rode buses for more than two hours to Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia, to play their field hockey and football games.

When some of those games were rained out, and no other playing fields were available, some teams played their games on military bases.

Field hockey teams played on the fields at the army base at Fort Myer in Arlington,Virginia, and the Marine base at Quantico, watched only by the soldiers on the base. (Athletes' parents could only attend these games if they rode on the team bus.)

When the suspected snipers were arrested, and normal play could resume, school officials were left to figure out how to finish the regular schedule as well as tournaments to determine champions in football, soccer, field hockey, and other sports.

Still student athletes seemed to roll with the times, playing with their usual exuberance. The rhythm had returned.

Bill Fischer
Editor

Q: My state gives a $3,000 deduction in income tax per child for the Section 529 education savings plan. However, the expense ratio in my state plan is much higher (1.25 percent plus fees for each individual fund) than the one I'm interested in (0.65 percent). I have two children and my tax bracket is 28 percent. Which plan is better for me?

A: These plans are a great option for college savings, but you need to consider the tax rate in your state and the performance of the two plans.

Suppose you put $1,000 in the plan and your state tax rate is 6 percent. You would save $60 in taxes on your money. But you would pay $12.50 a year in expenses. In the other plan, you would pay only $6.50 a year in expenses, but you would have to pay the $60 in taxes. If you look at that in isolation, the in-state plan seems to come out ahead. But low-expense funds are often better funds. Compare the performance of the two plans over a five-year period.

Q: Where can I get information on the catch-up provisions in a 403(b) plan?

A: These arcane rules allow participants to make extra contributions for five years if they did not contribute to the plan when they were entitled to or contributed less than the maximum amount.

If you are in that situation, you need to find an accountant who knows how to calculate your contribution. Someone in your school district or your 403(b) account provider, such as NEA Member Benefits, should be able to help you.

Q: Is there an investment that's good for both inflation and deflation?

A: Treasury inflation-protected bonds (TIPs) show some promise. The U.S. government guarantees that these bonds, introduced in 1997, will provide a return pegged to the rate of inflation. And, because bonds are a great investment in deflationary periods, TIPs look like a good hedge for the inflation/ deflation conundrum.

TIPs carry a fixed interest rate but the principal value is adjusted for inflation. Say you invest $1,000 in a 10-year TIP with a 3 percent coupon or interest rate. If inflation is 3 percent over the next six months, the principal of your bond is adjusted to $1,030 ($1,000 plus 3 percent) at the end of that period and your interest is $15.45 or $1,030 times 3 percent divided by two. According to a report on Bloomberg News, if inflation held at 3 percent over the 10-year life of your bond, you would get $351.56 in interest and your principal would grow to $1,344 at maturity. In a period of deflation, your principal would be adjusted downward for purposes of figuring interest payments. But the government guarantees return of principal at maturity.

There is a downside: The increase in principal is taxable as income in the year it accrues, even though you don't actually receive it until maturity. So in the example above, the $30 increase in principal would be taxable in the first year. That makes TIPs unattractive for taxable accounts.

For tax-deferred accounts, though, they're worth examining. A number of mutual funds offer TIPs: Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities (VIPSX), PIMCO Real Return Bond Institutional (PRRIX), American Century Inflation Adjusted Treasury (ACTIX), GMO Inflation Indexed Bond (GMIIX), and 59 Wall Street Inflation-Indexed Securities (FNISX).

In the September Money column, I wrote that I couldn't open a checking account for my 16-year-old daughter. Many of you wrote to say I should keep trying.
One teacher said her parents opened a checking account for her at age 15 and she got an ATM card at 16, saying, "I believe that this is what helped me not to go crazy in college or as a beginning teacher." Another reader said that when the store where her 17-year-old son works wanted to make a direct deposit of his paycheck, the bank agreed to open a checking account for him.

I was delighted to hear of these successes. How will kids learn to manage money if we don't help them get started with checking accounts and ATM and credit cards?

Mary Rowland is an author and contributor to several financial planning magazines. E-mail your personal finance questions to MoneyQuestions@neamb.com

Thrifty Educator

This month's tip comes from Brigitte Smisek in Lynd, Minnesota:

On a regular-sized inflatable beach ball, write in the divided colored areas with a permanent marker the five themes of geography: location, place, region, human-environment interaction, and movement. Throw the ball to a student. The theme the student's thumbs land on will be the question he or she has to answer. If the student's thumbs land on "location," he or she will have to state the area's location (for example, southern hemisphere, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans). The student then passes it to another student. Be sure to stress rules for throwing balls indoors ahead of time. On nice days, move the class outdoors.

Beach balls can be used to study other topics, such as:

• elements of fiction--on the ball, write character, setting, plot, and theme.
• events in history--write who, what, why, where, when, and how.
• parts of speech--write noun, verb, adjective, preposition, adverb, and conjunction. Students can identify the parts of speech in sentences.

Deflate the balls when finished for easy storage.

Heads Up from NEA Member Benefits

The New Year is a great time to review family insurance and financial plans. Most members have life and health insurance, but other important types of coverage are often overlooked. Keep your family financially secure with these programs from NEA MemberCare®.

Members who are actively at work should have insurance to guard their incomes. If a disability occurs, the NEA Income Protection Plan can help replace lost wages. Find out if you need supplemental income protection by using our easy calculator. Call the number below and ask for Item #611.

If you're under age 50, secure your financial and retirement assets from the potentially devastating impacts of a serious illness with the NEA MemberCare Critical Illness Benefit. Upon diagnosis of a covered medical condition, this program provides a one-time, lump sum payment of up to $100,000 to spend any way you see fit. The program also pays the one-time benefit in the event of death.

If you are 45 or older, consider the benefits of the NEA MemberCare‚ Long-Term Care Insurance Program. With this coverage, you don't have to drain all your financial resources to pay for health care services provided in a nursing home, your own home, an assisted living facility, or other types of health care facilities. Family members, including parents and in-laws, are eligible for this coverage.

For more information on these plans, contact NEA Member Benefits at 800/637-4636, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) ET. Or, visit www.neamb.com.

I was encouraging one of my seventh-grade students to complete the comprehension questions that followed a story. "We know two things about the character's description," I reminded him."We know that she had pierced ears. What else do we know?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Look at me," I hinted, elaborately twirling my hair around my finger. "What do you notice?"

He stared at me for a minute and then guessed, "Wrinkles?"

Cheryl Gilliland
Roanoke, Virginia

I teach preschool, and an essential part of our program is language skills. One day while on the playground, a little girl came up to me and said, "Mrs. Johnson, I fall." I felt her pain but also wanted to seize the opportunity to help her express herself correctly. "You fell?" I replied. She nodded her head, "I fall." Finally I said, "Honey, it's I fell." With evident concern she replied, "You fall too?"

Barbara Johnson
South Windsor, Connecticut

I taught elementary instructional music in South Central Los Angeles. Each year, I would take different groups of students to concerts, or have performers come to our school. Here are some gems I collected from students, taken from evaluations or letters they wrote:

• (After seeing a jazz concert) "I like jazz because it has a lot of weird sounds I never heard before."
• "I like the brass, the flu, and the clarinet."
• (After taking students to see a performance of Baroque and early classical pieces) "My favorite instrument was the popsichord."
• "The woman playing the French horn was real tite."
• "The third violin was playing real fast. I hope she didn't hurt her fingers."
• "I liked the concert because we didn't have to go to school!"

David Howells
Alhambra, California

In my lesson on fractions, I was trying to help students understand that fractional parts must be equal in size. In explaining, I drew on a childhood memory. My mother, I told the students, asked my oldest brother to dish out ice cream for the children after dinner. She set out four bowls and he dished it out.

"If any of you has an older brother, I'll bet you know what he did next," I told the students. One student replied, "He made his bowl really big." Yes, I said, "and when my mother saw what he had done, she told him that one of the other children got to pick which bowl to take. What do you think he did next?" I asked, expecting the answer that he made the portions equal. I was shocked when one boy said, "He spit on the biggest bowl!"

Diane Fischer
Rockford, Illinois

I was talking to a very "active" third grader who frequently found himself in big trouble at school. During our heart-to-heart talk, I mentioned the word "conscience." He immediately asked, "What's a conscience?" I then explained, "It's that little voice inside your head that tells you when you're doing something wrong."

Without missing a beat, he replied, "I'm so sick of that voice."

Carla Ketter
Madison, Wisconsin

I was helping the son of a fellow teacher add end punctuation to sentences in a story. He was stumped at how to punctuate, "Don't you ever do that again!"

Thinking an example might help, I offered, "Let's pretend you are a little kid playing with matches on the back porch. You accidentally set fire to the trash can. Your dad comes out and puts out the fire. Then he turns to you and says, 'Don't you ever do that again!' What goes at the end of that sentence?" Immediately, my student said, "You damn fool!"

Sharon O'Neal Wirtz
Sante Fe, New Mexico

My ninth graders were writing biographies on famous poets, listing their education, great accomplishments, family, and information on their birth and death. One of my students wrote of her poet that "he died of a weekend heart."

Kathy Gonzalez
San Jose, California

In my early days of teaching, I was amused by a couple of memorable short answers on my sixth-grade social studies tests. The first, following our study of the Roman empire, responded to a question asking for a definition of "rostrum." The answer? "It was a Roman restroom."

The second was in response to a question concerning the most famous ruler of the Middle Ages, a great conqueror who revived the political and cultural life of Europe following the fall of the Roman empire. The answer: "Charles Mange."

Karl Dorff
Mt. Vernon, Indiana

On a recent exam in my fifth-grade math class, students were asked to name the multiplication property for the number sentence: 52 x 1 = 52. One student wrote: "Dementor Property." Maybe I'm pushing them too hard?

Gina Strandlien
Granite Quarry, North Carolina

One morning a new ninth grader paused by my Spanish room and pointed to the piñatas hanging from the ceiling. "Wow, look at those piña coladas," she exclaimed to a friend.

Marjorie Rios
Livingston, Tennessee

A former French II student stopped by my classroom to chat. I asked him how his new French III class was going. "Great," he replied. "Kim is my conversation partner. I'm really good at vocabulary and she's really good at grammar. Between the two of us, we make the perfect French student!"

Kimberlee Mo