In Focus
Grist for the Learning Mill

How one NEA member is helping students run a business of their own.

A center for community history and environmental education will soon rear its head in a historic gristmill in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. But you won't find the usual activists doing this work. Rather, 21 high school students under the supervision of English teacher Karen Dolan have formed a nonprofit organization called the Illick's Mill Project. They created the center and are planning and executing every step of the mill's restoration.

"I came up with the idea because I've always believed teaching works best when you connect it to the real world and meet a community need," says Dolan, who launched the project with her Liberty High School students in 2001. "Illick's Mill was built in 1856 and has always been a landmark in Bethlehem, but it's run-down and overlooked as a historical part of the community," Dolan notes. "When the state passed stringent new environmental laws concerning local watersheds, it occurred to me that the mill could serve as an education center, and that students could take on the project for academic credit."

The response to Dolan's idea was quick and enthusiastic. Liberty students participating in the Illick's Mill Project earn history credit by researching and archiving the background of the gristmill. And they earn English credit by writing all materials connected to the nonprofit, from news releases to fund-raising letters to grant proposals.

"I've become so immersed in the project that I don't know when I'll actually realize just how much I've learned along the way," says Meghan Haas, a senior who serves as community liaison for the project. "I'm not even a college student, and I've already learned to write grants and public relations materials for an organization that is succeeding beyond our expectations."

The Illick's Mill Project is succeeding, indeed. The group has raised $210,000 in 18 months, including $83,000 in grants written by students. Other sources of fund-raising have included corporate sponsorships and an annual environmental music concert, RiverFusion, produced by the students.

"RiverFusion is really about bringing the community together as well as raising money," says Peter Fritz, a senior and musician who serves as the concert coordinator. "We feature all kinds of music and involve the community by offering events like an open mike concert."

RiverFusion, which is held near the mill on Monocacy Creek, drew 3,500 people last year and raised $30,000. Fritz projects it will double in size this year.

Dolan hopes that once the mill is restored and the environmental center is open, the school district will permit the Illick's Mill Project to move its offices from the high school into the mill, and offer students the chance to work at the center for academic credit.

--Matt Simon

For More: E-mail the Illick's Mill Project at millproject@yahoo.com or visit their website at www.illicksmill.org.

Standing Up for Children

Lloyd Elm could not escape his destiny to teach. His American Indian name means "he who stands for children," and by age 14 he knew where his life was headed. "Most of the men in my family were iron workers, but I knew that I was going to be different," he says.

And different he is. For more than 30 years Elm, two-time winner of NEA's Leo Reano Memorial Award for Human and Civil Rights, has transformed the lives of his students by teaching innovative reading skills and pursuing a compassionate quest to ensure that all children are treated equally.

As principal of Mounds Park All Nations Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota, Elm rescued the school from academic decline with his Balanced Literacy Program. Through the program, children learn to read by learning a whole concept and then breaking the idea into smaller parts. For example, for a lesson about animals, Elm recommends presenting all the animals together and then allowing children to learn about each individual animal as it relates to the group. "We have to shift from teacher-centered learning to child-centered learning," Elm says. "We must allow students to see themselves within the process."

When children connect their environments to what they are learning, reading becomes natural, he says. This concept has been a pivotal teaching tool for American Indian students as the children recognize themselves in stories and lessons infused with American Indian culture and customs. "You have to let the children guide you through their learning and allow them to have ownership," he adds.

While Elm has garnered praise for his work with American Indian students at Mounds Park in St. Paul and the Native American School in Buffalo, New York, he doesn't attribute his exceptional career to test scores. His career rests on the belief that all children are sacred.

"We have to make children the center of everything," he says.

--Leah Lakins

For More: Contact Lloyd Elm at 651/778-3100 or e-mail Lloyd.elm@spps.org.

Making Cultural Peace

Schaumburg School District 54 just north of Chicago is not unlike many other suburban districts wrestling with change. In the last decade, the number of students from racial and ethnic minorities have almost doubled--from 18 to 35 percent--and the community rainbow just keeps getting brighter. But adjusting to the new multicultural mix has at times been wrenching.

"We could see there were problems--misunderstandings between parents, between students, between teachers and parents, and on and on," says Joanne Ayers, president of the Schaumburg Education Association. Conflicts around bilingual programs, cultural differences, religious holidays--the issues ran the gamut.

So two years ago the Association joined forces with the Schaumburg Educational Employees (which represents support professionals), the Bilingual Division of the school district, and the Anti-Defamation League. They came up with a three-year training program to help Schaumburg's educators and students develop skills to live and work "civilly" in a diverse community while learning how to challenge discrimination and prejudice.

"We wanted to figure out how to capitalize on the diversity and really learn about ourselves," says Ayers. "But we wanted to do it in a way that didn't add anything more to a teacher's plate--something that could be incorporated into the curriculum and just become a part of who you are."

Now in its second year, the results have been eye-opening and by all accounts, wildly encouraging. So encouraging, in fact, that the partners were awarded an NEA Urban Grant last year to help continue the good works.

The centerpiece of the program is an intense four-day training session, run by the Anti-Defamation League, that focuses first on helping educators and administrators understand how their life experiences have shaped their own unconscious biases, then offers skills and curriculum ideas for helping them and their students "check" their behaviors and better appreciate their differences.

"We've had some people who were absolutely shocked because they thought they were very much part of the mainstream," Ayers says, "but their experiences were actually so isolated, that other people's experiences were totally alien to them."

Judy McDonald, a social studies teacher at Keller Junior High, says the training was "exhausting and emotional," but "opened my eyes to cultural differences. What I see in my classroom as rude or insubordinate behavior, for example, may not be that at all." She's using what she learned to help her students be more thoughtful about biases that may undergird research studies and media reports, and has helped her school develop a survey to assess related schoolwide concerns.

Blanca Nache, a reading specialist at MacArthur Elementary School, says she now takes her students through exercises to make them aware of how they stereotype others and form cliques. And she's been able to help ease misunderstandings between older teachers and younger ones like herself. The faculty dynamic, she says, has improved dramatically, "and students notice."

Ayers says the hope is that over time more teachers will be able to go through the training, and that they in turn can become trainers for their colleagues. "It's not a magic pill," she says. "Schools don't get transformed overnight, but there's progress." After all, she says, "This is about changing the way we think. It's a way of life."

--Marilyn Milloy

For More: Contact Joanne Ayers at JudithMcdonald@sd54.k12.il.us. For more information about the NEA Urban Grants program, visit www.nea.org/grants/urban.

Calming Students with Puppy Love

Renee Cachuela never imagined when she started teaching two years ago that a cute little Jack Russell terrier with a face to die for would be the star of her class. But so he is, and his name is Finnegan.

He happens to be Cachuela's own pup, and to her delight, he's slowly but surely helping to raise the "empathy quotient" in her class, turning it day by day into a place where students understand the meaning of respect, fair play, and calm.

This is no small feat. At McClure Middle School in Seattle, Washington, Cachuela teaches students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Her biggest challenge, she says, is getting them to quiet their aggression, develop anger management skills, and focus.

Enter "animal therapy," which Cachuela read about while surfing the Internet one day. Pets, she discovered, were being used to help soothe patients in hospitals and nursing homes--and though there was no mention of their success in the classroom, the 29-year-old was intrigued.

She looked at Finnegan, he looked at her and, well, a team was born.

Cachuela began bringing Finnegan to class every day and within four months, she says, the classroom seemed notably less chaotic. "They just love him," she says. "Right now I have kids who are really aggressive, yet are so gentle with the dog." She recently showed a movie about dogs, she says, and her students "were just talking to Finnegan so sweetly. 'See, there you are on TV, see...see....'" Cachuela says she tries to capitalize on that kind of humane connection to spotlight behavior her students can model with their peers.

So far Cachuela has been using Finnegan, who's finishing up certification as a service dog, as a reward when students stay on task (they earn "free" time with him) and to promote responsibility (they take turns feeding and walking him). She's also incorporated dog care into writing assignments. Last year students designed a brochure with tips.

But Cachuela has bigger ideas, and she's using an Innovation Grant from The NEA Foundation to pursue them. She'd like to build a doghouse, for example, so she can teach measuring and other math skills while promoting group camaraderie. She wants to use other multidisciplinary activities, too, such as budgeting the cost of owning a dog and investigating the anatomical differences between dogs and other animals, all with the eye toward boosting critical thinking skills and building concentration.

"It's all still in the beginning stages," Cachuela says. "There's just not a whole lot of work out there that's been done around this, but I'm thrilled about the possibilities."

--M.M.

For More: Contact Renee Cachuela at cachuela@bc.edu. Apply for a grant today from The NEA Foundation at www.nfie.org.