SPring 2010 - Missouri State Teachers Association

Transcription

School &
Community
The magazine for Missouri educators
The Upper and
Lower Case
for Handwriting
Fungus among us l Creativity after the MAP l Minds on learning
Spring 2010
On My Way
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COVER
The upper and lower case for handwriting
Plus: enter our handwriting contest
14
FEATURES
12 When the pressure is
gone, add fun to lesson
plans
DEPARTMENTS
5FORUM: Preparation is key
6NOTEBOOK: Common standards
undergo revisions; Kids assemble kits for
After testing time, try some of these
Haiti; Math anxiety; Proposed changes
Photos From top: istockphoto.com/ranplett, istockphoto.com/Maica , istockphoto.com/DavidHCoder, Teresa Young
ideas from a variety of teachers
to NCLB
18TECHNOLOGY: The nuts and bolts to
16 The fungus among us:
how schools deal with
mold
developing online courses, eMINTS
25TEACHER TIP: Pirate Day inspires
students at Osceola
26PEOPLE: Former Longhorn star takes to
At what point does mold become a
problem for students and staff?
the classroom; member honors
30NEWS: Apply for a grant; scholarship
20Uncovering materials:
minds on learning
for student members; Southwest offices
undergo change; MSTA endorses two
Two Springfield schools switch focus
for PSRS/PEERS
36LEGAL: Don’t even think about it
37RESOURCES: Free and low-cost
and earn lofty academic distinction.
programs for your classroom and your
career.
38CLOSE UP: Josh Myers, band director
16
in Fayette R-3
COLUMNS
4AGENDA: Ten two-letter words
MSTA Executive Director Kent King
5PERSPECTIVE: Race to the Top has
stumbling blocks
MSTA President Marvin Young
28 AFTER THE BELL: Experiencing the
cacophonies of fear
20
Kim Blevins
Cover photo by: Les Byerley Photography
lll Agenda
Ten two-letter words
Ten two-letter
words that
kindergartners
learn say it all—
if it is to be, it
is up to me.
By MSTA Executive director kent king
In a rough draft for this School & Community, I reported
what I’d been hearing in barbershops and coffee houses
around Columbia — multiple conversations regarding
people’s distrust and disgust with the current political
mess in Washington, D.C., and various state capitols.
The consensus was along the lines: “I’m sick and tired
of the politicians and parties that won’t listen to those
of us who elected them. Maybe it’s time we voted out all
the incumbents and start all over again. They (elected
officials) need to understand that we elected them, not
their respective party.”
I constructed a column that vented that view.
Everyone who heard the premise I was purporting to
share, responded with a “Yeah, I agree, but you and
I both know that’s not going to happen.” Then came
Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 and the Massachusetts election
of a Republican, Scott Brown, to the former seat of Ted
Kennedy, liberal icon and the “Lion of the Senate.” A
man who rose 30 points in the polls in a little over 30
days to achieve what few would have thought possible:
win the seat in a state known for its liberalism and love
of the Kennedy family.
Brown stated in his victory speech what I’d been
hearing here and what has been said elsewhere: “This isn’t
Ted Kennedy’s seat; it’s not the Democratic Party’s (or
Republican Party’s), it’s the people’s seat.”
Could it be that the mad scientist’s cry of “He’s
alive, he’s alive,” has more meaning today as we
face a November election where a “vote-the-incumbents-out mentality” can actually occur? The
cynic in me would say no, but the Massachusetts
election has me saying maybe. It’s my view that
The magazine
for Missouri
educators
MSTA OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS: President Marvin Young, South Harrison Co. R-2;
President-elect Russell Smithson, Warrensburg R-6; Vice President
Ralf Trusty, Iberia R-5; Treasurer Gaila Beach, Stockton R-1; Past
President Rebecca Ruth, Festus R-6
BOARD: Gaila Beach, Stockton R-1, Southwest Region; Della Bell,
Moberly, Northeast Region; Beverly Cook, Kansas City, Kansas City
Region; Misty Cutright, Belton 124, Greater Kansas City Region;
Lisa Funk, Bolivar R-1, Southwest Region; Vicki Hammack, Malden
R-1, Southeast Region; Julie Hodges, Sikeston R-6, Southeast
Region; Georganna Krumlinde, Troy R-3, Greater St. Louis Region;
Kim Martin, Rolla 31, South Central Region; Dr. Harry Pickup III,
St. Louis City, St. Louis Region; John Schlange, St. Joseph, St.
Joseph Region; Michelle Shadowens, Dunklin R-5, Jefferson County
Region; Joy Sherard, Buchanan County R-4, Northwest Region;
Tonni Schmidt, Holden R-3, Central Region; Lory Schupbach,
Republic R-3, Southwest Region; Brenda Steffens, Morgan County
R-1, Central Region; Scott Stone, Centralia R-6, Northeast Region,
4 | Spring 2010 S&C
MSTA Staff
Executive Director
Deputy Executive Director
Member Services Director
Governmental Relations Director
MSTA General Counsel
Communications Director
Professional Learning Director
Legal Services Manager
Salary and Research Manager
Information Technology Manager
Political Action Manager
Salary Consultants
Accounting Supervisor
Data Processing Supervisor
Executive Assistant
Kent King
Bruce Moe
David Bond
Mike Wood
Gail Willis McCray
Todd Fuller
Cindy Whitaker
Vera Campfield
Melissa Lorts
Matt Walker
Krista Meyer
Sid Doerhoff
John A. Jones
Roy Kramme
Donn Quick
Peggy Daly
Tracy Bland
Carina Hrdina
FIELD SERVICE COORDINATORS
Renee Bates
Sarah Papineau
Joe Bex
Sheryl Smith
Charles Brooks
Jeff Stacy
Erin Burnham
Mindy Walker
Glenn Bussen
MIke Walsh
Deana Layton
Kim Wencewicz
Mike Martin
Butch Whittler
Debbi McElwaine
the American electorate has watched Congress run
amok with no regard for the views of its constituents.
The herd mentality as defined by the political parties
has been challenged by the American voter. We have
found ourselves without a real voice on matters of great
concern to us as citizens, until now.
The political bent doesn’t matter. The conservative,
liberal, socialist, fascist, environmentalist tags that are
thrown about don’t always reflect the will of the majority.
Perhaps it’s time for Congress to take away its sweetheart
health care, retirement plans and benefit packages that
are not subject to the legislation they propose (yes,
they’ve exempted themselves). To do that would require
a new set of individuals to occupy those seats. It would
require people who are less interested in political power
and parties and more interested in serving the nation
they love by restricting the power and reach of the
federal government.
You’re going to say Kent, this would mean that MSTA
and teachers wouldn’t have that special interest voice.
You’d probably be right as all groups with a specialized
interest would have to be willing to return to something
less than what is currently in place. Keep in mind that
no education group, state or national, has been able to
rein in the rampant mandates from Washington and the
state houses that have handcuffed and placed educators
in a place where they don’t have the time or freedom to
teach. The MSTA Board of Directors made a monumental
decision that they would no longer be a part of the sham
called education reform unless they played a meaningful
role in shaping and developing it. It’s not the politician’s
seat, not the bureaucrat’s seat; it’s the teacher’s seat.
AGENDA continued on page 6
MSTA Publications Staff
School & Community Editor
Graphic Designer
Associate Editor
Advertising
Sarah Kohnle
Michael Lising
Rachel Webb
Jennifer Bacon
Publication Policy
Articles published in School & Community do not necessarily reflect the
views or policies of the Missouri State Teachers Association.
Advertising: Only those products, services and programs endorsed
by the Board of Directors of the Missouri State Teachers Association
may carry such notification. Advertising in School & Community does
not imply such endorsement.
Indexed by “Education Index.”
It is the policy of the Missouri State Teachers Association not to publish
materials or advertising that would promote a competing organization or be
detrimental to the Missouri State Teachers Association.
Copyright © 2010, Missouri State Teachers Association. All rights
reserved, including the right to reprint any article, photograph, cartoon
or artwork published herein.
School & Community (ISSN 0036-6447) is published four times during
the school year by the Missouri State Teachers Association. Periodicals
postage paid at Columbia, Mo., and at additional mailing office. Annual
subscription price of $10 is included in membership dues. Current single
copies cost $2.50. Postmaster: Send address changes to School &
Community, 407 S. Sixth St., P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO 65205-0458.
(Volume 96, No. 3)
P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO 65205
LOCAL: 573-442-3127 || Fax: 573-443-5079
800-392-0532 || www.msta.org
By MSTA president Marvin Young
What is Race to the Top? How will it affect us? Those
are the questions teachers ask me. In short, RT3 is a new
federal grant program designed to encourage school
reform. However, the MSTA Board of Directors disagrees
with its approach. In fact, we oppose this program.
The introduction to Race to the Top sounds like
something that all educators should support. When you
start to read more about it, you quickly begin to see the
flaws. On the federal level there is no set number of
states that can receive the grant. There is no set amount
of funds for each state that receives the grant. They
have divided states into categories and have given
budget ranges for those groups. But the budget doesn’t
have to fall into those ranges. It is the U.S. Education
Department’s way of saying “trust us.” They expect us
to jump on board with a very broad idea and to work
out the details later.
On the state level, our schools were asked to sign
agreements stating we would follow all the regulations
of Race to the Top if Missouri was awarded the grant.
We were asked to get the superintendent’s signature, the
board president’s signature, and the local teacher organization representative’s signature stating that they were
all onboard. Schools were strong-armed into signing
these agreements. The letter from DESE stated that if we
did not get them signed and turned in, our school would
not be eligible for any of the Race to the Top monies.
Schools were given no information on what any of those
regulations would be and were asked to take a leap of
faith. Teachers ask me how much more educational time
will be lost because of these regulations.
The federal application has 19 criteria that the
grants will be judged on, but only two of those 19 are
mandatory. States must have been approved by the
Education Department for stabilization funds from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most states
meet this requirement. And states must not have any
laws in place barring the use of student-achievement
data for evaluating teachers and principals (in other
words: merit pay). Arne Duncan, secretary of education, believes that school reform cannot happen without linking teacher and student data. To not link the
two he believes is a disservice to educators.
In addition, the applications will be judged on tying
teacher and principal pay and school assignments to student test scores. Our salaries would be tied to how well
our students do on a test. How would those teachers who
don’t teach core subject areas receive merit pay? Will
we still compare America’s method of teaching all students to other countries who only teach the top student?
In my last article I talked about teachers taking
education back. This is a great opportunity for us to
do just that. Race to the Top goes against several of
our resolutions and beliefs. MSTA has always stood in
opposition to merit pay and that is one of the strongest
components of the program. This program would also
take away virtually all local control. It would again be
a program that ties teachers’ hands without input from
teachers on what the program should include. Nowhere
in any of the information are there any requirements
for students and or parents to buy into these programs.
Again teachers would be given more to do in a limited amount of time. Maybe if we just had more
time to teach, our students would perform
better. We might be asked to jump through
a whole new set of hoops for what some
experts estimate will average only around
$87 per student. It is time for us to
stand up and say “no thank you.”
When you start to
read more about it,
you quickly begin
to see the flaws.
lll Forum
Preparation is key
>>>
Dear Ms. Kohnle:
prepared.” This simple statement has stuck
I read your winter 2010 publication from
with me for 40 years and even though I have
cover to cover and enjoyed it immensely as
been retired for some time, I continue to ap-
always. As I read Dr. Kevin Daniel’s “Five P’s
ply this principle to applicable facets of my
Share your thoughts on our
for Effective Teaching,” I was reminded of
life and to share it with young educators at
publications, suggest article topics or
the best advice I received to prepare me for
any opportunity.
express an opinion about education
a teaching career.
This advice came from Dr. Robert Sprehe
of Northeast Missouri State College which
I look forward to every issue of School &
We want to hear
from you
in Missouri.
Community. It is a good publication for old
Write: School & Community, P.O. Box
and young teachers.
458, Columbia, MO 65205
Phone: 800-392-0532
is now Truman State University. His advice
to the class was, “Always prepare first. It is
Yours sincerely,
difficult to be a poor teacher if you’re well
Joan Allison Perry, Brookfield, MO
E-mail: [email protected]
S&C Spring 2010 | 5
lll Perspective
Race to the Top has stumbling blocks
lll
Notebook
Photo by istockphoto.com/Viorika
AGENDA continued from page 4
I’m not here to condemn one party
or the other or one elected official and
his predecessor. The simple truth is
that we caused this mess ourselves by
adopting an attitude of not wanting to
waste a vote by going with someone
not in the two-party system. Yes, you
draw outside the lines when necessary, and if they’re a Democrat or
Republican, you can make sure that
they understand that they’re answerable to you, not the party or special
interest groups.
We’re going to watch, listen
and hold them responsible in their
decision-making.
The election of Scott Brown has
proven that can still occur at the ballot box. Is this an easy task? No, it is
work, work and more work. But our
forefathers founded this country after
determining that no cost can be too
great for the freedom we’ve taken for
granted for far too long. Ten twoletter words that kindergartners learn
say it all—if it is to be, it is up to me.
“In my many years I have come to
a conclusion that one useless man
is a shame, two is a law firm, and
three or more is a congress.”
Common standards undergo revisions
A draft of common K-12 standards is being revised for clarity and length.
The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association are
rewriting the draft of standards to be used by the Common Core State Standard Initiative to
be better organized and easier to understand, according to Education Week.
The standards are supposed to outline the skills and knowledge that students should
have in each grade from kindergarten through high school. The standards come in three
documents, with one each devoted to English and language arts, math, and science- and
history-related literacy skills needed by students in grades 6-12.
Drafts of the standards have come in at more than 200 pages, and have been under
review by governors, scholars, education groups and others. A public draft had not been
released at press time.
Some reviewers have said the drafts are unclear and need to be streamlined, according to
Education Week. Others have noted discrepancies in grade sequencing, for example where
a math skill would be required in one grade, but prerequisite skills were not required in
earlier grade levels.
The initiative is the work of the council and the governors’ association, to establish
common core standards for English and mathematics for K-12 students. Forty-eight states
including Missouri have joined the project. Participation in the initiative is necessary for
states to receive funds through the Race to the Top federal grant program.
— John Adams,
U.S. diplomat & politician (1735-1826)
James Estes
i Photo by stockphoto.com/contour99
Kids assemble kits for Haiti
“It rains on the just and the unjust... and on
sweet little girls who are just trying to make it
through fourth-grade math.”
6 | Spring 2010 S&C
Students across the state participated in Convoy of Hope’s Kits4Kids program in January and
February, collecting about 30,000 personal-hygiene kits. The students collected personal hygiene
supplies, such as soap, shampoo, and toothbrushes into kits to be delivered to children in Haiti.
Kits4Kids was launched in January, after an earthquake devastated much of the Caribbean
nation. Convoy of Hope, a national organization based in Springfield, will deliver the kits to Haiti
and distribute them to children and families in need.
The program was co-sponsored by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Photo by istockphoto.com/Hiob
Study: Girls’ math anxiety
might mimic teachers
Photo by istockphoto.com/Splitcast
Girls with math anxiety might be mimicking anxiety
displayed by teachers, according to a new study.
Young students tend to use adults of the same sex as
models for themselves, and having a female teacher who
is nervous about math could reinforce the stereotype that
girls are less proficient at math than boys, the study found.
Teachers who were the most anxious about math
were more likely to have female students expressing that
boys are better at math than girls. Females have historically achieved less in mathematics than males have, and
stereotypes that boys are better at math than girls have
endured.
The study tracked 52 boys and 65 girls in first- and
second-grade classes taught by 17 teachers in a large
urban school district in the Midwest. All of the teachers
involved in the study were women, and women make up
about 90 percent of the elementary teachers in the U.S.
Teachers’ math anxiety was gauged through a series
of 25 questions about situations that gave them anxiety.
They also took a math-skills test.
Researchers at the University of Chicago conducted
the study, which was funded by the National Science
Foundation and published in the journal Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences
Changes proposed
for NCLB
The Obama administration is proposing broad
changes to No Child Left Behind, but any changes
are still a long way from being implemented.
The administration announced a desire to reform
the No Child Left Behind Act in February, including
changes that reward schools for getting students to a
“college and career ready” level in academics, rather
than the average yearly proficiency model now in
use.
Under the new plan, schools would no longer
face penalties if they miss AYP, but the president
has not made clear how schools would be held accountable for student achievement. U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan said No Child Left Behind
exposed achievement gaps, but unfairly labeled some
schools and was too focused on math and reading.
President Obama has said that students should
leave high school “college and career ready,” but
has not yet explained how schools would be held
accountable for those results or how those results
would be measured.
Congress would have to approve any changes to
No Child Left Behind.
S&C Spring 2010 | 7
The Upper and
lower case
for Handwriting
C
By Vicki Cox
ursive “Q” is dead. It resembled the number two so
the post office killed it. But nobody really cares. For
that matter, handwriting itself seems in danger of
eminent demise. For decades, it’s been ambushed by
new technology. The gold-tipped fountain pen and ink
bottle from which elaborate loops and curves flowed were replaced by
ball point pens. They, in turn, were replaced by felt tip markers which
were, in turn, replaced by typewriters. Now, computer and cell phones
threaten to be handwriting’s undoing. On the one hand, some say
good riddance. But on the other, proponents cite good reasons to keep
handwriting in the classroom.
8 | Spring 2010 S&C
The case against handwriting
Many believe handwriting has no place in a society where speed
and technology dominate students’ lives. According to the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, 90 percent of
Americans between the ages of 5 and 17 use computers. At home, the
computer is the most important machine in the house. If the stove
doesn’t work, there’s carryout Chinese. But without the computer, the
entire family loses communication, shopping, entertainment and research. Not utilizing computers in the classroom seems short sighted.
“We need to make sure they’ll be ready for what’s going to happen
in 2020 or 2030,” says Katie Van Sluys, DePaul University professor
and president of the Whole Language Umbrella, a conference of the
National Council of Teachers of English. “Handwriting is increasingly
something people do only when they need to make a note to themselves rather than communicate with others.”
For Mary Dockery, language arts teacher in Pike County R-3, the
computer makes sense in her composition and literature classes.
“We’re a computer-oriented class,” she says. “If you’re going to
teach any kind of writing, it’s all about turning that paper around and
getting it back into the student’s hands. I can grade much quicker
if I don’t have to figure out what I call artistic, that is, unreadable,
handwriting.”
The Clopton High
teacher also uses the computer lab for in-house essays in her
college-bound literature class. “If we’ve
finished the ‘Idylls of the King,’ I’ll have them
write three essays of 350 words each. They have to
think fast and type fast. I grade on content and their composition skills.”
Yet, despite the speed and clarity the computer provides, even it
may become passé. The popularity of the cell phone and its access to
the Internet increases daily. The new world of text messaging where
“CUL8TR” translates into “See you later” and “BRB” means “Be right
back” makes it tough to explain the merits of longhand.
Dockery deals with texting daily. “The rule is that students cannot
have cell phones at school,” she says. “But every kid has one. They
text all the time. I literally had to check two girls’ purses at the door.
They’d put their hands in their purse and text in class.”
Besides electronic technology, standardized testing dealt handwriting a serious blow after the 1983 “A Nation at Risk” report and
2002’s No Child Left Behind Act. When student progress and teacher
accountability hinge on the ever-present achievement test, handwriting doesn’t rise very high on the list of priorities.
S&C Spring 2010 | 9
“The simple fact is that kids haven’t
learned to write neatly because no one has
forced them to,” says Steve Graham, special
education and literacy professor at Vanderbilt
University. “Writing is just not part of the
national agenda anymore.”
No grade level is exempt. While kindergartners and first graders must acquire
manuscript skills, they’re mastering communication arts and mathematics objectives too.
At the beginning of the year, Casey’s
Kuhjuergen’s first-grade classes at Mark Twain
Elementary in Rolla 31 spend 45 minutes a
day on handwriting. They practice strokes,
write words, and copy sentences. Gradually
instruction time decreases to 25 minutes and
then ceases — unless Kuhjuergen notices a
pressing need to review technique. By year’s
end, the 6-year-olds must be able to write a
research report.
“We have so many things we have to fit
into the schedule,” says Kuhjuergen. “We can’t
devote as much time as maybe we should.”
10 | Spring 2010 S&C
The case for handwriting
Even bombarded with computers and texting
outside the classroom, handwriting advocates can’t see them completely replacing the
pen and pencil. Their strongest argument is
Samuel Freedman’s. He disputes the assumption, in a New York Times article that “somehow, magically, every pupil, rich or poor, will
have a computer available at all times.”
It just isn’t so. Students still depend on
handwriting to complete daily assignments,
take lecture notes and complete tests. There
are times when handwriting is just plain
more convenient than its technological rivals.
It doesn’t, after all, require a cell tower or
charged batteries to record a telephone number or person’s name, write a check or fill out
a job application.
Good and/or bad handwriting does, in
fact, have unintended consequences. Steve
Graham in a recent issue of American
Educator says studies have shown that “readers form judgments, positive or negative,
about the quality of text, based on its legibil-
ity. When teachers are asked to rate multiple
versions of the same text...neatly written versions of the paper are assigned higher marks
for overall quality of writing than are versions
with poorer penmanship.”
He also links handwriting difficulties
with weaknesses in grammar and content in
elementary students. The brain simply can’t
do two things at the same time: concentrate
on forming letters and compose an idea.
Because it chooses the mechanical over the
theoretical, composition suffers. Having difficulty with handwriting skills makes students
reluctant to write. Avoiding writing increases
the possibility they will be poor composers. The opposite is also true. Graham says,
“students’ sentence-writing skills, the amount
they write, and the quality of their writing all
improve with their handwriting.”
Doctors’ notoriously bad handwriting has
had disastrous consequences. According to the
Institute of Medicine, prescription errors kill
7,000 Americans every year because the majority of the more than three billion prescrip-
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tions are written by hand. Poor penmanship is responsible for an estimated 6
percent of all hospital medication errors,
says the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality.
Once handwriting ceased to be a
marker of the cultured and educated
upper class, children were taught cursive.
Then in the 1920s, educators thought
because manuscript writing was closer
to what students read in textbooks, it
should be taught instead. The switch was
on. Even today, handwriting double dips
into children’s time and energy. They learn
manuscript and cursive. Mastering both is
a laborious process. Later on, left to their
own preferences, adults develop a kind of
hybrid handwriting, a cross between both
styles.
Still, Becky Bond, third-grade teacher
at Cedar Ridge Elementary in Columbia 93
thinks cursive instruction is necessary.
“It’s a life skill that sometime in a child’s
education needs to be taught,” she says.
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“Will it be a life skill this generation will
use forever — probably not. But kids need
to have the option of cursive. At some time,
they’ll develop some kind of handwriting. It
might as well be right.”
Somehow, children regard being able to
write in cursive a rite of passage from being
“little” to being “a big kid.”
“Seventy-five percent of my kids are very
excited to learn it. They can’t wait,” Bond
says. “The fun part about it is when they say
‘Look, look! I wrote my name in cursive’. ”
For four to five months, Bond devotes
approximately 20 minutes three times a
week to handwriting. Then, students review
and practice it in short assignments. Since
they aren’t ready to switch to it full time,
they return to writing in manuscript.
However, connecting letters in a continuous stroke makes cursive much faster
than manuscript writing. Kate Gladstone,
a handwriting specialist in Albany, N.Y.,
believes high school and college students
cannot take accurate notes from a lecture
by printing. To keep up with the speaker,
the student needs to write 100 words per
minute; printing can only produce 30.
But perhaps handwriting’s strongest
asset may not be mechanical at all. “How
do I love thee? Let me count the ways...”
doesn’t really work on a print out. What
people are, and the emotions they feel,
sometimes require a more personal touch
than technology provides. Handwriting
experts have identified more than 5,000
personality traits that are revealed through
handwriting. These include how someone
organizes his life, his social skills, and
thinking styles. Handwriting analysis
is sometimes used in pre-employment
screening. Lawyers consider handwriting
when selecting potential jurors.
The case for or against handwriting may
never reach a black-and-white conclusion.
With each new technology, society may
think it will finally bury handwriting
in a pile of circuitry. But the alternative
handwriting offers to communicating, and
the intangibles that come with it, ensure
it will survive. Even the electronic world
acknowledges its value. Some software
programs now offer a hybrid of both worlds.
They scan the user’s handwriting and turn
it into a font that can be typed from the
computer. What would John Hancock say
about that?
S&C Spring 2010 | 11
When the pressure is gone,
add fun to lesson plans
Creativity and enthusiasm keep students motivated to learn
F
By Pam Clifton
rom September until March, most teachers’ focus is endof-the-year assessment. Afterward, it’s a sigh of relief.
“I love that time after MAP (Missouri Assessment
Program) testing because the pressure is gone,” says
Sarah Reinecke, seventh-grade communication arts
teacher at Scott City R-1.
“It’s nice to get creative and motivate students just a little longer
until the end of May,” she says.
Putting students at center stage is a great way to keep them interested, she says. Students pick a character from a book series or Greek
and Roman mythology and create an audition video to appear on
“Survivor.”
The middle school teacher also puts kids up front with a reader’s
theater. Reinecke says Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” is a great
introduction for drama. Students have also compared and contrasted
the comedic styles of the Three Stooges with the Little Rascals and “I
Love Lucy.” After viewing samples, students learn about vaudeville,
research a comedian and create a project.
Because public speaking and listening skills aren’t usually tested
on the MAP, Reinecke saves these for after-test fun. Students watch
samples and explore TV, radio, print and Internet propaganda techniques. She mixes a concoction of sodas for students to try, and they
are informed they’ll be marketing this new drink by creating a jingle,
slogan, design, commercial and marketing report.
Tracy Loyd, third-grade teacher at Southern Reynolds Co. R-2, has
been teaching for 20 years. After MAP, she hosts a reader’s theater for
parents to watch their children perform a short play. In addition, students learn about calculators in math using a book called Menu Math.
“It is fun to pretend that we are at the Third Grade Café,” she explains,
where students practice their math skills and have fun, too.
Lisa Puller, West St. Francois County R-4, works with elementary
students and teachers to make lessons more hands-on and exciting,
taking advantage of warmer weather and outdoor activities. Puller
says students enjoy the outdoor classroom and class challenges where
rewards include water games, checker tournaments, relay races, field
trips and barbecues.
After MAP, math teacher Paris Foster, Southern Reynolds Co. R-2,
uses origami to teach shapes and following directions. She includes
language and story books, such as “Grandfather Tang,” “The Math
Course” and “Sir Cumference” as part of her math lessons. She incorporates graphic organizers, tangram puzzles and focuses on concepts
students need for the next grade.
Dana White, seventh- through 12th-grade teacher at MarquandZion R-6, keeps students moving. White uses print ads to explain
what and how something is sold. Students categorize items, create themes
or titles for ads, and produce posters to advertise products. She also has
students write creative short stories based on a picture or photograph
or on a children’s book, using www.readwritethink.org as a resource.
Students can even take a more in-depth approach by reading a novel
and completing a detailed class project based on the story. Watching
the movie, along with making decorations and themed snacks to go
along with the book, is yet another idea.
Pat Moore, gifted teacher for Fredericktown R-1, studies everything from foreign countries to insects. She makes people, places and
things the focus of her class topics. Students study fun places where
they’d like to visit and research traditional foods. At the conclusion,
they’ll celebrate with a class feast. Moore’s class researched the history of Cinco de Mayo and compared the meaning of the holiday to
Mexican Independence Day (in September). The students learned
about the language, customs, traditions, geography, songs, crafts, food
and more.
Moore also likes to incorporate outdoor
exploration. Her students go outside to
experiment with hot air balloons, work in the
outdoor classroom, engage in bird watching
and identifying, study and identify architectural styles with students drawing their own,
and to sketch flowers and landscapes.
Inside the classroom, Moore encourages
students to experience poetic expression.
Students listen to a variety of musical genres
to learn about rhythm, rhyme and different
types of poetry. Moore’s students also study
famous Americans and if the person is still
living, write him or her a letter. Students
can also complete biographies of each other
by interviewing a peer and writing their life
story. Finally, Moore’s students enjoy taking
a closer look at simple things such as insects,
flowers and grass under a microscope. She
says students love examining everyday items
in this unique method.
Alla Gonzalez Del Castillo, St. Louis
Public Schools, enjoys doing projects with
her students. She teaches ESOL (English to
Speakers of Other Languages) and pulls her
students out of mainstream class about an
hour a day to complete assignments such as
creating stories and writing and recording
speeches. Students (individually or in groups)
explore the school campus and journal what
they see, hear, smell and feel and write about
things from that moment or memories triggered. Later, students use entries to write
poems, letters and newspaper articles. They
also record images or video to use later in
hard copy and digital photo albums, presentations and posters. For writing and recording
their own speeches, students select a topic or
choose their own. Working in pairs, students
critique each other’s work until they feel it is
ready to present.
Project Possibilities
•PowerPoint
•Slideshow
(using MovieMaker, Pinnacle, etc.)
•Scrapbook
(digital or hard copy)
• Web page
• Poster, tri-fold board
• Diorama, mobile or 3-D display
•Audition
• News broadcast
• Short story (fiction or non-fiction)
• Play, poem or song
• TV show
• Debate or speech
Pam Clifton teaches sixth grade communication arts
and reading at West County Middle School in West
St. Francois Co. R-4.
• Mock trial
• Museum Box
(www.museumbox.e2bn.org)
MSTA Technology Institute
9 a.m. to 3 p.m., June 7, 2010
Ramada Oasis Convention Center, 2546 Glenstone, Springfield, MO 65803
Cultivating a World-Class Work Ethic
Learn concrete techniques to embed information literacy across the curriculum and
to develop students into active contributors within their classroom community.
The real revolution that technology brings to society extends well
beyond how to use computers. It is more complex than integrating
computers across the curriculum or learning about multimedia or
even using the Internet. Information communications technology
is completely reorganizing how, where, when, with whom and
even why people work. The way that many people work today is
changing right before our eyes.
In every classroom around the world:
• We must be teaching ourselves and our students how to find
and critically analyze the wealth of online information.
MSTA member registration through April 15, 2010 .............. $95
Non-member registration through April 15, 2010 ..............$125
MSTA member registration after April 15 ..................................$115
Non-member registration after April 15 ...................................$145
8:30-9 a.m............................ Check in and continental breakfast
9 a.m.-3 p.m..... Conference sessions including lunch & breaks
Register online: www.msta.org/events
Cancellations prior to May 21 may be eligible for a 50% refund
• We must teach students how to collaborate with teams within
the classroom as well as globally.
• We must provide students with real opportunities and real
jobs that model creativity and add to the resources of our
Register by April 15 for a chance
to win an Apple iPad!
classrooms for the benefit of all.
Brian Mull is director of innovation for November Learning. Described as having an infectious
enthusiasm and incredible depth of knowledge, Brian shares a powerful vision for teaching and
learning with administrators, teachers, parents and students.
He was recently named as one of Google’s first 200 certified educators.
Missouri State Teachers Association
800-392-0532
ADVERTISMENT
Spend a day with Brian Mull as he readies you for the revolution —
Education
Fungus among us:
How schools deal with mold
By Nancy Hull Rigdon
It grows on school walls,
ceilings and floors.
And it can sicken
students and
staff and scare
communities.
M
Photo by istockphoto.com/shayes17
old. Just saying the fungi’s
name can cause panic.
But here’s what can
frustrate educators: There’s no hard
and fast rule for whether a building’s
mold will lead to health problems.
“There really is no recognized
standard when it comes to the danger of mold. The fact of the matter
is that each different type of mold
affects each different person differently,” says Tom Alford, an industrial hygienist and certified indoor
environmental consultant. “It’s like
peanut allergies. Some people are allergic to peanuts, some aren’t. Same
thing with mold. What bothers you
may not bother me.”
Alford works for a St. Louis indoor
environmental consulting company. In
late 2009, his company handled mold
issues in the Spickard R-2 elementary
school, which closed due to mold for
almost two months.
Allergic reactions to mold should
be taken seriously, he says.
“If someone is complaining, and
you see the mold growing up the wall,
the mold probably shouldn’t be in
there,” Alford says.
Making the determination that
mold needs to go can be a tough call,
he says. In recent years, mold awareness has increased, which can lead to
increased paranoia, he says.
“Sometimes, for example, teachers might be overreacting. And then
there are also serious issues, too. The
problem is trying to figure out which
way it is,” he says.
Amy May, the Spickard superintendent, knows the school mold issue
very well.
She and the Spickard Board of
Education decided to close the 50-student district’s one school building
— Spickard Elementary School — for
seven weeks in the fall of 2009 in
order to remove mold and improve air
circulation. Students and staff worked
out of a school building in the nearby
Princeton R-5 during the seven weeks.
Prior to the decision to temporarily close the building, May contacted
many experts in search of an answer
to one question.
“I wanted to know — Was this
mold hurting kids? And there wasn’t
an answer,” May says. “Everyone said,
‘Well, if kids are allergic to the mold,
then you are hurting kids. If they
aren’t allergic, you’re not.’”
Testing did show that the building’s
mold levels were higher than ideal,
she says. Still, the level readings didn’t
indicate how the mold was affecting
people.
In the end, May and other district
leaders decided to rule out the possibility of danger. Closing the school
was costly and not the most convenient solution, but May believes it was
necessary.
“My biggest fear was that the one
kid who we didn’t know was allergic to
that mold would go in the basement
near the mold and end up getting
really sick,” she says. “We decided the
only way to make sure we were keeping everyone safe was to get rid of the
mold completely.”
The issue began during the 20082009 school year when the school
janitor noticed green mold growing
in a basement storage area and locker
room due to a groundwater issue. The
area was then sealed off to students
and staff.
When staff and parents found out
about the mold, the issue became a
widespread concern.
During the summer of 2009, the
district hired a contractor to get rid of
the mold. But when the new school
year began, the mold was actually
worse than it was before the work,
May says. That’s when May contacted
industrial hygienist Alford.
The district ended up going with a
dry ice blasting procedure.
The mold has stayed away ever
since, May says.
Like most issues connected to
health concerns, how school leaders
communicate mold issues plays a big
role in how a school community reacts
to the issue.
Karen Jones, MSTA member and
special education teacher in the North
Kansas City 74, says administrators in
her district handled the problem well
when mold became an issue in her
building, Fox Hill Elementary School,
several years ago.
She recalls being calmly told at the
end of that school year she needed to
pack up everything in her classroom
for the summer so that the school
could target a mold concern.
“Nothing was ever hush, hush,”
Jones says. “They were very truthful
with us.”
Randy Maley, an environmental public health specialist with the
Missouri Department of Health and
Senior Services, says that while he
hasn’t seen an increase in the number
of schools with mold issues, he has noticed an increase in mold complaints
from school staff and parents. The
health department typically looks into
three to five school mold cases a year.
The reason for the increase in
complaints could possibly be due to
a couple of reasons, Maley says. One,
mold awareness has increased. And
two, childhood asthma — a condition
known not to mix well with the presence of mold — has reached epidemic
levels, he says.
Leaky roofs most commonly trigger mold issues in schools, he says.
Roofs leak, and then moisture allows
mold to grow.
“And then students and teachers with asthma or allergies react to
that, and you end up with breathing
complaints,” he says.
Like Alford, Maley stressed that
how mold affects people all depends
on whether an individual is allergic to
the type of mold present.
In some cases, the effect can be
very serious. Sore throats, sinus trouble, respiratory infections, bronchitis
and pneumonia are possible, he says.
“An asthma attack can be fatal, but
that is very rare,” he says.
What can schools do to keep mold
away?
Mold testing probably isn’t a necessary use of funds, Maley says. And you
can’t always predict when a roof will
start leaking, he says.
But once a mold issue occurs, typically, its presence is known.
“If you can see it or smell it, you
know you have a mold issue,” he says.
And at that time, it’s never a bad
idea to do everything in your power to
make it go away, he says.
“It doesn’t matter what type of
mold it is, it shouldn’t be growing on a
classroom wall,” he says.
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Technology
contributed by eMINTS National Center
Q and A with the experts
The nuts and bolts to developing online courses
istockphoto.com/gremlin
Resources
• e-Learning for Educators
www.eleraningmo.org
• National Standards of Quality
for Online Courses
www.inacol.org/
research/nationalstandards/
• Using Search Engines
webquest.sdsu.edu/
searching/fournets.htm
• Specialized Search Engines
webquest.sdsu.edu/
searching/specialized.html
• Are you a PBS teacher?
www.pbs.org/teachers
Q: I’d like to develop online courses for teachers in our district. Teachers would be able to
access the information on their own schedules. It sounds cost effective because there would
be no expense to our district for professional development. Plus, we’ll be able to customize
the courses for the needs of our district and teachers.
It would be great to develop online courses for students as well. It would give students
more flexibility in their scheduling, extra-curricular activities, work schedules, and for
accessing enrichment or advanced courses and making up credits.
Where do I start?
A: First, you need someone who has expertise in developing online courses to guide you. Why?
Online courses have unique characteristics that differ from face-to-face training and teaching. Perhaps you have someone with those skills in your district or you may need to seek
outside help. e-Learning for Educators (www.elearningmo.org) is one Missouri source that
has experience and expertise in developing online courses.
Q: Is anything the same in online learning as in face-to-face teaching?
A: Certainly. You still need goals and authentic performance expectations. Using backward
design strategies in the development will build quality courses. Teachers in online courses
truly are facilitators or coaches. Much like differentiated instruction, online courses provide
resources and targeted instruction so meaning can be built. The exploration of essential
questions and the application of knowledge and skills allow the learner to uncover ideas and
processes.
Learning activities should address learning styles, skill levels, interests and be appropriately scaffolded. Learners are given some choice in how to construct and demonstrate meaning. Assessments check for current levels of understanding and allow the instructor to build
appropriate learning activities to follow.
Q:And the differences?
A: Activities are done both online and offline. Online
activities may be simulations, video demonstrations,
blogging, building a glossary via a wiki, having a
synchronous or asynchronous discussion, etc. You’ll
want to become familiar with the scope of activities
successfully used in online courses by connecting
with others who have used them. Offline activities
may be interviews, experiments or observations in
the community. You may not have a textbook; all
your resources may be online, such as readings, videos, data sources and guest speakers.
The online discussion forum is often the “heart” of
the course. Cathie Loesing, retired from Columbia 93,
developed and facilitated an online course for library
media specialists. She describes the discussion forum:
“I found the discussion forum to be as helpful to me
as it was to the learners. I gained a new perspective
on the topics we discussed. I enjoyed reading about
the things they were trying in their media centers and
about their plans for the future. The enthusiasm of
the participants was infectious.”
Q:So how do I start?
A: For courses, you’ll need to develop learning goals and
objectives, essential questions and when appropriate
align these with the standards/curricula/ GLEs/CLEs.
Mark Gagnon, e-Learning for Educators course
developer and facilitator, provides some advice on
building an online course.
“Carefully choosing instructional strategies and
assessments that focus on the learning objectives is
critical. For starters, I find that it is essential to be
explicit about what the course learning objectives are.
Using backward design helps me focus on the content
and instructional strategies that will meet those
objectives,” Gagnon says.
You’ll want to examine some quality online
courses to become familiar with the parts, process
and flow of an online course. Examine how they
apply information in different formats including
readings, podcasts, videos, blogs and so on.
For efficiently selecting online resources for your
course, you will want to know how to effectively
use search engines. Copyright issues must also be
addressed as you select content for your course. For
example, cutting and pasting from a site to your
course is probably not OK, but linking to another site
should be fine in most cases.
Knowledge of multimedia resources can enrich
your course, vary according to learning styles and
address motivational issues. Developing some skills
in using multimedia will enhance your ability to
offer interesting content. Do you know how to make
movies with video/pics and sound using tools like
PhotoStory? Do you yodio? What about using drop.io
to submit an assignment?
Without “seeing” your students, how do you know
their reaction? Are they wrinkling up their brow in
frustration? Rolling their eyes because they already
know this? Have sparkling eyes of excitement?
Initial assessment to determine current levels of
understanding, frequent formative assessments and
authentic performance assessments will provide you
with feedback to know how they are doing.
You will also need technical expertise or access to
a provider for uploading and managing your course
in a course management system such as Moodle. Do
you have the technical skills and time to upload a
course, maintain it, fix broken links, update it, and
register participants in a timely manner? It takes
a team to develop, deliver and facilitate an online
course and then keep refining and improving it.
Nancy Burch, teacher at the Grand River Technical School of Chillicothe, shares positive aspects of
online coursework.
“Content is available anywhere Internet access is
available. The computer can grade some questions
for you. Discussion forums allow you to see/hear
students that might not speak up in class, and forums
allow students time to think and edit before ‘answering,’” Burch says.
Take some time to examine the expertise and skills
you have available, determine scaffolding and assistance you may need, and identify skills you will need
to develop or contract. Careful planning and use of
resources and expertise can ensure success in creating
online courses for both teachers and students.
Candy Lindsey was a classroom teacher and professional
developer, currently an online course designer for the e-Learning
for Educators program, one of the programs from the eMINTS
National Center. The eMINTS National Center is a collaborative
program developed by the University of Missouri, Missouri
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the
Missouri Department of Higher Education.
Boyd fourth-graders test a bright idea.
UNCOVERING MATERIAL:
MINDS ON LEARNING
By Teresa Young
When a legislative representative left fliers in a
classroom at Field Elementary in Springfield, the
students eagerly raised hands to ask: What is a
legislative representative? How do you like your
job? Why do you do something for no pay?
The students wanted to uncover answers.
The flurry of questions is no surprise to
Field principal Nancy Colbaugh. She regularly hears guests say “your students ask
questions like students in no other school.”
Colbaugh is not the only one to hear comments. School secretaries hear substitutes
request to return, a wish not commonly
heard in the past. One sub says, “When I
saw the sub plans, I knew something was
different.”
Secretary Melba Dees just smiles from
ear to ear with her usual reply, “You have
been bitten by the PYP bug.”
WHAT IS PYP?
Proponents say PYP creates a high energy
for learning because learning is meaningful, authentic and rich. The International
Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years
Programme (PYP) develops the whole
child ages 3 to 12 for a rapidly changing world. Teachers and students raise
questions which are posted and guide the
direction of learning. From there, students research and uncover information.
There are more than 130 countries with IB
schools. For the past four years, both Boyd
and Field elementaries in Springfield R-12
have been on a journey to become official
World Schools. Through this process, the
staff committed to hours of professional
development and training, in addition
to hours of planning six units of study
for a school year. This year, both schools
were officially pronounced International
Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years World
Schools, so far the only two Missouri.
WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF PYP?
Four unique components are:
1.Inquiry
Students demonstrate high engagement and interest in
learning because the instruction is driven by inquiry. Cheryl
Fadler, former teacher and now PYP coordinator explains,
“With PYP, students have ownership of their learning. An
inquiry approach to instruction by all teachers throughout the
day is an expectation of the IB. The students ask questions,
wonder about problems and research for answers rather than
a teacher telling them all of the information.”
Students learn to recognize a good question and how
questions are different. To guide the inquiry, six units of
study are prepared with conceptual central ideas. Within
this framework, all the district grade-level expectations and
state goals are incorporated.
“Children go deeper with their thinking; they are not told
what to do or what the answers are. Students become selfregulated learners,” second-grade teacher Sherry Goings says.
Photo by Teresa Young
2. Learner Profile
The Learner Profile is the heart of the PYP School by
incorporating 10 attributes: Inquirer, Thinkers, Balanced,
Communicators, Risk-Takers, Knowledgeable, Caring,
Principled, Reflective and Open Minded. Each attribute
is explored and developed through a range of activities
throughout the whole school as the children pass from
pre-school to fifth grade. Students use the words when they
write and reflect on their learning.
Brianna Hoefer, a new fifth-grader at Boyd summed up
the difference, “At my old school, I did not really learn the
same things like I do here. I learn about caring. That is way
different.”
3. International Mindedness
All schools in the IB Program offer at least one additional
language. At Field and Boyd, Spanish is displayed on signs in
the hallways, written in school newsletters and even heard in
casual conversation.
“As students become proficient in a second language, it
becomes easier to learn additional languages, as well as being
stronger in your own language. In a global community, we
cannot continue to be monolingual,” explains Spanish teacher
Sonja Baldwin.
4. Action
After reading about a problem and discussing it with
classmates, the student turns words on the paper into action. When students ask “what can I do” the results can be
powerful! Drew Wilson, second-grader at Field, developed
an action plan after reading a Weekly Reader.
“This program helps soldiers by selling old cell phones
and buying phone cards so soldiers can call home. I think
we have lots of cell phones here at Field,” Drew says. To
move this idea into action required signs to be created, a
script for announcements written and assistance of classmates recruited. These students created a way to facilitate
this collection for soldiers in Missouri.
WHERE DO SPECIALITY TEACHERS FIT IN PYP?
Specialty teachers plan collaboratively with teachers using the same
components of the program. “I push my students hard. They do not just
sit back with games on the computer,” Roger King, technology teacher
says. The material is uncovered to open minds. Everyone uses the
library, a key resource for answering questions. Sheryl Davis, librarian
at both schools, is responsible for gathering hundreds of resources to be
used by students in the classroom for their units of inquiry.
“The library is the most important place in the PYP program because it provides resources to find information,” Davis says. Students
ask for nonfiction books, even on their free time, for their independent investigations.
HOW DOES PYP IMPACT DATA?
Overall, positive trends show an increase in attendance, a decrease in
discipline issues and a slowdown of mobility.
“Students are engaged in what they are doing and do not want to be
in trouble. It is rare to get discipline issues anymore,” Boyd principal
James Grandon says. Students just want to be in class learning, he
says. He points to a recent example of student engagement in learning
in the second grade. The wall board outside the classroom displayed
student questions, research and the answers found.
“The students have the power to ask questions, and want their
questions to be heard,” Grandon says.
WILL THERE BE MORE SCHOOLS LIKE PYP
IN THE FUTURE?
For Boyd and Field, the road has been challenging, with no short cuts.
As other districts understand the value of the PYP, there will be more
interest in implementing it in districts in Missouri.
Field principal Colbaugh explains that the components in this
program revolve around student learning rather than only focusing on
achievement. “Achievement is there, but the focus is on learning. The
future is wide open!” she says.
After visiting these two PYP schools and walking out to my car,
I caught sight of a large bird flying gracefully overhead. I stopped to
watch the bird soar in the bright blue sky. I thought how children
today beg for the opportunity to fly in this ever changing global world.
Are we, as educators, allowing wings to spread open? With PYP, the
schools of Boyd and Field can definitely answer, “YES!”
Teresa Young is a teacher/librarian in Springfield R-12.
DO PARENTS UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE
that PYP makes in their school?
Boyd second-graders enjoy a day observing butterflies.
Photo by Teresa Young
Parents and volunteers talk positively about the program because
they see the impact on their children. Lisa Burton, parent of a third
grader at Field, says that the program honors all learning styles and
makes learning more meaningful by empowering students to link
what they’re learning in the classroom to their own understanding.
For example, she says, when a Scholastic book order form came home,
her daughter wanted the rock identifying set because she was making
connections with her unit of study on rocks in her classroom.
Beverly Kelley, a volunteer at the school long before PYP was
implemented, says she believes in the program because she has seen
the results and the difference the PYP has made.
At Field, the principal opens her doors regularly for Principal’s
Coffee where parents are invited to share a cup of coffee, ask questions
and be trained. This casual time builds relationships which are fundamental in making this program successful.
Students at Field can check the time across the world.
Field kindergarteners wonder about and observe a butterfly take flight.
Teacher tip
>>>
A time to share
School & Community is looking for “Teacher Tips” stories. If you’ve developed an innovative
classroom project or have a list of tried-and-true techniques, it’s time to share them with your
colleagues. Please keep the length under 900 words. We will pay $75 for any story that we use.
Send your article to Sarah Kohnle, MSTA, P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO, 65205; call 800-392-0532;
or e-mail skohnle@ msta.org.
Do well on the test
or walk the plank!
Osceola Elementary celebrated and motivated K-6 students for the
MAP and Stanford test-taking with a pirate theme. Pirate-related
activities pumped everyone up, including staff, the day prior to the
beginning of testing. Students visited centers with activities ranging
from “swabbin” the deck to digging for buried treasure, always with
the idea to doing their best on the test in mind. Students could
have their photo taken with an inflatable Pirate Pete who stood in
the hallway during testing to let everyone know to be quiet. The
students still talk about Pirate Day.
Submitted by Landa Erwine
Ideas to try:
• Eye patches and pirate hats for students compliments of a fast-food
restaurant.
• Hook the ring — use inexpensive plastic hooks from a party store and
bowls of pretzel rings. Students try to hook as many pretzels as they
can before the timer goes off.
• Swabbin’ the deck — run a relay race with balloons and brooms.
• Boat races 1 — use refrigerator boxes from local furniture store and
cut holes in the bottom for legs to go through. Students can race down
long hallways.
• Boat races 2 — set troughs on sawhorses and partially fill with water.
Students blow plastic boats to the end of the trough.
• Digging for buried treasure — hide gold coins in plastic swimming
pools filled with shelled corn (or whatever you have). Set timer and
students dig for coins. Mark one coin for a special prize.
• Sword fighting — set up a bubble machine outside and use plastic
foam swords to pop the bubbles.
Photo by istockphoto.com/joshblake
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Robert Vojtko
People
Photo by istockphoto.com/DanDriedger
“Besr with me. I have a frog in my throat.”
We want to know
Tell School & Community how you or
someone you know has made a difference in your school or community.
Tell us about members who pursue
unusual hobbies or after-hours pursuits.
Tell us about honors and awards you
Former Longhorns star takes to the classroom
and your colleagues have won. We’ll
do our best to recognize your efforts
in the magazine. Photos are always
welcome. Send your news to Sarah
Kohnle, MSTA, P.O. Box 458, Columbia,
MO, 65205; call 800-392-0532; or e-mail
skohnle@ msta.org.
Volleyball has permeated most aspects of Jenny Harris’ life since she was 11, whether it
was guarding the net for the University of Texas Longhorns, or helping the students in her
special-education classroom in Lee’s Summit R-7.
Harris is in her second year of teaching at Bernard Campbell Middle, after several years
as a substitute and paraprofessional. Although she’s passionate about her students, she’s also
passionate about volleyball.
As a middle blocker for the UT women’s team, part of her job was to keep the opponents’
attacks from slipping over the net. She uses the same phrase with her students—no one is
going to slip through the cracks whether she’s in the game or in the classroom.
“As I stood at the net, I used to tell myself ‘Not on my watch,’” she says. “I still have that
mentality. ‘Not on my watch.’”
She got her start in the sport when her best friend’s older sister played at the local
YMCA , and the two younger girls tagged along to watch one day. The team needed a few
extra players, so Jenny was among the new recruits. She has played and coached continually since that time, and is now the assistant coach of the intramural girls’ volleyball team at
Bernard Campbell.
Harris says she doesn’t feel old enough to be a pioneer of the sport, though the fact that her
first year of high school in 1974 was the first year the sport was available in the state confirms it.
Last fall, Harris was inducted into her alma mater’s Hall of Honor for her role as a leader of
the team that won the school’s first NCAA championship in the sport and as an All-American.
HONORS
Photo by istockphoto.com/kvv515kvv
Kay Riek, of Mehlville R-9, received the Presidential Award for
Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and was honored
in January at a ceremony with President Obama. Riek is a
literacy coach at Blades and Point elementaries. She received
the award for her efforts as a teacher in Bayless, where she
was the fifth-grade lead teacher for literacy and the lead
teacher for writing science curriculum.
Riek’s achievements include using formal and informal assessments to develop strategies to differentiate between learners. She
also facilitated an after-school tutoring program for third-graders.
Kay Riek,
Mehlville R-9
Twelve MSTA members achieved National
In late 2009, the Missouri Association for
Board Certification this year. The certifica-
Health, Physical Education, Recreation
tion program is a challenging process that
and Dance recognized its outstanding
requires teachers to undergo thorough
members in the physical education field.
evaluations and self-examination to bet-
Congratulate our members who received
ter their teaching skills and themselves.
the following awards:
Here is a list of 2010 recipients who are
Outstanding Student Majors in Physical
MSTA members:
Education: Lauryn Berger, Missouri South-
Wendy Brownell, Camdenton R-3 High
ern State University, and Brittni Jessen,
Misty Burright, Lindbergh Elementary, St.
Evangel University .
Joseph
Young Professional Award: Jen Hadler,
Tierney Dick, Smithville R-2 Middle
Kirkwood R-7, and Cindy Marriott, Morgan
Gwendolyn Donnell, Maplewood-Rich-
Co. R-1.
mond Heights Elementary
Elementary Teacher of the Year: Jenifer
Mary Dudley, Central High, St. Joseph
Richardson, Poplar Bluff R-1. Michelle
Jennifer Kellogg, Field Elementary, St.
McKown, Wellington-Napoleon R-9, was
Joseph
named a regional winner.
Clara Liles, Benton High, St. Joseph
Secondary Teacher of the Year: Jody Mc-
Randee Schatz, Gerald Elementary, Gas-
Clain, Blue Springs R-4.
conade Co. R-3
Robert M. Taylor Professional Service
Tiera Shrout, Brittany Hill Middle, Blue
Honor Award: Kristi Bieri, Odessa R-7.
Springs R-4
Presidential Award: Kristi Bieri, Odessa R-7
Laura Sorens, South Valley Middle, Liberty
and Amy Merritt, Lee’s Summit R-7.
53
No more than five female athletes or coaches
are inducted into the hall each year.
Though she had visited Austin, Texas,
since her graduation, she hadn’t had much
involvement with the university. Spending
several days last fall at award ceremonies
and other events celebrating her team’s 1980
victory gave her an appreciation for her own
contributions to the university.
“We’re the Martha Washingtons of the
women’s athletic department,” Harris says.
Harris’ husband is also a volleyball player
and the two met at a national championship
event. Their two children are also active in the
sport, and before she started teaching much
of Harris’ life revolved around participating
and coaching teams at all levels.
“I remember years based on where the
national tournaments were held,” Harris says.
Cynthia Twibell, Bingham Middle, Inde-
The Dirt Diggers Club at Lee’s Summit R-7’s
pendence 30
Longview Farm Elementary has received
Amy Zielinski, Ladue Middle
a $7,140 grant to establish a community
garden. The garden will be established
The National Association of Agricultural
on donated land near the school and will
Educators rewarded several MSTA mem-
provide freshly grown food for students
bers with honors this year. Awards are
and community members. The grant
given to teachers across the country, in
came from the Greater Lee’s Summit
each of the association’s six regions. The
Health Care Foundation. MSTA member
following MSTA members were honored
Alisa Seidelman is among the club’s
for the region that includes Missouri:
sponsors.
Teacher Mentor Award: Scott Stone,
Centralia R-6.
Ideas Unlimited Award: James McCormack, Oran R-3.
Teachers Turn the Key Award: Joey Blackburn, Marceline R-5
— Rachel Webb
AFTER THE BELL
Experiencing
the
cacophonies
of fear:
Gaining empathy
for my students
By Kim Blevins
Photo by istockphoto.com/kaisphoto
F
ear is the death-knell to everything
good in life. It sounds its peals of
insecurity deep in our souls. The
clamorings sound inside me: I’m not smart
enough; I’m not creative; people will see how
much I really don’t know; everything I write
has been written before; it’s cliché; I’m cliché.
These thoughts slice through any façade of
competence or barricade of education I throw
at them. If I experience these thoughts as an
educator, as an adult, what must our students
experience? For the most part, when and if
we write as adults, it isn’t graded, especially in
a public manner. So why am I afraid to go to
a writing retreat? And share what I write with
other teachers? I wasn’t…at first.
I firmly believe that fear keeps people
from living their life to the fullest, from
accomplishing great things. My personal vendetta against it is that if fear is my only reason
for not trying something, that’s not good
enough and by gosh, hold onto your coattails
fear ‘cuz I’m kicking you aside and doin’ it.
I have voiced this opinion vociferously to
those close to me. However, as I prepared
to go to the Ozarks Writing Project writing
retreat, I perused the schedule and fear crept
up, latched on and got me by the throat. Ten
hours of writing! Share with the group! For
publication in a professional journal! Yikes,
what have I done?
I am a former freelance writer, paid for
my writing in a former life, and yet these
thoughts are going through my mind. What
must it be like for my students when I assign
a writing project? I can see the reason behind
their constant rhymes that annoy me: How
long should it be? Do we have to read it in
front of the class? Will anyone else read it?
What do I write about?
I can feel the insecurity creeping back in
even now as I am writing this at the retreat.
Why don’t I stop and put the laptop away and
quit? Can’t. Must have a draft to share with
my group in four hours. Hmmm, pressure
is good? Perhaps! I fling assignments out to
the students at school and sometimes give
a nebulous one or two-week window. I bet
many of them are like me and would benefit
from pressure to get something on paper, a
number of words or pages...a start.
Now, I’m stuck. Writer’s blockage, a seemingly immovable barrier I can’t get past. What
do I tell students at this point? “Just get some
Martha F. Campbell
words on the paper and then we will have something to work with.
At this point, don’t worry, just write.” Now I know why they stare me
down with incredulous expressions. What the heck was I saying, just
write? Write what? If I weren’t writing a stream of consciousness right
now I would have no clue what to put here. Hmmm, teach students
to go to a stream of consciousness when they are stuck? A proven
technique for getting unstuck that I forgot about. I still feel dumb and
unsure about what I’m writing, but I can tell the fear mongers are stepping back a few steps anyway.
Here is where I differ from most of my students…I love to
revise, to slash and burn and pillage my writing. Delete this sentence, change that word, rewrite that paragraph and try to make
my meaning clear. Even with my love of revision, I was scared to
look at the first draft and possibly find nothing of value to keep.
I did… I think?
I made it. I’m still writing. It was good to experience the fear…
on this side of it anyway! I can be more empathetic with my students
when they write.
I know I will re-experience the fear and conquer it again. I plan to
arm myself with ways to lead my students through their writing battles
to create, to write, continuing the fight against the ever-present fear. Its
tones have been conquered and muted for now, but I can hear them in
the distance waiting for me.
“I’m going to class. Do I look scary?”
>>>
Kim Blevins is now a teacher consultant with the Ozarks Writing Project and is still
fighting the good fight against fear. She is writing with her classes every day and
working on a teen fiction novel in her spare time. Besides publishing, her goals
include becoming a professional speaker. She teaches high school English 2
and journalism at Mount Vernon R-5.
S&C is looking for personal essays from our members. Your
essay should be no longer than 600 words – and it must be
your own unpublished work. It should be personal in tone and
not time-sensitive. Our panel reviews all essays, but we select
only four to publish each year. Include your full name, phone
number, address and e-mail address.
Paste your entry into the body of an e-mail and send it to
[email protected] or drop a typed copy in the mail to Sarah
Kohnle, MSTA, P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO 65205.
WHY IS THIS TEACHER
SMILING?
Because she just learned that through the Learn Return
Liberty Mutual offers teachers:
■
■
■
TM
program1
Additional insurance coverage for everyday situations
Discounts on graduate-level professional development courses
through our partnership with Pearson Education
A chance to win a full Master’s degree scholarship
And a member of the Missouri State Teachers Association could save
hundreds of dollars on their car and home insurance with Liberty Mutual.2
LibertyMutual.com/Teachers
Call 1-800-835-0894 for more information.
Client #115821
Or visit www.libertymutual.com/msta
1
Coverage not available in all states. For a complete explanation of coverages, please consult a sales representative. You need not be a Liberty Mutual policyholder in order to receive the Pearson
Education course discount or the Learn Return scholarship.
Discounts, savings and benefits are available where state laws and regulations allow, and may vary by state. With the exception of Massachusetts residents, to the extent permitted by law,
applicants are individually underwritten; not all applicants may qualify.
A consumer report from a consumer reporting agency and/or a motor vehicle report, on all drivers listed on your policy, may be obtained where state laws and regulations allow. Coverage provided
and underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and its affiliates, 175 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA. © 2009 Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. All Rights Reserved.
2
Auto
Home
|
LibertyMutual.com
lll
News
istockphoto.com/drewhadley
• News from the Missouri State
Teachers Foundation •
MISSOURI
S T A T E
TEACHERS
FOUNDATION
Apply for a
Missouri State
Teachers
Foundation grant
MSTA members are invited to apply
for a grant from the Missouri State
SW offices undergo change
With a look toward efficiency and member service, MSTA is relocating field staff closer to
the areas they serve and closing the office in Springfield. Field representative Mike Walsh
will be located in Branson, Jeff Stacy will be out of Stockton and Deanna Layton will work
from Ozark.
As always, members will be able to reach representatives through Member Care at 800392-0532.
“Technology allows us to be efficient,” Bruce Moe, deputy executive director, says. He
said this move will allow field reps to spend less time on the road traveling to the office and
more time with members.
Teachers Foundation.
istockphoto.com/KoKimk
The grant provides $1,000 for use in
classroom or school resources, leadership, research or materials. For more
information, and to download an application, visit www.msta.org/awards.
Martha F. Campbell
Deadline is May 31.
Kent King Scholarship open to
Student-MSTA members
“I did okay except for the part between
the Atlantic and the Pacific.”
The Missouri State Teachers Foundation will award up to four non-renewable $500 scholarships to college seniors planning a career in education.
The recipients of the scholarships must be enrolled as full-time students at a college
or university in preparation for the teaching profession. Students must also have met the
requirements to enter their institution’s student-teaching program.
Completed applications must be returned to MSTA by May 1, 2010.
Each S-MSTA chapter may submit only one student application, which must be signed
by the S-MSTA sponsor. If you are unsure who serves as the local S-MSTA chapter sponsor,
call 800-392-0532.
For complete information, go to www.msta.org/awards.
Zubeck, Foster offer experience, geographical representation
for PSRS/PEERS Board election
This April, all members of the PSRS/PEERS Systems will have the
opportunity to vote for two candidates for the PSRS/PEERS Board of
Trustees. Retirees and active educators will receive ballots by mail with
instructions for voting either on paper or online. Ballots will be mailed
April 19 and due May 4. MSTA has endorsed two highly qualified
candidates — Tina Zubeck and Karmen Foster.
Tina Zubeck is seeking re-election to the PSRS/PEERS Board. She
was elected to the board in 2004 and currently serves as the board’s
chair. She has extensive experience in accounting, payroll and employee
benefits. Zubeck has been employed by Platte County R-3 for 18 years,
currently as school-community relations coordinator and board secretary. Prior positions with the district include secretary to the superintendent and assistant accountant. In her time on the board, Zubeck has
proved to be a thoughtful and dedicated member. She is well-versed on
the intricacies of the system and understands the importance of being
responsive to the issues facing all members of the system, whether they
are teachers, non-teachers or retirees. If elected, Zubeck will be the only
elected member who is neither a teacher nor administrator.
Karmen Foster is seeking her first term on the PSRS/PEERS Board
of Trustees. She is a fourth-grade teacher at O’Neal Elementary in
Poplar Bluff R-1. Foster has served in her school district on numerous
committees and as a MAP team leader. She has also held several leadership positions in MSTA, working on the local, regional and statewide levels. Through her involvement in organizations both within the
teaching profession and outside of it, Foster has shown dedication to
Session 1 – Bunker Hill Retreat, July 26-28
Session 2 – Bunker Hill Retreat, July 28-30
Session 3 – Columbia, Aug. 2
Session 4 – Festus, Aug. 3
Session 5 – Springfield, Aug.4
Session 6 – Kansas City Airport, Aug. 5
Candidates Karmen Foster, left, and Tina Zubeck seek support for the
PSRS/PEERS Board of Trustees election.
everything she endeavors. She is eager to learn about all components
of the retirement system and committed to keeping Missouri’s Public
School Retirement System among the best in the nation.
Zubeck and Foster pledge to help keep the system sound and to
consult active and retired members, whenever possible, before voting.
They also promise to closely examine suggested changes to the system
to ensure affordability and feasibility before making decisions.
All active PSRS and PEERS members and all retirees are eligible to
vote in this election.
All aboard for Leader U
This summer, build your leadership skills, gain knowledge and get tools designed
to grow your CTA membership. At Leader U 2010, you’ll have the opportunity
to network with other volunteer leaders who share your commitment to a strong
local and state organization.
During the two-day events at Bunker Hill, workshops and time for recreation and fun enhance the LU experience. Several one-day events are scheduled
around the state.
Grab a colleague and help to create a legacy of strong leadership that will
benefit your CTA for years to come.
Register by April 15 and increase your chances to win a prize. The final
registration deadline is July 9. To register online, go to www.msta.org/events, or
contact your field representative or call the Member Care Center, 800-392-0592.
There is no charge for the event, plus there are perks for signing up early!
Christina McKinney, left, and Richelle Deckard, both from Greenville R-2
Elementary, spend some free time on the Jacks Fork River during Leader U.
News lll
Deals for members only
For more information about any of these discounts or services, call MSTA’s Member Care
Center at 800-392-0532 or visit the MSTA Web site at www.msta.org/discounts.
MSTA members can save 10
percent on every item purchased at Staples, both
in the store and online. The office supply store
also offers MSTA members free shipping for
orders that exceed $30. To receive the discount
in-store, members must download a form
available on the MSTA Web site and fax it to
877-337-8535. The form will allow members to
register a credit card with Staples. The discount
will be available only for purchases made with
that credit card.
Take 20 percent off room prices by making
reservations online through the MSTA Web
site or by calling 800-258-2847. Identify yourself as an MSTA member and give the ID No.
00800370. Discounts are good at these participating Choice Hotels International: Quality
Inn, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Clarion
Inn, Sleep Inn, Rodeway Inn, EconoLodge and
MainStay Suites.
National City offers three affinity
credit cards to MSTA members. You may apply
for the MSTA Classic VISA, the MSTA Platinum
VISA or the MSTA Everyday Rewards. The noannual-fee cards feature an attractive introductory APR and a competitive annual percentage
rate. In addition, every purchase made with the
card will benefit Bunker Hill.
MSTA has partnered with
Liberty Mutual to offer discounts on home and
auto insurance to our members. Visit www.
libertymutual.com/msta for quotes and more
information. To reach an office near you, call
1-800-835-0894.
Take advantage of discounts through Avis, Hertz
and National Savings program. For more information visit www.msta.org/benefits
Moving? Please let MSTA know if your address is changing.
Name:_________________________________________________________
Member ID: ____________________________________________________
Former Address
Street: _____________________________________Apt. ________________
City:____________________________ State:_____ Zip: ________________
Former School:_________________________________________________
New Address
Street: _____________________________________Apt.________________
City:____________________________ State:_____ Zip: ________________
New School:___________________________________________________
Return to MSTA, P.O. Box 458,, Columbia, MO 65205
Or, you can update your address online. Go to www.msta.org, and click on the Members
Only area to edit your personal information.
K-12 teachers qualify for a
20 percent discount on books for the classroom
at Barnes & Noble. To qualify, you need proof
of employment (teacher’s ID or pay stub) and
one other form of identification. Discounts do
not apply to magazines, special orders and some
other categories.
In addition, Borders
bookstores offer a 20 percent classroom discount
program for teachers of preschool to high school
students. Bring proof of current employment as
a teacher.
Identity theft coverage
Identity theft coverage from AIG comes with
your MSTA membership. This comprehensive
policy will help with identity restoration services,
income protection and other services in the
event that your personal information falls into
the wrong hands.
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION
(Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685)
1. Publication Title: School & Community; 2. Publication No.:
0036-6447; 3. Filing Date: Sept. 25, 2009; 4. Issue Frequency:
Four times during the school year; 5. No. of Issues Published
Annually: 4; 6. Annual Subscription Price: $15; 7. Complete
Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 407 S.
Sixth, P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO 65205-0458; 8. Complete
Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 407 S. Sixth, P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO
65205-0458; 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses
of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher: Missouri
State Teachers Association, 407 S. Sixth, P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO 65205; Editor: Todd Fuller, 407 S. Sixth, P.O. Box 458,
Columbia, MO 65205; 10. Owner: Missouri State Teachers Association, 407 S. Sixth, P.O. Box 458, Columbia, MO 65205; 11.
Known Bondholders, Mortgages, and Other Security Holders
Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of
Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None; 12. For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at special
rates. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this
organization and the exempt status for federal income tax
purposes: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months;
13. Publication Name: School & Community; 14. Issue Date
for Circulation Data Below: May 2009
Average No. Copies Each Issue
During Preceding
12 Months
Actual No. Copies
of Single Issue
Published Nearest
to Filing Date
EXTENT & NATURE OF CIRCULATION
Average
A. Total Copies (Press Run)
46,500
B. Paid and/or Requested Circulation
1. Outside-County Mail Subscriptions
44,405
2. In-County Mail Subscriptions
0
3. Non-USPS Paid Distribution
450
4. Other Classes Mailed Through USPS
0
C. Total Paid &/or Requested
44,855
D. Free Distribution by Mail
1. Outside-County (Form 3541)
0
2. In-County (Form 3541)
0
3. Other Classes Mailed Through USPS
656
4. Free Distribution Outside the Mail
316
E. Total Free Distribution
967
F. Total Distribution
45,822
G. Copies Not Distributed
678
H. Total (Sum of f and g)
46,500
I. Percent paid and/or Requested Circulation
98
Nearest Issue
46,500
45,224
0
0
0
45,224
0
0
95
23
118
45,342
1,158
46,500
99.7
Educators deserve a say in forming education
policy in Missouri, MSTA President Marvin
Young told state lawmakers in February.
Young spoke in favor of a resolution proposed by Sen. Jason Crowell, which proposes
a constitutional amendment that would
ensure practicing educators be placed on the
State Board of Education. Young, a kindergarten teacher in South Harrison Co. R-2,
provided the only testimony on the resolution
in front of the Senate Education Committee.
Many other professions include active
members on their governing bodies, such as
bar associations and nursing boards, Young
said. The constitutional amendment proposed
in the resolution would give teachers a similar
voice. He also stressed that changes to the
educational system would be more effective
with input from active professionals. MSTA is
the only educators’ organization supporting
the resolution.
“We’re in the trenches every day,” Young
said. “We know what education looks like. It’s
much easier to get us on board if we’re part of
the decision-making process.”
The proposal would result in nine state
lll News
MSTA president supports giving teachers a voice
MSTA President Marvin Young testifies in front of the Missouri Senate Education Committee.
board members, rather than the current
eight. Six would be lay members, from
outside the education field, with the others
consisting of one active classroom teacher,
one active building principal and one active
school district superintendent. No more than
three of the lay members could come from
the same political party. Those members
would hold a four-year term, instead of the
current eight, with only one reappointment
possible. The teacher, principal and superintendent members would be eligible to serve
only one four-year term.
If the legislature approves this resolution,
voters would consider the constitutional
amendment in the November 2010 election
or a special election if called by the governor.
You may watch video of Young’s testimony
by visiting MSTA’s Facebook or Youtube sites,
accessible at www.msta.org
College of Education
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Looking for a girls’ getaway weekend? Planning a family reunion?
Hoping to get some quality time with your mate? Consider
Bunker Hill this year. Reservations for the new season are
underway and doing well.
The retreat on the Jacks Fork River offers a variety of activities
depending on your mood. Guests can enjoy fishing or paddling,
or activities close to the cabins, such as tennis, pickle ball, table
tennis and horseshoes. There are even board games and a library
for quiet time or a rainy afternoon.
“We’re updating another cabin this year, improving parking
and making some other enhancements,” Mary Howell, says. She
and her husband, Gregg, are in their fifth season as managers of
Bunker Hill. For reservations, call the Howells, 417-934-2333.
HCR 67, Box 77 • Mountain View, MO 65548
Phone: 417-934-2333
2010 Rates
Rates are subject to change based on cost increases
Adults (11 and older) Children (Under 11)
Breakfast
$6.50
Breakfast
Lunch
$11.00Lunch
Supper
$11.00Supper
Lodging
$44.00Lodging
$3.50
$6.00
$6.00
$22.00
Daily
$37.50
Weekend Rate
$72.50Daily
$134.00
Weekend Rate$69.00
Children under 3 stay free.
Photo by Sarah Kohnle
Photo by istockphoto.com/FreezeFrameStudio
LEGAL
Don’t even think about it
By Vera Campfield
Keeping
up
School policies and laws
School districts place a great and justifiable
importance on proper relationships between
staff and students. There is a professional
code of ethics for teachers that entrusts
students to them to educate, guide and
protect. Under board policies, all staff
members are required to ensure that students
are treated appropriately and their safety is
maintained.
In spite of these common sense rules, any
one of you who has watched the morning
news or has been to your favorite Web site
has heard the lurid but true stories about
inappropriate relationships between school
staff and students. I want to remind you of
some very obvious real and virtual contacts
you cannot have with students.
It never is appropriate in a staff-student
relationship for physical contact of a sexual
nature to occur. This includes rubbing or
massaging a student’s neck, running a finger
along a student’s arm, kissing or other
unambiguous sexual contact. It does not
matter if the relationship is consensual. It
does not matter if the student is the legal
age of majority. It does not matter if the
relationship exists off of school property. A
physical relationship is off limits. Period.
It no doubt violates board policies, state
licensing regulations, child welfare laws and
criminal laws.
Some types of behavior are more difficult
to categorize as appropriate or not. There is
some conduct which may seem like a fun or
friendly way to act, but it still may be inappropriate. For example, staff should not tease
or flirt with students, make jokes or other
comments that contain sexual innuendo, or
comment on a student’s appearance. It also
may be inappropriate to give students nicknames or to have “favorites” who get some
form of special recognition.
Maintaining the appropriate behavior
away from school is often problematic. Both
the staff and the students are in different
venues for their interactions. Even something
as simple as a ride home can lead to real or
alleged improper physical contact. Unless
you are a designated driver for the school
district, in most instances you should not give
rides to students.
Staff on field trips must be especially
aware of their responsibilities. Sharing a bus
ride and staying at a hotel definitely present
different situations from the normal school
environment. Staff are not on field trips to
hang out, party, or have sex with the students.
They are there to guide the legitimate school
functions and maintain the security and
safety of the students.
Technology increasingly is used for educational purposes. Consider that many school
districts have developed Web sites or social
networking sites that allow for expanded staffstudent interaction relating to school projects,
distance learning and so forth. However, it
is important for educators to draw a line on
their virtual behavior just as with their actual
behavior with students. If a social networking
site isn’t school sponsored, the staff should not
be making friends with students, just like they
are not supposed to hang around with them as
“buds” in the real world. The more ordinary usages of technology
– cell calls, texting, IMing – again should be
used for approved school-related purposes
(band practice is canceled) and not extend
to maintain a personal conversation with the
student (what movies are you watching?).
These forms of communication all leave a
trail. What would you want your boss to read
on the printed transcript?
I hate to nag while you natter or chatter or
tweet. But here’s the deal. As education professionals and adults, you must correctly set
your moral compass – the moral boundaries
that an adult sets with a child. It’s up to you.
all the difference?
With knowledge and confidence, you can make
Fortify suicide prevention efforts in your school:
ONLINE courses available
for graduate or
undergraduate credit.
Suicide Prevention for Educational Professionals
focuses on:
• Understanding risk factors and warning signs
• Dispelling myths associated with suicide
• Learning about prevention programs and treatment
• Providing support in the aftermath of suicide
Preview this NEW ONLINE COURSE and see the other
topics we oﬀer for teachers and counselors at:
cdis.missouri.edu/go/prevention.aspx
lll Resources
Youth Service America
Youth Service America offers numerous opportunities and resources to get kids, classes
and schools involved in service learning.
There are grants, guides and details on
getting involved in Global Youth Service
Day, April 23-25. Visit www.ysa.org.
Get SMART
Are you making the most of your SMART
products? SMART offers lesson ideas, webinars,
newsletters and more to help educators make
the most of their SMART products. You can
also browse profiles of showcase districts from
around the world to see how they’re using
SMART boards, SMART notebooks and other
products. Visit www.education.smarttech.com.
Scott Arthur Masear
Put your classroom up for adoption
Adopt-a-Classroom invites teachers to register
in hopes of matching them with businesses
and other organizations that offer financial
contributions. By registering, your classroom will be posted on Adopt-a-Classroom.
Benefactors can search for a classroom with
specific needs or have Adopt-a-Classroom
select one for them. Once adopted, teachers
can use their donor’s money at their discretion to purchase resources and materials
from a network of affiliated vendors. For more
information, visit www.adoptaclassroom.org.
Federal Resources for
Educational Excellence
More than 30 federal agencies have come
together to place teacher resources in one spot.
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence,
or FREE, offers thousands of primary documents, photos, videos, animations and more.
Whether you’re looking for an animated tour
of DNA, or James Madison’s personal writings, there will be something for your subject
and age group. Visit www.free.ed.gov.
Missouri Children’s Museum
The Missouri Children’s Museum of Columbia
offers a hands-on stimulating play environment for children up to age 12. The museum
offers activities that explore art, science, music,
storytelling and more that encourage learning
through playing. This is a new facility, inspired
by children’s museums from other cities around
the country. This spring, the MOCM will open
an outdoor play area. For more information,
visit www.missourichildrensmuseum.com.
close up
Josh Myers
Band director, Fayette R-3
“I enjoy it when
students accomplish
something. When they
hit a note they never
hit before, when they
play a passage they
never played before.
It’s the little things.”
Josh Myers picked up the trumpet in sixth
grade and never let go. Now he’s the guy up
front with a baton. Josh, band director at
Fayette R-3, says his inspiration was Keith
Ruether, his band director from sixth-12th
grade in Fulton. But there’s more. Keith was
a student of Skip Vandelicht, with whom
Josh student taught. All three are Central
Methodist alums. And when Skip retired
from Fayette after three decades, Josh was
fortunate to land the position.
Photo by Michael Lising
Deadline: May 1
It’s tough to maintain enthusiasm for your
career when multiple demands wreak havoc
with your life. We want to recognize those
educators new to the field who juggle it all
and do it well. In our Fall S&C we will turn the
spotlight on 10 up-and-coming leaders in
education and MSTA.
Nominations are open to MSTA members
who’ve been on the job for 10 years and less.
Please send your suggestions to [email protected].
Let us know why your colleague deserves to be recognized.
Teaching
is an
art.
Master it.
“I found Columbia College’s online
and evening classes to work well
with my full-time teaching schedule.
Obtaining a MAT will not only
benefit me as a teacher, but also
will benefit my students as learners.”
Callie Westhues ‘09
Second-grade teacher
Glasgow Elementary School
Your bachelor’s degree got you where you are now.
An MAT will get you where you want to be.
On campus. Online. Or both.
Columbia College, a private institution founded in 1851, educates more than 26,000 students each year
and has more than 64,000 alumni worldwide.
Toll free: (877) 999-9876
www.ccis.edu/masterit

SPring 2010 - Missouri State Teachers Association

Transcription

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