head of class

head
of
class
SubContractor
Substitutes’ activist makes temporary
teachers permanently happy.
teacher and a union delegate. One Alabama woman recently wrote
as expendable losers struggling to control rambunctious students him that although she loves her job, she makes just $45 a day, less
who figure the rules are on hold. In reality, they are often retirees than what many fast food workers earn and a rate below minimum
or inexperienced new graduates working thankless jobs that pay wage in many states.
by the day.They move from place to place, where they are needed
Politis has big plans for the NSTA, which went without a presibut barely acknowledged.
dent for about a year before he took over in 2005. First, they must
It’s enough to make Jim Politis throw down his lesson plans.
organize.Though many NSTA members lead substitute-union locals
Instead, Politis, a substitute teacher for the past six years, became in their communities, others are fearful about getting too involved.
an outspoken champion for this downtrodden group as president of “So many subs are dependent on this income,” says Millie McBee, an
the National Substitute Teachers Alliance (NSTA).“I’m not ashamed NSTA board member. “They’re afraid to start groups in their area.
to say I’m a sub,” says Politis, who directs the nonprofit organization They are afraid of the school board because this is their main job.”
from his home base in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Politis is no stranger to bargaining, having cut his teeth as a delPolitis works on behalf of the 274,000 substitutes who teach egate with the National Education Association. In 1968, the first
5 million kids each day.The NSTA has only 400 members so far, but year he served, the Montgomery County, Maryland, teachers went
Politis aims to triple membership over the next year, while raising on strike. Months later, they won the right to bargain on wages,
awareness of issues crucial to subs: better health care, proper class- hours, and working conditions. “The subs are suffering the same
room training, a grievance process, and the option to join a union.
indignities that I suffered when I started teaching,” he says.
He is part advocate, part confidant, often spending
History in the classroom might be repeating itself, Politis
Get Started
evenings on email helping substitute teachers solve
adds. But that won’t stop his mission to gain something he
To learn more, go to
problems, lending advice gleaned from thirty-two years
believes every substitute teacher deserves: respect.
• www.nstasubs.org
—Kim Girard
of experience as a high school psychology and history
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EDUTOPIA APRIL/MAY 2006
BRIAN CAIRNS
Substitute teachers are often stereotyped
Multicultural Math Posters
Set of 4 $50, set of 16 $190;
1-800/445-5985
www.etacuisenaire.com
In these colorful poster sets for grades
3–8, students learn how foreign
cultures contributed to the rich
history of mathematics. One
poster illustrates how Chinese
mathematicians helped develop the
base ten system. Another on Ireland
shows the numerical beauty of the Book
of Kells. From Russia to ancient Babylon, kids
will discover that even numbers have a history.
Smart Board 600 Series
Smart Technologies;
48 inches $700, 64 inches $1,120,
77 inches $1,400 (conditional prices)
1-888-427-6278
www.smarttech.com
The creaky green chalkboard seems
Paleolithic compared to the newest sleek
version of Smart Technologies’s interactive
whiteboard. Use your finger to write, erase,
and perform mouse functions. Pick up the pen
or eraser in the built-in pen tray, and the board automatically detects
the selected tool. You can write in “digital ink” and save any screen
as a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or AutoCAD file. Software provides
access to thousands of free images and templates and allows you to
create concept maps, while an optional speaker system and wireless
connection juices up any presentation.
Vocabulary Accelerator 01
Defined Mind; $25; 1-212/925-5138
www.defmind.com
The workbook and CD (for grades 7 to adult) fuse twelve original songs
in hip-hop, rock, and other styles with vocabulary and comprehension
activities such as puzzles, synonym matching, and fill-in-the-blank exercises. All the tracks include articulate lyrics. In the opening song, “Hot,”
for example, students listen carefully and jot down the “money words”—
or vocabulary—for the song’s lesson, then dive into their workbooks and
explore the meaning of the lyrics, from conflagration to indefatigable.
What are you waiting for? Sing yourself smart.
Extra
Credit
Great things for class—tested
in our secret underground labs.
KidBiz3000
BILL DUKE
Achieve 3000; starts at $9,250; 1-888/968-6822
www.achieve3000.com/kidbiz3000.php
We’ve all heard the horror stories about high
schoolers identifying Canada as an American
state. KidBiz3000, then, is a much-needed
outlet to boost news-literacy skills for
grades 2–8. After students set up an email
account and determine reading level on a
pretest, they’ll receive a Reuters news article—edited to match their comprehension
ability—each day. All students read about
the same topic, so they can discuss what
they’ve learned. There are also stock market
simulations and tech-literary lessons, ranging
from using a keyboard to animated slide
shows. Sign up—and get ’em biz-zy.
10
THOUSAND DOLLARS
Putting the Movement Back
into Civil Rights Teaching
Edited by Deborah Menkart, Alana D.
Murray, and Jenice View
Teaching for Change and the Poverty and
Race Research Action Council; $25;
576 pages; 1-800/763-9131
www.civilrightsteaching.org
When kids hear about the courageous woman
who refused to give up her seat on the bus or
the man who gave a mesmerizing speech about his
dream, it’s often their first exposure to issues of social
injustice. But those lessons engage students only momentarily—
they seem to recall little besides Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr.
Yet the movement is full of much more. The book includes lessons for
all levels; a related Web site is designed to spark discussions.
Amount a nine-year-old student from Hartford, Connecticut, won for perfect
attendance. Meanwhile, Chicago students with no absences for the first three
months of school are eligible for $500 worth of groceries or $1,000 toward a
rent or mortgage payment. With various forms of educational funding related
to average daily attendance, schools are working hard to keep the numbers
high, or suffer the fiscal consequences .
2006 APRIL/MAY EDUTOPIA
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head
of
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secured a 6.5-ton cedar log from British Columbia and monitored
every step of its three-year transformation.
The canoe was carved on the school’s playground in partnership
with the Center for Wooden Boats, where Seattle residents of all
ages come to build, paddle, and sail everything from small model
boats to oceangoing yachts. Former AS 1 principal Ron Snyder initially connected the school to the center in 1988, engaging students
in several projects, including one in which they applied the technique of lofting to create small models of sailing yachts. “It involves
scale and proportion, knowing how to use the tools to transform the
wood into an object in exact proportions to a blueprint,” says
Snyder. Whether the subject is math or history, he adds, “experience-based education sticks. You really find out about yourself and
your relationship to your history.”
As the canoe neared completion, the AS 1 students decided to
give—and deliver—it to Peele’s Haida tribe in Alaska. In April 2004,
the canoe was shipped to Hydaburg, where the students paddled it to the
village. It was a moving experience for all involved, especially parents
such as Susan Hoyt, who helped guide the effort. “It’s really an integrative form of learning—the mathematical stuff you need to work on the
canoe, the woodworking training, learning how to work cooperatively in
a group,” Hoyt says. “It just seemed like an opportunity that I as a parent
didn’t want to pass up.”
in Seattle, Sáádúúts Peele, a master
For Peele, it was the fulfillment of a vision that had come to him in a
carver originally from Hydaburg, Alaska, surveyed his work party.
dream. “It made my heart cry with joy to see the cultural connection
“Ready? One, two, three . . . woooooo . . . woooooo!”
when my people were standing on the beach waiting to receive the
Feeding off their collective energy, they lifted the 800-pound canoe,
canoe,” he says. “It touched everybody.” The connection continues
dubbed Ocean Spirit. Members of Seattle’s Alternative School 1 comtoday, with three more canoes in the works.
munity cradled the product of their labor and marched it slowly to the
Peele sees the project’s success as a model for educational reform.
shore of Golden Gardens at Puget Sound. It was an impressive piece of
Students, he says, “are hungry for this new way. It’s a new but old way. We
work: an authentic hand-carved, hand-painted, 40-foot voyaging canoe
can’t keep them on the side and expect them to learn. We’re cutting too
like those that plied the seas of the Pacific Northwest centuries ago.
many things out of the children’s life, working with their
AS 1’s students, ranging from kindergartners to eighth
HOT LINKS
To watch a GLEF video,
hands, mind, and spirit. We could tell this story, but if they
graders, did much of the carving as part of their Native
and learn more about
practice this story and do it hands on, it’s a living story, and
American culture history curriculum. The nonprofit organizathis project, go to
• www.edutopia.org/1487
that’s why they want to be here and be part of it.” —Ken Ellis
tion Carving Culture Connections, founded by Peele,
Living History
Living
History
Carving project proves seaworthy.
Field Trips
Places to go, people to see,
things to do.
April
National Association of
Elementary School Principals
San Antonio, Texas, April 1–4
It’s lonely at the top, so get the support you
need at this annual gathering of leaders.
American ABC:
Childhood in 19th-Century America
Palo Alto, California, through May 7
What was it like to be a kid in the time of
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EDUTOPIA APRIL/MAY 2006
rulers and ’rithmetic and one-room schools?
This comprehensive exhibition explores that
issue with style and intelligence. It heads
July 1 to the Smithsonian American Art
Museum, in Washington, DC.
The eLearning Guild Annual Gathering
Boston, April 18–21
One of the biggest topics in the age of the
iKid: e-learning. Developers, designers, and
managers of online learning sync up this
month to share their products and expertise.
Tech Fiesta
San Antonio, Texas, April 26–27
Business managers join ranks with educators
in sizzling San Antonio to showcase tools
and methods for tech integration in schools.
Then stay a little longer to catch the tail end
of the city’s annual Fiesta.
51st Annual International
Reading Association Convention
Chicago, April 30–May 4
How do we address the needs of struggling
readers? Can we use technology to inspire
them? Find out in the Windy City.
May
BookExpo America
Washington, DC, May 18–21
For bookworms everywhere. Publishers,
authors, and educators meet and mingle.
Get Started For Web links about these events, go to
• www.edutopia.org/1488
DAN LAMONT
On a bright Tuesday