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NWPE News Notes
The Online Communiqué of Northwest Professional Educators
March 18, 2005
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES
Teacher Scholarship/Classroom Mini-Grant Fall Awards & Spring Applications
FREE: Presentation about Teacher Rights and Negotiation Options
FREE: NWPE Winter 2005 Newsletter Now Online
FREE: Online Course Management System Saves Teachers Time
FREE: Insurance Education Summer Institute for High School Teachers
FREE: Teacher to Teacher Initiative Professional Development Workshops to Improve Student Performance
Teacher Loan Program: New Loan Forgiveness Limits
Learning about Sexual Diversity: What is Age-Appropriate?
New High School Media Literacy Website
NEWS & REPORTS
An A-Maze-ing Approach to Math
Why Johnny Won't Read
Education Moe-Joe: A Teacher Union Spams the Wall Street Journal
NWPE Serves on National Focus Panel on Non-Union Professional Educators Organizations
Independent Local Education Associations
TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP/CLASSROOM MINI-GRANT APPLICATIONS DUE MARCH 31
Congratulations to the following educators who were awarded Classroom Mini-Grant/Teacher Scholarships in Northwest Professional Educators' Fall Review:
Brad Patzer, Lakeland, ID
Deborah Wilbur, Snohomish, WA
Carlotta Szabo, Spokane, WA
Deena Mauerman, Chehalis, WA
Sr. Maria Inviolata, Spokane, WA
NWPE Teacher Scholarship and Classroom Mini-Grant Applications for awards of $200 - $500 are available for our spring review. The application deadline has been extended to April 6, 2005 (received by NWPE). The application process is simple and brief. To request an application, please contact NWPE with your name, school, address, and phone number at info@nwpe.org or call 800-380-6973. All educators are eligible for the awards. For more information about the program, see http://www.nwpe.org/scholarships.htm.
PRESENTATION ON TEACHER RIGHTS AND NEGOTIATION OPTIONS
Teachers in many school districts have expressed interest in learning more about their rights regarding union membership and negotiation options to the current NEA model which requires payments to the state union and NEA in order to belong to the NEA's local association.
Northwest Professional Educators (NWPE) is not a union and does not do collective bargaining, however, NWPE can provide advice to educators who are searching for locally accountable negotiation models, job protection, and professional support services that meet their needs at a reasonable cost and without funding politics they may object to. Teachers in several districts have asked both NWPE and their teachers union to make presentations so that they may compare and contrast services and fees.
If you are interested in a presentation about teacher rights, negotiation options, and NWPE benefits and nonbargaining support services, please contact Cindy Omlin, Executive Director, Northwest Professional Educators, at info@nwpe.org or call 800-380-6973.
NORTHWEST PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR NEWSLETTER NOW ONLINE
The Winter 2005 Northwest Professional Educator is now posted online at http://www.nwpe.org/PDF_Files/NWPE_Newsletter_Winter_05.pdf.
Articles include "Opening Doors for All Students" (free supplemental educational services), "Let's Be Reasonable about 504s and IEPs," "New Media Literacy Website Available," Teacher Scholarship/Classroom Mini-Grant Award Winners, Fall 2004," "The Impact of Monopoly Unionism on Public Education, Part II," "NWPE Summer 2005 Conference on Education Issues" (in Coeur d'Alene, ID, July 23rd), "NWPE Integrity Appreciated."
FREE ONLINE COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, GRADE CONNECT, SAVES TEACHERS TIME
"Teachers often have too many things that seem to take the fun out of teaching: phone calls, answering questions, remembering to announce a test to all the classes. The list goes on. . . Grade Connect takes the sting out of the tedious and time-consuming activities that seem to bog down your day. With a little investment of time in the beginning of the school year, you'll save a fantastic amount of time for the rest of the year. The online gradebook allows you to post up-to-the-day grades and keep students continuously informed about their academic standing, so there are less questions. It will automatically calculate quarter grades. . . You can post homework and project assignments along with due dates—the students' personal calendar feature constantly reminds them of upcoming deadlines."
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http://www.gradeconnect.com/current/
FREE INSURANCE EDUCATION SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS
Mississippi State University (MSU) will host an Insurance Education Institute, sponsored by the Insurance Education Foundation (IEF), July 17-22, 2005. This program will be funded by a grant from IEF, and is a three-credit hour, graduate-level insurance education institute for high school teachers. The grant covers all expenses for the participants, including tuition, room and board, and educational materials, with the exception of travel.
This course is designed for educators who teach insurance either as a specific course or as part of another subject. Its purpose is to enable teachers to become more effective in teaching insurance by providing the tools needed for understanding all forms of insurance, with an emphasis on the relevance to high school students and their families.
The institute at MSU will consist of an online segment that will provide a basic introduction to the topics for the three weeks preceding the on-site segment. For more information, contact Tammi Riddle, MSU Program Director, at triddle@cobilan.msstate.edu or 662-325-7472 or visit www.distance.msstate.edu/iei.
TEACHER TO TEACHER INITIATIVE TO IMPROVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Get professional development now! Learn about teaching algebra, reading in content areas, differentiated instruction, turning data into information, and more. Earn credit using online videos. (They're also available via satellite TV.) The videos are from presentations made at the Teacher-to-Teacher Workshops (summer 2004). Check out the Powerpoint presentations from those workshops.
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http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/index.html
TEACHER LOAN PROGRAM: NEW LOAN FORGIVENESS LIMITS
The US Department of Education announces the new changes to the Teacher Loan Program:
Do you teach math, science or special education? Have you taught for five years in a Title I school? If you answered yes to both of these questions, the U.S. Department of Education would like you to know that you may be eligible for new loan forgiveness limits recently signed into law by President George W. Bush.
The Taxpayer-Teacher Protection Act (P.L. 108-409) authorizes up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness to eligible highly qualified math, science and special education teachers. This dramatic increase of $12,500 above the previous loan limits is meant to ease the shortage of teachers in key subject areas. The increased amount of teacher loan forgiveness is available to new borrowers (teachers with no outstanding loan balances prior to Oct. 1, 1998, who borrow eligible loans prior to Oct. 1, 2005). The additional loan forgiveness will provide substantial relief for existing teachers and an incentive for prospective teachers to teach in subjects and schools that have difficulty hiring highly qualified candidates. If you do not currently meet the "highly qualified" teacher designation in NCLB, earning a Passport to Teaching certification from the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) will grant you this status. (Visit www.abcte.org.)
For detailed information on the program and to find out if you qualify for the loan forgiveness, please call the Department's Federal Student Aid Customer Service hotline at 1-800-433-7327. More information on the loan forgiveness limits is posted on the Web at: http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN0414.html.
LEARNING ABOUT SEXUAL DIVERSITY: WHAT IS AGE-APPROPRIATE?
NEW HIGH SCHOOL MEDIA LITERACY WEBSITE
StudentNewsDaily.com is a new website promoting media literacy for high school students. Teacher Kathy Privrat designed the site to assist teachers by providing questions on news articles and commentaries from various news sites. The day’s top news story is posted by 11 a.m. along with comprehension and critical thinking questions. The site also provides a student poll, the opportunity for students to interpret editorial cartoons, lessons on identifying bias in the media, human interest items, and links.
StudentNewsDaily.com provides news stories necessary for students to become well-rounded in their knowledge of current events. Students are encouraged to engage in the democratic process by identifying their own position on the issues of the day, making their voices heard by participating in polls, contacting their congressmen, and writing letters to the editor. Linked news sites include The Washington Times, World Net Daily, Fox News, CNS News and News Max. Opinion sites include Opinion Journal and Townhall. Magazine sites include Human Events, National Review, Weekly Standard, and World Magazine.
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www.StudentNewsDaily.com
AN A-MAZE-ING APPROACH TO MATH
"Texts that are based on NCTM’s standards focus on concepts and problem solving, but provide a minimum of exercises to build the skills necessary to understand concepts or solve the problems. Thus students are presented with real-life problems in the belief that they will learn what is needed to solve them. While adherents believe that such an approach teaches 'mathematical thinking' rather than dull routine skills, some mathematicians have likened it to teaching someone to play water polo without first teaching him to swim."
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http://www.educationnext.org/20052/28.html
WHY JOHNNY WON'T READ
"Unfortunately, the textbooks and literature assigned in the elementary grades do not reflect the dispositions of male students. Few strong and active male role models can be found as lead characters. Gone are the inspiring biographies of the most important American presidents, inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs. No military valor, no high adventure. On the other hand, stories about adventurous and brave women abound. Publishers seem to be more interested in avoiding "masculine" perspectives or "stereotypes" than in getting boys to like what they are assigned to read."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33956-2005Jan24.html
EDUCATION MOE-JOE: A TEACHER UNION SPAMS THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Every op-ed writer dreams of stirring controversy, so congratulations to Stanford education scholar Terry Moe for provoking an e-mail blast with his piece in The Wall Street Journal last week arguing that the teachers unions need to be politically constrained if public school reform is ever going to be possible."
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http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006193
NWPE SERVES ON NATIONAL FOCUS PANEL ON NONUNION PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS ORGANIZATIONS
Jennifer Snyder, Moses Lake School District 9th grade physical science teacher, and Cindy Omlin, Northwest Professional Educators Executive Director and former Spokane School District educator, served on a national focus panel in Washington, D.C. for the Association of American Educators, a non-profit, non-union professional educators association that provides a voice for teachers who believe that the national teacher unions do not represent their viewpoints or beliefs. The purpose of the panel was to discuss the professional association needs of new millennial teachers¾younger teachers who are currently entering the profession. For full story, see http://www.nwpe.org/National_Focus_Panel.htm.
INDEPENDENT LOCAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATIONS
Formerly affiliated with the Ohio Education Association and the NEA, Bill Seigferth, the now independent Akron Education Association's president Bill Seigferth has said that, "a strong local has little need for the clout of the state and national union, and the clout of the state and national union can do little to help a weak local."
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http://www.educationnews.org/independent-local-education-asso.htm
Northwest Professional Educators
PO Box 28496
Spokane, WA 99228-8496
www.nwpe.org, info@nwpe.org, 800-380-6973
Please see five-minute video about NWPE at www.nwpe.org.
Reasons to Join: http://www.nwpe.org/PDF_Files/Reasons_to_%20Join.pdf
Member Testimonials: http://www.nwpe.org/membertestimonials.htm
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