• Ways to Start the Year Off Right, Planning Can Make All the Difference
• Some more tips to help you start your school year right!
• Ways to Beat theFirst Day Jitters: Organization + Activities = Success
• Beginning secondary school teachers get "launch-pad" to mastery
• Works4me: members' great ideas

"I Can Do It" training helps new teachers succeed

Yet another education resource from KNEA!

"I Can Do It" is a fast-paced, intensive seminar in classroom management for early career educators as well as career teachers who want to be rejuvenated, teachers who may have concerns with some areas of classroom management or who just want a refresher. The 6-hour seminar helps prepare teachers for the year. More importantly, it helps keep good teachers in the classroom. Research shows that the profession loses one-third of new teachers by the third year. Programs like "I Can Do It" help new teachers succeed and stay in the profession.

The seminar helps teachers start the school year on a positive note, and it reinforces previous learnings from undergraduate preparation programs, like the importance of classroom rules and the need for consistent discipline.  It also focuses on instructional strategies that work with diverse learners.

Go Slow to Go Fast

The overarching philosophy behind ICDI is "Go slow to go fast, meaning take the time to do it right in the beginning and to build the skills and routines the students need.  Teachers should not be afraid to take the time they need to develop a positive learning environment. Once students have those basics, then you can really move through the curriculum," said Peg Dunlap, director of Instructional Advocacy. Many ICDI graduates use the "go slow" mantra in everything they do.

Not an in-service indoctrination

 "We model cooperative learning and different teaching styles, we do a lot of small group work, and we introduce teachers to the colleagues they'll be working with at school," Dunlap said.

The program works well because it includes teachers of all levels.  Early career educators are invited as well as career teachers.

Want to know more?
Contact Peg Dunlap in KNEA's Instructional Advocacy Office.

Coping with Stress in the Classroom

KNEA Quick Tips
Preventing Classroom Stress

During many times of year educators will feel overwhelmed. Within the first few weeks of school there will be many new demands made of you: new texts, new techniques, new schedules, new students and a new way of life. It’s an exciting as well as a stressful time for all of us. During the Holidays, the number of personal and professional obligations increases significantly. In the spring, there are tests, assessments and end-of-year grades, reports and projects.

In the midst of all this excitement, you may notice some physical and emotional reactions to the new demands.  Understanding what is happening will help you cope with these responses. After all, the only people without stress are in the cemetery!  It isn’t stress that causes problems, but rather the inappropriate choices we make in coping with the demands on us.

People who don’t deal positively with stressful situations become ill.  This occurs because the body’s immune system is worn down in the fight against the stressors.  Migraines, ulcers, backaches, constipation and heart attacks are only a few of the physical consequences of inappropriate coping techniques.

Experienced teachers have found some useful techniques and some “preventive medicine” to protect against debilitating stress symptoms. We know you can't do all of these suggestions.  Experiment and see what works best for you.

Exercise! 

After a day of teaching, you owe it to your body to shake off the chalk dust.  It will revive you.  Exercise also helps rid the body of chemicals that are discharged as a result of stress.  The best cardiovascular activities include walking, swimming, bicycling and jogging.  (Always clear your exercise plan with your physician.)

Leave your teaching at school. 

If you must lug home schoolwork, get it done early in the evening.  Better yet, do it at school and leave it there.

Be good to yourself. 

What could do more for your self-esteem than to take yourself out to dinner or buy yourself a treat?

Always have something to look forward to. 

 This will perk up your spirits.

Don’t schedule all of your leisure hours. 

You live by a schedule all day long.  Leave yourself some “open space.”

Get plenty of sleep. 

Go to bed early if you are tired.  Don’t lie awake worrying about how you should have handled Johnny in class.

Observe good eating habits.  

Watch your vitamin and mineral supplements.  You need to eat wholesome foods so that your body takes in a sufficient amount of calcium, potassium, iron, vitamin B, vitamin C and protein.  When in stress, the system calls on these nutrients for energy.  If they are not available, the physiological system breaks down and you get tired or sick.

Pursue a project or hobby that involves your concentration so much that you forget about school. 

You’ll find this much more relaxing than doing nothing but thinking about school.

Find a friend who can be a “trusted” listener. 

Talking a problem out won’t make it go away, but it can relieve tension.  Do your talking in a private place.  Don’t vent your frustrations in a public place where you can be overheard and misunderstood.

KNEA Quick Tips:

• Don’t procrastinate about things you have to do.  Having something “hanging over you” can cause more tension than the project is worth.
• Don’t feel you have to do everything.  You can’t and you won’t.  So why worry about it?
• Keep a “things to do” list.  Review it daily and do at least one or two things.  When you cross something off the list, you will have a sense of accomplishment.
• Rid yourself of worry.  A study has shown that 40 percent of the items people worry about never happen; 35 percent can be changed; 15 percent turn out better than expected; 8 percent involve needless concern; and only 2 percent really deserve attention.
• Learn to plan .  Disorganization breeds stress.  Having too many projects going at the same time leads to confusion, forgetfulness and a terrible sense of dread because of the unfinished tasks hanging over one’s head.  Plan ahead.  Develop your own personal style of getting things done in a calm, orderly way.  Whenever possible, take on projects one at a time and work on them until completed.
• Learn to play .  You need to regularly escape from the pressures of life and have fun.  Find pastimes or hobbies that are absorbing and enjoyable regardless of your level of ability.
• Recognize and accept limits .  Most of us set unreasonable and perfectionist goals for ourselves.  However, we can never be perfect (or even come close), so we often have a sense of failure or inadequacy no matter how well we perform.  Reevaluate your goals with ruthless realism.  Are they achievable?  Or do they reflect an effort to reach perfection, certainty or ultimate security in an imperfect world?  Is that what life is really all about?
• Learn to tolerate and forgive . Intolerance and judging of others leads to frustration and anger.  Try to really understand the other person’s concerns and fears.  Try to see the pressures on them.  This will make you feel more accepting of them even if you do not agree with their behavior options.
• Work at being a positive person .  Avoid criticizing others.  Learn to praise the things you like in others.  Focus on the good qualities of those around you.  Excessive criticism of others almost always reflects dissatisfaction with oneself.
• Avoid unnecessary competition. Many competitive situations cannot be avoided.   But too much concern with winning in too many areas of life creates tension and hostility. It is generally desirable to minimize competitiveness and concern with winning.
• Get regular physical exercise .  Check with your physician before beginning any exercise program.  You will be more likely to stay with the program if you choose one that you really enjoy rather than one that seems like drudgery.  It is difficult to overstate the importance of regular, vigorous exercise for good physical and mental health.
• Talk out your troubles .  Find a friend, member of the clergy, counselor or therapist you can be open with.  Expressing your “bottled up” tension and concerns to an understanding and sympathetic ear can be incredibly helpful.

Preventing Classroom Stress

• Involve students and parents in the development of classroom procedures and rules.
• Develop management guidelines that are appropriate to the age and cultural context of the students.
• Emphasize the development of self-discipline in the classroom management plan.
• Communicate desired behaviors, expectations, and rules to students on a regular basis.
•  Be flexible in implementing the management plan. Remember that situations change, students develop new interests and each person is unique.
• Utilize cooperative learning strategies that promote the involvement of all students.
• Review the management plan periodically to assure that needed refinements are made.
• Know the behavior of the students as much as possible and integrate this knowledge into classroom management planning.
• Anticipate potential problems and design scenarios for responding to them.
• Evaluate the plan at least once a year, using the results to refine and improve it.

Swick, Kevin S., Student Stress: A Classroom Management System, Washington, D.C., National Education Association.

NEA Professional Library's "IDEA Survival Guide" can help you make sense of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act '97 (IDEA). You'll find practical advice on discipline, developing Individualized Education Programs, and more. Check it out free online.

http://store.nea.org

• Print out this brochure
• More suggestions for parent teacher conferences

25 Tips for Successful Parent Conferences

Working for a Common Goal: Academic Success

Communicating with parents is one of the most important things we do as teachers. When we can work together with a child’s parents toward common goals, we improve the atmosphere for learning.

Most successful teacher-parent teams begin with a conference, usually one conducted before there’s a real need to meet.

Of course, while parent conferences can be one of the most helpful techniques in a teacher’s “bag of tricks,” we also know that sometimes they can be a discouraging waste of time -- or even turn into ugly confrontations.

Here are some tips to help make your parent conferences productive and successful:

1. Invite both parents

Encourage both parents to attend conferences when possible. Misunderstandings are less common if both parents hear what you have to saym abd tiy'll be able to gauge the kind of support both parents give the child. Remember that both mother and father may not be available. Increasing numbers of Kansas children live in single-parent homes. Even with two parents, both parents often work outside the home.

2. Make contact early

You'll get your relationship with parents off to a good start if you contact them early in the year, perhaps with a memo or newsletter sent home to all pupils. Give parents an outline of what their children will be studying, and let them know you’ll be happy to meet with them, and how and when they may contact you for conferences.

3. Allow enough time

Schedule plenty of time for the meeting. Twenty to thirty minutes is usually adequate. If you’re scheduling back-to-back conferences, be sure to allow enough time between them (10 minutes or so) so you can make necessary notes on the just-conducted conferences and prepare for the upcoming one.

4. Be ready for questions

Parents may have specific questions. They’re likely to ask:

• What is my child’s ability level?
• Is my child working up to his/her ability level?
• How is my child doing in specific subjects?
• Does my child cause any trouble?
• Does my child have any specific skills or abilities in schoolwork?

5. Plan – Get your papers organized in advance

Assemble your grade book, test papers, samples of the student’s work, attendance records and other pertinent data ahead of time. Have in mind a general but flexible outline of what you're going to say, including a survey of student progress, a review of his or her strengths and needs, and proposed plan of action.

6. Greet parents near the entrance they’ll use

You'll alleviate anxiety and frustration and make parents feel more welcome.

7. Get the name right

Don’t assume that Jennifer Peabody’s mother is Mrs. Peabody. She could well have been married again since Jennifer was born. Check your record ahead of time to make sure you’ve got the parents’ names right.

And don’t assume that the wrinkled gray-haired gentleman coming in with Johnny is his grandfather. It could be his father or an uncle. Politely ask. Double check names so you don’t talk to the Smiths about their son “Stan” when their son’s name is “Steve.”

8. Avoid physical barriers

Don’t sit behind your desk or force the parents to squeeze into the children’s desks on the front row. Arrange conference table seating, if possible, so you’ll all be equals together.

9. Open on a positive note

Begin conferences on a warm, positive note to keep everyone relaxed. Start with a positive statement about the child’s abilities, work or interests.

10. Structure the session

As soon as the parents arrive, review the structure of the conference -- the why, what, how and when -- so you’ll both have an “agenda.” (Remember, of course, that parents often come with their own agendas or questions they want answered, so you’ll have to be flexible.)

11. Be specific in your comments

Parents may flounder if you deal only in generalities. Instead of saying “She doesn’t accept responsibility,” pin down the problem by pointing out “Amanda had a whole week to finish up her book report, but she only wrote two paragraphs.”

12. Offer a suggested course of action

Parents appreciate being given some specific direction. If Jane is immature, it might be helpful to suggest that her parents give her a list of weekly chores, allow her to take care of a pet or give her a notebook to write down assignments. (Of course, when you offer advice, let parents know you’re only making a suggestion.)

13. Forget the jargon

Education jargon phrases like “criterion referenced testing,” “perceptual skills” and “least restrictive environment” may be just too much double-talk to many parents.

14. Turn the other cheek

It is unusual to run into parents who are abusive and hostile, but it can happen. Try not to be rude, whatever the provocation. Hear out the parents in as pleasant a manner as possible, without getting defensive. If the situation is threatening or you begin to feel uncomfortable, end the conference immediately or call for assistance.

15. Ask for parents’ opinions

Let parents know you’re interested in their opinions, are eager to answer their questions and want to work with them throughout the year to help make their child’s education the best. Confirm that you want to work together in the best interests of the child.

16. Focus on strengths

It’s very easy for parents to feel defensive, since many of them see themselves in their children. You’ll help if you review the child’s strengths, solutions and areas of need, rather than dwelling on criticism or stressing weaknesses.

17. Use body language

Nonverbal cues set the mood of the conference. Smile, nod, make eye contact and lean forward slightly. You’ll be using your body’s language to let parents know you’re interested and approving.

18. Listen to what parents say

Despite the fact we spend nearly a third of our lives listening, most adults are poor listeners. We concentrate on what we’re going to say next, or we let our minds drift off to other concerns, or we hear only part of what a speaker is saying. You’ll get more out of a parent conference if you really listen to what parents are saying to you.

19. Ask about the child

You don’t want to pry, of course, but remember to ask parents if there is anything they think you should know about (such as study habits, relationships with siblings, any important events in his or her life) which may affect his or her schoolwork.

20. Don’t judge

It may not always be possible to react neutrally to what parents say — their values may be very different from yours. Your judgment of parents’ attitudes or behaviors can be a roadblock to a productive relationship with them.

21. Summarize

Before the conference ends, summarize the discussion and what actions you and the parents have decided to take.

22. Wind up on a positive note

When you can, save at least one encouraging comment or positive statement about the student for the end of the conference.

23. Meet again if you need to

If you feel you need more time, arrange another meeting later rather than trying to rush everything before the kids get back from art class.

24. Keep a record of the conference

You may find it helpful later to have a brief record of what was said at the conference, what suggestions for improvement were made and so forth. Make notes as soon as possible after the conference while details are fresh.

25. Keep confidences

Parents will tell you information they would not share with anyone else. Do not share “amusing” stories about the student’s family with family or colleagues. Your funny story could cause pain to those you have tried most to encourage.

26. Know Kansas law

If you learn anything from a parent that might cause you to suspect child abuse, know your “duty to report” under Kansas law.

Field trips are wonderful opportunities to use the community as a learning device and expand teaching resources.

An excursion outside the classroom can add realism to an area of study. A history lesson on the Civil War can become real in a student’s imagination during a visit to a battleground or fort. Kansas is a wealth of experiences waiting to be explored! (Do you have ideas and websites worth exploring for a field trip or day trip? Send your suggestions to kneanews@knea.org!)

Don’t let yourself get so excited about the trip, however, that you race through critical preparations and overlook key elements that provide an educational and safe experience for both the students and yourself.

First check with the other teachers in your grade level or subject area to review district and building policies. In some instances you may find that the parent/teacher organization does all the field trip planning. In addition to checking on the rules, ask what other teachers in your building have done in the past or are planning to do this year.

If the fifth graders always go to the museum and you preempt the experience by taking your fourth graders, it may be your first and last field trip.

You’ll want to develop your own checklist to meet your specific requirements. Here is a starter checklist.

Bullying and Teasing

• Introduction
• Why a Kindergarten to Grade Three Program
• Information for All Educators
• KNEA has the resources — just call and ask!
• Click here to contact KNEA about these workshops

Introduction

One of the most important discussions going on in schools today is dealing with students who use violent and aggressive behaviors. How do teachers identify students who exhibit these behaviors? How should teachers work with students so that they choose appropriate behavior at school? These are just two of many important questions that educators are working to answer to effectively promote a safe school environment.

The National Education Association has published, in conjunction with Wellesley College in Massachusetts, a series of curriculums that deal with students who bully or harass other students. Each curriculum also provides lessons for students who are the targets of bullying and for those students who are bystanders and often feel helpless when observing bullying or harassment. Each of the three curriculums, described below, addresses lesson plans, background information and integration activities to provide teachers with the materials in ready form to use in the classroom immediately.

The work of Wellesley College, including extensive research references, puts excellent lessons and model activities into the age and development level of students as their behavioral patterns for dealing with classmates begin. What is very plain, from both the research and what educators have long observed, is that students seldom begin to bully or harass at the high school level. We know those patterns and behavioral choices were often present even as young as kindergarten or often preschool.

• The curriculums available are:
  Quit It! A Teacher’s Guide on Teasing and Bullying for use with students in Grades K-3 was written to address early intervention and to provide a proactive, gender-sensitive approach to addressing teasing and bullying. The guide uses group activities, integration into literature and age-appropriate writing lessons to provide the discussion with students about behavioral choices.
• Bullyproof is geared for grades 4-6 and addresses lessons and activities for students who fall into the categories of bully, target or bystander. It also uses literature and writing as important integration pieces to the school curriculum so that these important lessons are not squeezed out of an already crowded school day. More on “Bullyproof”
• Flirting Or Hurting? , the secondary curriculum on sexual harassment, is aimed at grades 6-9. It provides to students not only information on what sexual harassment is and what it is not but continues on the theme of better choices of behavior than bullying or teasing from the elementary pieces.

The use of these curriculums not only addresses the needs of teachers in eliminating these problems at their school but also helps students gain an understanding of their own behavior and the behavior of others. This is a life skill that all students need to develop to be successful in the work place.

Why a Kindergarten to Grade Three program?

Unfortunately, teasing and bullying are facts of life for young students. Ask any elementary school teacher, and she or he will tell you that this kind of behavior is a daily occurrence that disrupts teaching and learning.

We all would agree that school should be a safe place for students — a place where they are welcome, comfortable and free to learn. But researchers have documented that it is precisely at school where bullying takes place most frequently. And, in school, bullying occurs most often where there is little or no adult supervision — hallways, playground, lunchroom, gym and bathrooms.

Recent research conducted by Educational Equity Concepts and the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women found that teasing and bullying are a part of the fabric of daily life for students in kindergarten through grade three.

Findings of the year-long study, which included classroom observations, interviews with children and focus groups with teachers and parents, parallel those of other formal research studies that have been conducted both within and outside the United States:

• Teasing and bullying are frequent occurrences in elementary school classrooms;
• Boys initiate most of the teasing and bullying incidents, but both girls and boys are the recipients;
• Boys are more likely to respond physically, while girls are more likely to respond verbally to incidents initiated against them;
• Teachers and other adults frequently do not intervene — their predominant response is to remain uninvolved;
• Students feel that adults do not pay attention or support them in ways that resolve the teasing and bullying;
• Students want adults to become more involved.

Information for All Educators

To reduce teasing and bullying behavior, both adults and students need to work together to create a safe and welcoming learning environment that fosters self-respect and respect for others. Some general pointers include:

• Intervene with students when an incident occurs. Be sure to include all participants in the incident: the initiators, recipients and bystanders. Students who stand by while someone else is being bullied feel vulnerable that they might be next and powerless if they do nothing to help.
  
  
• Integrate discussions and activities about teasing and bullying into your teaching. This enables you to address the issue in an ongoing way, not just when an incident occurs.
  
  
• Provide help for students to develop skills in empathy, problem-solving and anger management.
  
  
• Create opportunities for cooperative learning, both in your classroom and, whenever possible, across grades. Many schools have cross-grade “buddies” for reading or other subject areas. These promote better understanding and acceptance among students and may reduce the incidence of “big kids” picking on “little kids.”
  
  
• Provide opportunities for boys and girls to work together. Avoid segregating students by gender lines, seating, teams, etc.

KNEA has the resources — just call and ask!

The three curriculums outlined here address bullying and teasing behaviors and give sensible and usable suggestions on how to accomplish a change in these behaviors in your classroom and your school.

The curriculums provide lessons on: teasing versus bullying, raising student awareness on teasing and bullying, perspectives of all the people involved in bullying, courage to respond to different teasing and bullying incidents and sorting through the complexities involved in bullying and sexual harassment.

Contact the office of KNEA Instructional Advocacy in Topeka (785-232-8271) or e-mail KNEA to make arrangements for these workshops and to obtain copies of the curriculum.

Sections of this article are reprinted from “Quit It! A Teacher’s Guide on Teasing and Bullying” written by Nancy Mullin-Rindler, Merle Froschl, Barbara Sprung with Nan Stein and Nancy Gropper.

REACH is just one of the outstanding leadership and professional development opportunities in which KNEA members can participate.

An emerging leader training, REACH stands for Realizing, Engaging, Achieving, Creating and Honoring new members. It is held annually for teachers with five or fewer years of experience, support personnel and KNEA-Student Program members who have been identified by colleagues or staff as having potential leadership skills.

New-to-the profession members were sometimes shy about colleagues noticing their leadership skills and then recommending them for REACH.

Members say the REACH program ended up being one of the best learning experiences because they use the techniques and training received with students as well as with parents and other teachers.

REACH topics include hands-on team building activities plus topics such as communication, assertiveness and learning about useful KNEA resources.

While REACH is held in late winter, now is the time to start thinking about the nomination process.

Participation is limited to 25 teachers, support personnel or student members. Participants must be nominated by a local or UniServ officer or a KNEA staff member.

For details, contact Katie Raveill .

• Ways to Start the Year Off Right, Planning Can Make All the Difference
• Some more tips to help you start your school year right!
• Ways to Beat theFirst Day Jitters: Organization + Activities = Success
• I Can Do It in the Real World: KNEA training helps new teachers succeed
• Beginning secondary school teachers get "launch-pad" to mastery
• Works4me: members' great ideas

KNEA Members Featured in NEA's Works4ME

Some of the many brilliant teachers in Kansas get a tip published in NEA's Works4Me electronic newsletter. The competition is stiff because NEA receives so many great ideas, but KNEA members' tips are often chosen as one of the best. Works4Me is distributed weekly through e-mail to more than 24,000 subscribers in every state and several foreign countries, so these members' great ideas have been distributed far and wide.

- Test-Taking First-Aid Kit
- Teaching Quotation Marks
- Math Modeling with White Boards
- Student Held Passes
- Recycled Lamination
- Job Interviews

- Works4Me Resources

Test-Taking First-Aid Kit
From Carla Herbert, Loretta Stanton, Rosemary Carey, Pam Throne and Arthena Massoth (CarlaHarold@webtv.net), fourth and first grade teachers at Howard Wilson School in Leavenworth, Kansas:

"The first grade classes at our school treated the fourth graders to a Test-Taking First-Aid Kit. The kit was given to each fourth grader the day we started the Kansas State Assessments." The kits contained:

1 pack of Smarties Candies - to boost your test taking brain power.
1 pencil - to help you record the knowledge you have learned.
1 sticker - to help you stick with the task at hand.
1 eraser - to use when you check over your work.
1 Hershey's Hug- for all the hard work you put into the test.
1 pencil grip - to get a grip on the task at hand

For best results, combine with one night of restful sleep, one nutritious breakfast, and one positive attitude. Possible side effects are improved test-taking skills and good grades."

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Teaching Quotation Marks
From Carla Herbert (CarlaHarold@webtv.net), a fourth grade teacher at Howard Wilson School in Leavenworth, Kansas:

"In my class, we read novels out loud. I am usually the narrator during the first semester and the students read what is inside the quotation marks. I talk about how quotation marks tell what the character said. It's a great way to teach how each character has a new paragraph, especially in some books where it does not tell who is speaking. By the second semester, my students are writing stories with conversations."

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Math Modeling with White Boards
From Bernadine Samson (SamsB@aol.com), a math and physics teacher at Cheylin Junior/Senior High School in Bird City, Kansas:

"Working in groups, my physics students put preliminary graphs and the math model of the data for a problem on 24 x 32 inch white boards. I pick a student at random from each group to explain the results of the experiment to the class and to respond to questions from students and me. I assign selected problems from homework to be put on 12 inch square white boards and students take turns explaining their assigned problems. Through questioning about their presentations, I have uncovered misconceptions even though the written solution appeared correct."

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Student Held Passes
From Shanta' Kemp (Shanta.Kemp@usd289.k12.ks.us), a teacher at Wellsville Jr/Sr High School in Wellsville, Kansas:

"I started using a hall pass to prevent my students from wasting time. They're only allowed two passes every nine weeks and if they want to leave the room they are required to use one of these passes. This also teaches responsibility because they must have the actual pass I handed out to be excused from the room. There's no bookkeeping on my part. The students who choose to stay in class receive five extra credit points per pass not used. They must have the actual pass to get the extra credit, though."

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Recycled Lamination
From Laurie Staley (lstaleyce.CE_GWP.CE_GWD@mail.olathe.k12.ks.us), a kindergarten teacher at Central Elementary School in Olathe, Kansas

"Used laminating film makes great overhead sheets. I simply go into a Kinko's or any other store that laminates and tell them that I am a teacher looking for used laminating film. They can usually find some pieces in their trash that I cut into 8 x 11-inch sheets. Smaller pieces of laminated paper are used for letters, numbers, dice, dominos, and playing cards. The lamination is thick and sturdy. Best of all, I am recycling."

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Job Interviews
From Dorothy Rucker (drucker52@hotmail.com), a language arts and speech teacher at Peabody-Burns High in Peabody, Kansas

"I arrange mock interviews with business owners in our community for my students. I provide the business people with a copy of possible interview questions, the evaluation forms, and a stamped self-addressed envelope in which to return the evaluations. The students travel to the businesses by bus during the school day. Several students have found actual jobs in the community from these interviews and others learned about businesses they didn't realize existed. Positive comments about the students and the interviews from the business people have also furthered a more positive relationship between the school and the community."

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FYI: WORKS4ME RESOURCES

Works4Me publishes tips each week year round to subscribers. The Works4Me library on the Internet includes tips that were sent out and tips NEA has not been able to send out yet. Here's where you'll find these tips:

http://www.nea.org/helpfrom/growing/works4me/library.html.

NEA also offers other free resources to instructional staff. You can join a threaded discussion online to get acquainted, exchange classroom ideas, ask questions about Works4Me and tell us how you like W4M. Here's the Web address for the threaded discussion:
http://www.nea.org/helpfrom/wbworks4.html.

SUBMITTING A TIP

Please contribute your own brief, practical, broadly-applicable classroom tip to Works4Me. In addition to the weekly tip, we post on the Web the submitted tips not yet sent out to the whole list in our once-a-week format. To send in a tip, just reply to this message.

When submitting a tip, please include your full name, school, specific assignment (grade/subject), city and state. If your tip is published, you'll receive a small token of appreciation from NEA as well as the satisfaction of knowing you've helped your colleagues in every state and several foreign countries.

CONTACTING WORKS4ME

You can communicate with NEA and the Worker Bees (two teachers) who administer this list by hitting your reply button. Please let us know how you like this service and how we might improve it.

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SUBSCRIBING/UNSUBSCRIBING

Encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe to Works4Me.
It's easy! And, if you want to leave this list, that's easy, too. You are currently subscribed to Works4Me as: [abruzzo@erols.com]. To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-works4me-37016V@list.nea.org

You'll receive a confirmation that your unsubscription has been processed. Others may subscribe by sending the message "subscribe works4Me" (without the quotation marks) to Lyris@list.nea.org.

DISCLAIMER

Works4Me is a vehicle for instructional staff to share their ideas with other instructional staff. As such, it does not constitute an endorsement of any particular curriculum or teaching method by the National Education Association or any of its affiliates. NEA staff member Mary Ann Blankenship administers Works4Me. You may contact her at:
owner-works4me@list.nea.org or 202/822-7358.

What's the best way to use computers in the classroom? Find out in "Connecting the Bits: A Reference for Using Technology in Teaching and Learning in K-12 Classrooms," available free online from the NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education.

http://www.nfie.org/publications/connecting.htm

NEA's new priority schools resource guide offers a framework to help you prepare your school for improvement. Tools include ideas and examples for preparing action plans, coordinating staffing and professional development, and mobilizing parents and the community.

http://www.nea.org/priorityschools

Yes, there are “rules” you need to follow for your first summer vacation as a teacher. But don’t worry if you don’t follow all of them—there are no vacation police or mentors checking your progress.

• Take care of yourself. Do as your mother advised—get plenty of rest, eat right and exercise!
• Begin your work on an advanced degree. It’s easier to get the required reading done and papers written when you don’t have the added responsibility of your own students.
• Attend the workshops, conventions and conferences you weren’t able to attend during the school year.
• Look for a summer job that is totally out of your field. Some of those jobs may make you really glad that you have a teaching job in the fall.
• Consider constructing your bulletin boards. Have everything drawn, colored and cut out and ready to go.
• Do something creative that you’ve never done before. Take piano lessons, refinish furniture or learn to sail.
• If you like—do nothing. Read, watch the soaps, sleep late, get a tan or play. You deserve it!

• Ways to Start the Year Off Right, Planning Can Make All the Difference
• Some more tips to help you start your school year right!
• Ways to Beat theFirst Day Jitters: Organization + Activities = Success
• I Can Do It in the Real World: KNEA training helps new teachers succeed
• Beginning secondary school teachers get "launch-pad" to mastery
• Works4me: members' great ideas

Teachers: Start Your School Year Right!

Regardless if this is your first or 21st year of teaching, it's always good to review advice from your colleagues. A little planning at the beginning of school can pay big dividends as you go through the coming school year.

Here are some suggestions to consider before school starts:

Get yourself ready
Arriving in town the day before you report to school, moving your home, juggling calls to insurance companies, or negotiating on a new car, can drain energy and time from your important new job. And do plan time enough for sleep. You're beginning an exciting journey, but it is a very demanding one.

Find out where
Familiarize yourself with the building. Locate the exits, the principal's office, the gym, the nurse's office, the cafeteria, the supply room, the faculty lounge, media center and so forth.

Know the rules
Get acquainted beforehand with school policies and procedures, such as opening and closing hours, attendance procedures, fire drill regulations, lunchroom regulations, nurse services, etc.

Know your rights
Read or re-read your contract so that you will know your rights.

Build relationships
Seek out the school secretary and the custodian and introduce yourself. Be sure to meet the teachers on your hall.

Give your classroom some class
Try decorating your classroom in a manner that will catch the eyes of your students and give them something to think about at the same time.

Get organized
Start off the year by getting your personal papers organized. You never know when you may have to produce a document related to your job.

Keep records
During the year, you may have expenditures that could be deductions on your income tax. Now is the time to set aside a place for keeping tax records and to start keeping track of them.

Plan, plan, plan
Create lesson plans for the first few days. Plan at least twice as much as you think you can cover. Write down everything. Detailed plans will provide you a feeling of security when facing the class for the first time.

That Critical First Day…
Get there early

On the first morning, arrive early so you'll have time to ask any last-minute questions, go over final plans, and relax before the students come in.

Greet your pupils
Be in your room when the pupils arrive. Have your name written on the chalkboard. Greet the students with a smile and a pleasant "Good morning." Encourage them to be seated and remain so.

Help students get acquainted
Take student attendance and make seating assignments. Help students get to know one another's names and interests and make sure students are familiar with other school personnel such as the librarian and principal.

Make a good impression
Whatever else you do, give the class the impression from the beginning that you are well organized. Your students must get the feeling right off that you are prepared and know what you are doing.

Introduce yourself
Post a biographical sketch of yourself outside your classroom and encourage others to follow suit. You never know when a student may find he or she
has something in common with a
teacher and is able to strike up a relationship that could foster a positive learning experience.

Get down to business
Post your KNEA professional educators door sign on your door. Write your name on the blackboard.

Go over the rules
If you want discipline to work during the year, start off by establishing class rules right at the beginning. (They probably should number no more than five.) Let the students have a role in establishing them. They will have more of a tendency to follow the rules. Rules
should be written and posted in the classroom.

Start the learning
Make the first day of school a real one. Accomplish some constructive learning with your students. A good start yields big dividends later on.

Give an overview
Provide an overview of the classroom and learning for the coming year.

With secondary students this should include a discussion of the purpose of the class, its relationship to graduation and important milestones such as the SATs. Students will want to know your grading system, your classroom management style, and the class syllabus highlights.

With elementary students, you might provide highlights of the coming year including skills they will learn and special projects.

Brief your students
At the high school level particularly, let your students know early exactly what you expect of them in your course. Most students will rise to the teacher's expectations.

In the First Few Days…
Start off slowly

Go over your material slowly the first grading period so that students can find success while the material is not too difficult.

Think about health
Make an early determination about how you will handle students with special health problems. Do you know what to do if you have a student subject to epileptic seizures? What about administering medicine to students?

Build class spirit
If you teach elementary youngsters, you might try giving your class a name such as the "Bumblebees from Room Three."

Check school policy
If you intend to be teaching subject matter that borders on controversy, be sure you are within board policy. Keep your personal views on religion and politics to yourself.

Set a class goal
You can develop some spirit among class members if you have a project you are working toward. Perhaps a holiday project to help a needy family, a class trip or a class party at the end of the year.

Find a shoulder
Look for a colleague to turn to for special advice or simply to unburden yourself about a special classroom challenge. This could be your school-assigned mentor.

AND ALL DURING THE YEAR
Be alert to your professional growth

The KNEA has dozens of professional workshops that can be arranged through your UniServ director. Effective communication skills, classroom management, sexual harassment, special education issues - the list goes on. Titles are available from your association president or on the KNEA Web site: www.knea.org. Most can be brought to your own school or local association.

Do your best
Determine what factors are likely to keep you from doing your job during the school year. Then figure out a way to work around them. For example: How will you work with too many students in your class? How will you deal with the wide range of student abilities? How will you deal with disruptive students?

Develop resources
Develop your own sources of information and your resource list. Know where to get help when you need it. Keep your eyes open for free and inexpensive materials such as those previewed in the KNEA Issues and NEA Today.

Look for hope
Give yourself a lift toward getting in the proper frame of mind by watching for something hopeful. It may be that student who comes up to you and gives you an indication he or she learned something within the first week of school. Maybe it's the child who speaks to you in the parking lot and uses your correct name!

Get parents involved
Determine how you will involve parents in your students' education during the coming year. Is there any special way to approach parent-teacher conferences? Are there any special messages you want to send home to parents? How will you deal with parents who want to help their students learn?

Communicate with parents
If you teach primary grades, send a note home early informing parents that you need time to get to know pupils before you can comment on them. Let them know that you are available, however, and list the process and times for getting in touch with you. For other parents, you might want to introduce yourself and include your policy on homework.

Support your association
Join your local education association for the moral support of people who understand the difficulty of your job.

And finally....
Keep these three qualities of good teaching in mind: be flexible, be patient and keep a sense of humor.

Three new books from the NEA Professional Library can help you make more sense of how to implement standards-based learning and assessment with your students.

In Kansas this is particularly important, since state assessments are based on explicit curriculum standards for student learning and since local assessments are also requirements of QPA.

The first book, "Assessing Learning in the Classroom," by Jay McTighe and Steven Ferrara, discusses principles of effective classroom assessment, illustrates a variety of assessment approaches and methods, and provides a framework for planning.

"Classroom Assessment for Student Success," by Richard J. Stiggins, addresses the issues of motivating students for assessments, developing teachers' assessment literacy, and enhancing professional development to increase teachers' assessment skills. Stiggins also proposes a plan for expanding teachers' vision of the relationship between assessment and effective schools and provides a map to help move from current ways of assessing to the expanded vision.

In "Implementing Standards-Based Education," Robert J. Marzano and John S. Kendall provide a brief history of the standards movement, then offer an indirect and a direct approach to implementing standards. They include chapters on reporting student performance and grading, designing rubrics, and organizing the curriculum around standards.

Each book is accompanied by a study guide, which could be a framework for teacher study groups to use these materials.

The books are available for purchase from the NEA Professional Library (1-800-229-4200) for $5.95 (McTighe/Ferrara and Stiggins) and $7.95 (Marzano/Kendall).

In addition, three sets are available for check-out from the KNEA Instructional Advocacy Educators' Resource Library (contact resource@knea.org).

You aren’t planning on it right now, but sometime you’re going to miss a day of school.

KNEA members say early in the school year is the ideal time to begin preparing for that event because the questions you have are the same questions a sub will have. Later, with the routine established, you may forget to think about such details.

Like the elves in the fairy tale, subs do your work when you’re not there. And, they’ll do it best if you make sure all the tools and materials are handy.

Label a file folder or notebook “Substitute” and keep it in a place anyone would logically look. If you move around a lot, jot a note in your planner or grade book as to the location of the file.

Here are some suggestions for what to include:

• Your schedule of classes including regular classes, special classes (day and time) and an alternate plan in case special classes are cancelled
• Names and schedules of students who leave the classroom for special reasons such as medication, remedial or gifted programs, speech, etc.
• Class roll, including your seating chart for regular activities and special work groups
• Opening activities: absentee report, procedures for reporting lunch count, etc.
• Lesson plans or where to find the plan book (include alternate plans in case the lesson depends on resources only you have)
• Classroom rules and discipline procedures (include any district policies and notes about special cases)
• Location of all manuals and materials to be used
• Procedures for use of AV materials and equipment
• Names and schedules of paraprofessionals and/or volunteers
• Names of pupils who can be depended upon
• Name and location of a teacher to call upon for assistance
• Procedures for sick or injured students – location of nurse’s office, district policy on dispensing medication, notes on allergies or special needs
• Floor plan of building including emergency drill routes and procedures
• Prepare your students. Younger students need to be reassured that you will return. Older students need to know that you will be in possession of information about their behavior and progress.

For information about KNEA professional development offerings, e-mail resources@nea.org

More tips for starting the school year right!

The National Education Association believes that "reading is the gateway to learning in all content areas and essential for achieving high standards." Visit the NEA Reading area.

http://www.nea.org/reading

Research on instructing reading

Literacy at all levels is important as KNEA's Read Across America campaign is proving. The all-member publication, the KNEA Issues, will throughout the year highlight articles about instructing reading and heightening literacy for all students. This material can be found in NEA's publication Ten Proven Principles for Teaching Reading.

The principles and ideas written about are already being used in classrooms across Kansas and are based on solid research findings and practical experience. Research provides new information about basic cognitive and instructional processes, particularly those involved in reading comprehension.

Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of later success in reading

Phonemic awareness - discerning that spoken language is composed of phonemes, is an important predictor of success in learning to read. It involves a child's ability to hear the sounds in a word and to distinguish between words based on the different sounds.

Phonemic awareness helps children learn the letter-sound correspondences needed to read and spell words. Studies have shown that phonemic awareness training improves children's ability to read and spell. Unless word identification is effortless and automatic, the reader cannot devote attention to constructing meaning while reading.

Phonics - instruction in the relationships between letters and sounds - can help children attain automatic, visual recognition of spelling patterns within words for word recognition. Efficient recognition of spelling patterns, in turn, depends on accurate and automatic recognition of individual letters.

Studies of young children show that the most important precursor to success in learning to read is rapid recognition of the letters of the alphabet.

Studies also show that the efficient use of sound patterns in speech depends on the awareness of phonemes in spoken languages. This awareness relates strongly to success in beginning reading.

Many children develop these prerequisites without formal instruction. This is likely due both to the frequency and quality of early experiences these children have with oral language and to the amount of exposure they have to print before entering school.

Effective beginning reading instruction contains a balance of activities designed to improve word recognition, including phonics instruction and reading meaningful text. Writing and spelling activities are also part of effective reading instruction because they affect overall reading ability in a positive way.

Encouraging children to make invented spellings (to spell words as they sound) helps develop phonemic awareness as well as increase knowledge of spelling patterns.

Effective teachers interweave these activities within their instruction.

- NEA's Ten Proven Principles for Teaching Reading

And the research says

According to Robinson, Farone, Hittlelman and Unruh (1990), instructional practices in reading comprehension have shifted over the last century

• from using oral reading to help get meaning from text to using silent reading to aid comprehension;
• from using worksheets, workbooks and reading kits to direct student comprehension to teaching reading strategies that aid students in guiding their own comprehension;
• from asking "what questions"(e.g., identifying a story sequence) to teaching comprehension strategies that include these subskills (e.g., summarizing);
• from providing little direct teaching to increasing the amount of direct teaching that is specific (e.g., strategy instruction), followed by supervised independent practice.
  

This shift reflects an evolving view of reading that is now considered to be a strategic process through which readers construct meaning by interacting with text. That is, readers use clues in the text and their own prior knowledge to assign meaning to what they read.

Interactions among the teachers, the student, the text, the purposes for reading, and the context within which "literacy events" (activities that include reading, writing, discussions, journal writing) occur all come into play in the construction of meaning and acquisition of reading strategies.

The shift among practices in reading comprehension instruction is toward metacognition (understanding one's own thinking and using that knowledge to solve problems) and helping students develop tools with which to direct their own learning. This shift recognizes the significant role teachers play in student advancement along the continuum of literacy development.

Dear Parents:

I am your child's 5th grade teacher, and I am delighted to have your child in my class this year. I'm looking forward to a very successful year, and I know you are, too. I have high expectations for your child, and I will be doing all that I can to help your child achieve those expectations.

You can help. I will be expecting all work assigned in class to be completed. Of course, all children do not work at the same pace. Some children will get their work done in class and some will not. Whether or not a child gets his or her work done in class has no effect on their grade. If your child does not complete an assignment in class, he or she will be required to complete it at home. The way you can help is to ask your child every school day if school work needs to be done and, if so, make sure your child completes the assignment.

I want you to be aware of the following policies:

• Work may be turned in one day late; however; an assignment turned in one day late will receive an automatic penalty of minus 20 grade points.
  
  
• If assigned work is not turned in, or turned in after the one day late period, the grade for that assignment will be recorded as "zero."
  
  
• Within each six-week grading period, the single lowest grade (just one) will not be averaged.
  
  
• Work is due at the time the teacher asks for it on the assigned day. If the student is not prepared at that time, but finishes the assignment later in the day, the assignment will still be considered late.
  
  
• Students who have late work will automatically attend "study hall" during recess.
  
  
• Absences will be dealt with on an individual basis.
  In addition, I will be assigning projects in various subjects throughout the school year. Projects are to be completed at home.

Your help and support will not only make your child more successful in school this year, but will also instill good study habits that will last a lifetime.

Finally, I want you to know that one of my most important goals this year is to keep the lines of communication open with you. Please do not hesitate to call me at school. I am available to talk to you every day between 9:00 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. and between 3.00 p.m. and 3.40 p.m. Your child's daily schedule and class expectations are attached. Please review these together with your child.

Sincerely,

They can be our best ally

Educators know what an important difference parent involvement can make in a child's education. But, what can you do to show parents the role they can play and make them a strong and lasting school ally?

The National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE) asked educators involved in successful dropout prevention programs nationwide how they enlist and energize parents as partners. Here's what they had to say:

• Take the initiative to involve parents. They want to be active in their child's education.
• Schedule one-on-one conferences and ask parents what they want to know. Then share your knowledge, guidance and support.
• Schedule home visits. Parents are apt to be more open and at ease in their own homes.
• Encourage parents to spend time at school. Add a "parent section" to the school library and provide office or lounge space where parents will feel comfortable.
• Give parents a chance to share their talents and experiences in the classroom, on field trips and before school-wide audiences.
• Remember to say "thank you" to parents for their efforts with a call or a note.
• When parents are not available, reach out to grandparents, foster parents or community volunteers who are serving as mentors or "big brothers" and "big sisters" to your students.
• Turn "back-to-school-night" into "family night" and invite students and parents to come together to discuss what they can anticipate from the school year and what will be expected of students, parents and teachers.
• Encourage parents to provide their children with a quiet study area, a good breakfast, a time to read together and guidance and supervision over television viewing.
• Don't jump to conclusions. Invite parents in a non-threatening way to talk with you about behaviors that concern you, and work together to develop solutions to problems.
• Publish a newsletter or organize a discussion group to give parents a forum to seek support, share ideas or brainstorm solutions to concerns they have.
• Give parents a hands-on role in their child's work and experiences in school. Require parents to sign homework and permission slips for activities.
• Open communication through phone calls and personal notes. Share positive as well as negative feedback.
• Write to parents. A sample letter to parents was drafted by a fifth grade teacher and sent to her students at the beginning of each year. Her colleagues found it useful and "stole" from it in drafting their own letters to the parents of their students. You may, too. It will not match your situation to every detail, but it may help you get started. You may also want to ask the more experienced colleagues in your building if they have parent letters they use.
• One word of caution: Most building principals will appreciate seeing a copy of any parent letter you write before you send it home with students.
  

Taken from the NFIE publication" A Blueprint for Success," a part of NFlE's dropout prevention initiative sponsored by Sears Roebuck Foundation and the National Education Association (NEA).

NFIE is a nonprofit tax-exempt foundation created by the National Education Association. For more information, contact NFIE at 202-822-7840.

Students learn best when parents are involved in their children's schools. When parents and teachers work together, students achieve higher test scores and grades, demonstrate positive behavior and attitudes - resulting in improved long-term academic achievement.

At the beginning of the school year, take the opportunity to make personal contact with parents. This can be accomplished through a letter of introduction, telephone conversation or newsletter. The parent-teacher conference is an opportunity to involve parents in the education of their children. The key to a successful conference lies in good communication and careful planning.

Key Concepts:

• Successful parent-teacher conferences are the result of careful planning.
• Parents are people, too. Make them feel comfortable.
• Parents and teachers are a team to support the child/student.
• Prepare a discussion agenda for each conference.
• Ask parents for their agenda items.
• Be prepared for parents who are non-English speaking.
• Be prepared with examples of student work, tests, grades and homework.
• Have suggestions (for home activities) that will support the educational program.
• Conclude on a positive note.

Conference Checklist:

• Schedule
• Student work folders
• Student data
• Seating/waiting area
• Arrange conference area with adult-sized chairs and table
• Student self-assessment
• Written expectations for student work/behavior
• Have a personalized comment or observation for each student
• Prepare a discussion agenda for each student
• Suggestions for home activities
• Pre-conference parent survey for parents to identify their agenda items
• Coffee/hot water/tea; sugar/creamer; cups napkins; pens/pencils

• Ways to Start the Year Off Right, Planning Can Make All the Difference
• Some more tips to help you start your school year right!
• Ways to Beat theFirst Day Jitters: Organization + Activities = Success
• I Can Do It in the Real World: KNEA training helps new teachers succeed
• Beginning secondary school teachers get "launch-pad" to mastery
• Works4me: members' great ideas

Some more tips to help you start your school year right!

• Visit your classroom early to set up furniture, bulletin boards, etc.
  
• Read district and building handbooks
  
• Read curriculum guide/outcomes
  
• Find out the first day schedule and procedures
  
• Meet key staff; greet newcomers: principal, secretary, custodian
  
• Know who your KNEA building representative and officers are
  
• Create lesson plans for the first week
  
• Create preliminary seating charts if practical
  
• Consider name tags for each desk (elementary)
  
• Find out procedures for obtaining textbooks and other instructional materials/resources
  
• Find out what (new) resources are available: school professional library, district resources, KNEA, educational service centers, etc.
  
• Find out what technological resources are available and how you'll be expected to use them
  
• Determine your beginning class routine: roll call, absent, tardy, etc.
  
• Room expectations: designated place for homework, supplies, out-of-seat policies, etc.
  
• Set up independent work standards
  
• Decide how to communicate about expectations to parents and/or students
  
• Establish instructional activities and routines
  
• Ending class routines: turning in assignments, clearing desks
  
• Other procedures: fire drills, tornado drills, etc.
  
• Work requirements and standards: heading papers, incomplete work, due dates
  
• Communicating assignments (written, oral)
  
• Student work: obtaining assignments when absent, due dates, late work
  
• Homework: schedule and expectations
  
• Grading procedures: extra credit options
  
• Activities for students who have finished their work
  
• Role of other adults in the room (paras, parents, etc.)
  

These and other great tips can be found in the KNEA New Teacher Resource Guide. To get one, contact your UniServ Office!

• Ways to Start the Year Off Right, Planning Can Make All the Difference
• Some more tips to help you start your school year right!
• Ways to Beat theFirst Day Jitters: Organization + Activities = Success
• I Can Do It in the Real World: KNEA training helps new teachers succeed
• Beginning secondary school teachers get "launch-pad" to mastery
• Works4me: members' great ideas

Beginning secondary school teachers get "launch-pad" to mastery

Help is here for beginning secondary school teachers!

NEA Professional Library's "Teaching and the Art of Successful Classroom Management" shows new teachers how to structure their lessons, records, and classrooms while inspiring classroom discipline.

http://store.nea.org/

Schools, teachers and students should all be held to high standards, and NEA believes that accountability should be shared by schools, education employees, policymakers and parents — with the ultimate goal of helping every student succeed. Visit the Accountability and Testing area on nea.org.

Gender bias has been in the spotlight for the past few years following studies that pointed out male favoritism in our classrooms.

What was disturbing in the findings was that many classroom teachers were guilty of gender bias and were totally unaware of what they were doing!

KNEA offers professional workshops on identifying and dealing with gender bias as a way to improve teaching. For details on the Gender Bias workshop or any other KNEA professional development offering, e-mail resources@nea.org.

Here are some suggestions for avoiding gender bias in your classroom:

• Use inclusive language. "You guys" may be a popular way of addressing a group, but it's an example of gender bias.
  
  
• Make sure your expectations are the same for all of your students. Both genders can succeed in math and reading.
  
  
• Use examples that are gender balanced. If there are none in your textbooks, do some research.
  
  
• Avoid stereotyping jobs for students such as having girls clean up and boys carry things.
  
  
• Try to put girls and boys in non-traditional situations.
  
  
• Make the classroom atmosphere one where both girls and boys are encouraged, questioned and reinforced.
  
  
• Actively integrate groups by not allowing self-segregation.
  
  
• Never use gender to group students.

Contact the KNEA Instructional Advocacy office in Topeka for details on the Gender Bias and other professional enhancement workshops.

Additional information

• Maintaining Classroom Discipline
  Promoting Good Methods of Classroom Discipline

Maintaining Classroom Discipline

Helping students to govern their own behavior in ways that help them learn is a long-standing goal of all teachers. There are a number of ways in which a teacher can promote good discipline in the classroom.

• Know school guidelines for discipline procedures.
  
  
• Be fair, positive and consistent. Be the kind of person young people can like and trust: firm, fair, friendly, courteous, enthusiastic and confident. Try to keep your sense of humor.
  
  
• Provide a list of standards and consequences to parents and students. Make sure they are consistent with district and building policy. When in doubt, ask a colleague or your principal.
  
  
• Keep your classroom orderly. Maintain a cheerful and attractive classroom rather than a disorderly one that might encourage disruptive behavior.
  
  
• Get to know your students. Learn their names quickly and use them in and out of class. You will soon develop a sixth sense for anticipating trouble before it begins, but don't act as though you expect trouble. If you do, you will almost certainly encounter some. Learn the meaning of terms, especially slang used by students.
  
  
• Begin class on time and in a businesslike manner.
  
  
• Make learning fun, interesting and relevant to the students' lives. Poor planning and a full curriculum can provoke disruptions. Praise good work, good responses and good behavior.
  
  
• Don't threaten or use sarcasm. Never use threats to enforce discipline. Never humiliate a student. Avoid arguing with students. Discussions about class work are invaluable, but arguments can become emotional encounters.
  
  
• Let the students know you care. Determine jointly with the class what is acceptable in terms of behavior and achievement and what is not. Show interest in what students say, whether or not it pertains directly to the lesson.
  
  
• Treat students with the same respect you expect from them. Be mobile, walking around the room as students work or respond to instruction.
  
  
• Keep your voice at a normal level. If "disaster" strikes and you trip over the wastebasket, don't be afraid to laugh at yourself.

Partnerships for Student Success

by Rick Moehring, President
Faculty Association, Johnson County Community College

Johnson County has a great reputation for excellent public schools and it is upon that countywide commitment to excellence that Johnson County Community College (JCCC) has built a reputation of its own.

JCCC, through partnerships designed to share educational resources and opportunities with its area high schools, seeks to enhance the education of the children within its county. JCCC's "Keeping Options Open" (KOO) program was established to address the many goals it has for working with the county's high schools.

http://web.jccc.net/academic/outreach/index.htm

The four major areas of KOO are:

• Career and Life Planning
• Technical College Preparation
• College Now
• Quick Step

Career and Life Planning

Career and Life Planning is a program to deliver career development services to high school students and their parents. These opportunities begin in the high schools for sophomores, while juniors and seniors attend workshops at JCCC. In the last three years more than 3,600 students and parents have benefited from these services.

Technical College Preparation

Technical College Preparation is a program for career preparation and work force development. Students are offered a variety of programs informing them of their options within technical career fields. It is then possible for them to begin their studies in high school and make the transition to college to complete their training. A series of course work articulation plans have been developed between the high schools and JCCC. Some of these plans offer college credit for skills learned in high school, while others simply suggest a sequence of high school courses that will lead into a college degree or certificate program. High school teachers and counselors and JCCC faculty are also offered training to enhance their ability to provide technical education and career guidance.

College Now

College Now is an opportunity for a student in an advanced class to receive college credit for a course while enrolled in high school. This program, often attracting more than 2,000 students per semester, is an excellent way for students to earn college credit. Curriculum coordination between the faculty of the college and the teachers at the high schools keep this program a great educational value for students. There are 250 high school teachers participating with JCCC in College Now.

Quick Step

Another way for students to earn college credit while in high school is to enroll at JCCC as Quick Step students. These students request release time from their high schools and then sign up in regularly scheduled classes at JCCC. Quick Step is designed for juniors and seniors, but academically gifted students with a current IEP are eligible at any age. Students from thirty-five different high schools attend JCCC through the Quick Step program.

High-ability high school students often need enhanced educational experiences to keep them challenged. Johnson County high schools have a very good system of advanced placement classes, academic and skills competitions and Quest programming to keep their students' attention on learning. Many of their most insatiable learners need additional challenges and use the College Now and Quick Step programs to earn college credit.

The many partners in the Keeping Options Open programs have achieved a great deal for students in our county. JCCC's Faculty Association may be able to play a part in the partnerships with area high schools. Previously, JCCC was in a UniServ with several districts from different counties. With the redistricting that was recently announced, JCCC's Faculty Association is paired with Blue Valley to form a UniServ they have called Alliance.

Many of the programs described above need faculty-to-faculty partnerships to make them flourish. One goal for this first year of the new UniServ is to investigate additional opportunities to work together. So, check back in a year or so and see the ways that the faculty in the new "Alliance" of JCCC and the Blue Valley school district has impacted their respective abilities to provide quality education to the students in the county they share.

by Blake West
KNEA Vice President

- In the classroom
- In the school
- Share your success

KNEA and its members have set their sights on the "achievement gap" as our goal for changing the world.

We have begun to use data on student learning to identify groups that are performing significantly below their peers. For example, in the April 2001 Issues, we saw how students on free/reduced price lunch performed significantly below their peers in both math and reading. While Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA) often seems to create burdensome amounts of paperwork, the data it generates (particularly when it is disaggregated) reveals these troubling differences in performance of subgroups of our students.

NEA and KNEA have provided significant support for schools working on school-wide improvement, but what can individual teachers do to make a difference - to close the gap? Let's consider two kinds of action.

In the classroom

When assessment is aligned with curriculum and instruction, students do better on the assessment. Well, there's a surprise! What this means for individual teachers, though, is a need to seriously look at our lesson planning to ensure we're not just following the textbook. Researchers also encourage teachers to focus their efforts on the most critical outcomes within the curriculum. Are these strategies "teaching to the test"?

Grant Wiggins provides some good insight into these ideas in the book Understanding by Design. In a nutshell, Wiggins suggests that we first identify what the essential (critical) learnings are within the curriculum. For those items, decide how students can demonstrate they truly understand the concepts. In other words, begin by deciding what students should learn and next designing assessment activities that truly reveal student understanding.

This leads to a second area to improve student learning. In Understanding by Design, projects and assignments that build student understanding and mastery will actively engage the learner. Teaching techniques and assignments that address the various learning styles of our students will increase student learning. The concept of "multiple intelligences" introduced by Howard Gardner provides excellent insight into ways we can help students understand the curriculum more thoroughly through varied teaching strategies.

When David and Myra Sadker wrote in Failing at Fairness about ways teachers unwittingly teach to boys more than girls, they identified some strategies that seem to increase learning for girls in upper level math and science classes. What further research has shown, though, is that the techniques suggested by the Sadkers increase learning for other students, too. For example, cooperative groups working on problems, discussing concepts, etc., attain deeper levels of understanding than individual students responding to questions during a lecture/presentation. Students that are allowed to respond as a small group to questions feel less threatened than when responding to questions in class as individuals and they are more likely to participate.

Each of these ideas also support two strategies suggested for the classroom and the whole school. First, hold high expectations for each student. Sometimes that means helping a student identify strengths, learning styles, etc., that work best for him or her. It may mean looking for factors such as language or problems outside school that interfere with a student's ability to succeed. Figuring out student interests or problems that affect learning is much easier if there is a strong connection with home. The second strategy is to reach out to the home to involve the parents. Sometimes extraordinary means are necessary to connect with the home, but there is no doubt that helping students believe in their potential and in the value of education is an important task for teamwork between school and home.

Finally for the classroom, references to such researchers as Gardner, the Sadkers and Wiggins reveal another key to closing the achievement gap. As a profession, we need to be engaged in reading about effective professional practice. And one step beyond, we need to be experimenting with new techniques, possibly even conducting our own action research projects in our classrooms.

In the school

Individuals can make a difference in whole school improvement, too, even if there is not administrative leadership for the efforts. For example, a key to school-wide improvement is to establish a "learning organization" culture. So, rather than reading a book or article as an individual activity, how about starting a small study/discussion group to read and reflect on professional practice? Invite a few colleagues to join you in a project such as studying Understanding by Design. The synergy of shared ideas will make it a more rewarding experience for everyone involved and the support group can keep the energy going as you experiment with the new ideas throughout the school year.

Every school must have a Professional Development Council (PDC) and that committee must be 50 percent teachers. Consider joining your PDC and help the group implement more effective professional development activities. Effective professional development includes follow-up, practice with new skills, is "job-embedded," emphasizes subject matter expertise, etc. Use the KNEA resources for effective professional development as your guide to making a better PDC.

Share Your Success

One last key to making a difference - share your successes. We are individually enriched when we reflect on our own professional practice, and consider why our efforts succeed or fail when we take some time to write about our efforts to improve student learning.

Take the opportunities that arise this year to tackle the problem of the achievement gap in your classroom or school. KNEA and NEA will be there as your resource and we'll also be anxious to hear about your successes. E-mail your success stories to resource@knea.org.

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Recognizing & Reporting Possible Child Abuse

Report Suspected Abuse

If you have a reasonable basis to believe that a student is a victim of child abuse, Kansas law requires you to report your suspicions of abuse or neglect to the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services or the local law enforcement agency. Kansas teachers are mandated reporters under the Code for Care of Children (K.S.A. 38-1501 et.seq.).

The failure to report suspected physical, sexual or mental abuse of a child 18 years of age or younger, can result in criminal prosecution of the mandated reporter. Reporting your suspicions to your building principal or any other member of the administration does not satisfy your obligation under Kansas law.

You may file your report of suspected abuse anonymously to either the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) by phoning 1-800-922-5330 or to local law enforcement officials. There is no time frame within the law that the oral or written report must be made. The Code for Care of Children also provides civil immunity from prosecution if the report is made in good faith.

Signs of Possible Abuse

Physical Abuse

• Bruises, welts, black eyes,burns, frequent injuries.
• Reluctance to sit down; possibly cannot hold a pencil.
• Reluctance to change clothes for Physical Education.
• Wearing long sleeves even in hot weather.
• Complaints of pain without obvious injury.
• Evidence of poor self-concept.
• Frequent absences or tardiness without reasonable explanations.
• Coming to school early and staying late.
• Aggressive, disruptive, destructive behavior.
• Passive, withdrawn, fearful of other children or adults.
• Manipulative or distrustful attitude or child is “too eager” to please.
• Chronic running away, especially in adolescents.
• Lack of expression of anger or pain; absence of joy.
• Complaints of beating or other harsh treatment.

Sexual Abuse

• Any significant change in attitude or behavior at school.
• Complaints of pain/itching in genital area or evidence of trauma in genital area.
• Unusual odors around genital area.
• Torn, stained, or bloody underclothing.
• Difficulty in walking or sitting.
• Pregnancy in young child.
• Unusual seductive behavior.
• Drawings or writing may have strong, often bizarre sexual theme.
• Overly sophisticated knowledge or interest in sexual acts or vocabulary.
• Expression by child or other children of his/her being sexually involved with an adult.

Preventing False Accusations

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of teachers being investigated for child abuse. Touches or hugs can lead to accusations of sexual abuse or “conduct unbecoming a teacher.” Even if a child’s parents choose not to sue or to file charges at the time of any accident or other incident, the child can do so when he or she reaches 18. There are cases where a classroom incident long since forgotten has come back to haunt a teacher years later in the form of civil charges.

One of the teacher’s most cherished possessions is his or her reputation. To guard yours, take these simple precautions:

• Don’t ever leave your class unattended. Be sure your students understand your classroom rules and regulations. Make sure students are adequately supervised on field trips.
• Corporal punishment is inconsistent with current educational trends and may not be permitted by your employer’s policy – the school board policy under which you work. Any physical contact with a student increases the risk of being accused of inappropriate physical or sexual contact.
• If you must use physical force to protect another from being injured, the law permits you to use only that force that is reasonably necessary. You should only use physical force to prevent one student from injuring another.
• A hug or a pat on the back may be fine for primary-age children if initiated by the child, but refrain from touches that may be misinterpreted by older children.
• While details are still fresh in your mind, write a description of the events leading up to any incident that you think may cause you liability problems later on.

Of course, your membership in NEA, KNEA and your local association provides a wide array of legal protection. This includes a $1 million liability policy* that protects you if a civil or criminal suit is brought against you as a result of your teaching duties.

If you are a member of KNEA and are accused of child abuse, contact your local UniServ Director immediately. You will be provided with advice and support to assist you in this traumatic situation.

*See the actual policy language for specific coverage