ESP helping kids learn

NEA Today, Apr 1999

Jordan Sends Help

Michael Jordan may be retiring from basketball, but he isn't retiring from his job as role model to today's kids. In fact, he's becoming a role model for educators, too.

A few months ago, Jordan and NEA's National Foundation for the Improvement of Education launched Jordan Fundamentals, a five-year, $5 million grant program for educators who go the extra mile to motivate and inspire economically disadvantaged students.

Teachers and paraprofessionals working with students in grades 6-12 in public schools where 40 percent or more of the students qualify for free or reduced price lunches can apply for the $2,500 grants.

The deadline: May 15. For details or an application, contact NFIE at 202/822-7840. On the Web: www. nfie.org. The first 400 grant winners will be announced in September.

Becoming Self-Sufficient

Rather than wait for someone else to do it for-or to-them, NEA members in Georgia recently established a training program for education support employees across the state.

Thanks to the members of the Georgia Association of Educators' ESP Committee, a 22-person training cadre now teaches support employees the art of presentation skills.

What does having good presentation skills have to do with being effective as a support educator?

Everything, says Curtis Crawford, a paraprofessional and chair of the ESP Committee.

"We need to learn how to explain to the public, administrators, and legislators what we do and the kind of contribution we make to the education of our students," Crawford says.

Crawford gives his all to a small group of emotionally troubled students, helping them deal with their problems so they can learn.

"If children have someone who they think loves them," he says, "they'll try to do their best."

Carol Corbett, a bus driver and vicechair of the ESP Committee, makes her contributions outside the classroom. "I carry crazy glue and scissors on my bus," Corbett says. "If a sequin comes off a costume on the way to a band competition, I want to be able to stitch it back on."

Crawford and Corbett aren't alone in their dedication-and now they aren't alone in being able to explain it to others.

This year, the cadre will train support employees in member rights, pay equity, and more presentation skills. Crawford sums up the Committee's simple but ambitious goal in few words: "As ESP, we want to be able to do it for ourselves."

For details about the Georgia ESP training cadre, send E-mail to Crawford, curtisc@surfsouth.com, or Carol Corbett, gaeesp5@aol.com.

Or contact Georgia UniServ director Mark Perez, 3951 Snapfinger Parkway, Suite 400, Decatur, GA 30035, 404/289-5867, ext. 349. E-mail`: mperez@nea.org.

NEA Survey Results

When school districts go looking to replace the hundreds of thousands of teachers planning to retire in the next 10 years, they should consider looking in their own backyards.

A new NEA survey shows that nearly half-9 percent-of the nation's 650,000 K-12 paraeducators say they're interested in training to become teachers.

And paraeducators aren't the only ones. One-third of security and health employees and about a quarter of skilled trades workers say they're interested in teacher training, too.

If these ESP members go into teaching, they'll likely contribute to the profession's diversity. All ESP groups have substantially larger proportions of minority educators than the teaching force, which is now only 9 percent minority.

For more information about the NEA survey, contact Carolyn Summers, NEA Research, 1201 16th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20036, 202/822-7904, E-mail: Csummers@nea.org.

Using Technology Well

Does your classroom have a nice new computer that no one knows what to do with? Is it your job to figure out how to use it?

Too often, schools buy equipment without a well-developed eduton plan in mind. But Sandy Pope, a Missouri elementary school technical assistant, knows a better way.

In a recent article posted online, Pope describes how her school included elementary students, staff, and parents in a project to make technology an integral part of students' learning.

You can find Pope's article, "Integration Design," in The WellConnected Educator at www.gsh.org/ wce/. To go directly to Pope's article, key in www.gsh.org/wce/archives/ key in www.gsh.org/wce/archives/

DE--line Hints Having trouble with students clowning around at inappropriate times?

You might want to consider talking to them privately about doing the clowning outside of the classroom, then suggest some alternative ways of getting attention-class plays, showand-tell time, or a few minutes of stand-up comedy at the end of the day. This is just one of the many downto-earth suggestions you'll find in The Discipline Checklist: Advice from 60 Successful Elementary Teachers. The Discipline Checklist, a 56-page collection of the best ideas from a group of highly successful educators, is available from the NEA Professional Library, $4.50 plus s&h for NEA members, stock #2152-5-00-PL. For details or to order, call 800/2294200.

Improving School Climate