students who might not have thought about attending college. “That’s a big piece for the high school students, because they may not be from a place where they know people going to college,” she said. Meeting their online counterparts in person – and exchanging e-mail addresses and phone numbers – is a significant piece of the project as the students are familiar with the experiences and viewpoints of their peers, but have never been in the same room.
What it takes to Move Education Forward Educators have taken a crucial step in Moving Education Forward. Virtually every district in the state is dealing with budget issues, so to put a spotlight on the need for school funding reform educators are using this spring to start a discussion of what we want our schools to be and where we go from here. In Onalaska, educators organized a booth at the Coulee Parenting Connection Family Fun Fair. Allison Pratt, a teacher at Onalaska’s Eagle Bluff Elementary School and co-president of the Onalaska Education Association, said now is the time to start a dialogue about the effects years of diminishing resources have had on schools.
Tony Wacker and Erica Ringelspaugh bring together their classes after spring semester to talk literature and cultural similarities.
“At the beginning they’re a little uncomfortable and shy and at the end they’re friending everybody on Facebook,” Wacker said. “The really fun part is they’ve been talking with each other and they know names and personalities but they haven’t met in person,” Ringelspaugh added. The program now centers on books such as “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, and “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker. The books selected are meant to bring diversity to the narrative and spur discussions among the students. Wacker said a long-term goal of the project includes adding a school in a Native American setting, for instance, and broadening the cultural references of the books and discussions. “It really is for me, and for Erica, why we got into teaching,” Wacker said. ■
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May 2010
“At the end of the day, it made my heart so full to be able to talk to people about school issues important to my students and their families,” Pratt said. “This is a critical time. We have to be out there fixing things for our kids.” Educators across the state are also writing postcards with anecdotes of
what’s happening in their schools. And they’re talking with community members. There is much to be done to raise awareness of school funding reform, and educators this spring are truly Moving Education Forward. ■ For more on Moving Education Forward, visit www.weac.org/ schoolfunding.
Student WEA’s Outreach to Teach effort results in ‘dream’ renovations The annual Student WEA Outreach to Teach effort brought 200 college students to two schools in Pardeeville in April to transform the buildings with murals, stairway ramps and a cosmetic facelift. “All these little projects that we can’t get done or we have to do ourselves or that keep getting cut, all of a sudden can get done,” said Lisa Weatherbee, a teacher at Pardeeville’s Marcellon Elementary School. “It’s things like this we would dream about doing, and we now we have them done,” added Pardeeville Area School District Administrator Gus Knitt.
“It just takes a lot of teamwork and a lot of cooperation,” said Erin Flanagan, Student WEA State Secretary. To see a video of the Outreach to Teach effort, visit www.weac.org/video. ■ 7