Sachem teacher goes green online

Chris Visco, an earth science teacher and member of the Sachem Central Teachers Association, created a Web site for teachers about 15 years ago.

To help reduce waste and pollution, Visco created an entire course online, posting all class handouts, homework assignments, diagrams, charts and other data.

"For my AP Environ- mental Science class alone, I will save $100 per year in paper costs, not to mention the savings in the electric bill and the positive environmental impacts," Visco said.

To keep parents connected, he provides them with the Web address as well as their child's student ID number so they may monitor their child's grades and assignments.

— SCTA Speak Out

From left, school nurse Karen DiPalma; Steven Massari, Shenendehowa TA vice president; Christine Koblensky, STA president; U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand; and Sandra Carner-Shafran and Stacey Caruso-Sharpe, both members of the NYSUT Board of Directors. Gillibrand addressed federal education policy during a 'town hall meeting' in Saratoga County.

Bad math: $43/hour vs. $1,800/student

A recently instituted Yonkers public schools policy sets a minimum attendance requirement for Targeted Instruction or Saturday Academy, two programs that aim to meet additional services requirements under NCLB.

If a minimum number of students fail to show up for the programs, which are served by a certified teacher at $43 per hour, the district will cease to offer the service.

Since the programs are required under NCLB, the district may have to pay up to $1,800 per student for a supplemental educational service provider to offer the same service.

— The Yonkers Teacher

Kennedy blasts environmental policy

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signs a copy of his book, Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking our Democracy for Mary Finneran of Coxsackie-Athens TA. Kennedy, who spoke at the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center annual conference in May, gave an impassioned keynote address blasting the political and corporate interests laying siege to the environment. 'We are not protecting the environment for the sake of the fish and birds,' he said. 'We are protecting it for our own sake.'

Oswego tech teacher honored

Donna Matteson continues to succeed in a field few women entered until a few years ago.

"She was plowing new ground, as women simply did not teach technology in those days," said technology teacher Thomas Frawley, a member of the Fulton TA and past president of the state Technology Educators Association in a letter that helped his former colleague win a Syracuse Post-Standard Achievement Award.

Matteson now teaches the next generation of technology teachers at her alma mater, the State University of New York at Oswego. She is a member of United University Professions, the NYSUT affiliate representing academic and professional faculty at SUNY.

She got into technology after a woodworking instructor told her she should be teaching what was then called "industrial arts." She worked for several Syracuse-area companies before becoming a teacher in Fulton.

Leaving high school for college was difficult, but Matteson told her superintendent she wanted to "share my passion with the young people preparing to be teachers."

His reply? "Put some good teachers out there."

— Post-Standard

Bringing aid to Africa

NYSUT members routinely go above and beyond to help children in need. Nancy Wiley and Peter Pollock are no exceptions.

Wiley spent a recent break protecting children and pregnant mothers from malaria-causing mosquitoes in Zimbabwe. A New Visions health career exploration instructor at Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES, Wiley conducted malaria screenings in Chikandakubi, a village near Victoria Falls.

A member of Saratoga-Adirondack BOCES Employees Association, led by Bert Weber, Wiley traveled with World's Window Inc., a non-profit group providing humanitarian aid to areas of the world in need.

Pollock, who works in several schools through the Otsego-Northern Catskill BOCES, read that more than 3,000 African children die daily from malaria. That inspired the science teacher to take up a collection to purchase mosquito nets. He and his students raised $700 for the nets, which the World Health Organization says could reduce malaria by up to 60 percent.

Pollock is a member of Otsego-Northern Catskill BOCES TA, headed by Ron Ritter.

— Various reports

SUNY teacher prep gets an A+

The Ella Cline Shear School of Education at the State University of New York at Geneseo has aced a rigorous national test, earning the nod from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

The NCATE accreditation covers teacher preparation and advanced prep levels. It is based on surveys and interviews with grads, school administrators who employ graduates, student internship supervisors and faculty.

Get it. GOT it. Good.

In a unique program in the Bath school district of Steuben County, teachers use "tough love" to reach at-risk students.

By all accounts, it seems to be working.

Five years ago, educators developed the Get On Track program for middle- level students with academic — and, more importantly — major behavioral problems. Up to 11 students are referred to the program by teachers, guidance counselors and the school principal.

Haverling TA members Steve Narby and Lou Ortiz, a teaching assistant who used to work at a residential treatment center for children, teach all four core subjects. The Haverling TA is led by Richard Rohrbach.

Students, who also eat lunch with their teachers, may earn their way out of the program by accumulating up to 1,000 points for such categories as passing the class, attendance and class preparedness.

Three of the six students in the first GOT group have now graduated; at least one student has made a complete academic and behavioral turnaround and is no longer classified as a special education student.

— NYSSBA On Board