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| 8/25/2008 11:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Mary Bell: Making new school year resolutions
By Mary Bell
President, Wis. Education Association Council
When I began my teaching career at Rhinelander High School 31 years ago, I started the school year by making resolutions the same way many of us do in early January. When you work in public education, you don't just resolve to exercise more often or cut down on your caffeine, you resolve to monitor the cleanliness of your students' desks (before it is too late), to not let your lesson plans cut into recess and lunch periods, to assign less (or more) homework, or to finish your master's degree.
I made these resolutions at the start of every school year, long after I had gone from a first-year English teacher in Rhinelander to a veteran library media specialist in Wisconsin Rapids. Most educators I know make new school year resolutions, because every school year starts with a clean slate and a sense of unlimited possibility.
Great schools benefit everyone, and throughout Wisconsin it is not just educators but whole communities taking pride in the public schools they have created and sustained. This sense of ownership and investment has paid big dividends, as Wisconsin's schools are the envy of the nation. We have one of the highest high school graduation rates. On the ACT college entrance exam, our high school seniors have ranked in the nation's top three for 19 years in a row.
When I began my first year as president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council last August, I did so by resolving to meet with and listen to as many educators as I could to ask what they believe Wisconsin's public schools need to maintain their quality and get better in the future. Our world is changing, and this means schools have to change to meet new and unforeseen challenges and opportunities brought about by the world economy, technological advancements and demographic changes.
Out of the many conversations I had with educators throughout Wisconsin, it became clear that teachers and education support professionals have five top priorities: school funding reform; health care reform; enhanced support around licensure and professional development; addressing Wisconsin's achievement gaps; and organizing educators and communities around our common goals.
These are big issues - big resolutions - and it might not be immediately apparent how each of them connects to the work we do every day in our classrooms. But they do. Events and forces outside the classroom impact our work and our students when we are inside it. And ignoring them does not help us escape their effects. Public schools are shaped by public policy.
You can find out more about these issues at weac.org. WEAC's Web site has information about WEAC's priorities and connects you to other sources. There is a place on the home page where we invite you to tell us what you believe about Wisconsin's great schools. Tell us what your resolutions are for the new school year.
- Mary Bell is president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.
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