New AFT NCLB site starts a buzz online

The new AFT Web site on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is turning heads and generating interest among frontline members and the online community alike.

Since its debut in late January, www.letsgetitright.org has received thousands of visits and favorable reviews for sparking a candid exchange that extends from the classroom to the policy analyst ranks about such issues as “highly qualified teacher” provisions and testing burdens.

“Progressive,” “forward-thinking” and “enlightening” are among the adjectives that online education commentators have used to describe the new AFT site, which takes an informal, roll-up-your-sleeves approach to discussing NCLB. The debut of “NCLBlog”—the centerpiece of the new Web site that provides up-to-the-minute commentary on NCLB and offers opportunities for feedback and dialogue from the field—also got a substantial write-up in a recent edition of Education Week.

In February, the AFT launched a series of Web-based advertisements and a first-of-its-kind animation sent to thousands of union activists and educators. “The NCLB Show and Sing-Along” ads will spread the word about www.letsgetitright.org in the coming weeks and months—and build public awareness for necessary changes in the law now and when NCLB comes up for reauthorization next year in Congress.

When the newspaper Monica Sayler worked at as an editor closed its doors, she took a position at the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls. The job as a cottage parent for students residing at the state-run school was just that—a job.

“I was just waiting around for another journalism job to show up. Working in the cottage was just an in-between job,” recalls Sayler, who now, more than a decade later, is co-president of the school’s MEA-MFT local.

Little did Sayler know that that job, working with blind and visually impaired people ages 3 to 21, was going to turn into her vocation. “Absolutely intrigued” by the kids and the orientation and mobility (O/M) specialist who worked with them, Sayler quit the cottage job after several years and went back to the classroom herself.

Sayler was one of four people accepted from an international pool of applicants for a year-long O/M specialist training at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. It’s her job to help her students learn how to safely, efficiently and gracefully travel through any environment, known or unknown.

“Any blind person can do what you or I can do,” says Sayler. “They just have to learn how to do it differently.” What’s most rewarding, she says, is “seeing the kids conquer their fears.”

The AFT has joined forces with Special Olympics. The two national organizations plan to work together in a variety of ways that will strengthen Special Olympics outreach to educators and schools. The AFT is also encouraging its state and local affiliates to become involved in Special Olympics. The AFT will be a sponsor of the first USA National Games in Ames, Iowa, in July. At the games, the union will help sponsor transportation for athletes, coaches, volunteers and family members as they move from their dorms and hotels to the Festival Village and event locations. The AFT logo will be prominently displayed on the vehicles.

The union also has endorsed the Special Olympics’ “SO Get Into It” service-learning curriculum for all grade levels, which consists of lesson plans, activities and videos promoting student and teacher awareness and understanding of—and involvement in—Special Olympics. “The AFT is uniquely poised to implement this program in classrooms through state and local affiliates and members,” says AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese.

Many AFT members, especially special education teachers, serve as coaches and volunteers with Special Olympics, and some AFT affiliates have collaborated in the past with local Special Olympics programs.

To learn more about the “SO Get Into It” service-learning curriculum, visit www.specialolympics.org/getintoit.