Progress 2019 Education

Progress Education Saturday, February 23, 2019 • Albert Lea Tribune

Albert Lea High School science teacher Ken Fiscus is all about outer space. So much so, that he was almost considered to be an astronaut. Colleen Harrison/Albert Lea Tribune

Teacher loves science to the

MOON AND

BACK Albert Lea educator uses personal passion for subject to excite students about the world around them

By Sarah Kocher

sarah.kocher@albertleatribune.com

K

en Fiscus wants his stu- Star Party, held annually near Valendents to know a lot of tine, Nebraska. It’s signed by eclipse things. There’s the 2004 expert Fred Espenak, a black signaearthquake and subse- ture on an otherwise white shoulder. quent tsunami in the Here’s the shirt he picked up in the Indian Ocean, the Iceman, what a NASA gift shop when he was one of solar eclipse looks like — that’s a big 35 finalists to become an educator one. But what he hopes his students astronaut. Here’s one that glows in really learn is that they’re not the the dark. Here’s the one, blue with center of the universe. orange swirls and planets, that he That would be the sun. calls his Mr. Frizzle shirt.

Technically.

From the outside, Fiscus’s uniBut that’s not the impression you verse seems firmly focused on a get when you walk into Fiscus’s sci- different heavenly body. For Fiscus, ence classroom at Albert Lea High it’s the moon.

School. On the right wall immediately adjacent to the entrance — below Launch the laminated paper “death quilt” Fiscus started teaching science carrying the 250,000 tally marks at Albert Lea HIgh School in 1991, that represent those killed in the the same year he saw his first solar 2004 tsunami — is one of the three eclipse.

“Starry Night” recreations scattered A minister’s child who calls Wayne, about his room. This one is built from Nebraska, home, Fiscus attended Neminiature NASA-themed photos. braska Christian College in Norfolk, If your eyes travel left, past the Nebraska. There, he met his wife, light switch and the international Kelli. She made the cut because she tsunami warning symbol, past the agreed to name their first son after a high cabinets adorned with 33 mul- star Fiscus picked off a star chart in ticolored rockets of varying size and high school: Rigel, the brightest star design, past another in the Orion constella“Starry Night” reprotion. (His daughter is duction, is the 2004 named Meridian, which class of astronauts on Fiscus said means “high a large poster. Among point.”) the names and faces, “I went to college some stand out as fanot having a clue what I wanted to do,” Fiscus miliar. Fifteen bear said. the special mark of He went to Nebraska Ken Fiscus: a yellow binder paper reinChristian College beforcement sticker, cause that’s where his — Ken Fiscus parents went, he said. like a thick solar eclipse, next to their The college announced picture. Those are the ones Fiscus a cooperative with Wayne State that has met. allowed Fiscus to receive his Bachelor In his classroom, the 2011 National of Arts and Bachelor of Science at the Space Educator flicks through the set same time. The program instigated of plastic hangers carrying over 50 his career in teaching — a career of his science shirts. On yearbook choice that, in hindsight, made a lot picture day, he doles them out to of sense, he said. students.

Here’s the shirt from the Nebraska See TEACHER, Page 2

“I try to show them that science matters. It isn’t about worksheets.”

What’s inside?

The faces behind area athletics Meet the ADs at NRHEG, Alden-Conger and Lake Mills. Page 3

‘Carrying his torch’

Daughter takes over USC theater production after father retires. Page 4

District part of consortium

Glenville-Emmons finds success for students in 7-school consortium. Page 5

‘What I’m supposed to do’

Albert Lea paraeductor finds a purpose in helping students. Page 5

Page 2 | AlbertLeaTribune.com | Progress 2019 | Education | saturday, February 23, 2019

Teacher Continued from Front Page

“Duh, I was meant to be a teacher,” Fiscus said. “But I didn’t know that.”

He received his Bachelor of Science in education earth science, history and geography and his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical studies.

“People go, ‘Really? Biblical studies and science?’”

Fiscus said. “Well, you can function, you can believe in God and be a science teacher.”

Fiscus’s interview at Albert Lea High School was his first trip to Minnesota.

“I needed a job,” he said.

He was headed out of student teaching at a Cooperative Urban Teacher Education placement in Kansas City, Kansas, working with inner-city children and teaching English as a second language at night. A fellow CUTE teacher from Iowa shared a job list with him, and he saw Albert Lea’s district on there.

When he came to town for the interview, he had to stop on Fountain Street for ducks to cross. “‘This could be a cool place,’” Fiscus said he remembers thinking.

Now, he’s in the midst of his 28th year, teaching students in Albert Lea how different earthquake waves work by running across the classroom and wiggling his arms. That’s why ninth-grader Emma Berg remembers how they work: She has a tiny Fiscus running to the other side of the space in her head.

“I think I’ve retained a lot more than I usually would because of how he taught,” fellow freshman Brennan McCalla said.

And it’s not just how, but what: McCalla remembers time spent studying the Iceman, a man mummified by ice in the alps on the border between Austria and Italy.

“I can tie anything into anything,” Fiscus said.

That’s because math and science are merely tools to help you figure out the hows and the whys of the universe, he said.

Wendy Keszler, who has taught science alongside

Fiscus at Albert Lea High School for 20 years, said she sees that mindset in how he teaches.

“He has all kinds of other strengths and talents that are not required of a teaching certificate,” she said. “...

So, when he teaches — he teaches his topics and uses student interest to teach those topics, and that is very rare to find that in a teacher.”

For Berg, Fiscus’ passion for astronomy influenced her own. Keszler said she’s in the same boat.

“I took an astronomy course just because he was so passionate about it,” she said.

She found a physics professor who taught a night course. Now, she uses a section on astronomy in her course on physics to teach students about parallax motion.

Berg and McCalla see Fiscus trying to teach them about more than what fits in their textbooks.

“I try to show them that science matters,” Fiscus said. “It isn’t about worksheets.”

Almost an astronaut

Nonetheless, Fiscus had a hefty worksheet of his own to fill out when, under President George W. Bush, NASA announced its educator astronaut program in 2003.

“NASA realized they have an image problem,” Fiscus said. The average American had no idea what NASA did.

And who better to educate the average American than science teachers?

When the press release came out, Fiscus said he had three emails that day.

“You’re applying,” the emails said.

He talked it over with his wife, then printed out 61 pages of instructions on how to fill out the application.

“We agreed that I should apply, and I’d never get picked,” he said.

After putting off the paperwork, he and his wife got a babysitter from their church one Saturday to knock it all out.

That was Feb. 1, 2003.

“The phone rings,” Fiscus said. “It’s the babysitter. She says, ‘Turn on your TV. The space shuttle Columbia just

blew up over Texas.’ And I said, ‘Well, there goes that.

Aren’t you glad we didn’t do the paperwork?’”

He was certain the program wouldn’t continue.

It did. And so did he — through more cuts than he expected. He had to submit curriculum he’d developed as a teacher (“Apparently they liked that,” he said). Before his interview, he hit the treadmill with an exercise regimen suggested by another teacher. He said he went from no exercise to running five miles non-stop in five weeks.

He went through all the tests: vision exams, psychiatric screenings, cancer screenings, X-ray tests.

He passed them all. If he had kept going, students would have seen Fiscus’ own torso, covered in the orange NASA jumpsuit, on the 2004 NASA class of astronauts on the poster in his classroom.

If he had kept going, Fiscus said the consistent medical screenings required of astronauts may also have caught his autoimmune disease earlier.

“This is a much more recent plot twist,” he said.

In 2016, Fiscus was diagnosed with Churg-Strauss Syndrome, a disease in which blood vessel inflammation can restrict blood flow to vital organs and tissues, according to Mayo Clinic.

“You know it’s a winner when it’s named after two pathologists,” he said.

Fiscus felt it in his legs.

He was tired. At school, he didn’t leave his room to conserve energy. His daughter brought him food in the classroom.

“She was my lifeline,” he said.

During MEA break, he woke up at 2 a.m. to take more aspirin for his legs.

He was partially blind in his right eye, he said.

“That got my attention,” Fiscus said.

He asked the doctors what they could do for his eye — he’s a visual person. “‘You’ve got bigger problems than your eye,’” he said they told him.

He went through five rounds of chemotherapy and now takes medication to

By the numbers

28

Years Fiscus has taught at Albert Lea High School

help manage the diagnosis.

Fiscus said he wasn’t chosen to be an educator astronaut in 2003 because, in the interview, he asked not to be.

They weren’t going to the moon.

“I had little kids at home,” he said.

He knew, off the top of his head, the number of astronauts who died in shuttle missions by 2003. It was 14.

“I didn’t want to risk my life not going to the moon,” Fiscus said.

Afterward, he said it was a constant yo-yo in his mind: Was this the right decision?

He said he knows now it was. He was in it for the moon, not the International Space Station.

“I’d even consider a oneway mission,” Fiscus said.

Eye on the sky

It’s not totally fair to say Fiscus is purely lunar driven.

Every time there is a total solar eclipse, Fiscus also has a vested interest in the sun.

He can’t quite pinpoint when he first started loving science itself. When he was a child, he was allowed to get dirty. He was into bugs and fossils and turtles: “Everything,” he said.

Astronomy came later.

At the same age as the students he now teaches in his earth science classes — eighth grade — his friend’s older brother moved to college and left behind two telescopes, Fiscus said.

Together, they learned the sky.

Now, Fiscus builds his own in his spare time. He lends them to the studentstarted astronomy club, now in its second year at Albert Lea High School.

Fiscus plans to use them for what he calls “ambush astronomy.”

61

2024

Instruction pages Ken Fiscus said guided him through his NASA application to become an educator astronaut in 2003 “When people come out of basketball games, you know, there will just be nerds with telescopes,” he said. “No announcements — just, ‘Hey, want to look at the moon?’”

Fiscus has seen three total solar eclipses: the 1991 eclipse from Mexico, the 1998 eclipse from Aruba and the 2017 eclipse from Pawnee City, Nebraska.

“It’s the most beautiful sight in nature,” he said. “Period. Exclamation point.”

He doesn’t take that lightly. And when it came to planning for the 2017 eclipse — unlike with the paperwork to become an educator astronaut — he didn’t procrastinate.

Fiscus said he worked with Pawnee City, Nebraska, for five years ahead of the eclipse to prepare the community for the influx of tourists he believed them capable of drawing due to their position in the path of totality.

“He was really excited about this, and I guess if he hadn’t pushed it or talked to us about it, I’m not sure that we would have done anything or it would have been too late to do it,” said Yvonne Dalluge, vice president of Pawnee County Promotional Network.

Three years before the eclipse, on MEA break, Fiscus traveled to Pawnee City to brainstorm, he said.

He looked at places where eclipse viewers could go for best viewing. Before Fiscus, Dalluge said she wasn’t sure whether anyone in Pawnee County had paid much attention to what being in the path of the total solar eclipse could mean. When he came down, she said Fiscus put on a program about what to expect and ideas for the area to do to prepare.

“He would email and say,

Year of the next total solar eclipse

‘Did you do this? Did you do that?’” Dalluge said. “You know, and he had given us suggestions about food, what food we might have, and what we might call it to have it go with the eclipse names.”

According to Dalluge, they sold over 900 tickets for parking places between the five locations selected for viewing.

Several of those tickets went to a Fiscus-led caravan, which included several vans of people as well as a coach bus Fiscus rented himself and sold tickets for to break even.

Just like the last two eclipses, this one was a nail-biter, Fiscus said.

The video he keeps on his phone, shot from a weather satellite, tells the story of the eclipse in grainy, stilted frames: clouds, clouds, clouds as the moon travels northwest to southeast, until, for just over two minutes at just after 1 p.m., the clouds parted and eclipse viewers removed their glasses in the midday dusk to see the shimmery edges of sun peeking out around the black silhouette of moon.

While planning the trip and the event was a lot of work, Fiscus’ eyes tell you it was a no-brainer.

“People have to see this,” he said. “... It’s immoral to keep something that cool to yourself.”

He unlocks his cell phone, nestled into its protective hunter orange case, to check on something. There on the screen, behind the rows of small, square app icons, the curved profile of the gray, pockmarked moon looms into partial view. Fiscus is ready for April 8, 2024.

And in the meantime, he is keeping one eye on the moon.

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Saturday, February 23, 2019 | Education | Progress 2019 | AlbertLeaTribune.com | Page 3

Dan Stork has been the activities director at NRHEG for eight years. Tyler Julson/Albert Lea Tribune

Meet the faces behind

area school athletics How long have you been the athletic director?

By Tyler Julson

tyler.julson@albertleatribune.com

Dan Stork: NRHEG Public School

Since 2005, so we’re going on 13 years.

How many schools have you worked at previously?

How long have you been the activities director?

This is the only school I’ve ever taught at. I started in 1990 and I’ve done everything aside from being the superintendent.

This would be my eighth year.

How many schools have you worked at previously?

What sports did you participate in during high school and college?

This is it. I came here right out of college. I taught (physical education) and industrial tech for the first few years I was here. I was an elementary coordinator and did that for seven years, actually. Then I came over to the high school and got involved in the activities department after that.

What sports did you participate in during high school and college?

When I was younger I did the football, basketball, baseball scene. As I got into high school, I dropped basketball.

I wasn’t really into it and they always bugged me because I was tall, but then I got into golden glove boxing.

I had an older brother who was into it and growing up in Byron, we went up to Rochester and onto Silver Lake Fire Station and got involved with a golden gloves club over there.

After a few years, I started to focus more on football.

I went and played football in college, so that was my love.

What made you want to become an activities director?

I was an East St. Paul kid and went to Harding High School. My senior class was bigger than the population of Alden. So as you can imagine, the competition was pretty tough, but I did play varsity football and varsity basketball, but I didn’t make the varsity baseball team.

Jim Boehmer has been the athletic director at Lake Mills for 18 years.

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

I love the job, it’s a lot of fun, but probably the most difficult thing is the amount of time that goes into it.

That’s the most demanding part of the job. This morning I got here about 7:30, and I probably won’t get home tonight until about 9:30. That’s a typical night in the winter season.

I have Wednesdays off, but then I’m teaching classes at the church, so I’m busy there, too. It’s time more than anything, but it’s fun time.

Paul Ragatz has been the athletic director at Alden-Conger for 13 years.

What’s the most Mindy Sparby forced me rewarding part of to do it. No, just kidding. your job?

Mindy was the AD here before I was. We were good friends — we’re still really close. Her and my wife are really good friends. She was leaving the district at the time I was working as the dean of students here at the high school.

They asked me to be the AD and I thought, “well that sounds kind of fun.” I’ve always been into athletics and I was coaching football at the time.

Since I’ve been at New Richland I’ve coached football, basketball —both boys and girls at many different levels — and softball. I was big into softball the first few years I was here.

I’ve always loved athletics, it’s kind of my background.

I’ve always wanted to be involved in it and Mindy talked me into it, so I did it and it has been a lot of fun.

What made you want to become an athletic director?

I think the most rewarding aspect is just being involved with so many different student athletes and coaches, not only from our school, but from other schools, too.

You get to know everybody.

I’ve made some really good friends over the years.

You get to watch the kids develop and grow with coaches who have a passion to work with them. It’s just really fun. The good parts far outweigh the bad parts

What keeps you sticking with the job?

for athletics and activities and working with kids.

Obviously there’s going to be some bad days and some good days, but there’s always something exciting.

It’s always fun to be chasing something and seeing our teams grow and develop and chase that next goal.

but after my first semester, I decided against that.

I enjoyed going to watch my sister teach down in Tipton, Iowa, so I decided to get into education.

Really, the classroom is why I haven’t seriously considered a few other opportunities. College administration and bigger schools, you have to give up coaching and teaching, and I just wasn’t ready to give that up at the time.

What’s the most difficult part of your job?

What’s the most difficult part of Balancing — balancing all your job?

those various hats. I’m also a classroom teacher, and I teach four different classes.

Then, I’ve coached every year I’ve taught, and you have to factor that in. The time that goes into being the AD is crazy. There has been Saturdays, Sundays and even some holidays where I’ve been up here working.

This is the only school I’ve worked at. Senior in college, a social studies major, I saw the job posted in the Des Moines Register, and I thought “Well, I’ll apply there.” I came up for an interview, and it went horribly. I remember pulling out of Lake Mills and thinking “I will never be back in that town again.”

What’s the most The superintendent at the time gave me a call and said rewarding part of they wanted me back for a your job?

For me, it’s definitely second interview. the student relationships — those are priceless. Just What sports did you the things you get from kids |participate in during and the things you hear How long have you high school and college? from kids, it might be years Growing up, it was wresbeen the athletic later, but when you see a kid tling, football, track and director? have that “aha” moment or baseball.

I ended up staying I started doing middle that moment when the feel school 18 years ago. From with wresting and baseball. good about who they are They were my loves. there I’ve had high school and what they did. and middle school combined What made you want for about 12 years now.

Jim Boehmer: Lake Mills Community School

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve had a lot of friends who have gotten burned out and have gotten out of it. A couple of them did it for two or three years and were finished. There are a lot of challenges that come with How many schools it, but I think I keep doing it have you worked at because I still have a passion previously?

to become an athletic director?

I started out wanting to go into law enforcement,

The first year I was here, I was an assistant football coach, junior high basketball coach and a full-time social studies teacher. The second year I was here, the head football coach left and the head basketball coach left, and I wanted those jobs.

I was a head coach throughout the ’90s, and in 2003 I deployed with the National Guard. When I came back, around 11 months later, Joe Guanella offered me the dean position and the AD.

Paul Ragatz: Alden-Conger Public School

Alden-Conger is the only district I’ve ever known, but for me, the hardest part is finding junior high level coaches. Not enough of the teaching staff are willing to coach, so you have to turn to the outside. There, many people want to coach, but they have other jobs. Finding those people who both can and want to coach at that level is hard because there’s so much turnover.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

The No. 1 reason every kid puts down when asked why they play sports is to have fun. To drive that home through coaching, the parents, the officials, the fans and everything else, all has to do with the program we’ve created.

My No. 1 thing is that kids are a part of education-based athletics. To see that connection between the players and the coaches is special.

Page 4 | AlbertLeaTribune.com | Progress 2019 | Education | saturday, February 23, 2019

‘carrying his torch’ Kirstyn Wegner took the reigns from her father, Clay Miller, this school year with the United South Central production of “Annie Jr.” Colleen Harrison/Albert Lea Tribune

Daughter takes over USC theater productions after father retires from role

By Colleen Harrison

colleen.harrison@albertleatribune.com

WELLS — As Kirstyn Wegner walks to a closet to put away a prop broom, her father, Clay Miller, catches up to her.

“You know that lights up, right?” Miller says, looking at the broom.

Wegner looks at the broom, not understanding for a moment.

“There’s a switch hidden in the handle,” Miller says.

After realizing it’s a prop from a past production of “The Wizard of Oz,” Wegner, already knowing the answer, asks her father, “You made this, didn’t you?”

Miller’s legacy as the drama director for United South Central is a lasting one, spanning 33 years and around 70 different productions.

Now, that legacy is continuing through Wegner, his daughter, who is coming off her directorial debut with the school’s fall production of “Annie Jr.” Miller said he was approached all those years ago to head up the program.

Having been in a band and looking for a new musical outlet — and later finding out his job at Wells Concrete would help him with building and designing sets and managing lighting — Miller

said he thought, “How hard could it be?” He laughs at that naïveté now, but still wouldn’t change a thing.

“I was bitten then by the theater bug,” he said.

When Miller was first at the helm of the program, he said there were about 20 students participating at then-Wells-Easton High School. Over his 30-plus years, participation reached as many as 60 students, with 40 on stage at one point.

“Try choreographing a show with 40 kids,” Miller said while thinking back to that time.

Miller would direct both a musical and a play each school year, and was

Clay Miller gives direction during a rehearsal for “Shrek the Musical,” the last musical Miller directed for United South Central in November 2017. Sarah Kocher/Albert Lea Tribune

33

By the numbers

Years Clay Miller spent as director of United South Central’s drama department productions involved with one-act productions for some time as well. He said he had to take a step back from one-acts, because “three shows was too much,” especially when the one-acts and the musical — which then took place in the spring — would often overlap.

His last production as director was “Shrek the Musical” in November 2017.

When Miller decided to retire from being in charge of the school’s drama program, he said he knew his daughter would be a good choice to take over, but he didn’t want to pressure her into anything.

“It was getting time for me to step down,” he said. “I was pleased to see Kirstyn pick up the reigns.”

Wegner had been a fulltime English teacher, but had to take a step back some years ago when she was struggling with epilepsy and had to manage her stress levels more closely.

She has since found a balance in being a substitute teacher.

She had her directorial debut with “Annie,” which she said she “was very happy with.”

“The audience was happy with it, too,” Miller said.

A common “complaint” — which Wegner said she considers a compliment — from those who saw “Annie” was that the 90-minute production was too short.

Wegner chose a “junior play” version of “Annie,” meaning it was more abbreviated. She said her choice was based on it being her first production as director, as well as a means to manage her stress levels

36

37

Age of Kirstyn Wegner, who is following in her father’s footsteps as the school’s new director

Students who signed a petition to bring the spring play back

while broaching this new chapter.

That attention Wegner pays to stress levels made her somewhat hesitant to completely take the reigns from her dad, so initially she agreed to just direct the fall musical, and that would be it. There hasn’t been a spring play at United South Central since 2017, when Miller directed “Charley’s Aunt.”

United South Central students decided they didn’t like not having a spring play, though, as 37 students signed a petition and presented it, asking for the spring play to return after working on “Annie.”

The petition, in fact, was started by a boy who had never been involved with a drama production before “Annie.”

“I was a little flabbergasted,” Wegner said, about learning of the petition. “I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

So, Wegner will direct a spring play and a fall musical, just like her dad. To keep things manageable, Wegner said she makes sure rehearsals don’t run too late whenever possible, and has found a great partner in Ben Dundas, who has become a technical director — working on lighting, sound and doing some set building while Wegner learns the ropes more.

Plus, Wegner has her dad to help, who built and designed sets for “Annie” and acted as an overall guide and sounding board for his daughter.

“I don’t think he’s going to have a choice,” Wegner said, laughing, about her

father still helping her with productions. “…He’s the only one who knows where everything is.”

“It’s a way to ease me out of it,” Miller said.

Wegner enlisted the help of her sister, Tami Miller, to help with character coaching during “Annie,” as well.

Clay Miller said all of his children grew up being exposed to theater, between coming to rehearsals with him and spending weekends at the school building sets.

That’s another tradition that seems to be carrying on, as Wegner said her 11-year-old daughter, Nadia, was “little miss popular” with the high school students while they worked on “Annie.” Nadia even had a supporting part as one of the orphans. It brought back memories for Wegner, who acted in productions her father directed growing up.

She recalled getting to watch her dad work with other children, and see him help others achieve their goals.

“Dad’s always been really good at bringing out the best in kids,” she said. “I think Dad has a very particular brand of humor, that I think I’ve inherited, and it was fun to draw that out of the kids.”

While theater has been such a large part of Miller’s life, and continues to be through working with his daughter, he said he’s “glad to hand the baton off.”

“I’m honored and proud to be carrying this torch,” Wegner said. “Thanks, Dad, for making the program what it is.”

Saturday, February 23, 2019 | Education | Progress 2019 | AlbertLeaTribune.com | Page 5

Glenville-Emmons students take part in a Spanish lesson in December. They are able to take elective courses that otherwise might not be available because of the district’s participation in the consortium. Sam Wilmes/Albert Lea Tribune

G-E students get large-school classes in a small-school setting

By Sam Wilmes

sam.wilmes@albertleatribune.com

GLENVILLE — It is a December Friday afternoon at Glenville-Emmons High School.

Approximately 15 students are receiving a Spanish lesson from a Grand Meadow teacher via interactive television.

In another room, science teacher Elise Volz teaches chemistry to LeRoy-Ostrander students.

The classes are part of a learning consortium the district takes part in that allows students to take classes that otherwise might not be available.

The learning consortium was founded approximately 10 years ago when LylePacelli, Grand Meadow, LeRoy-Ostrander and Southland school districts began working together to share special education services, said Glenville-Emmons Principal Jeff Tietje.

Glenville-Emmons joined one year later, and AldenConger and Kingsland districts have since been added for special education courses.

The consortium evolved into general education, Tietje said, including shared staff development and shared staff through interactive television.

Glenville-Emmons teachers instruct accounting, chemistry and two food science classes to the consortium. Other teachers in the consortium instruct about 45 to 50 Glenville-Emmons students in Spanish I and II, athletic training, kinesiology and child development.

Some classes change from year to year. Next year, Glenville-Emmons plans to offer advanced biology to the consortium.

Tietje said the consortium was founded “just out of that need of being able to provide the services to the students and providing qualified teachers.”

He said the consortium

Paraeducator Marcie Forman massages student Seven Hurd’s arm joints during a movement break. Sarah Kocher/Albert Lea Tribune

‘This is just what I’m supposed to do’ A.L. paraeducator finds a purpose in helping students

By Sarah Kocher

sarah.kocher@albertleatribune.com

Glenville-Emmons science teacher Elise Volz teaches chemistry to LeRoy-Ostrander students Dec. 7. allows Glenville-Emmons to keep teachers the district might not be able to otherwise because of a lack of students.

“We’ll keep a teacher that we may not be able to, but knowing that if we provide one elective, and another school provides another elective, and then a third school provides an elective — now, all of a sudden, we have six or seven electives for our students to choose from.”

School districts in the consortium do not charge each other for teacher services.

“Our theory is that if everybody has a couple of classes they’re offering, and we don’t charge each other, then it’s going to make a better education for all of our students,” Tietje said. “Now instead of having only two or three choices, they’ll have four or five choices per class period for elective classes.”

Tietje noted three to four years ago, Glenville-Emmons was having trouble finding an English teacher.

After finding a potential instructor who was not yet licensed in Minnesota, a different school in the consortium allowed them to temporarily use its teacher.

To Tietje, the consortium allows students to gain a better idea of their

career preferences.

As principal, he oversees the program at Glenville-Emmons.

“It does make scheduling easier when you have more choices,” he said. “It makes the students enjoy their education experience more as well when they have things that they can take that they are interested in.”

He said having the available classes makes Glenville-Emmons more attractive.

“If you are in a school where you are stuck, very limited on your class choices, and its maybe classes you necessarily aren’t interested in, that student’s going to have a little more of a negative feel, a negative approach toward school,” he said.

Tietje said because of their involvement in the consortium, the districts compare favorably to similarly sized schools.

“When we can sit back and look at this list of classes, that you go around other schools our size, and you look at their list of electives, our list covers a much wider area, much more opportunities,” he said.

Tietje said the district is working to increase its options for students.

“In fact, that’s our next

To the unfamiliar eye, it looks like the start of a magic trick: First-grader Seven Hurd is swallowed by a shimmery blue body sock until only his feet poke out. Then, with paraeducator Marcie Forman’s help, even those disappear as the child is enveloped completely in the stretchy fabric.

But rather than disappear, body parts begin to test the limits of the sock — a fist, an elbow and a shoed foot that escapes from the opening at the bottom.

Each movement creates tension, then slack as the body sock takes a hit elsewhere. In an entryway just outside his classroom, and with Forman by his side, a caterpillar tests the limits of his cocoon.

Forman is in her fifth year as a paraeducator at Sibley Elementary School, a move she made to sync schedules with her children after 15 years as an infant teacher at The Children’s Center. She spends the school day in first-grade teacher Drew

Wanzek’s room, providing support for four students. What that support is? Simple.

It’s anything they need, Forman said. Do they need snacks? Do they need their shoes tied?

“She’s constantly doing something,” Wanzek said.

For Hurd, he said that could mean help with math or art, helping him rejoin the larger group and giving him the space to calm down — sometimes in the company of his toy frog, Frog-o.

“I like about her that she helps me sound out some stuff and she helps me keep calm,” he said.

If students need information repeated, Forman does that. She works with them one-on-one and does weekly checks to verify children are progressing.

Sometimes, she said, they just need a break.

“Some kiddos, academics are so hard that they just need a break to take a walk and talk and forget about how hard it is to be in school sometimes,” Forman said.

If they need help calming down, Forman does that, too — and well, Wanzek said.

“She does a great job understanding and seeing when students are starting to escalate and trying to, you know, see what they need to be able to regulate themself or if they need a movement break, a sensory break, she’s really good at identifying each of the kids’ needs,” he said.

She knows this matters.

“I think that I just feel like I’m making such a difference,” Forman said. “... We don’t make a million dollars, but every day I get to go home and think about all of their little successes that they made that helped them make it through.

Even a day, sometimes, is so hard. So just knowing that I’m helping them, I don’t know ... I feel like, honestly, they couldn’t do it without us.”

That one person

When Forman graduated high school, she didn’t know what she wanted to do. She starting working at The Children’s Center right away. Her last class of infants are now kindergarteners, some of whom she gets to see at Sibley.

She kept working with children because it’s what she has always done, Forman See PARA, Page 6

See CLASSES, Page 6

By the numbers

45-50

10

7

Glenville-Emmons students who take classes in the consortium

Time Glenville-Emmons School District has participated in the consortium

School districts participating in the consortium

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Small school setting Quality Academics Cutting Edge Technology Every Student Receives an iPad 36 Courses Offered through a Five School Consortium

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Para Continued from Page 5

said. Children are easy to relate to. They don’t judge you. They’re happy to see you. Additionally, the job allows her to spend time with her own growing children: Collin, 13, Caden, 9, and Wesley, 4.

“I feel this is just what I’m supposed to do,” she said.

Although some paraeducators float around the building — as Forman has done in previous years — some children she works with this year often sit at the same table in the same classroom.

“She’s built such a relationship that those students feel comfortable, they feel like they can ask her anything if they start to recognize something or don’t understand something — she’s always right there,” Wanzek said.

For Forman, a big part of that relationship is being someone there to listen to them.

“These kids really need

one person and we can make such a difference being that one person,” Forman said. “And the teachers are so busy and so focused on the big picture that we see things sometimes that they don’t see, and they appreciate that so much. But just being there to help them zip a coat can seriously change their whole entire day. … I feel like a majority of the kids that we see nowadays just need that one positive person in their life that can make things seem like they’re going to be OK sometimes.”

But being that one person isn’t always easy.

“Sometimes, when (they) do have bad days, we are their people, so … all of the baggage that they come in with sometimes, we are left to try to figure out quick ways to take it off their plate so that they can get through the day,” Forman said.

But in a world Forman sees losing its human-tohuman contact — “You don’t even have to go to

the bank,” she said — this When Forman noticed a is her way of showing up. child without gloves, she made sure the child got a pair.

Making it easier for students “You can tell that she When a child needs to really has a lot invested in tap out from classroom not only her students, but work, Forman can take the whole class,” Wanzek them on movement breaks. said.

Most of these breaks are According to the firstteacher, how scheduled, Forman said, grade with some flexibility based Forman does her job on student need. They may makes his easier, too. head to a clubhouse, where She keeps track of every there are Legos, puzzles, schedule nuance and stress balls, weighted blan- knows when her students kets and calming music. need to be where. That They may also do some means Wanzek can focus time in the body sock, on his time on managing the the trampoline or doing classroom itself. wall push-ups.

“Her organization “I know the kids love makes my job a million her,” Wanzek said. “They times easier,” Wanzek look to her for a lot of sup- said. “... It makes the whole port throughout the day.” room run smoother.”

Switching jobs after 15 Wanzek said Forman’s presence in the classroom years was no small deal, makes a difference, not Forman said. But to make only for the students she that transition — and still directly works with, but — Forman said she had a also for other students in group of supportive staff the room. who lift each other up and “Every day, she comes laugh it off. in and she’s high-energy, In Wanzek’s first-grade she’s happy to be here,” classroom, Forman brings Wanzek said. The children that attitude with her. pick up on that, he said.

“She’s a lot of fun to be

around,” Wanzek said.

‘I’m having the time of my life’

After time in the blue body sock and before wall push-ups, Hurd sits down on the trampoline and Forman joins him at floor level. She takes his wrists, his elbows in her hands, providing pressure to proprioceptive cell receivers located in his joints.

Forman said this exercise — along with Hurd’s time in the body sock — help his body know where it is in space and helps calm the body’s sensory processing systems. It’s one moment in one day, and one day in a school year Hurd said goes better for him with Forman in it than without her.

The good news for Hurd? Forman doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. She said she sees herself staying as a paraeducator for the foreseeable future.

“I’m having the time of my life working with these kids and it, the people that I work with make it so easy to love it,” she said.

Classes Continued from Page 5

goal, is to create some concurrent enrollment classes,” he said.

“So get classes through Riverland that we can offer for some college credit.”

Volz said the consortium has helped her develop new teaching techniques.

“I like that it gets me into different schools to see how different schools run, meet new students,” she said.

Volz said the consortium allows students to engage in long-distance learning, preparing them for some college courses.

Glenville-Emmons freshman Emma Lorenzen and fellow high school student Sam Chapek noted the importance of taking Spanish to get into a four-year college.

“It makes me feel good that I know I have a chance to take a foreign language here in such a small school,” Lorenzen said.

“It’s nice to know that we can have a class that we can take and know that we can get into a higher-level college just because we’ve taken this language and we’ve learned it,” Chapek said.

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