Teachers attend NIE workshop
Last school year was coming to a close on a May afternoon and Tom McCracken was walking his Menallen Elementary School students out of the building to their buses. “When you get back, you have a phone call,” his principal, Charles Yasechko, told him.
McCracken was suspicious. A call at the end of the day could mean trouble.
The gist of the call was a total surprise, and McCracken said he at first thought it was a prank. He was told the Herald-Standard Newspaper in Education (NIE) department chose him as their teacher of the year.
McCracken recalled the story at the Herald-Standard’s fall NIE teacher workshop, held Thursday at the Holiday Inn in Uniontown.
A veteran teacher of fifth- and sixth-graders at Menallen Elementary School in the Uniontown Area School District, McCracken thanked Yasechko for nominating him as teacher of the year and thanked the school staff, students and his family for helping him do his job.
He has lost count of how long he has used the newspaper in his classroom, but he guessed in the range of 15 to 20 years.
“To me, the newspaper breathes life into what I do,” he said.
McCracken gets his newspapers on Fridays, and the activities change each time in response to the day’s content. He acknowledged that the content sometimes touches on sensitive issues, and some classes respond to using the newspaper better than others.
He related a couple of his classroom activities and said he also enters his students’ essays and advertisements in the annual NIE student contests. He has had winners come out of his classes and is sometimes surprised.
As a teacher, McCracken said he is planting a seed in his students, and while he never knows if it is going to grow, that seed could grow where he least expects.
“I’ve been so blessed. I’ve worked with the greatest and I’ve enjoyed the honor,” he said.
Before he spoke, he joined his colleagues from other local schools in practicing a few newspaper activities, under the guidance of Jo Lieb, NIE sales coordinator.
In her presentation, “Around the World in 80 Ways,” Lieb explained the different parts of the newspaper and spoke of its connection to what she called the global village, saying the newspaper can connect the teachers’ students to the world.
“We want them (the students) to be better informed of issues today and tomorrow,” she said. “The newspaper brings the world to us.”
Lieb also pointed out how the activities relate to the state’s academic standards for the teaching of language arts.
Clinton Rhodes, circulation marketing manager, said the purpose of the teacher workshop is to share ideas on how to use the newspaper in the classroom. “Many of you use the newspaper and do great things with it. We’re always impressed with what you do,” he said.
He introduced a new addition to the Herald-Standard, a four-page monthly section called Student Body that contains articles, photos and activities for young people. He invited interested teachers to contact the department regarding submissions to the section.
William Dreucci, NIE education services coordinator, pointed out that September is National Literacy Month.
“Literacy is what it’s all about. That’s why we’re here,” he said.
Dreucci described Freedom’s Answer, a new national effort to recruit high school students into a youth voter corps that would urge their parents, neighbors and friends to vote Nov. 5. He said the goal is to get the largest voter turnout in a non-presidential election year and to demonstrate that the American spirit is alive and well, despite last year’s terrorist attacks.
The Herald-Standard is a print sponsor for Freedom’s Answer, and Dreucci encouraged local high school participation by contacting NIE.