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COMMUNIQUÉ A PUBLICATION OF THE IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION – FEBRUARY 2019 – Vol. 55, No. 4 IN THIS ISSUE: Mental Health ISASP Vote for NEA RA 3 4 9 Set it... Set it... and forget it! and forget it! EFT AVAILABLE NOW! EFT AVAILABLE NOW! Empowerment for Educators Molly in the House FOLLOW US ON: By Mike Wiser, mwiser@isea.org By Mike Wiser, mwiser@isea.org For 2019 Iowa Teacher of the Year Chris Burke teaching extends beyond the classroom doors Chris Burke reads aloud the mining tragedy that never happened while his 8th graders settle into class, laptops open, and follow along. "Five men charge out of a mine shaft as the timbers crash behind them. Jeb was not the first out. Cain was neither first nor last. John Henry pushed out immediately after Jeb. Preach wasn't second out. Zane was two men behind Preach. In what order did the men race from the mine?" Pretty soon students are scribbling notes, circling initials and eliminating numbers on their worksheets. The fictional mine tragedy is an introduction into mathematical modeling. Before the year ends, Burke's students will use this lesson plus ones on data collection, analysis, investigation and predictive analytics to determine how many rubber bands they have to string together to conduct a successful 9.6 meter bungee jump for a doll. Then teams of students will test their calculations at the Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School annual bungee jump contest. With just over a decade in the classroom and a year after being named the Dubuque Community School District Teacher of the Year, Burke was named see BURKE on page 8 see MOLLY on page 6 Molly Donahue is part of a movement. Across the country, a record number of current and former educators competed for seats in state legislatures, in Congress and governors' chairs in the 2018 midterms – more than 1,500 according to data from the National Education Association. Many of them won. Among the victorious, Tony Evers a former teacher and state superintendent of education was elected governor in Wisconsin, 2016 National Teacher of the Year Jahana Hayes was elected to Congress in Connecticut, and Molly Donahue, a special education teacher at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, earned a seat in the Iowa House of Representatives. "What got me interested was seeing what was happening in my building," said Donahue, a veteran teacher and longtime member of the Cedar Rapids Education Association, as she organized her desk on the first day of the 2019 legislative session. "What intrigued me was the ability to maybe be able to make things better for the kids, for my co-workers, for the schools themselves," Donahue Chris Burke explains the concepts behind mathematical modeling to his class. Burke, who teaches 8th grade mathematics at Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School in Dubuque is a member of the Dubuque Education Association and the 2019 Iowa Teacher of the Year. BY MIKE WISER/IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION State Rep. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, set up her desk in the Iowa House of Representatives during the first day of the 2019 legislative session. Donahue is a behavior disabilities teacher in the Cedar Rapids School District and has seats on the Education, Environmental Protection and State Government committees. BY MIKE WISER/IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION