Nebraska Legislature Janet Palmtag, District 1 Agency Operating in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri
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Plans Now Underway for NSEA’s 160th Assembly THE NSEA’s Annual Meet Recognize a Colleague’s VOICE Set for April 23-24 Excellence The school year is well underway, Nebraska State Education Association Now is the time to discuss who you or 605 S. 14th Street, Lincoln, NE 68508 but it isn’t too soon to be thinking your association might nominate for one of nsea.org about April 2021 and NSEA’s 160th the honors to be given at NSEA’s Delegate 402-475-7611 · 1-800-742-0047 Delegate Assembly. Assembly in April. Volume 74, No. 2 For the uninitiated, Delegate As- Any NSEA member may nominate a ISSN Number: 1085-0783 sembly is the once-a-year annual member teacher, ESP or deserving group. USPS Number: 000-369 business meeting of the Nebraska Mailed nominations must be postmarked Executive Director Maddie Fennell, NBCT State Education Association. Mem- by Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, and should be sent Associate Executive Sheri Jablonski bers from across the state, repre- to NSEA Awards, 605 S. 14th St., Lincoln, Director & Comptroller senting local associations large and NE 68508-2742. Nominations may also be Field & Special Michelle Raphael submitted online, with required supporting Projects Manager small, are elected to attend and man- material mailed to the NSEA. Online Director of Public Affairs Karen Kilgarin age the business and set the future nomination forms are found under the & Communications course of the Association. Assistant Comm. Director Al Koontz ‘Call for Nominations’ link at: Inspiring speakers, discussion of www.nsea.org NSEA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE educational issues and consideration President Jenni Benson, Lincoln of updates to NSEA Bylaws and The 2021 Assembly will be held at [email protected] Lincoln’s Marriott Cornhusker Hotel April Vice President Robert Miller, Omaha Resolutions are all part of the Assem- [email protected] bly action. 23-24. Members are eligible for: NEA Director Tracy Hartman-Bradley, Omaha While last year’s event was virtual NSEA Rookie of the Year: To [email protected] honor a first-year teacher who excelled in NEA Director Linda Freye, Lincoln and did not include the robust profes- the 2019-2020 school year. [email protected] sional development of the previous Award for Teaching Excellence: two years, it is hoped that the event Honors a teacher who has excelled in the Official publication of the Nebraska State Education Association, 605 South 14th Street, Lincoln, NE 68508- will return to an in-person format. A classroom over a period of time. 2742. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln, NE, and ad- decision in that regard will be made Education Support Professional ditional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address of the Year: Honors an ESP who has changes to NSEA Voice, 605 S. 14th Street, Lincoln, NE early in 2021. 68508. Also in store in 2021 is an elec- excelled in his or her job. Finalists will be notified in March, Published 10 times yearly according to this schedule: tion for representative of the Ethnic and Minority Affairs Committee with winners revealed at the Assembly. September, October, November, December, January, Recipients receive a $250 cash award. February, March, April, May and August. representative on the NSEA Board of Payment of annual NSEA membership dues entitles Directors. NSEA members are also eligible for: Nebraska educators to receive The Voice. Total cost of NSEA’s first meeting was held as producing 10 monthly issues of The Voice each year is The Great Plains Milestone less than $2 per member. the Nebraska State Teachers Associa- Award: Honors an individual/group for tion in Brownville on Oct. 16, 1867, promoting human and civil rights. Advertising rates available upon request. All ad- vertisements and advertisers are screened prior to just months after Nebraska gained Community Service: Honors publication. Appearance of an advertisement in The statehood. NSEA is the state’s old- NSEA members and/or local associations Voice does not imply NSEA endorsement of either the involved in volunteer work outside of product being advertised or the views expressed. est professional association. NSEA has held a Delegate Assembly almost classroom hours. Local Public Relations: Honors every year since, and in some cases, local associations for outstanding internal twice in a year. communication. The 2021 Delegate Assembly Also to be presented: Find us on Facebook at: is scheduled for Friday and Satur- Friend of Education: Honors an facebook.com/nsea.org day, April 23-24, and will return individual or organization that has made a Find us on Twitter at: to Lincoln’s Marriott Cornhusker statewide contribution to education. @nsea_org Media: Honors newspaper, television Find us on Instagram at: Hotel. @nsea_org To make your interest in serv- or radio station for coverage of education Find us on YouTube at: ing as an elected delegate known, issues and promotion of public education. NSEAMEDIA contact your local association presi- dent, your local association building NSEA organizational specialist at A Great Public School or faculty representative, or your 1-800-742-0047. On the Cover: Cecilia Shultz, Westside Education Association, and Faith John- for Every Child. son, Omaha Education Association, send a clear message during a campaign sign drive-through event in Omaha in September. See the story on page 11. PAGE 2 | THE VOICE | OCTOBER 2020 | #YouBelong Your NSEA President Something to Agree On School is in full swing across Nebraska, which nearby food trailer. Many of you know that Freedom means my windshield time piled up over the last Writers is the story of a young teacher who inspires month. her class of at-risk students to learn about tolerance, In fact, I feel like I could sing the names of Ne- and to apply themselves and pursue education be- braska communities in the classic traveling song, yond high school. I had watched the movie years ago I’ve Been Everywhere, first made famous in the U.S. and had even met the young teacher portrayed – Erin by Hank Snow. The chorus in my version would go Gruwell – at a professional development session in something like this: Lincoln. As I watched this time, I felt Freedom Writers had “I’ve been to Arapahoe, Lexington, Cozad, Alma a different, deeper significance, particularly in-light “Omaha, North Platte, Norfolk, Ogallala of current events. How personal it suddenly became. “Scottsbluff, Maxwell, Palmer, Kenesaw…” I now have eight multi-racial grandchildren growing up in these very unsettled times. There is a great deal NSEA President You get the idea. Lots of seat time, lots of opportu- to learn and to teach them as we are on this journey Jenni Benson nities to talk with members about the issues they deal together. with each day. How we respond to movies, media, family and The most recent high- friends is central to our light as I write this was own experiences. Sadly, it a member gathering in seems as if we do more to “ Scottsbluff at an amazing We may not tear each other down than pop-up drive-in theatre we do to build each other agree on consisting of three steel up. cargo containers stacked every political, atop one another with ‘A Light a screen hanging from pedagogical or in a Dark Room’ the top. I was fortunate My goal as the NSEA personal issue, to be able to visit every president, representing car, chat with members, 28,000 educators across but we can all their children and get to Nebraska, is to build know and thank them bridges through relation- agree that every before they watched the ships and clear communi- Nebraska child inspiring classic, Free- dom Writers. It was a nice cation. We may not agree deserves the very crowd and I enjoyed the on every political, peda- Association Swag: NSEA President Jenni gogical or personal issue, best education social distancing way to connect. Benson hands a bag with pens, sticky notes and but we can all agree that and opportunity I shared memories of other NSEA items to member Sarah Salinas every Nebraska child de- my childhood drive-in during a drive-in movie event in Scottsbluff. serves the very best edu- we can provide. theater experiences with cation and opportunity we some of those on hand. My Mom, my Dad and I and can provide. It is clearly my two brothers would pile in the family station wag- our responsibility to be leaders in that regard. ” on and drive from our home in Sutherland to North In Freedom Writers, Gruwell’s class read The Di- Platte. Along with other kids, we would play on the ary of Anne Frank and studied the Holocaust. When playground, silhouetted by the big screen until it got the students learn that Miep Gies, the Dutch woman dark. We would watch the trailers and the cartoons who risked her life to keep Frank’s family hidden, is and then get our pajamas on and lay down in the back still alive in the Netherlands, they embark on a fund while our parents watched the grown-up movie. raiser to bring her to their class as a guest speaker. It It was a simpler time for sure. My parents didn’t is the highly emotional highlight of the film. Visibly go to the playground to watch us. They told us what moved by the courageous stories of this now-elderly to do and we did it. We knew if we failed to follow woman, the students instantly see her as a hero. their instructions, we’d be staying with our grandpar- “I was not a hero,” she says. “I was an ordinary ents the next time the family went to the drive-in.