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In this issue:

• NEW! The Teacher’s Lounge
• Human Rights, Education, and the Community: “Measuring IMPACT in the Classroom”
• Featured Event: This is My Home Training Workshops
• Featured Links and Resources
  • Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
  • Idaho Human Rights Education Center
  • Tolerance.org
• Resources Available at the Human Rights and Peace Store

**After reading the article, Lori wrote us a supplimentary letter in which she wished to acknowledge the partnerships that she has formed with other human rights educators and activists. The letter is posted below.

May 27, 2006

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Starting today, in the May 2006 This is My Home monthly e-newsletter of the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Center, my teaching work with human rights work at the Work Opportunity Center (WOC) is featured . This letter provides further explanation to the e-newsletter article, aiding in the reader’s understanding of the collective group effort happening at WOC. Know that I am not a solitary worker, but a part of a team that branches outward in providing varying avenues of learning for WOC students. The reason that our efforts are being recognized is because as a team, not as separate individuals, that we collectively thrive in achieving the greatest results and the needed exponential growth for our students.

The article describes the “IMPACT! Class”, which is the Career and Technical Education course offering, newly piloted this school year, after receiving state approval. The new “IMPACT Class” course title, newly approved by the State Department of Education for this school year, embodies a synthesis of many years of community/school collaboration with the fields of Reading and Writing Literacy, the Fine Arts and the department of Career & Technical Education. Infusing varied experiences offers students new avenues in skill development, learning growth, and positive life direction.

The theme of this e-newsletter is human rights and human responsibilities, which are fundamental themes within programming of the “IMPACT! Class”. This year, one team that has been working with WOC teachers to support this coursework include Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, Co-Director of the University of Minnesota’s International Human Rights and Peace Center, at the U’s Law School, and Carol Batsell-Benner, an attorney with the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office and outgoing elected-President of the Minneapolis Urban League. The following describes their work:

Ms. Carol Batsell-Benner, the outgoing elected-President of the Minneapolis Urban League and an Attorney with the Hennepin County’s Public Defender’s Office, has been volunteering in our WOC classroom for the past eight years. Whenever she is with us, we are inspired by how Ms. Batsell-Benner engages students in practical understanding of their legal rights and responsibilities with her fiery, yet sensitive approach. She also has generously contributed as a volunteer advocate and attorney for significant numbers of WOC students in legal matters over the years.

Ms. Kristi Rudelius-Palmer , Co-Director of the International Human Rights and Peace Center at the University of Minnesota’s Law School, has been a regular ongoing volunteer within WOC classes. Ms. Rudelius-Palmer has been collaborating with our WOC teacher, Mrs. DuPont, on ever-varying projects that have promoted human rights and responsibilities since 1994. It has been WOC’s ongoing delight to have Ms. Rudelius-Palmer’s steadfast encouragement of the student voice, bringing regular encouragement for meaning and verve to resound within student work.

Our WOC partnership, initiated as a joint effort of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and the University of Minnesota’s International Human Rights Center, has been flourishing for eight years with Ms. Batsell-Benner and Ms. Rudelius–Palmer as collaborators. Adopting the “PIHRE-Partners in Human Rights Education” model that was formerly established by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and the University of Minnesota’s International Human Rights Center, bringing attorneys and community members together in classrooms, in behalf of human rights and responsibilities. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and the University of Minnesota’s International Human Rights Center have been partnering with Lori DuPont for twelve years, with the last 8 years in a successful collaboration with WOC. This year, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights has established that their wonderful Kathy Seipp can come over to WOC to expand our work in human rights and responsibilities. 

The intricacy of partnerships with volunteers and community agencies collaborating within this department are mainstay to “the life” of the school. The community members ignite thinking and creative energy, which seems to bring a natural flow in discovering higher order thinking with 'real-life' learning for all involved. We have been especially fortunate because so many community and volunteer collaborators regularly contribute in viable ways with students. In fact, our list is endless, but to give you an idea, the following people have provided key partnerships that affect programmatic success through regular, ongoing presence with our WOC students. They are:

Ms. Nikki Monnette, Family and Children’s Services, Youth Outreach and Family Education Worker that has been tirelessly contributing at WOC for the past nine years in countless ways. Many students over the years have been amazed by how Ms. Nikki Monnette has truly understood where they were coming from and how she effortlessly can direct them to supportive links within community.

Ms. Barbara Rees, Minneapolis Public Schools, District Specialist in Career Preparation and Employment that has adopted WOC this year. Barbara is a national award-winning educator, formerly assigned to WOC. She has come back this year, in a special weekly arrangement, to foster connections to college and work for WOC students.

Ms. Betty Olsen , Minneapolis Community and Technical College, High School Specialist in College Transition has been the MCTC Community Outreach Representative for seven, out of the past nine years that MCTC has been collaborating at WOC. Along with effectively providing ongoing connections for WOC students to MCTC, Ms. Olsen also has served as a member of the WOC Leadership Team. We are grateful for the wide range of service that she provides for our students.

Ms. Julia Welle and Ms. Jamie Kibari, from Life’s Missing Link have been fruitfully working as weekly facilitators in the promotion of the concept Health Realization for the past four years. Julia has been facilitating with us in our classroom for the past two years, and Jamie has served as the ongoing supervisory link from their organization. Recently, Julia left to pursue further education and Jamie has been helping in our classroom for the duration of the school year. The co-facilitated lessons from this organization generally involve students in varied forms of reading, writing, and kinesthetic movement within the two course hours of programming each week

Ms. Jeanne McMahon, Folwell Center for Urban Initiatives has a special place in the hearts of our WOC students. This year, due to funding restrictions, it was discovered after initially beginning the year at WOC that Ms. McMahon’s organization could not continue, as their operational grant only included North High and Henry High. This was hard to bear for WOC students, so Ms. Jeanne configured a way to continue volunteering and assisting WOC students in individual ways at the Folwell site. She continued this throughout the year, enabling several WOC students to participate in finding housing, college scholarships, and sponsorship for college testing.

Mr. Quincy Crawford-Boyle, Employment Action Center, keeps coming back to WOC, even if our site is not a part of his regular job structure. He just knows how important it is to continue here, as so many students have benefited from his resources and life knowledge over the years. Many students are not “on the streets” because of the individual work that Quincy has done for their lives. WOC is eternally grateful about the many lives that have turned around and graduated from WOC through the coaching of this wonderful community leader.

Ms. Ann Krocak, ACHIEVE-Minneapolis Step-Up Program has been partnering in our classroom this year with connecting students to employment. This year, Step-Up has informed WOC that they feel our school preparation was the most organized yet, with unprecedented strides reflected in our partnership. Our WOC focus on recruitment brought some of the most outstanding citywide candidates forward from our WOC student body to completing this program. Many recruited students successfully completed the rigorous Step-Up training, which is the initial precursor to attaining summer employment.

Mr. Lamarr Hamilton, Community Volunteer, has arranged for various community events to happen at WOC in keeping students “out of the streets” and on-task to their education. Through the former struggles of his own incarceration, he now tirelessly devotes his lifework to keeping youth on the right track to life success. He has brought to WOC meaningful events that have students will always remember as noteworthy. These events have included the informative Stillwater Prison Event and a speaking engagement with Judge Pamela Alexander of the Hennepin County Courts.

Our most publicly known partnerships have been with our school-arts collaborations. Work Opportunity Center (WOC) and Intermedia Arts have been proud to collaborate as a team through the Arts for Academic Achievement (AAA) Grant program of Minneapolis Public Schools since 1998. This AAA grant, currently sponsored by ACHIEVE! - Minneapolis, has been an inspirational benefit for students to display their work in and through the arts within an annual showcase event of student work. Our arts initiative this year has happened with the following arts partners:

Ms. Theresa Sweetland, newly named Artistic Director of Intermedia Arts, has been fluidly collaborating with WOC not only this year, but also over seven of the eight years of our ongoing partnership. Theresa has guided us in the coordination of artists and art events held within the fabulous space of Intermedia Arts. Fostering the artistic creativity of WOC students has happened through invaluable links established with Theresa and her organization, devoted to work in and through the arts.

Ms. Andrea Lehmann, Artist in Residence from the SPNN Public TV Station, has guided our documentation process at WOC as both a Master Filmmaker and Book Artist. This is Ms. Lehmann’s second year collaborating with us as our artist-in-residence, bringing high professional standards for students to consider within their actual class work. Many remember the phenomenal DVD that the students created with her guidance last year. We are standing in anxious anticipation of the newly created DVD and book that will be premièring on June 9 th at Intermedia Arts. It is our great privilege to have her steadily guiding our artistic direction with her vast knowledge and well-informed expertise!

Ms. Kathy Seipp, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, has been new to us this year as an engaging community partner in the topic of Human Rights & Responsibilities. Kathy is a still-photography artist that assisted with the still-photo compilation of our WOC classroom artwork. We are delighted with her energy and optimistic life views that overflow easily to students, as she encourages them in written and media documentation of their life perspectives. She was instrumental in having students featured in Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights state publication, The Human Rights Observer in April 2006.

It is paramount to give special thanks for the administrative team from Arts for Academic Achievement that made our filmmaking and arts work possible this year. This team of women has made our work possible by fund-raising, training us in artful design practices, and providing ongoing grant support. They are:

We also would like to applaud the efforts of administrators that have been in the background cheering our WOC work on. Without their ongoing support, we would never be able to proceed with such a massive effort at our small site. Grateful we are that they consider “out of the box” approaches that motivate and engage students in literacy and making positive contributions to the world. Warm accolades go out to:

A special thanks also goes to Ms. Kathie Huettl and Mr. Wally Swanson, WOC English Teachers, for their support that has gone beyond the “call of duty”. We love them and are thankful for them in our lives. This is the first time in nine years that Ms. Kathie Huettl and I have not been able to team-teach. Even though this team-teaching brought greatest benefits for students, we have been unable to continue, as budget cutbacks overwhelmingly affected our site. During this school year, Kathie has taught three separate courses each hour at WOC (Reading, Humanities, and English), providing individual-based work for each student in her classroom. This has caused programmatic limitations, whereas, Kathie cannot offer group-based experiences this year, due to the overly rigorous scheduling. It is our hope that future decisions that affect experiential learning are considered in school design.

Is it amazing to consider all the people that have been able to stick with us through time and the extraordinary efforts carried out? Each has brought new dimensions of learning for us all! We are humbled by the strong direction that is shaping all of us and hope that future efforts within the district will continue to grow within the memorable collaborations of community and school effort.

Warmest of Regards,

Lori DuPont
Family and Consumer Science Teacher & Licensed Reading Specialist
Minneapolis Public Schools

PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES!

To register, send a completed application form (click here to download) to Patrick Finnegan at home@umn.edu or fax at 612-626-7592.

University of Minnesota Human Rights Center

Mondale Hall

229 19th Ave S.

Minneapolis, MN 55455

Multicultural Resource Center

Arlington High School

1495 Rice St.

St. Paul, MN 55117

Presented by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center.  Co- sponsored by the University of Minnesota Institute for Global Studies through a Title VI grant from the US Department of Education.

By Kelly Ferb (Human Rights Center Intern)

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights:

Minnesota Advocates has received international recognition for a broad range of innovative programs to promote human rights and prevent the violation of those rights.  Through the above link, teachers can access a variety of lesson plans and discussion guidelines.  In addition to “Energy of a Nation: Immigrants in America,” a set of lesson plans recommended in our March 2006 newsletter, teachers can also access post-September 11^th curriculum, which covers topics like Guantanamo Bay and discrimination, as well as tools to help  teachers introduce human rights into their classrooms and communities.  Furthermore, lesson plans are available from schools involved in the Rights Sites Project.  Rights Sites schools are located in the Twin Cities metro area and have partnered with Minnesota Advocates to aid them in their integration of human rights education into their curriculum. 

This link offers ‘Suggested Lessons’ in PDF or HTML format, for K-12 students. These lessons have been developed by the Idaho Human Rights Education Center in collaboration with the Idaho Department of Education.  This resource offers suggested readings, discussion topics, and relevant excerpts from or links to suggested readings.  Lessons are organized by grade level.  Examples of the successive themes through which human rights are explored are:  self, family, neighborhood, community, American history, geography and culture, world history, and citizenship.

http://tolerance.org/teach/index.jsp
Tolerance.org is a principal online destination for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating communities that value diversity.  Tolerance.org is a winner of the Webby Award for Activism and Electronic Multimedia Awards for both Education and Public Service.  Click on ‘About Teaching Tolerance’ to access order forms for free educational materials.  ‘Class Room Activities’ provides a link to enrichment activities, which can also be searched by grade, subject, or tolerance topic.  ‘Web Exclusives’ links to a variety of  lesson plans. 

We encourage you to write to us and tell us how you are using Human Rights in your classrooms, schools,and communities.