More than 20 judges in Washington State are spending time teaching in the public schools this fall as part of a new legal-education program being tested there.
The program enlists the judges to teach three to four classroom sessions each semester on law and the judicial process. It was developed in coordination with the state education department, the state Office of Administration for the Courts, and the University of Puget Sound Institute for Citizen Education and the Law. In all, more than 90 judges have expressed interest in taking part in the program since it was unveiled last month.
“Judges are limited in their extrajudicial activities in the community because they have to avoid potential conflicts,” Marilyn Jones, a spokesman for the state school superintendent, said. “This is one way they can participate.”
She said the judges also help “bring alive” the university- developed curriculum for students. .
The San Antonio Independent School District is encouraging its mathematics teachers to purchase “graphing calculators,” Joining what appears to a growing number of districts embracing the new teaching tools.
Although use of the machines will not be mandatory, Mary Ann Sample, the district’s secondary math curriculum specialist, said she is recommending that schools buy a graphing calculator produced by Texas/Instruments Inc., rather than conventional scientific calculators, which already are relatively abundant.
The machines allow students to plot complex equations on a screen, strongly reinforcing math’s graphic elements.
Forty of the district’s middle- and high-school teachers learned to use the machines this summer in a federally Funded workshop conducted by David D. Molina, an assistant professor of education at Trinity College in San Antonio.
Posters of “Rosie the Riveter” are among the materials the National Women’s History Project is making available to teachers to mark next year’s 50th anniversary of World War II.
The nonprofit group also offers a series of taped oral interviews-entitled “What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?"--and a 20-minute videotape on American women from 1942 to 1955.
The poster of “Rosie,” according to the group, shows the mythical factory worker in a red bandana with her “shirt-sleeves rolled up to show her new muscles.”
These and other materials are listed in the organization’s catalog, available for $1. The address is 7738 Bell Road, Windsor, Calif. 95492. --D.V. & P.W.
