5.17.08

Jan Sabin and Mark Smith and   and Olivia Bensoney   An nie Sulivinski (played by Jan Sabin) Officer Cllint Clint Easttree is a crusty, grizzled, old veteran U.S. Marshall who should have retired years ago. For many years he worked in the organized crime division busting mafia thugs and drug kings, but he got so hard to work with he was transferred to this small, remote office to finish up his career. When he was in elementary school he always got whacked on the knuckles by his teachers for getting into fights on the playground and often had to write things like “I will not throw spit wads at my teacher” on the board 200 times. Officer Annie Sulivinski  Olivia Bensoney is a young, perky, bright-eyed U.S. Marshall who has had this job for only 3 years. She took this position only because she couldn’t find a position as an early elementary teacher, which she is sure she’d love doing and be great at. Annie Olivia are sitting at  in front of  with their laptop computer s in this small office. Clint: Geez. What’s with this? 32 reports? Who the heck would want 32 teachers? [laug hs] Hey, maybe Maybe somebody’s finally lookin’ out for me .   ![Tips chair down, feet back on the floor] If we’re lucky they were all in a school bus that flipped off the Big Mac and is now at the bottom of the Mackinaw Straits. And to think I came in this morning expecting another easy day. Can you believe it? Annie Olivia
 * UPWP Logger Report for Saturday, May 17, 2008 **
 * Characters: **   Clint Easttree (played by Mark Smith)
 * Setting: **   The great success of the nationwide “Amber Alert” program in locating and bringing home lost and kidnapped children inspired the Department of Justice to set up a new program named the “Socrates Alert.” This program, which functions much like “Amber Alert,” specializes in locating, identifying and bringing home teachers who have been lost, displaced, kidnapped or otherwise gone astray. Because of the great need for experienced and highly qualified teachers under the NCLB act, the Department of Education was very supportive of this. A branch of this section has a small office located in Marquette, Michigan which focuses on lost UP teachers. It’s 9 am on a Monday morning, the beginning of a new shift, and Officers Clint and
 * Amazing. I must’ve worked a year’s worth of Mondays here and we usually only get reports on

2-3 a few lost teachers and almost always we send a local police officer out who finds them in their classrooms where they’ve spent the entire weekend preparing their classes for the coming week, but this time—32. I can’t believe it. How sad. I sure hope we can save locate them. And look at this, instead of coming in from places all over the UP like Ishpeming, L’Anse, and Grand Marais, Marais, all these teachers were last seen in Marquette. Let’s go! Clint: Just a minute, just a minute. You can’t go running out the door like that. We’ve gotta make a plan. Let’s see…here it is. Yeah, at this place on NMU’s campus called Whitman Hall on Saturday, May 17 at 4. Seems like they just disappeared. Whoever’s responsible for that oughta get a medal. Annie Olivia
 * Look here! The campus cops—if you can call them that---

[both chuckle] got this list of names from an organization on NMU’s campus called the Upper Peninsula Writing Project and it shows everyone who was at the meeting that day. This should help a lot in locating them and bringing them back so all those kids who love them will see them in their classrooms again.

Clint: Okay, Miss Bleeding Heart. L  Goody Two Shoes Teacher’s Pet. [peers over at her and she shrugs] I knew it! [sighs] Okay, l et’s see what else we’ve got. [turns back to computer] Oh, H h ere’s an email from a teacher in Negaunee, name of Sarah of Sarah Van Abel, who’s part of that group. She sent it to all the cop stations across the UP. Doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone, I guess. She attached this database listing all teachers who’ve attended UPWP Summer Institutes up till now. What good will that do? Annie Olivia
 * When I was a student in the Education Department at NMU I heard about Writing Project Summer Institutes. They’re great. Teachers love them and get inspired by them. Teachers who’ve already been through a UP Writing Project Summer Institute can’t be lost. They know where they’re going and what they’re doing, especially when it comes to writing. They’ll show up at their homes very soon I’m sure. So let’s match the database list from Sara with this list of the 32 missing teachers. Only the teachers who haven’t yet been through a Summer Institute will be left on our list to send out alerts about.

Clint: Here’s 3 from Gwinn schools, Joe Routhier, Heather Hollands and Amy Laitinen. Annie Olivia
 * And I’ve found a bunch from Negaunee, Connie Heinlein,

Vicki Paupore, Beth Nelson, and Sara, the one who sent out this mass email. Clint: Here’s two more, Dean Weiger from Baraga and Jolene Hetherington from Munising. Annie Olivia
 * Yeah, and here’s one from Manistique, Mary McCune.

Clint: Here’s four Marquette teachers, Erin Donovan, Cindy Flatt, Marsha Page and Paula Diedrich. Annie Olivia
 * Mike Aubin’s on this list too. He came all the way from Calumet for this meeting.

Clint: Amber Kinonen’s on the list, too. Says here she teaches in the English department at NMU. Oh, and look, here’s Suzanne Standerford who teaches in the Education Department there. She’s one of the leaders of this organization, so I suppose she’s not lost, probably just squirreled away somewhere tapping on her laptop. For sure we can cross these two names off the list. Annie Olivia
 * Let’s see. Hmmm. . . That leaves just 16 teachers unaccounted for.

Clint: This is gonna mean some leg work. Look, they’re from all over the UP—and here’s one from downstate near Traverse City. I’ll tap into the database at the Secretary of State’s office so we can find out the usual stuff like age, height, color of eyes and color of hair, but that won’t be enough for the boss. Annie Olivia
 * Look here. I hacked into some guy’s NMU laptop computer. And, yes, I know we’re not supposed to do this. Anyway, this guy’s name’s Mark and he has all these notes about the meeting they held that da

y,  y, [getting excited ] and look at this they all wrote about a scar, birthmark or some other distinctive identifying mark they had. This should make it a lot easier for us to find these dear, lost teachers. Clint: Okay, okay. Read off this information about each of ‘em and I’ll add it to our Socrates Alert for these 16 teachers. That way maybe we can find these “dear teachers,” as you call ‘em quickly and I can just sit around here and eat donuts the rest of the day as usual. [Now it’s YOUR turn to participate. We’d like each of you to read the line below that starts with your name, and then a very brief description of your scar or birthmark. If what is written is wrong, please correct it. Also, feel free to improvise and elaborate—but only a little bit. We need to keep our report to about 15 minutes. Also, let us know where you teach.]   · Tim Marczak; limp, broke ankle playing sliding into 2nd base while playing softball   · Melissa (Mel) Ball, ugly knees from ?? from??   · Laurel Frazier, scratch on hand from sister a time she had a fight with her sister   · Amy Ross, birthmark in arrowhead shape on leg   · Mark Smith, narrowed throat (not visible); effects of having had polio; also has a chicken pox scar right between his eyes   · Jan Sabin, scar on her leg from cut she got when she was in a hurry to leave on a trip to a NWP trip   · Dale (Wedge) Harris, puncture wounds on inside of wrist; from initiation into a brotherhood as a child   · Ann Chappel, lines on stomach from pregnancies   · Blythe Betts Raikko, mark under one of her eyes, result of bike crash in Napa CA;   · Amanda Swanson, scar on left knee from a cut that she got in a factory   · Sean Karsten, crescent shaped scar on arm from something happened on an Easter morning   · Jennifer Tapolcai, scar from burn on leg, result of a wood burning stove accident   · Rayme Martineau, scar on knee; happened when she was 6 from riding bike;   · Briana (Bri) Bancroft; hit by softball when playing first base and ended up with scar above right eye   · Paul Collins, scar on forehead; fell out of an apple tree;   · Karie Belanger [no info on scar from her yet; was unable to attend Sat. meeting] Annie Olivia
 * While you were inputting all that data, I got on the phone with Les Wong, President of NMU. Since this meeting took place on campus, I thought he might be able to help us. Turns out he was at the meeting. He didn’t have any ideas about where to find these 16 teachers, and he’s particularly concerned about this Mark Smith and Jan Sabin, since those two are supposed to start teaching an NMU graduate course starting today.

He told me he and his w ife spoke to the group about the importance of writing for about 20 minutes at the start of the meeting and then left. But he was able to give me some insight into how these UPWP teachers get so tight. His wife Phyliss told this about how she was able to help a student with cerebral palsy succeed in a writing course because she taught it online, and Les educated a young NMU student who followed him around one entire day and found out how much a college president has to write. Clint: If I’d been there, I’d would’ve been asleep by then. Seems to happen to me every time I ’m in a classroom. Hmmm. . . . Mark’s notes show that he and the other veteran UPWP teachers there that day b rought food for everyone to share. Hope they brought some donuts, real brain food. Ha! Or maybe they poisioned poisoned ‘em all! Ohh, look here, the agenda shows they watched a little movie that Sara had put together. For sure I would ’ve been asleep by then. Whenever my teachers showed movies I could on get    gettin’ some shut-ey e.  e time. Annie Olivia
 * Geez, Clint you must have caused your teachers nightmares. Hmm

, . . ., , look here it says Rodney Clarken, the Department Head of Education talked to them. I wonder if we should get a hold of him to see if he has any useful info. Clint: Naaah. We don’t need to get a hold of this guy. Smith’s notes say Clarken talked about the Chinese quake victims and got all choked up. Guy’ll be too much of a wimp to help us. What’s this on the agenda for the afternoon? “Fishbowl”? I suppose they all sat around a spent an hour looking at some goldfish in a bowl. What a waste. Sounds like what I did most of second grade. Annie Olivia
 * Right. And just how far did you get in school, anyway? Geez Clint, can’t you figure this out from the notes? Fishbowl is just a metaphor, as if you even know what that is. Five of the teachers sat in a small circle, Jan read a piece she had written and the others responded to what she wrote. I did that pretty often when I was a student at NMU. It really helps your writing. Then just after the rest of the group, who had been watching the small circle, give feedback to everyone they observed. That’s what “fishbowl” means here.

Clint: Oh, okay. And look here, Smitty’s notes says they wrapped up the day with a mapping exercise. Now there’s something I can relate to. This Jan, who sounds like the kinda teacher I wish I had had in second grade, had everyone make maps of the neighborhoods they lived in when they were 10 and then they all wrote something about this.

Maybe if she had had them draw maps of where they were that day and where they were going, we could find ‘em easy. Now we’ll have to spend hours compiling all this data and putting it on the computer for Socrates Alert notices for these 16 teachers. BRINNGG! BRINGG! [phone ringing] Annie Olivia
 * I’ll get

thi s this. . I’ll put it on speakerphone so you can hear too, Clint. . . . Hello, Socrates Alert office, Marquette, Michigan. Officer Annie Olivia     Bensoney speaking. How can I help you? Joe: Hi. This is My name’s Joe Routhier. I was getting ready to do some work on my computer this morning and I noticed this preliminary Socrates Alert notice you sent out on this group of 16 UP teachers. Well, I’m here in Marquette at the Women’s Federated Clubhouse and I wanted to let you know that all 16 of the teachers on your list are here. They aren’t lost, so you can cancel your alert for them. Annie Olivia
 * Well, Mr. Routhier. Thanks so much for letting us know this. I’m so relieved. I was so worried we’d lost these 16 great teachers for good.

Clint: [quietly to just Annie Olivia ] Oh, well. Maybe next time. Now can Now can I get back to my donuts? .