Invisible Children

Invisible Children involves quite a bit more than just children.

Invisible Children is a non-profit organization that collects donations of school supplies and money to send to Uganda in Africa. Uganda is home to a child war that has been happening for over twenty years. Army men sneak into camps at night and steal children from their houses. Sometimes, this even occurs in broad day light. These children are then forced to fight against their own families, being taught to use a gun and how to kill as young as age seven.

Invisible Children raises funds in order to rebuild schools in Uganda so the children have a place to look forward to. The money also goes to efforts trying to put an end to the child war, and help negotiate peace terms between the people.

Zimmerman High School has been a proud supporter of Invisible Children for the past four years. They have done many community projects like collecting money donations, collecting childrens books and sponsoring local band shows to raise money to send to Invisible Children.

Look for the posters around town with information on the upcoming Invisible Children events.

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Story 7

The Harshest Teacher

There are 137* people named Michele Olson in the United states. However, there is only one Michele Olson teaching at Zimmerman High School.

Olson teaches twelfth grade government first semester, and ninth grade geography second semester. She is known to the students as one of the harshest teachers in the high school. Olson has heard many students complaining in the hallways about her classes being "too difficult, unfair and lame". Olson says, "To some degree the gossip bothers me, but changing my teaching style for them is out of my comfort zone. Frankly, it frightens me."

Olson stated, "I would like to think that the gossip is only from the students that are failing, and that’s why they complain." Olson believes that she has fair grading levels, because she follows the school rules as closely as possible. She said, "I give all the students ample time to hand in the assignments but somehow I always end up with a basket full of late work at the end of the semester. Sometimes I think I give some students too much leeway." Comparing how other staff in the building handle grades, students commonly think that Olson is unfair. However, "I am teaching the students responsibility and to learn how to deal with the consequences of their actions," Olson explained, "Having to deal with all the stress of rumors or an unwanted busy day at work can be tough, but having a husband to vent to is wonderful."

Olson’s husband Rob is also a ninth and twelfth grade teacher. Thus he has dealt with a lot of the same problems that she has. "I love being married to a teacher. We have a better understanding of each other, and can give advice after a bad day at work," she expressed. Before they were married, they had talked about how they would raise future children. Both of the Olson’s agreed they would be the ones to raise the kids, and not a babysitter. They took turns staying home with their two children for seven years. "Don‘t get me wrong, I love my kids, but being home 24/7/365 was tiring also. It was nice to go back to work and be around adults again," Michele stated.

Michele also stated, "Teaching the senior class is my favorite. I get a kick out of it when they come in to talk to me about personal life." Most of the seniors are 18 and have jobs after school. "The kids are always busy, but they still like to come and talk. Its nice that they see me as a human being too, not just the rumored ‘mean teacher’," Michele commented. Michele is also involved with the seniors because of graduation, and having a more personal relationship normally helps teachers to help students in the long run. She helps coordinate the ceremony and making sure the students are passing classes in order to graduate. "I don’t want students to fail, but I can’t force them to participate in my class if they don’t want too," Michele noted, "I have had some rough days, especially before my current job, but I get through it with the help of my husband and advice from some students that know me a bit more personally."


In every high school, and every class, teachers are always said to have "teachers pets". Michele believes that, "Its hard to treat every student equally. I try not to show favoritism, but it inevitably happens."

Life as a teacher is known for its rough days, long hours of grading, and the occasional break-down of a teacher. Michele has experienced all of these qualities personally. "My most interesting memory of teaching is also my worst. I was just a substitute teacher at this point, and I was in Big Lake for the day," Michele explained, "I was teaching a class of seventh graders, and they were quite an unruly bunch. Every hour I taught, I had to send three to five students out to the hallway. When the principal came in to talk to me at the end of the day, I broke down crying. It was a terrible experience, I never wanted to go back." Being a substitute, and needing the money that working provided, Michele did go back to Big Lake the following week. "I was teaching a different grade that day, but a number of the seventh graders came up to me in the hallway and apologized. I also received hand-made apology cards from every student in the seventh grade class."


*According to www.howmanyofme.com

Story 6

Rock Star Professor or Loving Mother

Alejandra Estrin Dashe has worked for Anoka Ramsey Community College for about a year. She is a professor of Anthropology; teaching online, classroom and hybrid classes. Yet, amiss all the chaos of her career, she gave birth to a baby girl earlier this summer.

Dashe says, "Nothing wakes you up and puts you in a better mood than Gabriella; my daughter. Gabby is a ray of sunshine for this anti-morning person (me)." Dashe now has to learn how to balance her career with her daughter, along with rest of her family. Dashe said, "I’ve learned to be more organized and efficient at working." Even though the new addition to her family takes a great amount of time and has quite a few learning curves, "She means the world to me and everything I do is for her now," Dashe stated.

Dashe knew that she had to choose to have a career and have kids later, or to try and handle kids while finishing her schooling. "Many women have to choose and I chose to wait to have kids…. It was HARD," Dashe said, "I love being academic, but it was a huge trade-off for me. I also had to choose what kind of academic I wanted to be; A rock star professor…or just a teacher?" Having chose to wait for kids, Dashe put her career first and became a successful professor. Having a career already in place meant that she wouldn’t have to be searching for a job while trying to raise a new baby. It would be worth the wait to have everything in place for her future kids.

"Don’t have kids with some random person, because you are connected to that person forever if you have a kid with them," Dashe stated. Choosing her career first was a hard enough decision, but Dashe also had a rough time finding prince charming. Dashes’ prince charming would have to meet a few requirements, but before she met him "went through a lot of idiots" to find the right guy. "Falling in love with someone should be about personality not just beauty, because you don’t have your beauty when you’re 70 years old," Dashe acknowledged. When Dashe met the man who would become her husband, he had all the right qualities; "A Jewish man that had similar thinking and conversational style, political views and academic credentials," declared Dashe. Having a man that was alike her in many ways was important, she wanted to be good parents when the time eventually came. "It was hard to find the right person because of the alphabet soup I have after my name, because of my degrees. It freaks men out," laughed Dashe.

Having a daughter and being able to also teach as a professor means that Dashe is quite content with life. Smiling Dashe said, "When Gabby sees you, she smiles this big smile… and all you can do is just laugh along with her."