MONMOUTH, Ill. — Monica Miller, a junior from Worth, was elected to be the 2008-09 vice chair for the student organization of the Illinois Education Association. The vote took place at the IEA’s semi-annual conference in Springfield earlier this month.

"Monica is our campus chapter’s chair, and she has been very active in attending IEA events, including leadership training, and in promoting the organization on campus," said Monie Hayes, assistant professor of educational studies at Monmouth.

At the start of the 2006-07 academic year, Monmouth did not have an active IEA chapter, but Miller and four of her educational studies classmates took it upon themselves to recruit members. The group worked hard to get a constitution passed, and Miller now serves as president of the chapter.

The Illinois Education Association is the advocacy organization for all public education employees. Its roots go back to 1853, the same year Monmouth College was founded. Today, the IEA has more than 125,000 members and is composed of classroom teachers, educational support professionals, higher education staff, faculty and students, and retired association members.

Of her statewide IEA honor, Miller said, "I am very excited about getting elected."

Two major responsibilities of her state post will be to coordinate the IEA’s mentor and living library programs. She will serve as a matchmaker in regard to the first program, pairing members of a pool of retired teachers with students they can mentor.

"I’ll be asking the mentors to step up and help students with things like lesson plans," said Miller, whose own mentor is Marlyn Spivak, who had a 34-year career in education.

Retired teachers are also a key component of the living library, as both they and current teachers can post items like lesson plans or worksheets that they found useful in their classroom teaching. Students can then log in and access that information.

Others’ ideas are an important aspect of teaching, according to Miller, and the best advice she received so far came from a member of the Freedom Riders, who spoke at a National Education Association meeting that Miller attended.

"He said the most important thing is to show the students that you truly do care about them," she said.

Miller has taken that advice to heart, staying in contact with one of the children for whom she served as a nanny when she was a senior in high school.

"The boys were 7 and 3 at the time," she said. "I sat with them after school and helped them with their homework and made sure they ate their dinner. Jackson was the oldest boy, and he’s in fifth grade now. He e-mails me all the time whenever he needs advice or support."

Miller, who plans to teach social sciences at the middle school level following her graduation next year, said she wants to be an "enthusiastic" teacher like the ones she has observed in the Monmouth-Roseville district.

"I’ve worked with a few teachers involved in special education, and I’ve noticed that the teachers are so passionate with their students," she said. "Enthusiastic teachers get you excited about being in the classroom."

Miller’s student teaching requirement will be filled at Lincoln Intermediate School in Monmouth this fall, and she envisions that sixth grade classroom and her future ones being full of "students on their feet, not just behind the desk. I want to make learning fun through games and other activities and show them that I do care about them getting an education."