A Teacher With the Write Stuff : Education: Wayne Kulie uses computers to motivate kids and teach them responsibility. In an age of budget cutbacks, he even used his own money to purchase equipment for his students.

After teaching elementary school for 32 years, Wayne Kulie knew most parents never read the classroom policy manuals he doled out during the first week of school.

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So the Mira Catalina Elementary schoolteacher published the “Room 15 News.” Complete with graphics and photos, one story reports this finding by a make-believe efficiency expert: “Students can become more organized by using Mr. Kulie’s assignment sheets.”

Kulie’s philosophy, as explained in the editorial on the last page, is simple: “Taking responsibility for one’s action and education is the key to success.”

The tongue-in-cheek approach was successful.

“I read the whole thing,” said parent Birgit Snodgrass of Rancho Palos Verdes. “It was a wonderful way to introduce himself and his rules. He’s made the boring and routine interesting.”

That’s what Kulie is known for, making the mundane come alive, administrators in the Palos Verdes Unified School District say.

These days, teachers can’t rely on much funding to back their innovations. But Kulie is an example of a teacher who doesn’t let fiscal obstacles stand in his way.

“We still have to produce a high-quality product, but we don’t have the resources we used to have,” he said.

“Last year, our school received a distinguished school award,” Mira Catalina Principal Karen Jaconi said. “I think he epitomizes the kind of teacher that should receive that distinction.”

When the district couldn’t afford more classroom computers, for instance, Kulie decided to buy them himself.

He used $1,350 of his own money to buy nine used Apple II-E computers, which he found through a friend who buys them at swap meets and overhauls them. Then painstakingly--since up until a few years ago he knew little about computers--Kulie learned a program he could in turn teach to his students.

As he learned more about computers, Kulie began to think: “If I could do this, then kids could do some of this. But I soon found it was way beyond my wildest dreams. They picked up things a lot quicker than I did.”

Before he bought the nine computers, Kulie only had two in the classroom for the school’s 60 fifth-grade students (he and another teacher switch off between two groups of 30 during the day). He taught the students “little things, like typing paragraphs.”

The kids knew all about computer games, he said, but few knew the basics of computing, like searching for a file, storing a document or sending a file to print.

He developed a computer manual for the students, who are now using a sophisticated word processing program and a color photo scanner--donated by a parent.

To improve the students’ writing and grammar skills and hone their computer ability, Kulie had them write their autobiographies.

He was immediately impressed.

“It blows you away to see how quickly these kids pick up these complicated computer applications,” Kulie said. “Now, I don’t have to pull teeth to get them to write. And they don’t even mention games. They’re having more fun choosing a font for the lettering for their books.”

Some of last year’s books were up to 30 pages long. Parents raved about them, Jaconi said.

“I had parents come back and say, ‘What a wonderful gift,’ ” Jaconi said. “This is something they will treasure always.”

Kulie, a soft-spoken man who resembles Fred Astaire, strives to teach his students independence and a sense of responsibility--both keys to success.

Teaching fifth-graders self-motivation, said Kulie, is his most important task.

“I feel the lessons I teach about taking responsibility for their education is more important than any math or language I teach, “ he said. “No matter how smart they are, if they aren’t responsible or organized, they won’t do well. But if they are, then the times tables will come easily.”

When using the computer manual, for instance, Kulie insists that students try to answer their questions on their own before he steps in.

“I told them that if they had a question, they could look it up in the manual,” he said. “You see the self-confidence they develop when they don’t have to ask me. They just do it.”

A visit to his classroom is telling.

With his students, Kulie speaks in calm, even tones.

“I always find it’s dangerous to talk down to them,” Kulie said. “They turn off.”

When he wants to teach a new word-processing function, for example, he presents a challenge. “I say, ‘Want to try something? I think it’s kind of hard.’ You should see the hands shoot up,” he said.

While in school at Northern Illinois University, Kulie said he wasn’t initially sure what he wanted to do. But he became interested in education after seeing how much his friends enjoyed it.

After graduation, he began teaching in a Chicago suburb in 1961, then moved to Los Angeles in 1969.

For four years, he taught at Point Vicente Elementary, and then spent 12 years at Margate Intermediate. After that, he taught four years at Silver Spur Elementary, and has been at Mira Catalina since 1989.

Though he emphasizes computers now, some of his techniques and activities from earlier days remain.

When there is free time, his students can be found working on a mosaic depicting a pink flamingo that will hang in the cafeteria--an exercise he has done since he started teaching. After all, there is a place for fun in school.

In many parents’ eyes, Kulie is a hero.

“I contacted him for a progress report, and he sent me a letter, done on computer, with my son’s picture, and a list of all his homework assignments,” said Ann Modisett. The assignment sheets, which the students use to list what homework they have and the long-range projects they have to complete, also impressed Modisett. “He’s preparing the kids for middle school, when they’ll have five different teachers,” she said.

The students seem to appreciate Kulie too.

“He’s one of the best teacher’s I’ve ever had,” said Ali Agajanian, 11, busily gluing pieces of construction paper on the flamingo.

For Kulie, watching the students taking responsibility and becoming excited about writing is generous compensation.

“This is the only job I’ve ever done, but it just keeps getting better and better,” he said, “Like new computers.”