Ed Notes Online: GEM ATR Committee Update: Meeting Today at 5pm

Thursday, October 20, 2011

GEM ATR Committee Update: Meeting Today at 5pm

UPDATE: 40 People Attended Meeting at Skylight Diner tonight - details to follow in a Friday AM Post.

REMINDER: MEETING THURSDAY OCT. 20 5PM SKYLIGHT DINER 34TH ST AND 9TH AVE.

This meeting is part of a building effort to organize ATRs into an effective force. While we have reached 80 people on this list, that is far short of the numbers we need to have an impact. I got a lot of interest from chapter leaders and delegates ~~today~~ yesterday at the UFT meeting when I asked people to take a leaflet if they had ATRs in their building. There was a lot of interest and concern, which is a good sign that the message we aimed at from our first phone meeting - to make the non-ATR ed corps aware of the situation you face is getting through.

Keep reporting to us on your daily/weekly experiences. I'm posting on the sidebar of my blog and nycatr is posting the longer pieces.

Here are the links:
NYC ATR - http://nycatr.blogspot.com/

ICEUFT Blog

Chaz's School Daze

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Delegate Assembly
I can't give a complete report because I was downstairs handing out our leaflet for most of the meeting.

I did hear Mulgrew say there has been a reduction in ATRs to about a thousand. With a large number of schools slated to be closed - including many middle schools - means there will be no end to the ATR creation process. As the TJC leaflet proclaimed: WE ARE ALL ATRs!

An ATR asked a question and some people felt Mulgrew as nasty to her. The question came up as to how ATRs vote in an election if they are in different schools every week. Leroy Barr spoke against the idea of a chapter. There's more and I spoke to an ATR who was present who promised to give a report one exactly what occurred.

The TJC resolution which we endorsed never got to the floor.
Members of TJC handed out their leaflet and we handed out the generic GEM leaflet.
See jpgs of the leaflets at the end of this email.

Meeting Prep
We've been getting emails and calls from ATRs interested in what we are doing. Some have previous commitments but want to be kept in the loop.
We are forming an agenda for the meeting. If you have input send it along.
We want the meeting to be productive - how do we grow the group, what impact we could have with higher numbers,
We do not want the meeting to turn into a gripe session about the DOE and the UFT. Or telling of personal stories.

Continue to monitor ICE, NYCATR, Chaz and Ed Notes (I have been putting up comments from ATRs through the day as they come in on the sidebar.)

Legal action
One issue that is expected to come up at the meeting is legal action. This will engender a full discussion of the pros and cons.

We receive this email from an attorney tonight. He could be legit or just looking for business. We could consider inviting him to a future meeting.
ATR/Attorney has suggestions for GEM ATR agenda

Hey,

I am an ATR and an attorney.

I would like to compliment you on the fine coverage of this scenario on your blogs.

I am unable to attend the ATR meeting, however I thought I would like to add a number of items to the GEM agenda:

1. I read only a few comments on the blogs about the necessity of either obtaining legal representation for the ATR's and/or the filing of an age discrimination complaint. The age discrimination issue was briefly discussed at one of the borough meetings and was summarily dismissed in the process. That was the UFT's position, but it is certainly not the in the best interest of the ATR's.

2. The United States Equal Opportunity Commission (http://www.eeoc.gov/field/newyork) handles complaints related to civil rights violations, which including age related and racial discrimination against local govenments and unions.

3. The number of ATR's is not clear, however it would appear that 1000 ATR's could make a payment towards retaining an employment law firm.

4. Time is of the essence in filing legal actions. If legal action is taken against the DOE, there might be only 90 days to file a Notice of Claim against the City.

Finally, it would appear that there is a serious need to obtain contact information for ALL ATR's. What is being done to organize the entire group?

RESPONSES TO THE EMAIL:
Souverain: the part about 90 days on an EEOC claim is dubiousI thought it was more like a year or 300 days in NYS

S: Unfortunately, I can't make the meeting tonight but I hope I will be able to attend the next one. I think one issue that needs to be addressed is how the schools using day to day subs in long term positions. Also, how the ATR weekly placements are sending teachers to schools with no vacancies.....

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: "Ednotes","Ice","tjc","chaz" and others have been active for a long time. .However they are still completly unknown to the majority of the uft members.The other day I met a teacher who has worked for the doe for the last 30 years.She never heard about "Ednotes"... .We must find effective solutions for informing the members about these blogs.; Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 1:08:00 PM EDT
Schoolgal said...: Is there a way you can have these meetings in other boroughs and at an earlier hour???; Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 5:43:00 PM EDT
bookworm said...: I agree. I have kids under 12 at home and a husband who works nights, so after school, I can't wander too far from home. But I'd love to attend a meeting/happy hour.; Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 9:37:00 PM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Thursday, October 20, 2011

GEM ATR Committee Update: Meeting Today at 5pm

3 comments: