Ed Notes Online: #MORE2016: UFT Election Flotsam and Jetson - Happy Hours, We Get Mail and Phone Calls

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

#MORE2016: UFT Election Flotsam and Jetson - Happy Hours, We Get Mail and Phone Calls

There are MORE events in 3 boroughs this Friday (see below) none of which I can attend since I will be driving down to the NPE conference in Raleigh NC on Thursday. I know, I am nuts to be taking this 10 hour drive all by myself but I am not into flying right now and a road trip gets me out of doing any work for the 25 people coming for Passover next week. And my wife is happy to be rid of me for a few days.

I made a rare visit to the Bronx today to stuff mail boxes at a few schools that weren't being covered. One building had 5 high schools - the old large high school is still in there but hanging by a thread - and the other was pretty much old school large high school with one small school.

It certainly is an interesting experience as I get a little bit of a feel for the different schools. And when I get to speak to people it is eyeopening. I met a teacher retiring in June. I asked her about her former principal who was known as an ogre and dumped by the BloomKlein DOE - after which the school really sunk - and she said there was good and bad but that most people were supported all the way - not all - if he turned on you you were dead. But she said people were willing to give up some rights for this support - especially when it came to discipline - none of the kid is always right stuff. Now she said they would stab you in the back in a second. I get it. I had a principal like that. Maybe I should have appreciated her more.

As I wrote the other day, #MORE2016: UFT Elections and Leaflet Distribution, the ultimate goal is to never have to have an outsider stuff mail boxes but to have someone inside the school doing it while also advocating for MORE.

We have come to feel that the majority of votes come from schools where we have people and where those people actively try to get out the vote. Unity with many more people in schools does the same thing and given their numbers I an surprised at how few relative votes even they get.

Which means the real growth I would look for in an election is how many people are actively doing organizing work in their schools and the outcome should reflect that work. Now my sense is that there are more people I don't know sending requests for literature and getting it out in their schools but since I don't know them I have no idea if they are willing to do more than that - like talk to people and get them to vote.

I've been asked to go out to a school to speak next week during their lunch hours in an area where we do not have much organizing going on but do have one contact at the school who made the arrangement.

Today someone from the Bronx called the MORE phone number - which I answer - and wanted to know more about the Bronx Happy hour this Friday - whether it was open to people from other districts or just district 10. (It is open to all). Hopefully she will go and become a MORE contact and distributor for her school. The funny thing is that she said she voted for MORE last time because her cousin was in MORE. I sadly had to inform her that her cousin has joined the enemy, Unity Caucus, which absolutely astounded her. I pointed out that Unity has things to offer MORE doesn't - conventions, jobs and a way out of teaching even at the cost of one's integrity. She told me her former chapter leader had gone the same route. She seemed enthusiastic about MORE. Well, at least may now have one family member on our side.

Michael's post on FB

I will be singing and playing guitar at this MORE Happy Hour event co-hosted with Nate Schiavo. Informing UFT members about the upcoming elections, and toasting another week of dedicated teaching. All are welcome. (ballots mailed May 5th.

Riverdale/Kingsbridge Teacher Social

Friday at 3 PM
An Beal Bocht in Bronx, New York

There are also other happy hours on Friday.

North Brooklyn:

The MORE CAUCUS Invites you to Happy Hour at the Rustik Tavern

FIRST DRINK ON US!

Friday April 15^th , 3-6PM

471 DeKalb Ave (btw Kent & Franklin Aves.)

in Bed Stuy/Clinton Hill

http://rustiktavern.com/

$4.00 - Draft Beers, Mixed House Cocktail Drinks, Glass of Red or White House Wine + Full Menu

The UFT Elections are coming with ballots mailed out to your home on May 5^th.

You'll have a chance to vote for new leadership of our union. Come meet the candidates, ask questions, share your concerns, and help us build a better union!

Join with us for drinks & discussion

Bring along your colleagues

For more info: http://morecaucusnyc.org

--------------
Manhattan East Side
Jia Lee will be attending the one hosted by Brian Jones.

If you or someone you know lives or works in Manhattan, please let them know about this upcoming Happy Hour on the Upper East Side THIS FRIDAY!
(details below)
Jia Lee will be in the house!
Here’s a link to download the flyer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v97munc8yagrk10/EB_HappyHour.pdf?dl=0

Best,
Brian

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"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

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

#MORE2016: UFT Election Flotsam and Jetson - Happy Hours, We Get Mail and Phone Calls

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