Winchester Education Association

Affiliated with the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) and National Education Association (NEA).

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2016 MTA ESP Conference

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IMPORTANT REMINDER from Gerry Skinder, WEA President:

The MTA ESP Conference happening April 8-9, 2016, at the Sea Crest Hotel in Falmouth. Workshops on subjects that range from engaging in difficult conversations to designing websites and blogs will be offered at this year’s annual Education Support Professionals Conference on Cape Cod. In addition, presentation of the MTA ESP of the Year Award — an annual highlight — will be made during the conference.

Please encourage your ESP members to attend.  Early Bird registration is underway.  If ESPs register to attend this year’s conference by Friday, February 26, the conference fee is just $60.  After February 26, the conference fee will be $70.  The final deadline for registration to attend the 2016 MTA ESP Conference is Friday, March 25, 2016.  We wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on this wonderful ESP professional development opportunity. For more information on the workshop offerings as well as hotel reservation information, please click here.

Again, please share this message with your ESP friends.

Thank you.

Teacher: Do You Want a Monsanto Education or an Artisanal Education?

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By Diane Ravitch

December 4, 2015

A reader who signs as “New York State Teacher” wonders why classrooms should be compelled to use more technology than they need. Why the push to put every student on a tablet and to buy online curriculum and online tests? Is there a comparison, the teacher wonders, between authentic education and “slow foods,” “organic foods,” “artisanal foods,” and the effort to maintain a classroom where teachers make decisions? Why are corporations pushing mass-produced lessons into public schools, but not into the elite schools attended by the children of the 1%? I recall a prediction by Forbes’ technology editor in the 1980s (sourced in my book “Reign of Error”) that in the future, the children of the poor will get computers and the children of the rich will get teachers.

Part of the problem with this manufactured necessity of technology in school is that we, as teachers, often buy into some of the fundamental lies. In our district, teachers clamor for a smartboard, etc., etc., etc., etc., under the pretense that it somehow DEEPENS the learning experience for students….a highly questionable notion when subjected to even modest amounts of rigorous thought. Nonetheless, being an earnest, eager, and enthusiastic lot for the most part, teachers, long accustomed to grabbing for any tool or aid, have also lunged for technology….without the requisite thinking. I would argue that a very firm “NO” from teachers on technology would have quite an impact. NO, I don’t want X, Y, or Z. No I will not teach via algorithm. NO, NO, NO.  But, too often technology and its myths have become a norm because they were accepted nicely.

Perhaps what is needed is a counter-narrative coming from teachers that is a “return-to-authentic-roots” kind of thing. A return to the idea that with a teacher, some students, and a book, ignorance can be defeated and exposure to the enlightenment possible. A sort of artisanal classroom kind of thing, to appeal to all the Subaru driving parents who long for “authentic” food, clothes, homes, and experience everywhere else in their lives. Why is a Monsanto tomato bad and a Monsanto classroom for little Dylan good? “Technology in the classroom” is marketing-speak for a corporatized classroom, and we need to be the ones aggressively saying that. The problem is that we have to realize it first. We need to begin to understand that we need to create compelling counter-narratives. Certainly there is nobody else doing it for us! This is easy meat though for counter-narratives! Corporate food=bad. Corporate classroom where kids grow=good?? Come on. Too easy.

The entire thing of “technology in the classroom” is an invented need for an invented problem. The most astounding piece of evidence to this is the fact that, somehow, devoid of any technology save for pen, paper, book, art supplies, instruments, lab material, a library, etc., all of us born before 1990 had no technology to speak of and we (well a lot of us, myself probably excluded) actually LEARNED. Shocking. We are evidence that technology in the classroom is a sham. However, that sham is only called out and destroyed if we attack its first principles and ideas.

I am not taking a Luddite position here, or a nostalgic one….but simply saying that learning is probably one of those landscapes of the human condition that does not require so much technological aid to participate in.

Important Message from our MTA President on Testing

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PARCC and MCAS Update

There’s good news and bad news about the future of testing in Massachusetts. The good news is that pushback from educators, parents and others has forced Commissioner Mitchell Chester to reject the national PARCC option. The bad news is that he is asking the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt a PARCC-infused MCAS 2.0 test – one that will continue to base high-stakes decisions for students, teachers and schools on standardized tests. I shared my views on the recommendation here on WBZ. Show the board you are for Less Testing/More Learning by coming to Jenkins Auditorium at Malden High School, 77 Salem St., on Monday, Nov. 16, from 4 to 7 p.m. and by sending an e-mail message to the members of the BESE.

Click here to read the entire article.

“One shouldn’t draw conclusions based on very limited information.”

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Open Letter to the Boston Herald

submitted by Mark Donovan, Superintendent of Schools in Woburn, MA

To the Editor:

The Blind Men and the Elephant, by John Godfrey Saxe, is an adaptation of an ancient story that has been connected to many cultures. In the story, six blind men reach out and touch parts of an elephant. Then each man determines what an elephant is based on the part he touched. The man who touches the tusk determines that the elephant is like a spear. The man who touches the tail determines that the elephant is like a rope. The man who touches the ear believes that an elephant is like a fan. Each man is convinced he is right, and the argument is never resolved. Of course, each man is wrong. The lesson of the story is obvious: one shouldn’t draw conclusions based on very limited information.

This past week, the Boston Herald sent a few reporters to Woburn to investigate a story involving teachers. After a few hours, the reporters created the story, and the Herald labeled our teachers as “slackers.” I am now in my 22nd year as a member of the Woburn Public Schools and my seventh year as Superintendent of Schools. Let me offer my perspective.

Have you ever sat with teachers as they struggle to find ways to implement, in sincere ways, an array of initiatives handed to them from various government agencies? I have. Have you seen teachers collect school supplies and backpacks so that their most needy students can get off to a good start in the new school year? I have. Have you seen a group of elementary school teachers provide a trunk full of Christmas gifts to 8-year-old twins who were taken away from their parents two days before Christmas? I have. Have you heard about teachers and other staff members who go above and beyond to nurture and care for elementary, middle school, and high school students who experience the sudden loss of a parent through an accident or a drug overdose? I have. Have you seen school staff members the struggle of a terminally ill elementary student along with his family and his classmates? I have. Have you experienced the nurturing care that that student’s classmates receive from school staff when that young boy loses his battle? I have. By the way, none of these activities are “required” in any contract. Do you want to teach in Woburn? “Slackers” need not apply.

Those are some very dramatic examples of what teachers do. I assure you that the dramatic examples are reinforced by many other less dramatic acts of kindness and support teachers provide to their students every day of the school year—and sometimes beyond the school year. I often say that I probably know about only 10% of all of the good work that teachers and other staff members do every day. Teachers don’t like to do these things in the spotlight.

As you know, we are engaged in a long and difficult period of negotiations. I sit on the other side of the table from teachers in the negotiation process. No one should interpret this letter as evidence that I support every decision that the leadership of the Woburn Teachers Association has made. In fact, I strongly oppose some of their decisions. It is also clear to me that some teachers do not have a complete understanding of the offer before them, based on some of their statements. But those are matters that we will resolve internally through the negotiation process. Those disagreements do not diminish my respect for the hundreds and hundreds of school staff members who arrive every day at school trying to do the best they can under circumstances that can be very difficult. I count among those staff members the co-presidents of the Woburn Teachers’ Association—who serve as both teachers and athletic coaches.

Woburn is a proud community. We have an abundance of great teachers, and we are fortunate to have thousands of great students. A few years ago, while preparing for the opening day of school, I realized that many of the topics I wanted to present fell under a common theme. We continue to use that theme as our unofficial motto: “Great people doing great things.” Tomorrow morning, I will arrive at school and have the privilege to work side-by-side with hundreds of staff members who are working together to do great things for our students. I could not be more proud of our teachers and all of our staff members for what they do each day.

Sincerely,

Mark Donovan
Superintendent of Schools
Woburn Public Schools

Why Union Membership Matters

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Submitted by Katherine Dwyer, WEA Rep. Council Member

At 110,000 members, the Massachusetts Teachers Union (MTA) is now the largest union in the state¹. Our numbers are our power, as our collective voice speaks louder than our voices as individuals. The fact that we can speak and act as one when we need to is the reason that public school teachers in MA still enjoy many benefits that other full-time employees can no longer expect. But to keep the benefits and security public school employees have fought for in the past, we need to build our union. Without our members support, there is no power to bargain collectively, to stand up for one another with the support of a statewide organization; there is no union. The union is us, let’s build it together.

Unions are Good for Administrative and Teaching Staff:

  • Higher pay: according to a 2011 study by the Bureau of Labor Management, public sector workers on average are paid $650 more per month than non-union members. According to the AFL-CIO, all union members are paid 30% on average than non-union members²
  • Health Care: According the the AFL-CIO, 92% of union members have access to comprehensive health benefits as opposed to 62% of non-union employees
  • Paid Leave: The BLM study also showed that union members average 28% more days of paid vacation, and 82% enjoyed paid sick leave compared to 60% of non-union employees
  • Pensions: 77% of union employees were covered by pensions that guarantee a monthly benefit in 2004, also opposed to 20% in non-unionized jobs.
  • Job security: employees must have “just cause” for firing a union employee and union members have firmly established ways to challenge unfair discipline and termination. This is not so for many “at will” employees, who can be fired at any time for almost any reason.
  • Seniority benefits: experience and education matter and are compensated on union pay scales can speak up and take job actions to defend/ improve job with the security of numbers, political and legal backing.

Benefits for Students and Families:

  • Better for students: A study from the University of Arizona that unionized school districts create higher level of student achievement than non-unionized districts³, in part because of those districts success in recruiting high-quality teachers
  • Teachers unions go beyond OSHA and EPA laws to protect health and safety in schools, which benefits teachers and students alike.

Equity:

  • Teachers unions have long-fought for equity in education. Public education is founded on the idea that every person, regardless of gender, race, religion or social class has the right to the same high quality education.

¹ http://www.massteacher.org/about_mta/what_we_do.aspx
² http://www.seiu.org/a/ourunion/research/union-advantage-facts-and-figures.php
³ http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11001-six-reasons-teachers-unions-are-good-for-kids