Ed Notes Online
Secession Fever: Scotland, Catalonia, MORE and (Hopefully) Most of the American South
When 45% of the people vote to secede as they did in Scotland, that is one heavy minority for Britain to bear. Note the push for independence was due to the conservative government in London and its austerity program dictating to the smallish much more social democratic oriented Scotland. Freedom didn't quite ring but the YES group seemed to wrangle some concessions.Catalonia wants independence fr
Girls Prep Charter Takes Kids Not Picked Up on Time to Local Precinct, Threatens Parents with Administration of Childrens Services
Girls Prep has figured out a way to start the school to prison pipeline in pre-k. Children first in the world of charters.
On Democratic Centralism (Loyalty Oaths?) - From Trotsky to Shanker and Others
(Albert Shanker mentor) Max Shachtman (/ˈʃɑːktmən/; September 10, 1904 – November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist. He evolved from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL-CIO President George Meany.... Wikipedia Democracy and centralism do not at all find themselves in an invariable ratio to one another.... Leon TrotskyI wrote some c
SEP 18
UFT Caucuses and Loyalty Oaths - How About a UFT Cut-the-Strings, Free-the-Puppets Caucus?
Arthur Goldstein has another assault on Unity Caucus at NYC Educator (How About a UFT Cut-the-Strings, Free-the-Puppets Caucus?)Arthur is often focused on the Unity Caucus loyalty oath. I believe this is the wrong terminology. Unity Caucus follows democratic centralism, a staple of the left since Lenin but also adopted by right wingers as a way to control the message and the membership. Lenin said
SEP 17
PS 147 Mini-Reunion
Schools are wonderful places to work when you work with wonderful people. We had our differences but always had good times with each other -- and as pointed out tonight, we partied together as a school - custodial workers, kitchen workers, teachers, paras, secretaries.Tonight we went back to an old haunt in Williamsburg - Bamonte's, where we used to go open school night. The place was packed. Som
An ICEer Comments on the Sharpton March
Judging an organization's commitment to social justice on the basis of how they stand on a demo called by one of the most dishonest people on the face of the earth is absurd... A member of ICEWith lots of back and forth inside MORE over MORE's ambiguity on the Eric Garner march, one of the founders of ICE, who has not taken part in anything related to MORE, commented off-list on the debate. He was
MY TIP and IPC Story - by John Elfrank-Dana
AP: The evaluator chooses if video will be used. (She points out rightly that the UFT gave the discretion of video to the evaluator instead of the evaluated. Way to go Mulgrew!)... JED Another gem from John. Isn't it great to be on F-You time?Warning – Kids don’t try this at your school. This teacher has one year to go before retirement.TIP Responses:AP: Mr. Elfrank-Dana, What are your areas of st
SEP 16
A Letter to Janella: Is Bergtraum Special?
This is the second time in 4 years this chapter has managed to convince a Chancellor but NOT THEIR OWN UNION, that a principal is abusive... Elfrank-Dana, CL, Murry Bergtraum HSHo hum, par for the course -- the UFT protecting principals over teachers for their pals at the CSA.I love John Elfrank-Dana -- He's so prolific I don't even have to write ed notes. Seems these days lots of people are writi
57 Page Manual from UFT on How to Challenge a Rating
If some people throw their hands up in the air and say F - - - it! after seeing the complicated and arduous task of appealing -the manual and paper requirements did their job. It’s the oldest trick in the book - if you don’t want people to do something, just make it as arduous a process as possible. Teaching colleges will have to offer a course just dedicated to appealing a rating. The MOSL data d
Join Battle Against More Eva Invasions - Monday Sept 22
We know things are stacked against Eva resisters and SUNY charter authorizers are basically gangsters. These schools are about Eva's political ambitions, not education.Going to the hearings may not mean a hill of beans in this crazy mixed up world, but for those who show, here's looking at you kid. Notice of Public Hearing A public hearing is being held to solicit comments regarding new charte
SEP 15
Mercedes Rips Up Randi for Robocalls
I love Mercedes Schneider all the time, but send special love when she deals with the Randi the hypocrite issue. And she even has a link to Ed Notes in her post. Triple love, Mercedes.RW's Robocall Support for Cuomo/Against Teachouthttp://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/weingarten-hearts-cuomo-by-proxy-willing-to-undercut-teachout-via-last-minute-robocall/
Another March and Why I Ain't Marchin' Anymore - Unless People are going to a bar afterwards
So after sitting through a meeting on Saturday where the Staten Island march for Eric Garner was raised to the level of the most important civil rights issue of our time - and you were basically supporting racism if you were not there - as about 7 million people weren't - including a few million black people and probably about 35,000 black NYC teachers - I will take this time to reiterate why I ai
SEP 13
GODSPELL OMG, Frank Caiati Works a Miracle
I am not big on Jesus stuff - except maybe how his Bar Mitzvah went. But being part of the set-building team, a set designed by Director Frank Caiati, I saw the evolution and some early rehearsals and knew Frank's unique vision of GODSPELL would blow people away. And the boy has done it, including breaking the 4th wall, with the audience playing a role. Here is a comment from someone in the show o
NYSUT Update: New Organizers Will Not Be Unionized
We find it deeply disturbing that a majority of the staff currently employed by NYSUT in the legislative department are classified as managers and are not allowed to join a union.....This is coming from some upstate NYSUT people. Remember - Unity Caucus in NYC controls much of NYSUT in NYState which controls the national AFT. Until the Unity machine breaks here in NYC there can be no real changes