Welcome back.  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and that you had time to rest, relax, recharge and prepare for the coming school year.

For me, this was an amazing summer!  I took my first European vacation where Fanny and I travelled to Paris and Rome.  We walked those two cities from morning to night, taking in as much as we could.   It was thrilling and exhausting; full of beautiful sites, amazing art, wonderful food and incredible history.  This was an on the move vacation- quite different from our usual beach vacation.   After we returned, I found myself longing for the beach.  I needed to simply kick back and relax.  So we headed to the beach, and I had this great idea that I should join my daughter at surf camp!  Yes, me and about 15, 7-14 year olds- learning how to surf.  The instructors called me “Mamma”.  “Paddle Mamma”, they would yell!  Oh my god, what was I thinking?  The only thing I can tell you is that it was amazing!  Surfing is PURE JOY!  It IS the moment.  I found an off switch for the endless barrage of thoughts constantly filling my head.  It is thrilling. It is exhilarating. It is exhausting. I must confess, surfing beat me up a bit (well maybe a lot).  But I have found the gift I was looking for!  And the best part is that I now have something amazing to share with my 14 year old daughter.  Truly a gift of summer!

            As I was preparing my remarks I was thinking about the state of education.  I don’t think there was a day this summer that education was not in the news.  In fact more often than not, front page news.  There is so much to talk about:  New York’s new Commissioner, APPR, Opting out, Tenure, Freidrichs and the Supreme Court, Dyett in Chicago, Campbell Brown, Charter Schools, Receivership, School Rankings, teacher burn out, and the education experiment of New Orleans- ten years after Katrina.  So much….  How do I keep this positive? 

So I found myself tooling around on the internet looking for an inspirational video to share.  I came across the music video for Sara Bareilles’ hit song Brave.  I was familiar with the song but hadn’t really thought much about the lyrics.  Until now.  Check it out.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4

We are on the front lines.  We are the last men and women standing, protecting our students from, what I would describe as the harmful educational policies coming down from the federal government and New York State.  And soon, when each of us is reduced to a number, know that the APPR ratings are worthless.  They are based on meaningless and invalid assessments that offer no valuable information about the students we serve and even less information about the instruction we deliver. OUR students need US to be brave.  They need us to teach. They need us to engage. They need us to support. They need us to innovate. To create.  To listen. To think.  They need us to mentor. To care. To inspire. They need us to be passionate. To ask questions. To take risks. And they need us to provide the best education possible.    They don’t need us to chase test scores.  Be brave for each of your students.  Show them how big your brave is! 

Wishing you a school year full of great success!

 

 

I have connected with some amazing education leaders through their blogs.  They work tirelessly to expose the truth about the systematic dismantling of our public schools through "education reform".  I have complied a list of my favorite bloggers.  Happy reading!

Bruce Baker, School Finance 101 – http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/

Carol Burris – http://roundtheinkwell.com

Daniel Katz - http://danielskatz.net/

Mark Naison - http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/

Diane Ravitch – http://dianeravitch.net/

Morty Rosenfeld - http://pobct.org/ATM/

Mercedes Schneider – http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/

Valarie Strauss, The Answer Sheet - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/

It is a sad fact that our Governor has chosen to go to war with those of us who have committed our life's work to educating children.  We, the teachers of the East Williston Teachers' Association, feel strongly that the policies and initiatives this Governor supports are NOT in the best interest of the children or the community we serve. 
 
The members of the East Williston Teachers' Association are wearing red, every Tuesday, to demonstrate our opposition to the corporate “reform” movement that is systematically attempting to destroy public education. We do not accept the rhetoric that public education in this country is broken or that American teachers and students are incapable of competing with their international peers. Under the guise of “reforming” education, corporations, in conjunction with politicians from both parties, have been working to pass legislation that imposes economically crippling unfunded mandates on public school districts.  These corporations are making tens of millions of dollars on the backs of our children and colleagues, and we will no longer silently tolerate this behavior.

Different Paths to Privatization

Privatization takes many forms… High stakes testing, Common Core State Standards, teacher evaluation systems based on test scores, merit pay, the proliferation of charter schools, co-located schools, closing public schools because they were “failing”, staffing schools with Teach for America “teachers”, the property tax cap, unfunded state mandates, the stripping of collective bargaining rights.  Each of these “reforms” makes corporate “reformers”, like Bill Gates, Walmart, and Pearson, huge sums of money which they then use to make contributions to politicians, like Governor Cuomo  who will pass legislation allowing the cycle to continue.  NONE of these “reforms” has ever been linked with increased student learning.

The EWTA’s Vision for a Robust Public Education System

The East Williston Teachers' Association imagines a public education system that truly serves the needs of a democratic society.  It should be a system that endeavors to develop individuals who will be capable of assuming all the responsibilities of citizenship, by preparing students to be successful after graduation in either a career of their choice and/or further university study.

We believe that the government is constitutionally obligated to fund public education.  Its obligation is to provide the funding so that every student may achieve their fullest potential.  We know that state and federal governmental unfunded and underfunded mandates significantly reduce a school district’s ability to provide these opportunities to students by severely limiting a school board’s local control of these allocated governmental funds.  Because, school board trustees are locally elected officials that represent the taxpayers in each community, we believe that those boards should be able to make the determination for how those taxpayer monies are spent.

Public schools must be able to offer rich, vibrant and diverse curricula that includes but is not limited to the following; art, music, foreign language, science, history, literature, civics, geography, mathematics, and physical education and class size must be kept small enough for students to be afforded individual and small group instruction. In addition, schools should offer a varied array of extracurricular activities that allow students to further explore their diversified interests and enables them to develop the skills necessary to work with others.  All school buildings should have libraries that are staffed with certified library media specialists and resources that support student learning. Additionally, each school should be staffed with nurses, guidance counselors, school psychologists, and social workers, and additional professionals that can facilitate the medical and social needs of the students.

The EWTA believes that when parents, students, and teachers work together to demand that elected officials maintain, at a minimum, the above items in every public school the needs of each student, community, and society as a whole will be positively impacted.  

Adapted from http://thepjsta.org/red4ed/

The following information was printed on the Half Hollow Hills Teachers' Association website.  http://www.hhhta.com/if-long-island-were-a-state/ 

It was reprinted in a blog post by Carol Burris. http://roundtheinkwell.com/2015/02/24/governor-cuomo-if-long-island-were-a-state/

It is worth reprinting here!

If Long Island were a state, we would be ranked #1 in high school completion rate.

Last election year, only 50% of the registered voters in the EWTA voted.  It is CRITICAL that WE ALL VOTE.  The politics/policies of education are being driven by billionaires.  We CANNOT compete with their money.  What we DO have is numbers.  If EACH and EVERY one of us VOTE; Game Over!

The first of the elections is on Tuesday, September 9th , the Democratic primary for the Governor’s seat.  It is CRUCIAL that ALL registered Democrats vote.  To assist you in your decision making I have provided you with the candidate’s educational platforms.  Additional information has been compiled by New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) which can be found here.  

Please,VOTE YOUR JOB!  

Welcome back.  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and that you had time to rest, relax, recharge and prepare for the coming school year.

My summer included a decent balance of work and play.  I guess it could best be described as the summer of Art and Politics.   Circumstances dictated that my vacation be cancelled so we took it as an opportunity for a staycation.  Home became our base and each day we explored.  We enjoyed the Walkway over the Hudson, Storm King Art Center, we visited MOMA, the Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park (which I really wouldn’t recommend), MOMA PS1 and the Brooklyn Museum.  We found new restaurants and we learned new things.  We took a painting class and a gelato making class. All in all, staycation proved to be an amazing vacation!  The politics portion of my summer was much less vacation-like and I will save that discussion for the next meeting.

I must confess, I really find writing these welcome back remarks to be a difficult task, so this year I procrastinated more than usual.  Each time I sat to write I supplemented my writing with eating, with making phone calls, by stepping out to shop for that most important purchase of the day - an ice cream cone.  Then I paused yet again, to finish reading my book, because I was sure the inspiration to write these remarks would come from there.   And then it didn’t.   I did the only reasonable thing left to do - read the newspaper.  And there is was!  My inspiration! 

David Kirp, a UCal- Berkley professor wrote in the NY Times an opinion piece that spoke to me.  His piece is entitled Teaching is Not a Business.  He states, and I quote, “Today’s education reformers believe that schools are broken and that business can supply the remedy. Some place their faith in the idea of competition. Others embrace disruptive innovation, mainly through online learning. Both camps share the belief that the solution resides in the impersonal, whether it’s the invisible hand of the market or the transformative power of technology.”

He continues that, “Neither strategy has lived up to its hype, and with good reason. It’s impossible to improve education by doing an end run around inherently complicated and messy human relationships. All youngsters need to believe that they have a stake in the future and a goal worth striving for, if they’re going to make it in school. They need a champion, someone who believes in them, and that’s where teachers enter the picture. The most effective approaches foster bonds of caring between teachers and their students.”

And therein lies the strength of the East Williston Schools.  Our success rises from the commitment we have to our students, with our ability to connect with and nurture the students in our charge.  Each of us, every day, provide the opportunity for our students be become their best selves.  We provide them with the tools to be much more than, forgive me, “college and career ready”.

Kirp argues logically and with research based evidence that every successful educational initiative aims at strengthening personal bonds by building strong systems of support in schools.  Repeatedly, he found:

·        That the best schools, like our schools in East Williston, create intimate worlds where students become explorers and attentive adults are close at hand. 

·        That the forging relationships of mutual respect and caring, like those relationships we build with our students in East Williston, is what counts most; and,

·        That students say they’re motivated to get an education because their teachers, and I quote, “have our backs.” Just like our students feel here in East Williston.

As Kirp concludes, the work that we do - the process of teaching and learning is an intimate act that neither computers nor markets can hope to replicate. There is no substitute for the connections we make and the extraordinary education we provide. 

I know as we embark on this new school year each of us will foster relationships, provide guidance and nurture this new group of students to learn and to grow.  We will make connections and provide them with another year of an extraordinary education.  I wish you all great success!

The David K. Israel Scholarship, is a $12,000 scholarship, named after a 40 year veteran English teacher who served as the East Williston Teachers’ Association President for more than a quarter century and was a founding trustee for the EWTA Scholarship Foundation.
 
This year’s David K. Israel Scholarship recipient is Ms. Cloe Southard.  One of Cloe’s teachers describes her as someone who continuously strives to be the best person and the most voracious learner she can be, inspiring those around her to do the same.  Another teacher noted Cloe’s willingness to give of her time to act as a role model for students with special needs. Cloe spent many of her lunch and free periods, after school hours and summers volunteering to assist special needs students with learning and socialization.     English teacher, Lauren Blum remarked, “Cloe deserves a million words to describe what a caring, enthusiastic and dedicated person she is.  Since I can only give you these thousand (which may perhaps seem like too many), I trust that they have conveyed how truly special she is, and trust that you will understand how effective and influential she will be in her future career as a teacher.  I offer Cloe my absolute most emphatic recommendation for this scholarship and if you take my recommendation, I congratulate you on honoring one of the kindest, most passionate students you will ever meet! 

Cloe will be attending Wheelock College in Boston. 
 
Tax deductible contributions can be made to the David K. Israel Scholarship Foundation c/o The Wheatley School, 11 Bacon Road, Old Westbury, NY, 11568