Welcome.
We launched our blog in 2008 initially in response to a serious of troubling events that included budget cuts, human resources issues, excessing of teachers and others. It is now April 2010, and these same issues remain, with few solutions in sight: supplies are scarce; there are insufficient educational materials in some departments; safety issues remain; class sizes have not been reduced; technology is not available to those who need it the most; we have students with specialized needs that are not being met – the list goes on. We also have a community of professionals who manage to get the job done anyway – people who have great ideas, strength, compassion and resilience.
We invite all who are part of the CBHS community to make your ideas, experiences and perceptions known here. This is a humble attempt to provide a channel for open communications – a forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices. We encourage you to participate often and invite your colleagues to do so as well.
If you have an issue that you would like us to handle offline, or a post that you would like us to make for you, send email to
clarascircle@gmail.com.
We will post series of topical questions to get the conversation started. Scroll through the topics below, as well as the Blog Archive. You are free to post responses under your name, a screen name or anonymously. We do not want to censor any submissions, but unless you are writing about yourself, we ask that you refrain from using full names in your posts. We welcome all suggestions of ways that we can improve this site.
Make sure to click on "Comments" at the bottom of each topic, so you can read and respond to your colleagues' entries.
What do you think?
Posts
4 comments:
Ah, the contradictions. The UFT is viable as junior management--it helps the DOE manage the schools and convince us to do what the DOE wants. Yet, having an active chapter is important for the staff. The union hurts education. The CBHS chapter can fight for staff and students, and I think should.
The problems in our chapter--not enough meetings, and not enough info from Marcy so people don't know that there is a lot going on. I think we can fix it, but that means a bunch of us are going to have to find time, including me.
Interesting - fight for students too. Have to say, I have not seen much of that from the administration down. The problems start at the top. What can we do to fight it?
On the whole, the UFT seems to be caught up in working for higher salaries and 55/25 pensions while selling us out on issues like excessing of staff and allowing a person to grieve what's in his/her file. I think that many aspects of the union-negotiated contract, such as keeping the teacher work day at just under 7 hours rather than the ungodly 15-hour days charter school teachers reportedly work, help education. However, the union is weakening its stance in a dangerous manner on the day-to-day issues of working conditions.
At our school, there is a need to pull together around the issues that unite us. In the Spring of 2007, half the school was in the teacher's cafeteria for a union meeting, and a week later some questionable U ratings were reversed. Faced with potential embarassment over a 'report card' on the principal at the final faculty meeting, he gave in and reversed the U's. We need that kind of a show of solidarity again next year, because one teacher alone can be much more easily bullied or intimidated than 200 teachers who all agree to speak out on their own treatment and working conditions and the issues which impact the students. We must always keep that final part in mind, that the students come first and that the administration's policies are not helping the students.
I think there should be a class action lawsuit to recover union dues; the UFT is doing nothing to help teachers. Weingarten has her eyes on the AFT so she can make more money. It is time for a new leader.
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