ESP Bargaining Summit

ESP Bargaining Summit Saturday, November 15, 8am – 4pm Location:  SpringHill Suites Devens Common Center, 27 Andrews Parkway, Devens, Massachusetts 01434 USA The day’s workshops will provide ESPs with information and skills about negotiations to utilize in their local. The Summit will begin with a workshop on organizing for all attendees. This will be followed by a short introductory discussion on ESP issues with the participants and the ESP Committee.  Then there will be four 45-minute workshops on four topics. Participants will have the chance to attend each of the workshops, which are described below. The event will conclude with a panel discussion with the ESP Committee, following up on the issues identified in the morning discussion.

First Friday - November 7th

What: First Friday Monthly BEA Social
When: Friday, November 7th - After School (3:00)
Where: Summer Shack - 149 Alewife Brook Pkwy, Cambridge, Ma 02140
Why: Opportunity to connect with Belmont colleagues. 

The Long History of Blaming Teachers First

What Time Magazine Needs to Know about Tenure and Why it Matters

TIME Magazine - The War on Teacher Tenure
Lilly's Blackboard - What TIME Magazine Needs to Know about Tenure and Why it Matters

ESP Bargaining Summit

The MTA Educational Support Professionals Committee invites all ESPs to attend a Bargaining Summit Saturday,November 15, 2014. Online registration is now open: http://www.cvent.com/d/c4qg0j

The event will be held at the SpringHill Suites Devens Common Center. There is no cost to attend. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served.

The day’s workshops will provide ESPs with information and skills about negotiations to utilize in their local. The Summit will begin with a workshop on organizing for all attendees. This will be followed by a short introductory discussion on ESP issues with the participants and the ESP Committee.  Then there will be four 45-minute workshops on four topics. Participants will have the chance to attend each of the workshops, which are described below. The event will conclude with a panel discussion with the ESP Committee, following up on the issues identified in the morning discussion.

Crisis ActivitiesWhat to do and when to do it when you need to ramp things up? What are examples of activities that might help in a contract struggle?

Interest Based Bargaining
What is it? How is it different than positional? How does it work? What is needed to make it successful?

Bargaining Law Primer on Negotiations
What is a mandatory or permissible subject of bargaining? What does the law cover for public employees?

I’ll Show You Mine/You Show Me Yours
Members will discuss what types of provisions they have in their contracts and will see what others have in their contracts. There will be a demonstration on how to use the contract database. Send your contract electronically in advance to have it placed on a CD to take home with all the other participants’ contracts.

8 - 8:30 a.m.                      Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:30 - 8:45 a.m.                Welcome

8:45 - 9:45 a.m.                Organizing Presentation  

9:45 - 10:15 a.m.              Open Discussion on ESP Issues with ESP Committee

10:20 - 11:05 a.m.            Workshop Session I

11:15 a.m. – Noon           Workshop Session II

Noon - 1 p.m.                    Lunch 

1:10  - 1:55 p.m.               Workshop Session III

2 - 2:45 p.m.                      Workshop Session IV

2:50 - 3:50 p.m.                Panel Discussion with ESP Committee

4 p.m.                                  Safe Trip Home

For more information, please contact Steve Day, 617-878-8314, sday@massteacher.org.

Directions to Hotel:http://www.marriott.com/hotels/maps/travel/bossd-springhill-suites-devens-common-center

Help Ensure your License is not based on evaluation or test scores!

How would you feel about losing your license to teach - not just your job - based on your evaluation or your students' test scores?  Sound unbelievable?  Think again.

DESE officials are holding regional “town halls” to explore this concept and may propose adopting it in the future.  The town hall hearing in our region will be held on Wednesday, November 19^th at Malden High School from 4:30 pm-7:00 pm or Thursday, November 20^th at Bridgewater State University from 4:30 pm-7:00 pm.

We must organize to fight this ill-conceived proposal and to ensure that a teachers’ license is in no way affected by evaluation or student test scores.  Please let me know if you are free to join me at either of these rallies.

Tell The Charter Lobby To Play By The Rules

DESE Performance-Based Licensure Forums

The MTA has significant concerns about the “performance-based” licensure system that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is exploring and may propose adopting in the future. Under such a system, teacher and administrator licenses could be tied to their employment-based evaluations and/or evidence of student learning. We are urging members to share their views on this issue at these upcoming DESE forums.

• Tuesday, 10/21 – Western MA (Springfield College) 4:30 pm-7:00 pm
• Thursday, 10/23 – Central MA (Worcester Technical High School) 4:30 pm-7:00 pm
• Saturday, 10/25 – Boston (Simmons College) 9:30 am-12:00 pm
• Wednesday, 11/19 – Metro Boston (Malden High) 4:30 pm-7:00 pm
• Thursday, 11/20 – Southern MA (Bridgewater State University) 4:30 pm-7:00 pm

Registration link: https://keystone.org/maeducator.html

What do you think? Please let DESE know your views by speaking out at one of the forums. Space is limited, so please sign up soon.

Forums on Licensure Redesign

Forums on Licensure Redesign

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) would like to invite you to participate in an upcoming discussion regarding the future of educator licensure in Massachusetts. DESE has been examining the Commonwealth's licensure policies to support the design of a world class system of educator licensing and license renewal. Stakeholder engagement has been a critical part of this work, in May and June; DESE convened over 25 focus groups with more than 300 educators across Massachusetts. The    full report and the    executive summary from that first phase of outreach have been posted on the DESE website.

DESE is convening a number of conversations with stakeholders this October and November to solicit input regarding a set of draft guiding principles and policy options developed by DESE based on research of best practices and the feedback received from stakeholders. Five forums in different locations throughout the state will be open to all educators. Participants will be asked to share their thoughts on the pros and cons of multiple policy options that could advance those guiding principles for a new system of licensure. The schedule of these forums is as follows:

Tuesday, October 21st (4:30pm -7:00pm) at Springfield College

Thursday, October 23rd (4:30pm -7:00pm) at Worcester Technical High School

Saturday, October 25th (9:30am - 12:00pm) at Simmons College

Wednesday, November 19th (4:30pm - 7:00pm) at Malden High School

Thursday, November 20th (4:30pm - 7:00pm) Bridgewater State University

We hope you will be able to participate in this important, collaborative process, and to help spread the word to your colleagues and peers. To participate in one of these open forums discussions, please register as soon as possible as space may be limited by seating availability.

For more information about this initiative, please contact: Brooke Trainum at btrainum@keystone.org or 1-855-666-8953.

Thank you in advance for your support of this timely effort to build a licensure system that serves both educators and students well throughout Massachusetts.

What keeps a teacher going?

What keeps a teacher going?
A wordless lesson from watching a builder at work.

By Beatrice Reynolds | BOSTON GLOBE | OCTOBER 05, 2014

There is a man building a wall in a farmer’s field that lies on my way to work. It is a stone wall, long and low. He has been building it for close to two years now, I think. I’m not sure, actually. I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t out there, measuring, pondering, bent over his pile of rocks, lifting one, then another, then another.

He is not there every day. Most mornings the wall is untouched, and I wonder, where is he . . . the builder? Does he have other obligations, other jobs more pressing? It can’t be the weather that causes his absence. Just the opposite. I’ve seen him in dreary mists, bitter cold, thick heat, working the rocks, unaffected by the day. Once or twice each week, he is there. Moving the rocks precisely, building the wall, slowly, stone by stone. And his wall is a Keats ode. It is a thing of beauty.

Last year, my mother died. She was a very sweet old lady, all done with raising her 11 children, when cancer came. Mom had been a widow for 28 years, had held dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her vision was going, and her hearing was shot. But still, it felt too soon; old or not, she was our mom.

Our big family cared for her through a brutal and fast-moving illness. After work every day I would race to her house for my shift. I’d sit next to her blue recliner and she’d hold my hand. I’d rub her feet with lotion and she’d nod her head and say, “Oh, that feels nice.” And then, when it didn’t feel nice, “That’s enough now, honey.” When the pain was under control, she’d sleep.

For a few hours each day, I’d check her medications, get ice for her water, pat her hand, kiss her brow, nuzzle next to her with my head on her shoulder. How wonderful that felt! Then it would be time to go home, until the next day. Through those awful months, on my way to work each day, I would approach the field, weary and heartsick, and look at the wall. Soon I realized I was looking for the wall. It became my touchstone. And I knew that I would keep on.

I am a teacher. My students are little kids — eager, shy, scrappy, lonely, funny. Every year a new crop of children sprouts up, and I try to nurture them, as best I can. I push, prod, and challenge, and they move along. They learn how to multiply and divide, write and read, persevere, be friendly, see joy in life. It’s a big job we do together, my students and I. There is much important work to be accomplished.

But some days that is hard. Some days I am daunted. Like the builder, I am pondering, too. Lessons, Common Core standards, MCAS, PARCC, data assessments, politics, mandates. Acronyms and worries buzz around my head like so many gnats. They threaten to shoo my focus away from what is truly important. I drive to school with my mind full, struggling to find the time to fit it all in. Until I see the wall. And I know that I will keep on.

Early every morning I turn to look at it. Another foot done, I think. I notice he’s strung the measuring rope farther on, over toward that little tree now. It won’t be long before he’s finished. And I’m wistful about that.

On my lucky days, I see the builder hunkered down, planning his next move. Still at it. He doesn’t look at me at all; his focus is on the stones. And yet he speaks to me. Keep going, he says. Keep going. You are not yet done. You are building a thing of beauty, too.

Beatrice Reynolds teaches at Dennett Elementary School in Plympton. Send comments to connections@globe.com.

TELL YOUR STORY. E-mail your 650-word essay on a relationship to connections@globe.com. Please note: We do not respond to submissions we won’t pursue.

October 23rd BEA Training

Belmont Education Association

Building Powerful Organizations

Wellington Community Room

October 23, 2014

4:00 Welcome and Introductions

4:15 Breakout 1:  

• Organizing Forums to Empower Members

Breakout 2:

• Developing Organizational Structures to Maximize Power
• Running Powerful Committees

5:30 Dinner - Blue Ribbon BBQ and Fostering Communications with One-on-Ones

6:30 Building Effective Communications: (Re)Starting Your Charting

7:00 Thank you and good bye

Dan Scharfman Memorial Run

Belmont Serves

Belmont Serves

The time has once again come for the people of Belmont to roll up their sleeves and pitch in for a morning of serving their community. Organized by the Belmont Religious Council, the 6th Annual Belmont Serveswill be held on Columbus Day (Monday, October 13th). Volunteers will begin their day by choosing a project and then head out to get to begin working. Projects include:

• A door-to-door food drive for the Belmont Food Pantry
• Conservation land maintenance at Rock Meadow
• Claypit Pond cleanup and improvements
• Conservation projects at Lone Tree Hill (the former McLean property)
• Preparing an area for new plantings at Burbank Elementary School
• Planting the ticket booths at Harris Field on Concord Avenue

Belmont Serves will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the St. Joseph Parish Hall, at which time participants will pick their projects. Projects run from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and end at 12:00 p.m., at which time there will be an ice cream celebration for participants back in the St. Joseph Parish Hall. If you cannot make the actual event itself, you can still help by preparing a bag of non-perishables (canned goods, paper items, toiletries) for the Belmont Food Pantry and leaving the bag outside your doorstep on the morning ofMonday, October 13th by 8:30 a.m.