Speaking with you the day before meeting with my principal was very helpful. It allowed me to better register what really is, as Julie has stated, "clear as mud." The UFT selected part of our committee was the only prepared party at the the table. The principal and her supervisors were unprepared and relied on our take and interpretation of the choices to be made. We advised that our school trigger the default model for the local MOSL. The principal agreed. Could not have done this without MORE support and Julie's wonderful ability to break down the entire task before us so that we could choose between the "noose or the sword."Ahhh! The smell of Democracy and open and diverse discussion. Our pals running the UFT should try it sometime. MORE did the hard work the UFT leadership would not do in analyzing the impact of the new world of evaluation.
Thanks for everything.
If it wasn't for Julie and others dissecting this nonsense (Julie Cavanagh Analyzes Teacher Evaluation Options...) I would be totally clueless. I couldn't get our DR to come to our school to explain this to us. She kept saying, "If you attended our spring info sessions you'd know..." BS, we know this thing was far from finished then. MORE was there for me and my chapter with information and discussion. The petition will be circulated tomorrow. .. High School chapter leaderMORE activists and their supporters have been on the case. MORE members comment on the work of MORE on the evaluation.
Thank GOD for MORE and my brothers and sisters here I walked into school knowing more than anyone, including my administration, on how to explain the ridiculous "advance."
There is no one to turn before I joined MORE and here we are educating, helping, supporting each other. Its awesome, I'm happy to have each other. I always feel disconnected at UFT DA's. There is no solidarity, no personal connections. Next time you walk into a MORE meeting take a look at the smiles, laughter, embrace of each other. This is what a union meeting ought to be, this what we do.
The meetings and discussion over email and in person, blog posts, summer series, have done for me what my union was supposed to do. Everyone I know is turning to MORE for advice and push back against this asinine system.
We are here, we are answering questions, we have a petition, newsletter, and a day of action on 10/9 to fight this. Our union leadership sends out an email meant to do nothing but appease....
Thanks to MORE I'm able to be a better leader, organizer, and more importantly than ANYTHING I'm a better teacher. Frankly MORE meetings do more for my pedagogy than any DOE PD ever has ever.....
Usually I go to services for the high holy days, as I did yesterday and the 3 or 4 hardcore retired Unity folks make every effort to avoid me, although they're good friends with my mom. Well they couldn't run to me fast enough at Rosh shashona services. They wanted to know all about the new eval system, how bad it is, and one even said they saw our petition and it's awesome (he never acknowledged before that I was in UFT/MORE). This made me feel like we accomplished something, very little, but something....
Thanks so much to everyone else who shared advice, links and asked great questions, wrote emails posts, brought interesting things to meeting. And the Change The Stakes/High Stakes Testing crew for explaining how we ought to tell parents that this is wrong, the eval crew for writing a POWERFUL petition. I am more convinced than ever that WE are the union....
There is no one to turn before I joined MORE and here we are educating, helping, supporting each other. Its awesome, I'm happy to have each other. I always feel disconnected at UFT DA's. There is no solidarity, no personal connections. Next time you walk into a MORE meeting take a look at the smiles, laughter, embrace of each other. This is what a union meeting ought to be, this what we do....
"What MORE should do" is where I say, WE are MORE, every member can have a voice and put into what we do. That's what keeps me going and able to start the school year with a hope that would, otherwise, not be possible. Recently, colleagues from my last school called me because of my affiliation with MORE and NOT the Unity District Chapter Leader to ask about the evals. So, that's a huge sign of success for everyone here....
