(From one of our most knowledgeable commentators in the weekly "Left Ed" series. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
In their recent article at Ed Week, Rob Manwaring and Tim Sullivan pen a nice article that makes is clear just how terrible seniority clauses in teacher contracts are. In "When School Improvement and Teacher Seniority Collide" (subscription required) Manwaring and Sullivan paint a bleak picture of how as a principal of a failing school in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, Sullivan became "all too aware of the damage that can occur" due to seniority.
But even as the article hammers "senior teachers" between the lines as the cause of for failure, the repeated nature of the problem is glossed over and ignored.
(This Sunday, Jeff's computer was down & my power was down. Michael, a regular commentator on Left Ed diaries posted this as a wonderful replacement. Now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'm promoting it to keep our education beat going. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
This is a poor substitute for one of Jeff's posts - but I was hoping to talk about this, so here goes...
So Friday night I wrap up my work and start flipping channels for some mental relief. As I'm shuffling past A&E - not a usual stop - I hear this familiar sounding teacher telling a couple of students that they can't go to the "resource room" and that they should just "give the quiz a try" right there in the classroom. As a teacher, this triggered a professional double-take akin to jamming on the breaks while driving 50mph. Did he really just say what I think he said?!
As I sat there watching "Teach: Tony Danza" I was amazed. In less than 20 minutes I saw a person obviously passionate about education who did things that would get most first-year teachers in severe hot water - if not fired. All I could think was "Who let this guy in front of a class?"
The answer was Philidelephia's Northeast High School.
Last week, we introduced Kenyon Farrow of Queers for Economic Justice, Calvin Williams of the Generational Alliance, and Althea Erickson of the Freelancers Union. They shared with us a brief summary of how their organizations had adopted some online tools.
This week, they delve into some of the challenges they faced along the way, and some insight into how they overcame them:
Today's Training Tuesday comes to us from the Organizing 2.0 Conference in New York back in December. During lunch, we were joined by Colin Delaney, of e.politics.com. He and Charles Lenchner, of the Working Families Party, held a conversation about how to translate lessons about new media from the Obama campaign to local campaigns.
This week's Training Tuesday takes us back to Democracy for America's Campaign Academy in Gettysburg, PA 2009. For the last couple weeks we brought you lessons from the Organizing 2.0 conference, and we still have plenty more to come.
Anyways, first things first, a little history on the DFA campaign academy:
This week, we have something new for our Training Tuesday series. We still have plenty of videos left to come from Democracy for America's Campaign Academy, but a couple weekends back, we attended the Organizing 2.0 conference in New York. This conference was a unique opportunity for activists to learn about new media and online organizing from some of the greatest online organizers around.
Last week, we covered the basics of managing and organizing a campaign budget. If you know little-to-nothing about campaign finance but would like to, or if you are just about to start putting together the budget for a campaign, you should definitely check out last week's Training Tuesday. Today is not for the basics. Instead, we are using this Training Tuesday to share with you four very important tips that will help you out along the way:
This week, Training Tuesday will focus on another very important constituency: volunteers. As an organizer, building a strong volunteer base is your most important responsibility. The quality and quantity of the effort you get from your volunteers can make or break a campaign. They not only are giving you work for free (but don't tell them this!! See 'seizing an opportunity' below) but they are your direct representative to your most important constituency: voters. So their work is not only necessary, it must be done to a high standard and you must take it upon yourself to insure they are up to the task. From the Democracy for America (DFA) training manual:
You are a leader. Your job is to get your staff and volunteers to follow you. You set the tone. An energetic and enthusiastic leader will beget a focused and motivated volunteer base."
Our videos today will cover some of the basics of recruiting volunteers and building a lasting network. The DFA is truly an authority on this subject, so without further ado...
Matt Blizek, of Democracy for America (DFA), was kind enough to allow Sum of Change to bring a camera to the recent DFA Campaign Academy in Gettysburg, PA. The Campaign Academy was founded in 2004, and serves to "focus, network, and train grassroots activists in the skills and strategies to take back our country," We will be bringing you highlights from different panels for the next several Tuesdays, but for this first Training Tuesday we have something special. This is the only training session that we will be airing in full. We will still bring you highlights from many other trainings, but if you would like to see more of them in full, you will have to attend a DFA Campaign Academy.
In the next 6 days I have a lot on my plate. If all goes as scheduled I will post a diary on an about to be published book which the author, a former writer for the Washington Post, asked that I read and review. I have been invited to attend as an observer a hearing on NCLB sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. I will attend political events to which I have been invited with Russ Feingold and Dan Maffei. I may at his request be part of a small group to have dinner with a U S Senator to talk about education. As one who wishes to influence educational policy several of these occasions seem to validate my efforts. As a politically active person all give me an opportunity to connect and thereby to have the possibility to make a difference. Several will clearly provide material about which I could blog and perhaps get some visibility for my efforts. Five events of interest, perhaps of some import. But none of these are the reason for my title.
On Thursday I will spend one-two hours with a young lady named Sara, who was my student when she was a freshman in high school in 1999-2000.
how about wandering over to Big Orange aka dailykos and reading YEARLYKOS: Education Uprising / Educating for Democracy - the "plan" This diary is the culmination of more than 6 months work in preparation for the forthcoming Yearlykos convention in Chicago. You will have the opportunity to see a refreshingly (we hope) different approach to education, as well as have links to all of our priors diaries in preparation. We'd love to have your comments.
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