Showing posts with label first day or school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first day or school. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2009

This is Where Some of our Children Live Here - Maybe More Than We Think


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The buildings had no running water, illegal wiring, boarded up windows and rodent infestations, officials said.any of these 74 children are presumably of school age, and will be starting one of Oakland's elementary schools next Monday. They are now homeless, living with relatives or in a shelter. When they arrive at school, they will not have a sign explaining their conditions. They will just be among the many thousands of Oakland students struggling to live way below the poverty line. Many of Oakland's schools are attended by students who live in poverty. Some schools are more than 90% economically disadvantaged.
We are often told not to make excuses for the poor performance of our schools, but I have seen firsthand the effect that poverty has on student performance. The children who lived in this apartment complex (until they were made completely homeless this week) are not that unusual. They have no place to study, so it is tough to do homework. There are drug users around the building, so it is noisy at night, making it hard to sleep. There are shootings in the neighborhood, so sometimes they have to dive to take cover from flying bullets. The nearest real grocery store is literally miles away, so food is often purchased at the neighborhood convenience store, and is highly processed and unhealthy. You can see them walking to school in the morning, eating their breakfast of corn chips and soda pop.
And just the stress of being poor takes its toll. If I am a bit short with my bills at the end of the month, I know how stressed that makes me. But those without regular work have a level of stress I have never even known. Unemployment in the Bay Area is over eleven percent, and is at least double that in many of these neighborhoods. That stress spills into family life, making people short-tempered and even violent. Children are often moved from one home to another, depending on who has space and food to take them in. Can you imagine how you would feel as a parent if you could not even afford to pay for a roof over your children's heads?
On Monday, teachers will welcome their students to class. The ones without homes, the ones who are hungry, the ones in foster care -- they will do their best to hide these conditions. Like wounded birds, they do not want to appear weak or flawed. Once they are grown and have achieved success, they may take some pride in their humble origins, but there is no pride in being homeless when it is your reality today.
Good teachers will find out soon who the hungry ones are, and work with the school and the child's parent or guardian to get them signed up for free lunches. They will make space for the children to stay after school and do homework. They will push all their students to do their best regardless of their circumstances. School can be a sanctuary for these students, a place where they are safe, and have a chance to be seen as human beings.
This fall there is less money than ever. Most of the Republicans in the state legislature have signed a pledge not to ever raise taxes, so when state revenues plummeted this year, school funding was cut by more than a thousand dollars per student. While the Bay Area remains an expensive place to live, Oakland's teachers are among the lowest paid in the region. Class sizes will expand, and there will be no money to repair the copy machine or replace broken furniture or lost books. Teachers will dip into their savings accounts to make up the difference for their children, because that is what we do.
But there is a way in which education rhetoric these days seems to deny that poverty has an impact on the ability of students to learn. Sometimes it feels as if the schools and teachers are actually being blamed for the conditions our students are forced to live in. These conditions should not be used to justify a poor quality education. But the schools and teachers that serve these students have special challenges, and need our support.
What is the impact of poverty on your students? How do you respond as an educator? How should we respond as a society?

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Bad News Even the Center Cannot Hold

Mike Antonucci

www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/


Mickey Kaus points us to the latest report from the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, titled “National Teachers’ Unions and the Struggle Over School Reform.”

I thought about excerpting the stinging barbs from CCCR’s absolute flaying of NEA and AFT, but it’s really worth your time to read the entire 36-page report, then head over to this page for a list of the organization’s commissioners. Not a conservative right-wing bastard in the bunch.

The public perception battle is over, and the teachers’ unions have lost. But will it have any effect on Congress and state legislatures? The NRA, tobacco companies, PETA, the ACLU and Big Oil all have negative public images they can’t shed, yet they are still effective in getting their way. What if NEA and AFT stop caring what other people think?

Monday, July 6, 2009

This many members and the best we can get from the CTA is a "spend and wait." attitude for the 2nd year in a row!

340,000 dues paying members (305,000) since last years one time bailout. And the best CTA seems willing to offer is to 'DONATE $$$ THEN WAIT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS' Everone, lie FACE DOWN,put your hand behind your head... Meanwhile, the popular press has joined the right wing whackos in perpetuating lies and misconceptions about taxes, over-paid union workers, the bullying tactics and their unfair power. These people and the "thirty second attack ad voters" are disemboweling California public schools? THE nea AND cta have destroyed their reputations long ago. They are only this year realizing that they have to be a Union not a professional association. The weren't effective as an association anyway. The CTA has no clue or refuses to use action, organize for the use of said action, or how to get into the communities to win parent community support. WE HAVE TO ACT NOW!! LOUD AND WITH FORCE!! For example: WE NEED INFORMATIONAL PICKETS EVERY DAY during the first week of August. How about the 45 minutes before the contract start of the first two or three days of school!! We should already be walking and papering the respective boundaries of our district. Sick out if that's ALL the law allows for but IF WE'RE A UNION THEN WE BETTER ACT LIKE ONE! The operant term is "ACT" In similar financial times, under the AFL-CIO, we had to strike every three years when our contract came up. We didn't loose an employee and we increased our position in regards to the contract each time. But it wasn't easy and it wasn't done by simply complaining.

I've been in three strike actions in my years and not a single one was pleasant but one week of screaming substitute baby sitters in the most kids will be going ape, maybe hurting themselves (heaven forbid) a perpetuating free for all and parents will eat this Governor alive - Like a cheap horror film.

WE have the stick prepare to use it. PREPARE TO STRIKE! Even though the CTA is over two years late in admitting what we all saw coming, THE OPERANT TERM is "prepare" now! (OOPS, Screwed again! Our local has allowed a no strike/ no lockout clause into our washed down version of a mutually agreeable contract. Our board can now pick us part at their leisure.) NO Mr. Sanchez, you can't raise our dues. UPDATE: YES THEY DID RAISE OUR DUES! In a site rep. only secret ballot.You've squandered $$$ enough to fund the budget of many school districts entirely. IT'S YOUR FAULT WE HAVE NO STRIKE AND DEFENSE FUND. The board members must have been laughing it's collective ass off. 'They really bought it... LOL'


Exactly One year later... But it doesn't matter for us. They thought they were positioning themselves for better vantage gaining a lasting camaraderie. What they got was the view from under our board's dysfunctional "Jack Boot."
CTA is the state's largest representative of education employees, serving more than 340,000 employees of California’s schools, colleges and universities. It supposedly exists to protect and advance the professional and economic interests of its members. CTA should work tirelessly for better working conditions, higher salaries, improved health benefits, progressive personnel policies and an affordable and dignified retirement. Instead we have the labor equivalent to the W Bush administration. It's leader an unqualified, morally challenged. A do nothing who in Bush's case bankrupted three corporations and then an entire country. The Saudi family had to bail bush out on the third endeavor. Is that what the new secret dues increase of approximately $20 per head is supposed to do for Sanchez. I personally can't wait for the AFT to start raiding California (like they did in one district in Oregon)- Mo Val first.

We have two more title waves to deal with so we demand better from OUR leaders. Privatization of education is almost on us and complete computerization is not far behind. (SEE WWW.CALVIA.COM)

This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out?

What's taking so long? This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out? "Hell has a special level for those who sit by idly during times of great crisis."
Robert Kennedy

The Art of SETTING LIMITS, Its not as easy as it looks.

Art of Setting Limits Setting limits is one of the most powerful tools that professionals have to promote positive behavior change for their clients, students, residents, patients, etc. Knowing there are limits on their behavior helps the individuals in your charge to feel safe. It also helps them learn to make appropriate choices.


There are many ways to go about setting limits, but staff members who use these techniques must keep three things in mind:
Setting a limit is not the same as issuing an ultimatum.
Limits aren’t threats—If you don’t attend group, your weekend privileges will be suspended.

Limits offer choices with consequences—If you attend group and follow the other steps in your plan, you’ll be able to attend all of the special activities this weekend. If you don’t attend group, then you’ll have to stay behind. It’s your decision.
The purpose of limits is to teach, not to punish.
Through limits, people begin to understand that their actions, positive or negative, result in predictable consequences. By giving such choices and consequences, staff members provide a structure for good decision making.
Setting limits is more about listening than talking.
Taking the time to really listen to those in your charge will help you better understand their thoughts and feelings. By listening, you will learn more about what’s important to them, and that will help you set more meaningful limits.
Download The Art of Setting Limits

SYSTEMATIC USE OF CHILD LABOR


CHILD DOMESTIC HELP
by Amanda Kloer

Published February 21, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
category: Child Labor
Wanted: Domestic worker. Must be willing to cook, clean, work with garbage, and do all other chores as assigned. No contract available, payment based on employer's mood or current financial situation. No days off. Violence, rape, and sexual harassment may be part of the job.

Would you take that job? No way. But for thousands of child domestic workers in Indonesia, this ad doesn't just describe their job, it describes their life.

A recent CARE International survey of over 200 child domestic workers in Indonesia found that 90% of them didn't have a contract with their employer, and thus no way to legally guarantee them a fair wage (or any wage at all) for their work. 65% of them had never had a day off in their whole employment, and 12% had experienced violence. Child domestic workers remain one of the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking and exploitation. And while work and life may look a little grim for the kids who answered CARE's survey, it's likely that the most abused and exploited domestic workers didn't even have the opportunity to take the survey.

In part, child domestic workers have it so much harder than adults because the people who hire children are more likely looking for someone easy to exploit. Think about it -- if you wanted to hire a domestic worker, wouldn't you choose an adult with a stronger body and more life experience to lift and haul and cook than a kid? If you could get them both for the same price, of course you would. But what if the kid was cheaper, free even, because you knew she wouldn't try and leave if you stopped paying her. Or even if you threatened her with death.



Congress Aims to Improve Laws for Runaway, Prostituted Kids

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Child Prostitution, Pimping

Published February 20, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT

The prospects for healthcare reform may be chillier than DC weather, but Democrats in the House and Senate are turning their attention to another warmer but still significant national issue: the increasing number of runaway and throwaway youth who are being forced into prostitution. In response to the growing concerns that desperate, runaway teens will be forced into prostitution in a sluggish economy, Congress is pushing several bills to improve how runaway kids are tracked by the police, fund crucial social services, and prevent teens from being caught in sex trafficking. Here's the gist of what the new legislation is trying to accomplish:

Shelter: Lack of shelter is one of the biggest vulnerabilities of runaway and homeless youth. Pimps will often use an offer of shelter as an entree to a relationship with a child or a straight up trade for sex. In the past couple years, at least 10 states have made legislative efforts to increase the number of shelters, extend shelter options, and change state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police. Much of the new federal legislation would make similar increases in the availability and flexibility of shelter options.

Police Reporting: Right now, police are supposed to enter all missing persons into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within two hours of receiving the case. In reality, that reporting doesn't always get done, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to search for missing kids across districts. This hole is a big problem in finding child prostitution victims and their pimps, since pimps will often transport girls from state to state. The new bill would strengthen reporting requirements, as well as facilitate communication between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women
Nor the Fool Politicians that used so many American GIs' lives as fodder for the fight over an english noun - "Communism"