New York Collective of Radical Educators

June 19, 2011July 13, 2011

New Teacher Underground

Sponsored by the new teacher/alt cert action group of NYCoRE, the New Teacher Underground is a social space for new and alternatively certified teachers to find support and dissect the current realities of education in New York City.

We will be meeting every Thursday all summer long. While we hope to target the needs of newer teachers, with a particular focus on those in alternative certification programs, all are welcome to join us.

5-7pm Thursdays starting July 14th
Lolita Bar, 266 Broome Street
B/D to Grand, F to Delancey, J/M/Z to Essex

Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested, and feel free to contact us at newteacherunderground@gmail.com.

July 14th: What it Means to be a Teacher in New York City Right Now
Developing a people’s history of the New York City public schools

July 21st: Privilege, Power and Public Schools
Unpacking the concept of the “achievement gap” by addressing privilege and power in our school system and in our classrooms

July 28th: The Meaning of Alternative Certification
What are the histories of Teach for America and the New York City Teaching Fellows programs? What role do they play in today’s education climate?

August 4th: Welcome to Teaching
Understanding mayoral control, high-stakes testing, privatization and other top-down policies that impact our classrooms

August 11th: Your Union and Social Justice Unionism
What do teacher protections like tenure and contracts mean for us and for our students? How does the UFT organize us and what more should it do?

August 18th: The so-called “No Excuses” Classroom
…and other educational jargon in your teacher training reading material. What do “accountability” and “data” really mean to our work?

August 25th: Anti-Racist Classrooms & Anti-Racist Curriculum
How to circumvent institutional racism in schools and develop culturally relevant curriculum that connects students to the world outside the classroom

September 1st: First Days…
How can you really prepare? What is most important? What strengths will you bring to the classroom? What is your teaching core?

May 19, 2011

New Social Justice Teacher’s Planbook

We are pleased to announce the publication of the 2011-2012 edition of Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers. This unique resource is packed with all new social justice anniversaries and birthdays as well as lots of new resources, quotes and essential questions for students. Pre-order your copy from Rethinking Schools for a discount price today!

www.justiceplanbook.com

May 11, 2011

Fight Back Friday! MAY 20th!

Mayor Bloomberg has gone too far. And we are fighting back!!!

Over the past year, at least 50 schools have participated in the many Fight Back Fridays that have occurred across the city. NYCoRE is teaming up with other teacher activist groups to pull in as many schools as possible to this important day of action.

May 20th is the next city wide FBF and it needs to be huge!!

What is Fight Back Friday?? Read on or Email: sam@nycore.org FBF gives every school community a chance to stand up and say NO to the cuts and lay-offs at whatever level the community can be organized.

-Everyone wears black (Wear black, take our schools back!). It can be as simple as just that.
-We have stickers people can print out with messages about the cuts and the kinds of changes we would all like to see in education that folks can wear and give out.
-We have fliers that you can adjust to fit your school, which you can use on the day of.
– Many schools have a picket outside of school either before or after the school day. We have fliers you can use to publicize the picket during the week leading up to the 20th.
– The fliers will be in at least English and Spanish, and if we can, Chinese.
– We have post cards that we are asking people to get signed that will then be delivered en-masse to city council members. You can print those out, or come get them at a couple of different locations.
– We ask everyone to take pictures to send in that then go on our fight back friday blog and face book page.

We will be putting out a press release and press statement and pushing the press to cover as many school events as we can. And the more schools participating the more coverage we will get. Please, even if it sounds hard or overwhelming, consider pushing your school community to join in. Email Sam at sam@nycore.org with any questions. We will send you the tool kit with all the fliers and stickers and such. We are happy to help you think through all the steps.

This is a way for your whole community to work together, parents, students and staff, to build solidarity within and across schools. These actions are great for training ourselves to do the organizing that we need if we are to turn the tide of the destruction of public education. In order to fight for the transformations we all want to see in our education system, we need to do the grassroots educating, organizing and mobilizing that it takes to move whole communities.

Thanks,
In solidarity,
Sam Coleman, for the Fight Back Friday Committee
CAPE, Grassroots Education Movement, Independent Community of Educators, NYCoRE, People Power Movement, Teachers for a Just Contract, Teachers Unite