School will be closed on Thursday, December 24, 2009 and will reopen on Monday, January 4, 2010.
On behalf of the Asbury Park Education Association Executive Committee, we want to wish you and your family, a very safe and happy holiday season.
APEA WINTER CELEBRATION AT
THE WONDER BAR
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ocean Ave., Asbury Park
Time: 3:00-?
Price: $10.00 for APEA Members
$30.00 for Non Members
(2 drink tickets, buffet dinner, dancing w/ DJ)
Your ticket and wrist band must be picked up at the place of purchase the day of the party. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR WRISTBAND ON TO ENTER!
The AP (11/25, Gross) reports that the current financial crisis has made economics “more relevant and immediate to many high school and college students, and they are suddenly paying closer attention in class. … Instructors are delighted by the opportunity to use the dramatic events on Wall Street to explain concepts students might otherwise find dry, such as liquidity and Federal Reserve monetary policy.” The AP adds, “At Plano West Senior High School in a prosperous Dallas suburb, Advanced Placement economics teacher Sally Meek said her students keep veering off into politics and policy, debating the presidential candidates’ plans during the election and grappling with questions of how big a role government should take in trying to turn around the economy.” Also, the “Arizona Council on Economic Education is helping teachers design classes based on the current financial crisis.”
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New York’s Post-Standard (11/24, O’Toole) reported that according to Harrison Yang, professor of curriculum and instruction at the State University College at Oswego, “Rapidly changing technology is a challenge for many teachers.” As such, “students training to become teachers are required to take courses that teach them how to integrate new technologies into the classroom, Yang said.” In North Syracuse, schools “are keeping up with the ever-changing technology” by enrolling “eighth-graders…in a hands-on interactive computer course that aims to teach them tools needed to be successful in and out of the classroom.” A digital communications class teaches students to “format reports and newsletters; create graphs, tables, charts and spreadsheets; design documents; and use digital tools, including Weblogs, Wikis, Blackboard, podcasting computers and iPods.” The Post-Standard list examples of ways other school districts in Central New York are keeping up with technology.
Massachusetts’s South Coast Today (11/25, Gonet) reports that fifth-graders in Debra Suprenant’s science class at Betsey B.
Continue reading UPDATES AND INFORMATION PROVIDED BY NEA by John Napolitani
APEA Winter Celebration at THE WONDER BAR
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ocean Ave., Asbury Park
Time: 3:00-? Price: $10.00 for APEA Members
$30.00 for Non Members
(2 drink tickets, buffet dinner, dancing w/ DJ)
Your ticket and wrist band must be picked up at the place of purchase the day of the party. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR WRISTBAND ON TO ENTER!
• Tickets go on sale December 1. • Tickets must be purchased by Fri. Dec. 11. • No tickets will be sold at the door! • The Wonder Bar is closed to the public.
AT THE WONDER BAR!!!!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ocean Ave., Asbury Park
Time: 3:00-? Price: $10.00 for APEA Members
$30.00 for Non Members
(2 drink tickets, buffet dinner, dancing w/ DJ)
Your ticket and wrist band must be picked up at the place of purchase the day of the party. YOU MUST HAVE YOUR WRISTBAND ON TO ENTER!
• Tickets go on sale December 1. • Tickets must be purchased by Fri. Dec. 11. • No tickets will be sold at the door! • The Wonder Bar is closed to the public.
Please see Maureen Casey to purchase your wrist band and tickets for this evening of fun! \
TO: APEA Membership
FROM: John Napolitani, President
Sean Hamilton, Vice President
DATE: November 20, 2009
The APEA Negotiating Team had a meeting on Monday, November 16, 2009, at 3:30pm in NJEA Headquarters in West Long Branch. This meeting was held at the request of our mediator, Greg Franklin, who seems to feel that the APEA and APBOE can reach an agreement on our contract.
Several items were discussed, including, prioritizing issues that are important to both the Board and the APEA. The Board finally cut down some of their issues, which will be discussed at greater length at the next meeting. In our opinion, some items are relatively easy to discuss and come to an agreement; while others may require a more lengthy discussion. At this point, we are cautiously optimistic that the Board does not want this to turn in another “Marlboro” situation, where they are poised to go on strike.
However, we are also prepared implement any actions via our “Action Team” that we deem necessary to see to it that we receive a fair and equitable contract for the next three years if we cannot make any progress at the next meeting. As a show of good faith on the part of the Association, we will not take any actions until we feel as though we have exhausted every avenue in negotiations.
As promised, we are keeping the membership informed of our progress step by step.
Predicted Teacher Shortage Turning Into Teacher Surplus. The AP (11/12, Hollingsworth) reported that across the U.S., “droves” of college graduates “are unable to find teaching jobs, in large part because the economy is forcing school systems to slash positions. The teacher shortage that many feared just a few years ago has turned into a teacher glut.” According to the AP, “Since last fall, school systems, state education agencies, technical schools and colleges have shed about 125,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Also, “many teachers who had planned to retire or switch jobs are staying on because of the recession.”
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In the Classroom
STEMfest Gives Kids Fun Introduction To Sciences. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (11/13, Miller) reports on STEMfest, “a one-day fair Saturday at Discovery World where visitors can enjoy the museum for free and get a fun introduction to the sciences that make their world go.” The fair is being funded by of Time Warner, which earlier this year “announced a nationwide effort to fund a five-year, $100 million philanthropic effort to address America’s decline in STEM.” The company’s Milwaukee office has “lined up several local partners to make their best pitch for youths to explore science, technology, engineering and math as interests and careers, including FIRST Robotics and the FIRST Lego League, Growing Power, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee.” In addition, “Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, the Great Lakes WATER Council, the Badger State Science & Engineering Fair, Marquette’s College of Engineering, Lakeshore State Park, WAUK-AM (540) ESPN radio and the Urban Ecology Center also will have exhibits, information and experts on hand.”
Study Of Harlem Children’s Zone Finds Achievement Gaps Closing.
Some Teachers Using Sign Language To Aid Classroom Management. The Washington Post (10/16, B1, Brown) reports on the front of its Metro section that in addition to instructional goals, teachers “must confront a more pressing problem: how to manage children’s urgent requests, in the middle of the most carefully planned lessons, for permission to sharpen pencils, get drinks of water or visit the bathroom.” According to the Post, “One solution, a growing number of teachers are finding, is learning to speak without sound.” Sign language “has become a saving grace — a way to communicate without interrupting instruction.”
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In the Classroom
Education Stakeholders Respond To NAEP Results. In a “Room For Debate” blog, the New York Times (10/15) posts responses from a number of education stakeholders to news that only “39 percent of fourth graders and 34 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level” on the National Assessment of Educational Progress “math test given this spring.” Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at University of California, Berkeley, wrote, “This week’s dismal test-score results is bad news for President Obama, just as his education secretary, Arne Duncan, begins to rethink Washington’s role in lifting the schools, searching for a less punitive, more robust blend of policies that energize students and teachers alike.” Lance T.
MCEA will be having a hospitality suite in Trump Plaza on thursday between 3pm and 6pm. All APEA members are welcome to attend free of charge. There will be a sign in sheet at the door. Regina Jagoo is in charge of this event.
The APEA will hold their hosptality suite in Tropicana between the hours of 5pm and 9pm. This event is for APEA members only.
Duncan Stresses Need For “Extraordinary” Teachers.
The AP (10/12) reports, “U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan appealed Friday for a new generation of extraordinary teachers, calling education the civil rights cause of our time.” He noted specifically that there is a great need “for black men in the nation’s classroom.” In his comments, Duncan stressed that “strong education is needed to reduce dropout rates among African-American, Latino and low-income students,” and pointed out “that the demand for teachers is greatest among ‘high-poverty, high-needs’ and rural schools, as well as in subjects such as math and science.”
African-American Male Teachers Seen As Key To Reducing Achievement Gaps, Dropout Rates. In a separate story, the AP (10/10, Matheson) reported, “Only about two percent of teachers nationwide are African-American men. But experts say that needs to change if educators expect to reduce minority achievement gaps and dropout rates.” Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the majority of “American teachers are…white (87 percent) and female (77 percent), despite minority student populations of about 44 percent.” But Greg Johnson, a policy analyst for the National Education Association, said that having “minority teachers is important because of ‘the role model factor.’ … ‘These students need to see successful adults of color in front of them,’” Johnson added. To that end, Cheyney University sophomores Lenny Macklin and Gregory Georges founded the Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models) teaching program, which “offers scholarships in exchange for teaching in public schools.
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