,

Stop School Closings: What You Can Do!

April 16, 2013 0 comments

StudentsMarch001

TSJers: What You Can Do to Organize Against School Closings:

1) Petitions for a moratorium on school closings (attached, Spanish and English). Each sheet has room for 10 names. These are NOT online petitions, but are old-style real signatures (remember those?). Once done, they need to be delivered or faxed to CTU, or scanned and emailed (all contact info on petitions themselves). Then email us and let us know how many actual signatures you collected!! Help get as many signers as we can!

2) Go to Report Card pickup at a school near you that is affected by the closings (133 schools). Elementary schools are Wednesday, 4/17, and High Schools are Thursday, 4/18. Usually, report card pickup is 12:00 to 6:00, but check w/ the school. The best times are 12-1 and from 5-6. 
* Take the petitions (SpanishEnglish), ask people to sign them, and talk to parents. 
* Hand out attached fact sheet, available also at our website

3) Speak at a faith community near you (see flyer; this is an initiative to reach out to faith communities to fight the school closings).

4) Lobby in Springfield for a moratorium on school closings, and for the Elected Representative School Board. A bus is traveling to Springfield each Wednesday. CTU/GEM is working to fill it with parents and people who work at the school action schools, but others are welcome.  Please urge parents and others from closing/turnaround schools to get on the bus.  Next Wed. 4/17 there are a number of empty seats. Contact Carolyn to reserve a space.

5) Use and share the school closing curriculum-available here, created by Cyriac Mathew, Uplift HS.
  
6) Check out the calendar of events, school closing hearings, etc.

7) Attend CTU President Karen Lewis' talk at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, this Wednesday the 17th at 7pm.  

8) Keep reading your TSJ emails to stay abreast and active!
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School Closings Curriculum - Teaching For Social Justice

April 14, 2013 0 comments

MassRallySOS075



Curriculum Created by Cyriac Mathew, a TSJer at Uplift Social Justice High School:

Teachers & Educators: Have your students learn about school closings and implement a related service-learning project! This is a two-week, work-in-progress curriculum to get our students to better understand some of the issues related to school closings and then make their voices heard. 

Whether you are a HS teacher or not-this curriculum is really important because it not only serves as a model of how to prepare young people to understand and change their world, but it also shows what teachers can do inside the classroom as well as outside! It's a great model and we urge ALL teachers to try to do similar work to what Cyriac is doing. 

Download the curriculum here:

For further info, email Cyriac directly

Also, a whole host of pictures by TSJer Sarah Jane Rhee and her ever-present camera:
  
March 27 Rally
March 25 Students March
Please make sure you give credit to Cyriac and/or Sarah if you use their materials!
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