TSJ members/friends... CPS administration and Mayor Daley have made it clear that they aim to try to strip the power to grant principal contracts from the LSCs. There is an effort to the IL General Assembly, at the end of its legislative session, to pass legislation stripping the power...We need to ACT! The most comprehensive study of Chicago's Local School Councils by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago concludes that:

"The vast majority of LSCs are viable governance organizations that responsibly carry out their mandated duties and are active in building school and community relationships."

Please read the fact sheet from Designs for Change, and...

• Across Chicago, LSC members must protect the LSC's right to select and renew principal contracts. Get help from other parents, community members, and educators to contact legislators.
• Call members of the House and Senate Education Committee and tell them: OPPOSE LAST MINUTE LEGISLATION TO CHANGE THE LSC'S ROLE IN CHOOSING PRINCIPALS IN CHICAGO! Remind them about the "arbitration process" they already put in place. And tell them how your LSC has worked hard with your school staff to improve student achievement.
• Email the Fact Sheet to others and urge them to contact their state legislators.

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Click here for Opt Out Form
 
The above link will take you to one of many versions of an "opt out" form. This form requests that the Board of Education remove the student's name from the list of students provided to military recruiters as dictated by the No Child Left Behind act. Please note: the student or the parent or guardian only need sign. The form does not require both parent and child sign. Student I.D. number is required or the form will not be processed!


Suggestion for submitting the form Students can mail this directly to Donald Pittman as the form indicates. You can also collect them and mail them in bulk, perhaps ensuring a higher completion rate of the entire process. At Kelly High School, the Students for Social Justice Club has received permission to distribute these from a table during lunch time. The administration has asked that we provide them with a list of the names of signers so that they, too, can be sure to follow the students' wishes. Recruiting, at least at Kelly, is so frequent that almost all students will likely have a face-to-face encounter with a recruiter. Face-to-face is definitely a more effective recruiting method. However, the opt out campaign is a relatively low energy means to raise the recruiting issue and to identify students, faculty, and parents who might work on a more demanding campaign to limit recruiter access to our young people.
If you have questions or want access to leaflets and information critical of the current recruiting drive and of dishonest or deceptive recruiting techniques, please see

Chicago Coalition Oppsed to the Militarization of Youth

Another useful link:
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Schools must empower students to be decision-makers in their own lives and to become active participants in our society by employing principles of Equity and Social Justice. We have adopted many of these principles (indicated with *) from Rethinking Schools: An Urban Educational Journal. Curriculum and Classroom Practice should be: 1. * Grounded in the lives of our students. Curriculum should be based on respect for students and rooted in their lives, needs, and experiences and should help students examine how their lives are connected with the broader society. 2. *Critical. Students should learn to "talk back" to the world. Curriculum and instruction should help students pose critical questions about society, examining popular culture, social structures, government actions, and school life, and should move outside the classroom to connect with real world problems. 3. *Multicultural, anti-racist pro-justice. A social justice curriculum includes the lives and perspectives of everyone in society, especially people who are marginalized. It should engage students in a critique of the roots of inequality. 4. *Participatory, experiential. Students should experience concepts first-hand, e.g., through projects, experiments, and role plays, and should have opportunities for democratic participation by questioning, challenging, making decisions and collectively solving problems. 5. *Hopeful, joyful, kind, visionary. Classrooms should make children feel emotionally and physically safe, significant and cared about, modeling the just and democratic society we envision. 6. *Activist. Children should come to see themselves as truth-tellers and change-makers. Teachers should encourage children to act on their consciences and should give students historical and contemporary examples of people from all cultures who act to make a difference and struggle for justice. 7. *Academically rigorous. Children should develop the tools to change the world and to maneuver in the one that exists. By speaking directly to the alienation so many students feel, teachers aim to inspire and motivate all students to levels of academic performance far greater than those measured by standardized tests or grades. 8. *Culturally and linguistically sensitive.As schools become increasingly diverse, teachers must listen to and learn from students and their families, and teachers need to call on culturally diverse colleagues and community resources for insights into the communities they serve. School-level Policy and Decision-making should support: 1. Collaborative and flexible curriculum. Curriculum decisions should be made collaboratively at the school level to shape a coherent curricular vision aligned with principles of equity and social justice. Within this framework, teachers should have the flexibility to use their expertise and judgment to develop appropriate curriculum for their classrooms. 2. Resources for thoughtful teaching. The school day must include time for teacher reflection, feedback, collaboration and research in preparation for teaching effective lessons. Good teachers are at the core of schooling and can only support students in their educational journeys when they have time to see students as individual beings. 3. Local, democratic decision-making. School policy decisions should be made locally and democratically. Teachers, students and families need to have a voice in school policies and procedures both locally and system- wide. 4. School must address the whole child. While broad social change is needed, immediately teachers need the support of trained professionals to address the social needs of students and their families. Students? safety and survival needs must be met in order for them to focus on rigorous academic work. 5. Multiple forms of academic assessment. Academic progress must be assessed in multiple ways which mirror the complexities of human beings. One standardized test does NOT summarize the academic progress of a student in a full year. Principles of School Reform: 1. *Public schools are responsible to the community, not to the marketplace. Education reform must be grounded in the democratic vision that all of society is responsible for educating the next generation and in the crucial role of public schools to help create a democratic, multi-cultural society. 2. *Schools must be actively multicultural and anti-racist, promoting social justice for all. In every aspect of school life, schools should actively combat racism and discrimination and prejudice based on gender, class, language, sexual orientation, and physical or emotional differences. Schools should make an all-out effort to end inequalities in achievement and should prepare students to transform social inequality and injustice. 3. *Curriculum must be geared to learning for life and the needs of a multicultural democracy. Curriculum reform is key to school reform. Curriculum should be based on principles of social justice (as outlined above). 4. *All children and all schools must receive adequate resources. Across the country there are huge inequalities in school resources. Money, well-spent, matters. Beyond equality in school funding, fairness means that some students deserve and need extra resources, particularly in communities with fewer financial and material resources and in schools that have been historically under-resourced. 5. *Reform must center on the classroom and the needs of children. The first criteria of reform is that it will improve teaching and learning for children in classrooms, particularly low-income students and student who have been marginalized because of race, ethnicity, or language. Standards should be geared toward high-quality and rigorous academics for all children, not on setting up systems of rewards and punishments that perpetuate existing social inequalities. 6. *Good teachers are essential to good schools. In addition to ensuring that all teachers are qualified and educated in the areas they teach, teachers need time for on-going professional development and collegial discussions. And all teachers need to be educated to be actively anti racist and to promote social justice. A particular focus should be on increasing the number of ethnically and racially diverse teachers and ensuring they have access to positions of leadership. 7. *Reform must involve collaboration among educators, parents, and the community. Reform must be based on mutual respect and collaboration among all those involved in public education. Because they have been traditionally marginalized in school reform efforts, parents, in particular, should be brought into the decision- making process at all levels. Collaboration and accountability should be reciprocal communities are responsible to provide schools with necessary resources and schools are responsible to the community at large, not just to the interests of the parents of individual schools. 8. *We must revitalize our urban communities, not just our schools. Joblessness, poverty, substance abuse, and sub-standard housing affect our schools, and massive and ongoing intervention is necessary to address these conditions. Schools can also be centers for community support and renewal by serving the entire community with a variety of recreational, educational, cultural, job training, and social service programs. Working together, schools, labor unions, community groups, religious congregations, and civic leaders can boldly address problems that are too large for any one group to solve on their own. *Adopted September 2000 Read the Full Story

Click HERE to view photos from TSJ's 2005 Curriculum Fair Read the Full Story

1) What happens at the Curriculum Fair?

For those who don't know...The Curriculum Fair is like a Science or History Fair, except teachers “exhibit” their curriculum oriented toward social justice, we have a keynote speaker and a number of workshops (and food!), and hundreds of like-minded people gather and learn with each other.

2) What does it mean to "exhibit" curriculum at the Curriculum Fair?

Each teacher gets a 6-foot long table at the Fair to set up her/his materials. Many teachers exhibit curriculum by bringing a tri-fold board (like those science fair boards) and bring lesson or unit plans, student work, assignments, artifacts, video, whatever, to share their curriculum ideas. Many bring their students along who sit at the table and explain the work with their teachers. The CF is set up so that we can browse the “exhibits,” talk with each other, and share lessons.

3) Does the curriculum have to be a finished, perfect product to exhibit?

Is there such a thing? The whole point of the CF is to recognize that teachers collectively produce knowledge about, for example, how to teach for SJ, and that we have much to learn from each other. There are no blueprints here, and we can learn from our mutual experiences. We strongly encourage teachers to share work “in progress” and to give and get feedback from others in order to further develop our collective understanding of what teaching for SJ means in theory and practice. Sometimes people may feel that their work is somehow not yet “there,” and our view is that the CF is as good a place as any to strengthen it. It has been our shared experience that both exhibitors and non-exhibiting attendees have learned much from participating in the fair.

4) What are the workshops?

Although the main focus of the CF is person-to-person contact through the exhibitors at their tables, we also have a limited number of one-hour workshops. These range from curricular innovations about SJ pedagogy to, for example, using multicultural children's literature. These provide more in-depth, interactive ways for teachers and students to present what they’ve been learning and doing in their classrooms.

5) What's the difference between a "curriculum exhibit" and a "resource table?"

Exhibitors are usually teachers who have taught a lesson, unit, or project. Resource tables are usually for organizations that produce curriculum and resources for teachers. We do place resource tables and exhibitor tables in the same area, but we really do want to have as many teachers as possible as exhibitors.

6) Who makes all this happen?

You do. Probably 60-80 people volunteer, one way or another, to make the CF a reality (we are a totally volunteer organization).

And we'd also like to add that Rethinking Schools is a cosponsor of the CF and this is a great chance to meet some of the RS folks and talk with them. They will have all their materials for sale.

Exhibitor and Workshop Presenter Info

Curriculum Exhibitors
1.) You will have table space to display student work, lesson plans, photos, etc. 2.) You should plan for someone to be sitting at your table interacting with visitors for the entire curriculum fair. Please note that "presentations" need only to include: 1.) A brief written description of your idea(s), and/or the actual assignment that you used, if possible. 2.) 1-2 paragraphs reflecting on the process you and students went through to make the idea(s) a reality, e.g., a loose lesson plan. Work in progress is also valued (we suggest bringing 100-150 copies of your plan). 3.) Any examples of student work such as writing, videos, artwork, poetry, projects are more than welcome! If you are interested in presenting, fill out the Presenter Form and email it to tsjpresenters(at)gmail.com.

Workshops
There are a limited number of workshop sessions available during the curriculum fair. Workshops are 50 minute sessions and are available to teachers who wish to present a more detailed overview or discussion of their curriculum. They are not available to curriculum or textbook sales companies. If you are interested in leading a workshop, fill out the Workshop Registration Form and email it to tsjworkshops(at)gmail.com.

Volunteer Committees

• Exhibitors/Resource Tables
• Workshops
• Program Committee
• Outreach & PR
• Food Committee

Demistyfying the Exhibitor Experience

This is a short account of a teacher's experience exhibiting at the TSJ Curriculum Fair:

Last year was my first year exhibiting, and like many, I was very apprehensive at first.  However, with the encouragement of my dear friend, Jonah, active member of TSJ, I worked up the courage.  Still a little worried about how I could possibly contribute to the fair, I enlisted the help of my co-teacher Mary.  We brainstormed how we could or already had incorporated social justice ideals such as anti-racist, multilingual, student-centered, etc. education in the classroom.  We realized we were implementing social justice principles while teaching the novel, Monster by Walter Dean Myers through our discussions of the injustices youth of color, specifically African Americans, face with the judicial system.

We looked at the TSJ exhibitor application, which mentioned that most exhibitors put up science-fair-like boards to exhibit their work. The board didn't take that long to put together, but to ground it in the TSJ principles, I am going to have my students put the board together this year.

The next step was to make copies of the worksheets we distributed to students. Also, we put student responses on our boards to help their voices be heard. We were finally ready and excited to exhibit at the fair. The day of the fair we arrived around 9 a.m. and put up our board and copies, which took a whole 5 minutes. During the fair we were at our exhibit, but we weren't chained down to the exhibit, so we were able to enjoy the curriculum fair as well.

I hope you end up exhibiting because although you may think you have nothing to offer, the very fact that you are reading this shows your heart is in the right place and have things to share!

--Sana Jafri Read the Full Story