Feria Anual de Curriculos de los Maestros para la Justicia Social, 20 nov 2010

May 5, 2010 0 comments

Estamos bien emocionados que este proximo 20 de este noviembre 2010 será el 10º Anual Feria de Curriculos de la Justicia Social, patrocinado por los Maestros para la Justicia Social (Chicago) y copatrocinado por Rethinking Schools.  La tema de este año es “Otra Educación es Posible, Otro Mundo es Necesario!”

En el formato de una feria de ciencias, y organizado por voluntarios, La Feria de Curriculos proveerá a más que 600 educadores, activistas, padres, jóvenes y miembros de la comunidad de un espacio en que puedan compartir curriculos, ideas y recursos.  Estaremos haciendo amigos y construyendo relaciones, explorando ideas y proyectos, conectando nuestros historias y luchas.  Todo en el espíritu de la justicia social y la educación para la liberación.

Maestros de K-12 se presentarán con carteles para discutir sus curriculos preferidos (favor de inscribirse!), organizaciones locales y nacionales tendrán mesas con recursos y libros, y líderes de la comunidad facilitarán el diálogo por unos talleres sobre varios asuntos importantes.

Y no te olvides de las palabras de presentación que siempre nos inspira… ya pronto anunciaremos el orador.

Proveemos el almuerzo para todos, para sostenernos mientras pasamos por el día.  Arte en vivo, pinturas y pancartas por artistas de movimientos locales inspirarán y asombrarán, y además, hay rumores de alguna fiesta por la noche…

Esperemos que nos ayuden a dar forma a este espacio para que sea accesible para las personas con discapacidades, abierto para las personas con las necesidades de lenguaje, además deísmos que la feria sea un espacio seguro.

Inscribete, ofrece tus servicios, ven a una reunión!  Te apreciaremos mucho!

REGISTRARSE & ENSCRIBIRSE ONLINE

POR QUE:
Siguiendo el Foro Social del EEUU en Detroit este junio, las luchas para la educación las están pasando por todo el país, la victoria en Milwaukee contra la relevación por el alcalde de las escuelas públicas, y la increíble victoria reciente de la CORE para el liderazgo del Sindicato de Maestros de Chicago, reconocemos que ahora, más que nunca, hay que construir el momento del movimiento de la Educación para la Liberación

Por 10 años de la Feria de Curriculos, nos hemos conjuntado por nuestro compromiso a la educación para la justicia social.  Junto con educadores de todo el país, trabajamos para que tengamos aulas y escuelas que existan en contra del racismo, que sean multiculturales/multilingües, y que tengan sus bases en las experiencias de los estudiantes.  Creemos que Otro Mundo es Posible y entendemos que es necesario enfrentarnos con los discursos de la política de la educación para crear las escuelas más justas y humanitarias, pero también estamos conectados con una red nacional e internacional de educadores activistas y reconocemos más y más que Otro Mundo es Necesario.

CUANDO & DONDE:

SABADO 20 NOVIEMBRE 2010
10:00AM – 5:00PM
Las puertas abren a las 9:30am
Orozco School
1940 W. 18TH Street (mapa & direcciones)
Chicago, IL

Estaremos reciclando el papel y el plástico este año y deseamos tener un evento sin las botellas plásticas de agua.  Favor de llevar su propia botella de agua.

¿COMO PUEDES PARTICIPAR?

REGISTRARSE ONLINE AHORA!

MANDAR ESTE MENSAJE a tus contactos e invitar a tus amigos por la Página del Evento en la Facebook (haz clic en “Seleccionar Invitados” en la izquierda abajo del imagen del folleto).

SER EXPOSITOR DE CURRICULO (Haz Clic)

BAJAR E IMPRIMIR FOLLETOS (DE COLORES) / (NEGRO&BLANCO)

SER VOLUNTARIO para el Alcance, Levantar y Limpiar, Inscripción y Comidas.

No hay costo para inscribirse, pero pedimos una donación de $5-10 (incluye el almuerzo) si puedes dar.  Este es un evento de voluntarios, donaciones de dinero y necesidades es apreciado para que podamos cubrir los costos.  Gracias!

¿NO PUEDES VENIR A CHICAGO?

Visita nuestro website, intentaremos poner un video de las palabras de presentación de los oradores durante el evento y compartiremos videos, fotos y audio del evento un poco más tarde.

¿Tienes algunas preguntas sobre viajar a Chicago desde otro lado?  Contactános en  teachersforjustice@hotmail.com o en facebook.

Con paz,

TSJ
Maestros Para La Justicia Social
Chicago, IL Read the Full Story

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Inquiry to Action Groups-- Report Back on our Stories and Successes

April 12, 2010 0 comments

Chicago's Teachers for Social Justice just completed our first-ever round of Inquiry to Action Groups (ItAGs). Shared with us by our sister organization NYCORE--New York Collective of Radical Educators--ItAGs are an opportunity for educators and their allies to build community, access new resources, and link social justice with classroom practices.

The goal of an ItAG is to pursue a common inquiry on a social justice topic and create an action around this area of study.

Here's what teachers had to say about the iTAGs:

" [The ItAG] kept me aware of my own motivation to work towards social justice and it gave me support from others trying to do the same."
"We decided to use our ItAG space to help each other stay on top of our projects. It made us go above and beyond our meeting space to affect change in the world." 
"I loved the opportunity to share ideas and hear perspectives of teachers at all different age groups and types of schools." 
"It was very rich, relevant and applicable; it as really made me rethink what I do in my classroom."

With this in mind, Jonah Bondurant and Sarah Atlas got together to launch this process. We did outreach among educators across the city, surveyed interested people for the most relevant topics to their studies and practice, and found amazing facilitators to help us get this off the ground. This past January, educators, parents, students, activists, teaching artists, and community members formed five ItAGs--Early Childhood Education, Education for Liberation, Arts and Social Justice, Hip-Hop and Social Justice, New Teachers and Social Justice. This range of themes brought together a community of learners from all over Chicago.

We began with a kickoff event to cultivate the common energy we all had for studying together, learning from one another, sharing resources, and taking action. We launched into this with the idea that you cannot have study without action nor action without study.
With this idea in mind, the ItAGs met for 6 weeks, for approximately two hours each meeting. The ItAGs became spaces for democratic education to take place while allowing for each group to have its own structures, activities, readings and processes. And each group had its own successes and challenges.

As the individual ItAG meetings came to a close, we came back together for our finale and celebration. It was evident that though the ItAGs were around different topics and were meeting all across the city, each group shared a passion for critical analysis, energy for learning and sharing, necessary hope, and shared commitment to bring social justice even deeper into our practice as educators.

As we reflect on this process and harness this energy, TSJ will definitely continue hosting Inquiry to Action Groups. At the request and commitment of many of the ItAG participants, we will launch our next round of ItAGs in the summer of 2010.

Interested in participating? Interested in facilitating? Want to know more? Let us know, this is definitely a learning community we want to grow! Email Jonah Bondurant holajonah(at)gmail.com and Sarah Atlas seatlas(at)gmail.com
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Illinois Teachers, Unite for Your Undocumented Students!

March 8, 2010 1 comments

Posted by TSJ member Belen Donahue:


As most of you know, I'm a teacher and I'm deeply concerned with the future of my undocumented/immigrant students.  The current, broken immigration system is denying them a right to higher education and putting their future in jeopardy. 

I'm looking to get a team of teachers together that support immigration reform so our students have the opportunity to higher education and a successful future.  The intent is to maximize the pressure on Congress by having a teacher-led action in Chicago before the big march in Washington DC on March 21st. We need to provide leadership and advocate for our undocumented and immigrant students, NOW! 

Time is of the essence and I urge you to join me!
Contact:
Belen Donahue at teachers4CIR(at)gmail.com
Or on the Facebook event page: http://tinyurl.com/teachersforcir Read the Full Story

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Summary of Research Studies on Renaissance 2010

February 24, 2010 0 comments

Research findings: A growing body of research indicates Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 plan to close, phase out, consolidate, or turn around schools and turn them over to private charter school operators or selective enrollment schools does not benefit low-income students of color.

  • Students have been transferred from one low-scoring school to another; overall the moves did not significantly affect student achievement.
  • Renassaince 2010 leads to exclusion of vulnerable students, increased school violence, disruption of teaching and learning, disruption and demoralization of receiving schools, destabilization of students and communities, and displacement of teachers.
  • CPS charter high schools are not performing significantly better than CPS neighborhood high schools, while enrolling less special-need, ELL, and low-income students.
  • Students and communities disproportionately affected are low-income African American and Latino.
  • School closings are concentrated in gentrified and gentrifying areas.
  • Case studies of schools proposed to close for under-enrollment indicate that CPS uses flawed enrollment data.
  • There has been little genuine participation of parents, teachers, students, or communities in decisions affecting them.
  • R2010 schools’ governing bodies are not open to public scrutiny.
  • Charter schools nationally tend to be more racially segregated than regular public schools.
Recommendation: Freeze Renaissance 2010 and implement a school/community-centered school transformation process.
 
Reports:

1. Students as Collateral Damage? Preliminary Study of Renaissance 2010 School Closings in the Midsouth.
P. Lipman, A. Person, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, February 2007. http://www.uic.edu/educ/ceje/papers.html As a result of school closings and student transfers, teachers, administrators, and parents in Midsouth receiving schools reported: a) lack of necessary resources, staff, and professional support; b) disruptive and demoralizing climate; c) negative effects on teaching and learning; d) problems with safety and discipline; e) schools were “set up for failure” due to a history of declining resources and lack of support from CPS. 
 
2. Public Accountability and Renaissance 2010. Parents United for Responsible Education, 2008. http://pureparents.org/data/files/FOIAreport11-16-08.pdf Two-thirds of R2010 schools failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests for basic information about their governing bodies in 2008. Information from the schools that did respond showed that only 5% of their governing body members were parents. 
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In Support of Phillips High School

Check out this powerful statement by John Schmitz, a Phillips High School Teacher and longtime member of Teachers for Social Justice. Phillips is on the list to become a turnaround school and give over to the AUSL.
 
Why resist it? Simple – the accusations against us are false and our cause is just.
We at Phillips high school do not have a “dysfunctional” school as some of the powers that be have suggested. Quite the contrary – despite facing tremendous challenges - the Phillips faculty provides our students with an emotionally supportive and academically demanding environment. The students themselves have said so in polling data from CPS’s 2009-2010 High School Directory. 
 
86% of Phillips students reported having “supportive teachers and staff at school.” This places Phillips in the top 10% of all CPS high schools (9th out of 98 high schools). It also places Phillips ahead of all 7 of the elite, selective college prep high schools in this category.* 83% of Phillips students report having “academic rigor at the school,” placing Phillips 27th of 98 schools or in the upper third of all CPS high schools in this category. 
 
This is merely statistical evidence of what is self evident to those of us who work at Phillips or anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the building that the faculty and staff at Phillips care about the students as learners and individual people. The genuine concern the adults at Phillips have for its children has provided the impetus for quality instruction and the creation of numerous programs and activities that benefit the students, especially their social and emotional needs.

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Fighting the Meeks Anti-LSC Bill & Supporting Ren2010 Moratorium

February 16, 2010 0 comments

The Sun-Times recently released an article about the Anti-Local School Councils Meeks Bill, which would strip a vital source of remaining democracy in our school system.

Here follows a message from PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) regarding the Meeks Anti-Local School Councils Bill and Renaissance 2010 Moratorium Bill. 

Two things you can do right away:
  • Fight the Meeks anti-LSC bill -- Strategy meeting tomorrow, Wednesday Feb. 17, 6 pm, at Mollison Elementary School, 4415 S. King Drive (and get LSC training credit for 7-8 or -9) - sponsored by the MidSouth Education Committee.
  • Call on City Council Education Committee members to sign on to the R2010 moratorium resolution and call for a hearing on the resolution BEFORE the Feb. 24th Board of Education meeting. 
Here is the list of Education Committee members' contact info.
Here is the language of the moratorium resolution on R2010.
Here is a sample letter to the members which includes evidence of R2010's failure. 
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