Early on Christmas Morning....

Merry Christmas, all!

7 Random things....damn you, PREA Prez!

Heh.

Okay, 7 random things?

1. I've met H.W. Bush (as VP) Nixon and Ford, but still largely vote democrat.
2. I remember running into Victor Borge as a kid and getting his autograph (he was on sesame street, you know).
3. My father told me he'd pay me money to cut off my long hair in high school-- twenty whole dollars, and I took it (old man voice: That was a lot of money back in those days...)
4. In my classroom I took my clock down and put up a sign that says "Time will pass and so will you" the kids HATE it!
5. It is getting harder to do each progressive random thing!
6. I had lunch down the street from Winnie Mandela's house in South Africa-- a mansion, with 10 foot high walls around it!
7. I wanted to go up and introduce myself to Mike Antonucci at the NEA RA this summer, but I was afraid he'd de-unionize me. :)

And now the tags....

Eucator on the edge

JD

That's it, I'm too lazy to do more. This is eduwonkette's fault. Blame her.

Breaking News Regarding 2008 Presidential Election!

Someone's going to win.

Someone's going to lose.

Chances are, the winner will probably be from a major party.

Any questions?

Been a long time since....

...I posted. Here's some good stuff.

They wanna ban school strikes in Ohio, just like they want to do it in PA. The Cleveland Plain Dealer says it's a bad idea.

From the other side of the table: calling a professor an insufferable bastard means you're going to get rid of them, right?

$100,000 to waive district and union rules at your school? Dunno about this one. When the local paper says your union whines, you know what you're up against.

Death to virtual charter academies. Well done, WEAC!

Israel's secondary school teachers are back after 2 months on the picket line with a 13.5% raise.

A San Diego Charter School that was rated one of the 10 best in the country has widespread grade tampering (shock) and only 25% or so of its AP students passed the AP Exams (horror). SDUSD has a 46% AP passage rate.

Wow.

Fred Thompson: "NEA sucks."

Minor epidemic of sickout flu.

Quebec: land of francophilia, home of unionist racists. It's about solidarity, folks. Get a clue. I'm a pretty secular kind of guy, but this is just stupid.

Somewhat old, but interesting reading: how charter schools can prevent unionization.

Sunday, Sunday....back to work tomorrow. How many days 'til Christmas?

Jon Berry over at Labor Pains is being....well...a pain when he questions the appropriateness of teachers working to the rule. Would you rather have a strike, Jon? I do have to agree with him on one thing-- if the yearbook advisors are recieving a supplemental contract, they should be putting in their contract approved work after school.

Unions as the anti-theft device for working folks? This union brother thinks so....

This union is going to work to the rule. The Superintendent is quoted as saying it won't cause major problems for the school district. A strike will cause major problems for the district.

Employing a "rare strategy in contract negotiations", this teachers' union will also be working to the rule. Someone needs to learn about job actions.

$800,000 for back pay goes to these 6th grade teachers who were forced to take an extra academic period. Way to go!

Informational picketing in Fremont, California.

The Federal Education Association (the one that works in the DOD schools) filed a grievance over lunch times for teachers.

The AFT President is upbeat, according to this article, that NCLB will be changed so that schools judged as passing or failing will be stricken from the future legislation. Hope so.

On the topic of AFT, they're making great inroads organizing in higher ed in the state of Michigan-- lecturers at MU are next on their list.

Why do most teachers enter education? Why, to work with young people (73%) says this article that cites an NEA study.

Continuing the NEA theme, this blogger seems to take issue with the fact that NEA promotes acceptance of people who aren't like you. For shame!

'Tis the season-- best gifts for teachers? Read about it here. I do occasionally get gifts from students, which are wonderful. What about you?

Elgin rejected their contract and they've authorized a strike.

There is a blockage! Interesting bit from a French university.

16 year old student marries 40 year old teacher? Ugh. Thank God I wasn't that idiot's union rep.

Interesting.

A lot of teachers have nothing to do tomorrow...

How do I know this? I just looked at my stats and they exploded for a Sunday. Those teachers are all coming here, 'cause TBS ran the "Ron Clark Fiction, er Story" and now they're looking for Ron Clark's Presidential Rap. Silly teachers, you've got to fork out ungodly amounts of money to buy the CD that it's on! Rote rap, gotta love it. Sorry, I ain't got it here.