Horseheads Teachers Association
Fall 2017 Newsletter
A word from HTA President Hether Gillette
Welcome back HTA members! I hope your year is off to a great start! The HTA has a busy year ahead of us. We will continue fighting for the ‘NO’ vote for the Constitutional Convention in order to protect our state pension and bargaining rights. Our contract is up at the end of this year and our negotiations team is in place to begin negotiating the next contract. We will continue our work on community service projects. Already this year, the HTA has partnered with student, Jeremy Dale to raise money for the Children’s Craniofacial Association. We also set up at table at every Open House to hand out school supplies and HTA swag to parents and students. And of course, we will host a few teacher appreciation social events.
In regards to negotiations, the HTA needs your help. There will be a survey coming out near the end of October. We need your participation. The negotiations team will start building visits in November, we need you there to hear your concerns and also for you to hear the concerns of your fellow members. To prepare for the survey and building visits, I am asking you to read through the contract. What language needs to be changed or enhanced? Talk to people in other districts. What are some perks or interesting language or protections that they have and we do not? What do we have that they do not, that we need to protect? We need your voice. Remember our contract is not just salary and health care.
The HTA also needs your help in fighting for the ‘NO’ vote for the Constitutional Convention. The Executive Council approved the use of Vote Cope funds to purchase lawn signs, car magnets and buttons. We will be looking for members to display these items. Please let your building rep know if you are interested in helping. The HTA will also be supporting phone banks at the Elmira NYSUT office. A script is provided for you and the calls are only to other NYSUT members. Please consider donating an hour of your time when the phone bank schedule is sent out.
This is a critical time for unions. We are facing the threat of the Constitutional Convention. Nationally, there are cases making their way through the courts designed to weaken and take rights away from unions. When reading through our contract, keep in mind all that could be lost with the collapse of the union or the Constitutional Convention. We could lose class size limits, sick time and personal days, prep time, pensions and be forced into a statewide health insurance plan. Now is the time to rally together and raise our voices to protect what we have, what has been promised. Please get involved, get informed and participate in HTA and NYSUT initiatives and activities.
~ Hether Gillette
HTA President
Excerpt: "By opening the state Constitution to a sweeping overhaul, the progress our schools have made could be permanently derailed. In fact, should voters in November approve a Constitutional Convention- which would put at risk everything from retirement security to environmental regulations that ensure clean water and air -the very protections that guarantee children access to a free, quality public education and a shot at a successful life could be stripped away altogether". Andy Pallotta, NYSUT President
The full statement can be read below.
--------Giving Fidget Spinners a Whirl--------
Diane Stiles, a sixth grade math and science teacher at Jericho Middle School in New York, is in the ““If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” camp. She decided to tap into the fidget spinner enthusiasm for lesson planning.
“After the botte flipping craze wore off, the kids were very excited about fidget spinners,” says Stiles. “I didn’t really see it as a problem, and my co-teacher and I decided to take something they were enthusiastic about and use that to foster learning with a STEM project.”
The students formed groups and built their own fidget spinners then held a competition to see whose spinner spun the longest.
“The creativity was amazing,” Stiles said. “They had so much fun they didn’t realize how much they were learning.”
Each team had a ball bearing to start with, and from there the design ideas took off. They used everything from popsicle sticks and pennies to marbles, pieces of cardboard and bottle caps. After each team finished building their spinner, the class measured them to determine size and mass.
“Then we did the spinning trials to find out which one spun the longest and what the variables were – including design and mass – that made it spin,” Stiles said. “The students also had to explain how would they modify their design for a longer spin. We determined the average length of spinning, with and without human error, which brought up statistical outliers as well as concepts of Newton’s law, like inertia and velocity.”
Excerpt from NEA Express, 8/23/17
To read the full article (including lesson ideas for both math and ELA), click here
-----Political Action, Vote Cope Report-----
----NYSUT Member Benefit Online Financial Planning Center----
The Member Benefits Financial Planning Center is now live!
Visit this site to complete a 10 minute Financial Checkup and receive a Financial Fitness score; the basics of financial planning, investing and retirement and investment basic, strategy and analysis. This is free to all NYSUT members!
-- State reduces number of days for 3-8 assessments--
In June, the Board of Regents announced its decision to reduce the number of days of student testing on the grades 3-8 State assessments in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics from three to two. This change takes effect beginning with the tests that will be administered in Spring 2018 and applies to grades 3-8.
“The Regents have taken a bold step forward today,” said Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa. “This decision not only reduces the amount of time children will spend taking tests, but also returns valuable instructional time to our teachers. We will make certain the tests continue to provide a valid and reliable measurement of student achievement.”
In addition to reducing the number of test sessions, the Board’s decision has the following benefits:
- Reduces scoring time for teachers;
- May help enable more schools to transition sooner to computer-based testing; and
- More quickly implements the recommendation of the Governor’s Common Core Task Force to reduce the number of days of student testing.
IN ADDITION, 75% of the questions were released!
The State Education Department released 75 percent of questions that counted toward student scores from the 2017 Grades 3-8 English language arts and mathematics tests. This is the second year in a row that more questions have been released than in previous years. Several instructional reports based on the 2017 assessments are available to districts and schools. Educators and parents will once again be able to review their students' answers to constructed-response questions this year, giving them an even clearer picture of how well students are doing. For more information about the released questions, click here
NYSED News & Notes, June 2017
To Attend Board of Education Meetings!!!!!
Teacher representation is incredibly valuable!
Please let the BOE know we are interested in what they are discussing and that we're watching what's happening in our district!
- October 19th- High School Multi-Media Center 6 pm
- November 16th - Ridge Road School 6 pm
- December 21st- Middle School LGI 6 pm
Upcoming Staff "Dialogue with Dr. Douglas"
- Thursday, October 5 - Ridge Road Library, 2:45 - 3:15pm
- Tuesday, October 24 - High School Library, 3:15 - 3:45pm
- Tuesday, October 31 - Center Street Library, 2:45 - 3:15pm
- Thursday, November 2 - Gardner Road Library, 2:45 - 3:15pm
- Monday, November 13 - Middle School Library, 3:15 - 4:00pm
-------------HTA on Social Media---------------
HTA United
If you haven't done so already, please create an account on our website at http://www.htaunited.org/
Become part of HTA United's communication network!