Union News: Happy Holidays from the MTA
Union News: Happy Holidays from the MTA
Greetings, MTA members,
NOTE: MTA Union News will take a break next week. Thanks to the incredible MTA Communications staff for helping bring this email to all our members every week – and for all they do year-round to make sure your voices are heard!
We want to wish you a wonderful holiday season and especially a Happy New Year – a 2024 when we will hear the words of peace and justice drown out the roar of war and hatred.
Conference Opportunities for MTA Members
The MTA and NEA are accepting applications for members to participate in next year’s conferences, scheduled from January through July 2024. This is a great opportunity for members to immerse themselves in union education and job-specific education and engage with members across the country. You will have the opportunity to learn from renowned leaders, share stories with other members and learn from one other. Both MTA and NEA provide funding for these conferences. Space is very limited. If you are interested in applying to one or more of these opportunities, please fill out this survey form.
MTA Education Support Professionals Conference
When: April 5 - 6, 2024
Where: Sea Crest Beach Hotel, 350 Quaker Road, North Falmouth
Go here to get links to submit a workshop proposal, nominate a first-time participant to receive a scholarship, or submit a candidate for ESP of the Year. Conference registration will open in February.
NEA Webinar
In case you missed it, NEA hosted a webinar called “How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism.” Civil rights leader Eric Ward walked participants through the threat posed by the white nationalist movement in the U.S. today and why we must come to terms with the antisemitic ideology at its core. Here are two important links: View Webinar and Resources to Counter Antisemitism.
Winter Union Skills Conference
Please join us for MTA’s Winter Union Skills Conference on Feb. 10 in Framingham. The conference will include a wide variety of 90-minute workshops related to the core activities of local unions. Offerings center on the MTA’s Bargaining Certificate Program, grievance handling, organizing for powerful contracts, communications, leadership development, membership sign-ups and more! There will also be a variety of Environmental Health and Safety workshops and expanded treasurer and membership training. Space is limited. A registration link is forthcoming.
January All Presidents’ Meeting
Date: Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024
Where: Verve Hotel, Natick
Ask your local president if you can join them for this meeting. Presidents can attend with a team of core activists from their local. Registration link is forthcoming. For more information, email mtagovernance@massteacher.org.
Paid Opportunities with GBH Education GBH Education is looking for educators to support the development of high-quality resources for the classroom to go with its original productions like the U.S. History Collection and collaborations with FRONTLINE, American Experience and NOVA. Complete the survey to join their priority contact list and receive early access to these opportunities.
Professional Development through Fitchburg State
Earn PDPs or graduate credits at a reasonable cost in online and hybrid courses and workshops offered by Fitchburg State University. Upcoming programs include Differentiated Instruction for Students with Disabilities in the Vocational Classroom, Using Technology to Support SEI in the Classroom, Using Technology to Support Students with Disabilities, Introduction to the LGBTQIA+ Student Experience, and more. Learn more and register.
Urge the Education Committee to Listen to Public School Educators on Literacy
Reading and literacy are essential to student success. Public school educators, who are experts in their profession and best understand the unique needs of their students, need to have resources and flexibility to implement proactive and holistic strategies that address complex gaps in reading, language and literacy skills. However, legislation (H.579/S.263) before the Joint Committee on Education would authorize a state mandate on literacy instruction and curriculum in Massachusetts public schools that would limit educators' ability to implement strategies that respond to students’ unique needs.
A working group of MTA members have collaborated to identify literacy policy and practice recommendations that would best support students. Educators need more time, funding and flexibility to analyze student needs and respond appropriately – not more top-down curriculum mandates or testing requirements.
Please email the Joint Committee on Education and urge it to listen to public school educators. Please also consider sharing the MTA literacy policy and practice recommendations with your senator and representative. Contact information can be found by clicking here.
Delegate Nominations and CRC seats - Deadlines Approaching
Positions are open for Delegates to the NEA RA, Regional and Retired Ethnic Minority Delegates to the 2024 MTA Annual Meeting and Statewide Retired District Delegates to the MTA Annual Meeting. ACT SOON – the deadline for nominations for these seats is Jan. 12, 2024. Please click here to learn more. There are also openings for the Candidate Recommendation Committee, which determines which candidates the MTA endorses for legislative seats. The deadline for CRC seats is December 29.
Political Education
Since the start of MTA Union News back in July of 2022 we have been sharing articles and books, studies and policy papers that help us better understand the challenges we face and the possibilities we have as a powerful union.
But part of our political education involves learning how to more fully listen and feel, and to have the courage, as David Whyte writes, to “live close to the point of tears” so that we appreciate what we have, and can create, and can lose.
This is an excerpt from Whyte’s “Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.”
“The French philosopher Camus used to tell himself quietly to live to the point of tears, not as a call for maudlin sentimentality, but as an invitation to the deep privilege of belonging and the way belonging affects us, shapes us and breaks our heart at a fundamental level. It is a fundamental dynamic of human incarnation to be moved by what we feel, as if surprised by the actuality and privilege of love and affection and its possible loss. Courage is what love looks like when tested by the simple everyday necessities of being alive.
“We become courageous whenever we live closely to the point of tears with any new possibility made known inside us, whenever we demonstrate a faith in the interior annunciations and align ourselves with the new and surprising and heartfelt necessities of even the average existence. To allow ourselves to feel deeply and thoroughly what has already come into being is to change our future, simply by living up to the consequence of knowing what we hold in our affections.”
In solidarity,
Max and Deb