Utah GOP to vote to OK funds, slight feds

Read Lisa Riley Roche's entire article about the special session at www.deseretnews.com

I will be attending the interim education committee meetings and the special session also.

Rick

Weber State Hosts Future Educators Conference

Future Educators from Weber, Ogden, Davis and Provo school districts are meeting today at WSU for their Fall FEA Conference. There will be break-out sessions and competitions.

Rick

Negotiations Update

WEA's negotiation team is meeting on Wednesday to discuss some items and learn more about the Special legislative session to be held that day. I will be attending the leg session to hear the discussion and I also want to hear the issues before the Education Interim Committee. Hopefully both OEA's and WEA's negotiation teams will be able to get back to the table to discuss the federal money.

Rick

Governor Herbert calls for a special legislative session

Governor Gary Herbert has called for a special legislative session for next week to approve $101 million in federal aid to our schools. Legislators will meet Wednesday, Nov. 17 at noon (during their interim committee meetings) to authorize districts to receive the "jobs bill" money. NEA was instrumental in getting that bill passed. The money will be used for employee compensation. Both OEA and WEA have been waiting to negotiate how that money will flow to our teachers. Half of the money will be used to cover the deficit in the budget and we should see about $1 million in Ogden and over $2.5 million in Weber.

Sen. Howard Stephenson wants to make it easier for schools to fire bad teachers. He plans to propose a bill this coming legislative session that would remove certain protections when teachers perform poorly.

Read both of these articles in todays SL Tribune at www.sltrib.com

Rick

Ed 1010 Class at Weber State University

I had the opportunity to present to Dr. Jack Rasmussen's (Dean of College of Education) Ed 1010 class today. I have presented to three other classes this semester and several others the past couple of years. I give them my presentation on Ethics, Professionalism and School law that coincides with their unit on School Law. I also talk to them about the value of joining the association and give them student membership materials. I also had Marilyn Lofgreen hand out over 100 membership forms to her TAPT group last week. (Teaching Assistant Path to Teaching). The TAPT group receives tuition help in their quest to become teachers. They usually are working currently as paraprofessionals in schools. I also have presented to a group of students in Stephanie Heath's transition class from her Future Educator Project Launch (summer program for incoming freshmen). I will be attending an NEA Student Organizer workshop for UEA at the end of this month. The student program and FEA programs are receiving support from UEA and the Children at Risk Foundation. Many of our FEA advisors will be attending the FEA International Conference in February.

Rick

Public Schools to be graded?

The Deseret News reports (Richard Platt) that "Utah's public schools may start getting "graded" in the future as part of a concentrated, cost-effective way to improve the quality of education in the state."

Sen. Howard Stephenson said,"The entire community gets involved if a school is getting a D or and F, because of student results...it mobilizes the entire community to engage, and make a difference."

Read the entire article at www.deseretnews.com

Rick

Use of Technology

Here are some suggestions to help you avoid technology-use pitfalls;

• Read your district's acceptable use policy
• Assume you have no privacy
• Ask for proper training
• Do no use your school computer to communicate or view anything that you do no want your administrator to read
• Think before you send
• Avoid sending or forwarding messages to a huge list of people at school
• Do not give your password to others
• Be aware that students can misuse technology at school
• Be cautious about letting other use your school computer
• Keep communciations professional
• Keep personal information private
• Remove inappropriate materials from your websites or blogs

Rick