Around the end of June, Newark teacher Silvia Pereira was asked if she’d be interested in teaching a different type of summer program: one for her district’s educators on how to use various online platforms.
Remembering how overwhelming it was for her to get the hang of certain online teaching tools, Pereira liked the idea and embraced the opportunity to help her colleagues.…
Read more
Lunches on disposable trays, three-sided desk partitions and staggered recess times are all part of the Newark public school district’s reopening plans, and letters from principals with additional reopening details are due to be sent to families Aug. 7, reports NJ Advance Media’s Kelly Heyboer.
Read more
AFT Convention delegates on July 29 passed a resolution in support of the Green New Deal, which calls for action against climate change.
Local 6323’s David Hughes, an AFTNJ higher education vice president, was involved with drafting the resolution.
“Our government has got to respect science and protect us,” said Hughes, an anthropology professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.…
Read more
During his July 31 COVID-19 briefing, N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy was asked what he would say to a fellow parent sending a child back to school this fall.
“What I would say as a parent or to a parent — and I am a parent — is a couple of things I’ve already said … don’t expect a normal school year.…
Read more
AFTNJ President Donna M. Chiera says there have been no discussions among her members about striking over unsafe conditions at school buildings, but she would not consider anyone’s decision to strike over safety concerns as unjustified.
“In those cases, should a teacher strike, if they believe their life and the lives of their students, aren’t being protected?…
Read more
Joe Biden joined AFT President Randi Weingarten and three AFT members July 30 for a discussion that covered the pandemic, the recession and racism, with Biden explaining how he would handle those issues if he were elected president of the United States.
One of his objectives would be to restore the National Security Council’s global health security office.…
Read more
Before he achieved fame on Broadway with his Tony Award-winning musicals “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda was a teacher, and he spoke about his experience as an educator in a talk with AFT President Randi Weingarten that was part of AFT Convention 2020’s programming for July 30.
Around the time he graduated college with a degree in theater, Miranda called his eighth-grade English teacher at Hunter College High School in Manhattan about substitute teaching opportunities.…
Read more
Assembly Democrats Mila Jasey, Pamela Lampitt and Joann Downey are sponsoring a bill that would require New Jersey school districts to offer only remote learning to start the 2020-21 school year, reports NJ Advance Media’s Kelly Heyboer.
“As a former Board of Education member and a public health nurse, I understand that New Jersey has made strong progress in combating COVID-19, but reopening schools for in-person instruction would feel like a step backward at this time,” Jasey said in Heyboer’s story.…
Read more
Education was at the forefront of the AFT Convention 2020’s Black Lives Matter Panel on July 29.
Joining American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who served as moderator, were the Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, New York Democratic congressional nominee Jamaal Bowman, Minneapolis NAACP President Leslie Redmond and longtime New York teacher Sari Beth Rosenberg.…
Read more
In her wide-ranging keynote address July 28 at the virtual AFT Convention 2020, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called attention to “Reopening School Buildings Safely,” the AFT’s updated school-reopening plan, which contains three essential conditions.
Those conditions are: low infection rates and adequate testing, public health safeguards to help prevent the spread of the virus in schools, and the funding and resources to make it happen.…
Read more
Amy Higer and Bryan Sacks, Local 6324’s president and treasurer, respectively, have several issues with Rutgers University’s plan to present its fall courses online.
In a guest editorial published July 27 by The Star-Ledger, Higer and Sacks write that many administrators who are in decision-making roles for the upcoming semester “have never themselves taught a college class, let alone one online.” In addition, they fear that the “top-down, insular and opaque” decision-making process will have “terrible consequences for students.”
Read more
It’s moderate to high for librarians and elementary school teachers, but it’s lower for crossing guards and principals.
In a story by NJ Advance Media writer Allison Pries, Montclair State University professor and epidemiologist Stephanie A.N. Silvera looks at school staffs by category and their risks for contracting the coronavirus when classrooms reopen.
Click here to read Pries’ story.…
Read more
R-Health New Brunswick physician Dr. Jessy Thomas will host a Facebook Live session this week about the causes of stress, how stress can be harmful and her go-to stress relief tactics.
The “5 Ways to De-Stress” session, which begins at noon July 30, is part of the R-Health Lunchtime Lives series. To watch, visit https://www.facebook.com/rhealthmd/live/ at the scheduled time and day.…
Read more
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy spoke at length about school guidance for the upcoming academic year July 24 in Trenton as part of his COVID-19 update.
“Our top priority is keeping students, their families and educators safe, and to do that, flexibility, local decision-making and empowering parents and educators are all critical,” Murphy said near the outset in reference to the Department of Education’s updated all-remote learning option.…
Read more
Using explanatory coloring pages, slowly building up their tolerance at home and setting a good example are among the ways in which adults can prepare children for wearing masks in school, experts say.
Read more