Teaching & Learning Today: November 2024
November 20, 2024
November 20, 2024
Welcome to Teaching and Learning TODAY. Teaching and Learning has many opportunities for growth to offer, but we also invite you to be a part of the change that needs to happen. Monitor this newsletter regularly and respond to those areas that interest you. We facilitate the development of professional learning by members, for members. Allow us to assist you to learn, grow professionally, and impact others!
Meanwhile, enjoy November and focus on the blessings in your lives!
We need to join forces to advocate in our state legislature for policies that are important to us. Two years in a row, our bill to provide financial support for candidates and to increase the National Board Incentive award has failed. We need to begin our advocacy with our elected officials well before the General Assembly convenes on January 8, 2025.
Chad Stewart, VEA’s Government Relations Policy Analyst, will present updates at this session.
When? Thursday, Nov 14, 2024, 07:00 PM
Where? Click Here for Zoom Link
To learn more about National Board Certification, visit our website or go to www.nbpts.org.
SES Virginia Survey – The Commission on Youth (vcoy.virginia.gov), a bipartisan legislative commission of the Virginia General Assembly, is conducting a study on how to improve Virginia’s special education dispute resolution system. The Commission has hired Special Education Solutions, LLC (SES) (SpEdSolutions.com), a leading special education compliance, training, and dispute resolution expert, to assist with this study and survey. The Commission is seeking the perspective of parents, professionals, attorneys, advocates, teachers, and others as it looks toward developing recommendations for improving the dispute resolution system.
The survey is estimated to take 10-25 minutes to complete, depending on the number of questions you choose to answer. When you have completed the survey, click on the submit button at the end of the survey. The survey will close on Friday, November 22, 2024 by 3:00 p.m. EST.
Responses to the survey are confidential.
The work of the Department of Teaching and Learning extends out of headquarters and works directly with members. This month, we will be featuring our Content Developers:
Name: Ivis Castillo
Local: Arlington Education Association
Role(s) that you have completed with VEA: Building Rep, ESP Representative Board of Directors for Arlington, member of the ESPLI for NEA , ESP/VEA chair committee, Content Developer
# of years in education: 22
# of years in VEA: 22
How has being a union member helped you? As a school bus driver, I always felt the need to fight for equity, respect, and inclusion between the rest of the educators. I tried, to no avail, advocating for my coworkers by myself. Until I found my voice through the union. Working with the union changed my life forever. On November 6, 2023, I had the opportunity to present the ESP Bill of Rights with NEA Vice President Princess Moss and Senator Ed Marquee from Massachusetts at the US Capitol. I opened the first Transportation Caucus at the Orlando NEA RA. In my local, we recently won the most comprehensive collective bargaining contract in the State of Virginia after 47 years, which includes limits on staff meetings, more flexible leave time, and representation on the Health Insurance Selection Advisory Committee. The union is there to help us, but we need to get involved and use our voices to get the help that we are looking for. We are the Union, we are the voice, and we are the power.
If you could give 1 piece of advice to someone in education, what would it be? If I can give one piece of advice to someone in education who wants to get better working conditions, who wants to serve the students better or wants to have the ability to be a better educator, I will say find a way to be an active member of your union. With more members, we have more leverage and more power. Can you imagine if we all got actively involved… we would become unstoppable!
The average pay of Virginia public school teachers in 2023-24 was $65,830. That is $4,260 below the national average of $70,090.
Learn More
