focus

On educators

focus on educators is an award winning publication of the Pittsburg Education Association/CTA/NEA www.peateachers.org

California Teachers Association

Statement of Mission
The California Teachers Association exists to protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of
teaching and learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education; to ensure that the human dignity and civil
rights of all children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society.

NOVEMBER 2016

Volume XXV, Number 3

Dear PEA Members,

The time change just happened this
past weekend (November 5-6). I
wonder how you have adapted to
this change. For me, I woke up way
too early. I attempted to go back to
sleep for about an hour before I
needed to get ready for something.
Then, I overslept pass my alarms
setting. It felt like a domino effect.
The domino effect lends itself to
what we do as educators. There are
building blocks of understanding

that we are purposed with forming

for our students minds. There are
many strategies in which to do this
work.
Collaborating with our
colleagues can be very beneficial to
our practice. The school climate is
a factor that may prove to be helpful
or weaken what you can
accomplish.
Professional
development can be valuable if it
speaks to what you need as an
educator and supports your growth
individually. In all of this, we
should be trusted as professionals to
lead this work.
We assess our students in many
ways to understand what they need.
The focus of our work drives what
we do each day. The challenges
may be high, but something keeps
you going.
What does it take for you to manage
all you experience in your work
day? Is it hope for the future of our
young people?
Are there
professional goals you are pursuing
that move you forward through your
day? Do you have family and
friends that support you?
It does matter how we see our
world. It matters who we have in
our lives. You matter!

There are many cause and effect

relationships in our lives. There
could be negatives or positives in
the outcomes. Keep in mind that
this profession needs leaders like
you to move it forward in a positive
direction.
Speaking of a positive direction, the
American Education Week is
November 14-18.
The week
celebrates public education and all
the individuals that contribute to
ensuring the best quality education.
You can find more information at
http://www.nea.org/grants/19823.htm.
By the time you read this message
the election will have come to a
conclusion.
We all had an
opportunity to direct what happens
by voting. Hopefully this brings the
passing of prop 55 to continue the
necessary funding for public
education.
And so we take
November in and shape it to what
we need to persevere to the end of
the school year. Have a relaxing
Thanksgiving break!
Sincerely,
Tammy Carr
PEA President

PEA Leadership 2016-2017

Rep. Council Meeting Calendar (Tuesdays)

President

November 15

Tammy Carr

December 20

PEA Office

January 17

Elementary Vice President

February 21

Michell Redfoot

March 21

Willow Cove Elementary

Secondary Vice President

April 25

Irwin Manangkil

May 16

Black Diamond

School Board Meeting Calendar

Secretary

November 16

Nicole Glassel

December 14

Los Medanos

January TBD

Treasurer

February TBD

Bruce Giron
Black Diamond

March TBD

________________________________________________

April TBD

Committee Chairs:

May TBD

Grievance Committee

June - TBD

John Kleinjans Pittsburg High

***********************************

Chris Coan Willow Cove Elementary

Are You Getting Your PEA Information?

Negotiations Team

Having our Site Reps collect your input, attend the monthly Rep

Mark Maselli - Chair

meeting

Political Action Committee Chairs

and

then

report

back

to

you

is

vital

in

the

communication chain of our Association.

Chris Coan
Jim Vaughan

Roll call at last October 18th Rep Council Meeting:

Elections Chair
Ruth Foster

Adult Ed. present

MLK Jr. present

Black Diamond present

North Campus present

Yvonne Burton

Foothill present

Parkside present

O-Team Chair

Heights present

PHS - present

Highlands absent

Rancho Medanos absent

Hillview - present

Stoneman absent

Arthur Pruyn (Alt.) - PEA

Los Medanos present

Willow Cove present

Membership Chairs

Marina Vista present

Human Rights & Womens Issues Chairs

Laura Silva
CTA State Council Representatives
Mark Maselli PEA

Lisa Gunderson

***********************************

Technical Editor
Susan Harrison PEA Office Administrator

Focus on Educators
is a publication of the

306,887 Number of credentialed

teachers in California in 2015-2016

Average years teaching 13
Average years in a given district 10.8
13,3398 Number of first-year teachers
16,563 Number of second-year teachers

Pittsburg Education Association CTA/NEA

159 East 4th Street
Pittsburg, CA 94565
Phone: (925) 432-0199
email: info@peateachers.org
website: www.peateachers.org

Announcing

2017 CTA Scholarships

CTA is accepting applications for the following categories:

Dependent Children
Del A. Weber for Dependent Children Attending
Continuation High School/Alternative Education
Members
L. Gordon Bittle Memorial Scholarship for Student
CTA

All applications must be submitted online by 11:59 p.m. on

February 3, 2017. For more information on the individual
categories, please go to: www.cta.org./scholarships
************************************************

Pittsburg Teachers CARE!

PEA Community Outreach Presents

Our 6th Annual Winter Drive

Cesar E. Chavez Memorial
Education Awards Program

November 16 to December 19

CTA is holding the 15th annual art and

essay competition in honor of Cesar E.
Chavez. Winners will receive
recognition and up to $550.00.
Individual Projects can be either
Written Essays or Visual Arts. All applications and projects
must be postmarked by December 2, 2016. For more
information and applications, please go to:
www.cta.org/scholarships

Now collecting all winter items for homeless youth:

Socks, hats, gloves, and scarves

(All items will be donated to Shelter Inc., a Contra
Costa non-profit organization supporting homeless
youth and families)
While youre out doing holiday shopping, please pick
up something for a youngster in need. Give your

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Scholarship Fund Drive. This

donation to your PEA Rep by December 19!

memorial fund is designed to assist ethnic

minority CTA members and their dependent
children pursue degrees or credentials for
teaching-related careers in public education. Applications
must be submitted online or postmarked by February 17,
2017. More information about contributions and applications
can be found at: www.cta.org/ /Scholarships

Thank you for your generosity!

Last September, I had the privilege of attending the CTA

Region I Leadership Conference. While the conference
edified and informed me on several topics related to union
leadership, the seminar on Using LCAP to Organize Parents
and the Community inspired me to get active.

LCAP does appear to be a way for school districts and the

communities they serve to cooperate on prioritizing district
goals and then commensurately allocating budget resources
towards those goals. But as a matter of practice--as tends to
be with sweeping policy initiatives--the LCAP practice has
come nowhere near its potential as a vehicle for deliberative
democracy. Based on discussions had in the seminar, my
sense is that this is a problem in many if not most school
districts. Parent meetings are sparsely attended; there are
no structures in place to give students and families adequate
voice in budgetary decision-making.

Not knowing much about LCAP initially, the seminar led me

to revisit some thoughts Id had on the potential of PEA and
of other like associations to build capacity within our
communities for political action. More specifically, I came to
think of the LCAP process as a viable vehicle for deliberative
democracy.

In the absence of better structures to make the LCAP

process more deliberative and democratic, certain
stakeholders hold disproportionately more weight than
others. Essentially, school districts dominate the LCAP
decision-making process; the rest of the stakeholders have
to live with the resulting impositions.

Education philosopher Amy Gutmann describes deliberative

democracy as such:

So how can PEA help make LCAP more deliberative and

democratic? Firstly, we can take it upon ourselves to be
more vocal as stakeholders in the process. That much
should be pretty self-evident to us all. Secondly (and more
importantly, in my opinion), we as an association should
formulate and enact structures in the Pittsburg community to
help all community members come to voice in the LCAP
process.

LCAP and the Potential for

Deliberative Democracy
By, Irwin Manangkil,
PEA V.P. Secondary

Most fundamentally, deliberative democracy affirms the need

to justify decisions made by citizens and their
representatives. Both are expected to justify the laws they
would impose on one another. In a democracy, leaders
should therefore give reasons for their decisions, and
respond to the reasons that citizens give in return. The
reasons that deliberative democracy asks citizens and their
representatives to give should appeal to principles that
individuals who are trying to find fair terms of cooperation
cannot reasonably reject. The reasons are neither merely
procedural nor purely substantive. They are reasons that
should be accepted by free and equal persons seeking fair
terms of cooperation.

PEA can use its resources and its political arm to inform and
mobilize community members of what is at stake every year.
We can work to elevate LCAP in the public consciousness so
that it is regarded among association members and the
public with the same importance as the elections. In doing
so, we as an association can become more oriented in the
Pittsburg community, but more importantly, we can help
ensure that when it comes to education funding, every voice
is heard.

As I read it, a framework of deliberative democracy compels

all stakeholders to cooperate in the decision-making process,
doing so in good faith. It also means having meaningful
deliberation wherein every stakeholder is adequately
represented, wherein all core concerns are presented and
wrestled with precisely because decisions that are made are
ultimately imposed upon some or all of the stakeholders.
As a newcomer to the district and to the state, my
impressions of LCAP are twofold. As a matter of policy,

CTAs Top Tips for Teachers

both new and veteran to observe your instruction and

give feedback.
9. Strive for personal balance in your life. Set a time when
you will arrive to school and depart from school and stick
to that. Cherish personal time with family and friends
and dont compromise your personal life.

TIPS FOR VETERAN TEACHERS

1. Seek out fresh ideas for delivering instead of getting
stuck in old routines.
2. Embrace and encourage a collaborative environment
with your colleagues. Open your door to other teachers
and ask for feedback if they have observed you. Seek
out other teachers to visit and observe.
3. Be reflective about your teaching. Analyze your
strengths and weaknesses, and make changes if
necessary. Teachers need to always be refining their
craft.
4. Dont be afraid of technology. If you are not comfortable
with technology, seek training. Use technology in your
classroom so students can learn 21st century skills and
you can maximize their engagement.
5. Embrace change, and ask for help if you need it.
6. Dont allow yourself to lose your zest for teaching. Take
a moment every day to remind yourself of why you
chose to become a teacher.

*************************************************

How to Use Your Teacher Voice

1. Breathe from your diaphragm your belly should
expand and contract with each breath. Practicing
deeps, slow breathing increases your lung capacity,
which allows you to speak evenly and comfortably.
2. Relax your neck and shoulders, and maintain good
posture.
3. Speak in your natural voice. To find it, inhale deeply,
open your mouth wide and exhale while making a ha
sound.
4. Project your voice and control the volume of your voice
by breathing from your diaphragm. Using your vocal
cords to raise your voice will just leave your hoarse and
fatigued.
5. Stay hydrated to keep your throat and nasal passages
moist.
6. Practice your enunciation with tongue twisters.
*************************************************

Know Your Contract

TIPS FOR NEW TEACHERS

1. When it comes to lesson-planning: Plan, plan, and overplan. If you fail to plan, you can plan to fail.
2. Dont be afraid to ask your colleagues for help.
3. If something isnt working, stop, take a deep breath, and
try something different.
4. Take time to build a positive relationship with students
and their families. Show them you care.
5. Be student-centered; make your decisions based on
whats best for the students.
6. Go slow to go fast. Take some time in the beginning of
the year to establish procedures and routines in the
classroom. Drill students on these routines again and
again. It takes more time in the short run, but in the long
run you will maximize instructional minutes and prevent
problems.
7. Exhaust your resources. If theres a reading coach,
mentor teacher or person helping with technology
support, take advantage of the help they can offer.
Parent volunteers can be a resource, too. Sign up for
any free workshops or professional development your
district or local CTA chapter has to offer.
8. Go on field trips to visit other classrooms to observe
what other teachers are doing. Invite other teachers

When Can IEPs Be Scheduled?

If you are a general classroom teacher

and you need to attend an IEP, you can be required to
attend during one of your preps and NOT be
compensated for it. This applies as long as it is not
done regularly.

If you are a SPED teacher, you obviously have many

more IEPs to attend and so it would not be fair to
always use all your preps to attend during the day. If
they are frequently and regularly scheduled during your
prep, then you need to ask your principal BEFORE hand
for approval to be compensated at the going prep loss
rate for the missing prep time. Submit a timesheet.

If an IEP is scheduled after contracted hours, then it

cannot be mandatory for you to attend unless you are
going to be compensated. Ask for approval to submit a
timesheet BEFORE the meeting to compensate you for
the extra after hours work time.

Calendar
November 2016
1
PEA Executive Board PEA Office 159 East 4th St. 3:45 PM
6
Daylight Savings Time ends
8
Election Day
11
Veterans Day Holiday No school
15
PEA Rep Council PEA Office 159 East 4th St. 3:45 PM
16
PUSD School Board Meeting 2000 Railroad Ave. 6:30 PM
21-25 Thanksgiving Recess
24
Thanksgiving Day

December 2016
14
14
20
21
23-6
24
24
25
26
31

PEA Executive Board PEA Office 159 East 4th St. 3:45 PM
PUSD School Board Meeting 2000 Railroad Ave. 6:30 PM
PEA Rep Council PEA Office 159 East 4th St. 3:45 PM
Winter begins
Winter Recess
Hanukkah begins at Sundown
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
Kwanzaa begins
New Years Eve
Next Deadline for Articles is Monday, December 12, 2016

STAY INFORMED @ peateachers.org

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