April 2004 Edition of the Skills for Tomorrow Activities and Updates Listserv

Spring is here!!! The birds are chirping, flowers blooming and the sun is hanging out longer each day.

Let’s get the ball rolling and visit schools, faith-based institutions, scout meetings, fairs, bazaars, etc…whatever is going on in your community! Some educators, organizations and local unions are doing a great job connecting young people with the world of work. Some, introduce youth to Teamster workers such as the UPS driver and grocery drivers, Hertz clerks at local airports and others in the community. Others Introduce workers to the children so they can make the connection, not only with the employer but with the union, too. Check out the Skills For Tomorrow website for ideas and additional information on how you can become involved with young people in your area.

Keep in mind, we would love to hear from you. To submit information on your organization, or career development curriculum, please email Linn Nguyen at lnguyen@teamster.org or Sharlene Mentor at smentor@teamster.org

If you missed previous issues, please visit: http://www.ibtstw.org/listsubscribe.asp

What's in This Edition

Teamster Updates

~~~~>Mentoring: Brings Diversity Forward in Our Union

On Saturday, March 26, Teamsters Education Department members Linn Nguyen and Sharlene Mentor facilitated the workshop, "Mentoring: Brings Diversity Forward in Our Union" at the Teamsters Annual Women’s Conference.

With 500 Teamster women in attendance, it was the perfect opportunity for the International to stress the importance of mentoring our peers.

The participants learned they were already mentoring and developing co-workers through their union activities. However, they could adopt a more formal approach to encourage people to become involved in union activities. Instead of the traditional approach to mentoring, where an adult mentors a young person, the International is stressing the importance of identifying members who would make good mentors to new members or members who are not involved in union activities. Through role plays and interactive exercises, participants were given examples on how to nudge sometimes unwilling members into participating.

Sharlene Mentor said, “We are all here because we share the same passion for our work and our union," Mentor said. "We want good jobs, living wages and the best healthcare available. We must teach our fellow union members what the union makes possible. We must share our sense of pride!”

“As our union becomes more diverse, it is important to give support to all of our members and educate our young members about the power and strength of being a Teamster,” Nguyen said.

~~~~>Fourth Annual Labor2Youth Fair

On March 23, 2004, Teamsters Communications Assistant Sharlene Mentor and Education Coordinator James Beeharilal staffed a Skills For Tomorrow booth at the fourth annual Labor2Youth Fair at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Local 96 had an adjacent exhibit, managed by Phil Alter Local Union 96 Secretary-Treasurer and Steward George Pitt. Twenty other labor unions sponsored exhibits at the event.

About 500 Washington, D.C. high school students attended and provided a wonderful opportunity to talk with students about union careers, employers and the labor movement in general. “When students found out about the benefits of belonging to a labor union, some were ready to jump on the labor bandwagon immediately,” Mentor said.

“This year’s event provided ample opportunity to reach out to the young men and women in a meaningful way, to teach them about the Teamsters Union and the various occupations it represents,” Beeharilal said.

Washington, D.C.’s Mayor Anthony Williams attended the fair to show his support for D.C. youth and the labor movement. The Mayor has been present at every Labor2Youth Fair since he took office. Also in attendance were Josh Williams and Kathy McKirchy, President, Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO and Executive Director, Community Services Agency, AFL-CIO, respectively.

Conferences and Meetings Nationwide

~~~~>Integrated Learning: The School-To-Career Connection (Dept. of Education, Pennsylvania)

PURPOSE: This conference is designed to share successful strategies that encourage the implementation of educational initiatives to enhance learning opportunities for all students. These initiatives focus on interdisciplinary approaches that include the identification of effective practices, system building, business linkages, partnerships, career paths, assessment, workforce development and instructional strategies for lifelong learning.

For more information, contact
Vincent Safran
Bureau of Career and Technical Education
Voice phone: (717) 787-8804
TTY: (717) 783-8445

Resources to Build Your Curriculum

~~~~>Job Shadow Day E-Xtra!

Job Shadow Featured on BET Nightly News

Do you know that African-American teens are the most optimistic about achieving their ideal job? This is the case, according to a Junior Achievement poll conducted in conjunction with the Job Shadow Coalition. The poll, along with Job Shadow Coalition Director Dr. Stuart Shapiro and a Junior Achievement class from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, DC, were featured on BET Nightly News on Friday, March 26th. For a transcript of the story, visit http://www.jobshadow.org/bet.html.

Job Shadow Update

Job Shadowing continues to occur throughout the country! Job Shadow E-Xtra would Love to hear your Job Shadow Day 2004 stories! Just e-mail your stories and digital photos to them at http://www.press@jobshadow.org for inclusion in future E-Xtras.!

endCheck out Canada’s premier education guide to schools, scholarships and careers. In this issue, School Finders examine methods, of improving students’ grades, from taking summer and night school courses to seeking out extra help from peer tutors and at campus learning centres. They also have some great news from schools and information on ScholarshipsCanada.com Entrance Awards Directory. www.schoolfinder.com/news/schhelp.asp

~~~~>Mentor Exchange Monthly Listserv (American Learns)

The Mentor Exchange Monthly Listerv is brought to you by America Learns. America Learns ensures that children served by literacy volunteering programs receive superior support.

We can only build systems that address the real needs and challenges literacy programs are facing by engaging those individuals involved in the programs. America Learns’ service was designed, tested and refined through the consultation and feedback of more than 150 people – active volunteers, program managers, parents, teachers, government officials and professors. They used that input in conjunction with five years of research to build the system.

America Learns site is equipped with

Strategy of the Month: Letter & Sound Recognition Game

This month's literacy volunteering strategy of the month is from a volunteer in Pennsylvania who created a board game to increase students' letter and sound recognition skills. The step-by-step strategy description and link to the downloadable game board are on the website below. Check it out!

Please note that literacy volunteers and volunteer coordinators can learn about accessing their national database of literacy volunteer-created strategies by e-mailing: JoinTheNetwork@americalearns.net.

Gary Kosman, America Learns
gary@americalearns.net
310-709-4947

http://americalearns.net

Success Story Network site: http://americalearns.net/ssn where you work or research information for a class paper. Here are some links to get you started.

~~~~>AFL-CIO Student Site

A student might be looking for a job after college, trying to find out how to form a union where they work or researching information for a class paper. Here are some useful resources.

All About Unions

Looking for information for a term paper? Here’s a start. Also, don’t forget to check out the AFL-CIO’s history section and FAQs. This site offers a wide variety of information for students of all ages on many topics.

Form Your Union

Graduate student teaching assistants, researchers and others are forming unions all across America to win the compensation and working conditions they deserve. Form your union! You might be looking for a job after college or trying to find out how to form a union. For more information visit: http://aflcio.com/siteguides/students.cfm

Articles of Interest

~~~~>California Union to Organize Charter Schools

By: Caroline Hendrie
For Education Weekly
April 14, 2004

With major financial backing from the National Education Association (NEA), California’s largest teachers’ union has launched an initiative to organize employees in hundreds of charter schools in the state.

The push by the California Teachers Association (CTA) adds a fresh twist to the complicated and often contentious relationship between the nation’s growing network of charter schools and its politically powerful teachers’ unions. Although still in its infancy, the CTA’s effort appears to signal a new approach toward the independently run public schools by a state labor organization that remains among the charter movement’s strongest critics.

For its part, the 2.7 million-member NEA is backing the California effort in the hope that it will yield lessons for union organizers elsewhere. NEA leaders also argue that unionized teachers can play a watchdog role in charter schooling by pushing for greater public accountability, particularly in schools run by for-profit companies.

"If there are lessons to be learned on what works and doesn’t work in this effort, we want to share that with other affiliates," said NEA spokesman Michael Pons.

The reception to the state union’s organizing effort has been mixed in California’s more than 470 charter schools. Charter school experts and union officials estimate that employees in about a third of the Golden State’s charter schools are already represented by unions. Many of those schools—but not all—were district-run schools that converted to charter status.

Given the diverse views, the state’s leading charter school association says it is not launching a counteroffensive to the organizing push, despite what its leaders view as questionable tactics by the CTA to persuade charter teachers that they need a union.

"They’re spreading misinformation about what charter schools are," said Caprice Young, the president and chief operating officer of the Sacramento-based California Charter Schools Association, a membership group that represents about 70 percent of the state’s charter schools. "But I don’t think that just because they’ve declared war against us, that we need to declare war against them."

But Tom Conry, a member of the CTA’s board of directors who heads its charter school working group, denied any such hostility.

"Because of the growing number of charters, there is a need to have this plan together to reach out to them," said Mr. Conry, who also sits on the state board of education’s Advisory Commission on Charter Schools. "What we’ve done is stated we are going to organize the workers in charter schools for the purpose of protecting their rights, and that’s it."

To read entire article visit: http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=31Chartunion.h23

~~~~>Pension Tension

By Lavinia Edmonds
For Teacher Magazine
March 1, 2004

After 30 years in the classroom, Baltimore County science teacher John Lindberg was ready to retire in 2001. But when the then-51-year-old took a serious look at his finances, he realized that, at less than $40,000, his pension would hardly cover his mortgage and living expenses. He briefly romanticized about "doing something completely different" to supplement his retirement income, but his principal urged him to reconsider education. Just two years earlier, Maryland had passed a law allowing retired teachers to collect their full pensions if they returned to regular salaried teaching in a public school. When Lindberg's salary, supplemental pay, and pension were combined, his annual income totaled $102,000.

So that spring, with the clock ticking on his teaching career, Lindberg attended a county schools job fair, alongside many candidates looking for their first jobs. With his years of experience—and Maryland's severe teacher shortage—he had his pick of schools. But the job he chose—chair of the science department and teacher of three forensics courses—was at a familiar place: the school he was supposed to be leaving, Loch Raven High School in Baltimore.

It would seem to be a winning combination: A school in a state that needs teachers finds an experienced candidate, and a veteran educator is rewarded with a 57 percent increase in income. Since Lindberg's base salary was reduced from $65,000 to $57,000 as part of the arrangement, the district saves money as well. This past summer, Maryland schools filled about 1,000 of 7,000 vacancies with credentialed senior teachers attracted by this very proposition. These educators are the sort of qualified teachers that the No Child Left Behind Act is demanding schools hire, yet are usually the hardest to find, says Keith Harmeyer, principal of Loch Raven High. "If you have been to a job fair, you know it's not easy to hire, in math or science especially," he observes. Since the law went into effect, he's hired eight retired educators to teach AP courses at his school.

To read entire article visit: http://www.teachermagazine.org/tmstory.cfm?slug=05pension.h15

Get Connected: Web Site Links

~~~~>School Links

When you reach the homepage, click on "Links by Subject." There, you will find a list of school subjects. Click on the one that you want to access. A page will then appear. This page will either list sub-sites, a list of links, or a combination of both. Find what you need and click on links to your heart's content.

http://www.geocities.com/schoollinkssite/

End of Issue

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