A Couple of Interesting Articles

One of the more interesting stories in teachers unions right now is that of the Rubber Rooms in New York City. In New York if you're accused of impropriety in the classroom you're sent to a holding facility where, for the duration of the investigation, you sit and wait for your case to be figured out.

Some teachers have been waiting for two years or more. They collect a salary the entire time. Hundreds of teachers are sitting in these rooms right now. You can read about it in the New York Village Voice, here.

Also from the east coast, at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland they've gone from "leaves of grass" to kicking ass over comments students are making about each other on Facebook. This month's NEA Today magazine has an article on cyberbullying that's full of resources; if this is something that you've had to address, it's a great read.

--Ryan--

What's Important from the October Issue of NEA Today Magazine

There are three articles that we'd like to highlight this month, for different reasons:

1) "In Your Corner" is all about how careers can be ruined by false allegations, and why it's important to have support if it ever happens to you. Like we've talked about before here at the MLEA Report, you have the right to representation if you think that a meeting could have an unfavorable outcome. We're here to help, and if there's ever something your Association can do for you, please let us know!

2) One of the big initiatives that the WEA is working on is the Living Wage Campaign to shine a light on the low salaries that many of our parapros are earning. To that end they've put together a wonderfully thoughtful video on the issue, which you can watch here.

3) Finally, the National Education Association has thousands of dollars in grants available for members interested in the chance to do research, attend conferences, or pursue professional development. There's a deadline coming soon, so if you're interested check here.

Have a wonderful month of October!

**Your MLEA Exec Board**