MTA Today - Winter 2014

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Public Higher Education Advocacy Day is set for March 5 at the State House.

The event pulls together faculty, students and administrators from UMass, state universities and community colleges to speak with a unified voice, urging legislators to invest in the state’s higher education system.

MTA President Paul Toner stressed that while the Legislature increased spending on higher education last year, it is important that legislators keep the trend going in order to fully recover from the steady decline that occurred in higher education funding from 2001 to 2012.

“This is an important day for everyone who is learning and working in our system of higher education,” said Toner, who serves on the Commission on Higher Education Quality, Efficiencies and Finance.

Students and higher education faculty and staff will visit legislators to discuss issues of quality and affordability. The MTA is working on issues including ensuring that per-student funding continues to increase and that compensation and working conditions improve for adjunct faculty.

Additional information and registration materials will be posted on the MTA website, www.massteacher.org, as the event approaches.

T wo Massachusetts educators have been named recipients of Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Jessica Findlay, a math teacher in Douglas, and Erin Dukeshire, a science teacher in Boston, are among 102 math and science teachers who received the awards. The educators will be honored at events in Washington, D.C., over the coming months.

The awards are given annually to outstanding
K- 12 science and math teachers around the country.
Each year, the awards alternate between educators
teaching kindergarten through sixth grade and
has worked at the Douglas Intermediate Elementary
School for seven years, teaching both fifth and sixth
grade. She is the chair of the K- 12 Mathematics
Curriculum Team, leading colleagues as they
share best practices and plan integrated learning
experiences. Her enthusiasm and creativity have led to
the creation of events such as Pi Day and a schoolwide
math-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude Children’s
Hospital, with more than $53,000 raised to date. She
has also been a LEGO robotics coach since 2006.

Dukeshire has been a sixth-grade science teacher at Orchard Gardens K- 8 Pilot School in Roxbury for three years. She is a teacher leader on the Turnaround Teacher Team, leading the school’s K- 8 Science Team.

Preconvention meetings to be held in April

R egional preconvention meetings have been set for elected delegates to the 2014 MTA Annual Meeting of Delegates. At these preconventions, the delegates will receive information and materials critical to their decision-making on organizational matters.

Registration for the preconventions begins at 3: 30 p.m. Each meeting is scheduled to begin at 4: 30 p.m.

The following is a list of locations and dates for the 2014 preconventions:

n Tuesday, April 1, Central Region, Best Western Royal Plaza, Marlborough

n Wednesday, April 2, Northeast/Metro Regions, Crowne Plaza, Woburn

n Thursday, April 3, Western Region, Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, Northampton

n Tuesday, April 8, Southeast/Metro Regions, Holiday Inn, Taunton

n Wednesday, April 9, Cape and Islands Region,
Cape Codder Resort/Spa, Hyannis
Further information will be provided to
delegates as it becomes available. The Annual
Meeting of Delegates will be held May 9-10 at the
Hynes Convention Center in Boston.