Volume 17, Issue 4
December, 2008
MCALLEN AFT NEWS
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
HONORING MCALLEN ISD BOARD MEMBERS
It was with great pleasure that we awarded the McAllen AFT Friend award to Dr. Ricardo Chapa and Conrado Alvarado. Our remarks from the event are as follows:
It is our pleasure this evening to welcome all our members and their guests.
It this time of year, we celebrate in various religious ceremonies the joy that we feel and the blessings we have received.
This evening we would like to celebrate the awarding of the McAllen AFT Friend Award to Dr. Richard Chapa.
As a member of the McAllen ISD Board of Education, Dr. Chapa has worked hard to represent all of the children, employees, and members of the community. He has devoted many hours of his day to the best possible instruction for the children of McAllen. At school board meetings, he has come prepared with research, statistical data, and years of experience to impact decisions.
If he had been a board of one, we would not be in the fix we are curriculum wise.
When Dr. Chapa had questions about the 2005 Bond, he ask them with great attention to detail.
We could go on and on, but we think you know that he has done the job he was elected to do.
At this time, we would like Dr. Chapa to come forward and receive the Friend of McAllen Award.
Our second awardee is Conrado Alvarado or Ito as many of us know him. Ito has been a tireless worker for the children, employees, and members of the community. As one of the youngest McAllen ISD Board of Education members, he has let nothing hold him back.
Ito reads his agendas, ask questions, and does his homework in preparation of McAllen ISD Board Meetings.
Ito’s job experience in the health field and county juvenile programs has helped him bring a breath of fresh air to the board. He has been a great friend to the McAllen AFT.
He returns our telephone calls, brings forward our concerns for the children of our city, and does his very best. His positive, up beat manner makes him our friend.
Ito has a new job and has been in Denver for the past 10 days. His plane may not arrive until 10:30 this evening. Therefore, he has ask his parents to receive his award.
It is with pleasure that we ask Mr. and Mrs. Conrado Alvarado Sr. to come forward and except the Friend of McAllen Award for Ito.
QUALITY PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS
Adding to momentum for more investment in high-quality pre-kindergarten programs in Texas and nationally, the American Federation of Teachers and the Albert Shanker Institute published a new report that suggests early, age-appropriate instruction in language, literacy, mathematics, and science can have significant, long-lasting effects on preschool children's social and cognitive skills.
“Preschool Curriculum: What's in It for Children and Teachers” synthesizes the best research on how young children learn in those academic domains and discusses the implications for improving preschool education. The report also says that aggressive, expanded instruction in these areas may yield economic benefits by reducing the learning disparities between rich and poor children that predate preschool and escalate through elementary and into middle school.
The new report provides detailed, research-driven recommendations for what preschool-age children should be learning. While 43 states and the District of Columbia have adopted early childhood standards designed to prepare children to take on the academic requirements of the elementary grades, these standards are of varying quality, often underestimate what young children are capable of absorbing, and are not always adapted to the unique ways in which young children learn best.
"The research clearly shows that young children are capable of learning much more than was previously thought," says early childhood education expert Barbara Bowman, a past president of both the Erikson Institute and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
"All of us have a stake in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to succeed in school; this means giving them access to rich content and quality instruction as early as possible."
The report also discusses the role of parents. As the first and most important teachers in any preschooler's life, parents help children develop academically through a range of activities, such as modeling reading behavior, engaging in extended conversations, asking open-ended questions, finding books on a wide variety of topics to read aloud, playing rhyming games, explaining new vocabulary, and turning everyday experiences (such as shopping and baking) into opportunities for mathematical and scientific play.
In this regard, "Preschool Curriculum: What's in It for Children and Teachers" is also a resource for parents of preschoolers, with ideas on toys, books, math manipulatives and science materials that can help foster learning.
SCHOOL DESIGN GROUP LOOKING FOR JUDGES
Schooldesigner.com is sponsoring its second annual "collabetition"--a combination of collaboration and competition--to find and highlight some of the best design features from K-12 schools and colleges around the world.
AFT members who have an interest in this area can sign up to be online judges. (AFT is a sponsor of the "collabetition.")
To participate check the following: http://www.tsahc.org/single/single_first_time_buyers.php .