March is coming in like the proverbial lion—yet another snow day! —but this weekend, we “spring forward” –the year “marches” on!
See below for what has been happening, what is happening, and what will be happening! (Practicing my verb tenses here!)
THIS PAST MONTH:
NEA Super Week—Our NEA Director Amanda Cooper and I head to Washington, D.C., three times a year. What happens there?
ESP Tele-Townhall—Members were able to call in and hear our Collective Bargaining and Research Director, C.J. Betit, present information on education professionals and retirement. Thanks go to our ESP Committee for suggesting this topic—if you missed it and would like information on this and on the Government Pension Offset/Windfall Elimination Provision (GPO/WEP), contact me.
HAPPENING NOW:
Register to attend MEA’s Quality Schools Summit spring conference, April 6th at UMF.
From training to grants MEA is full of opportunities for you!
Congratulations to our two higher ed members on receiving prestigious awards this month, Professor Susan Feiner and Professor Sandy Caron! To read about these amazing members and their awards, go
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
Government Pension Offset/Windfall Elimination Provision
I continue to hear from members who are not aware of the impact these federal laws have.
The NEA Representative Assembly is July 3rd to 7th. It may be months away but you can help your Maine delegates.
Spring Workshops Available
Many of our academic affiliates will be having spring workshops and conferences.
ITEMS OF INTEREST:
Reports from Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child:
- From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts
- Executive Summary
- Key findings
- Eight Things to Remember about Child
Developmen
Training on implicit bias—At the February NEA Board meeting, we participated in a training on implicit bias. You can access training modules here: http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/implicit-bias-training/
Videos about friendship—I received this project from a Girl Scout, Avery Bradley, in Georgia. I thought it was worth sharing, either to use as is or perhaps as an idea for your students to create something like it:
https://encouragemeprogram.wordpress.com/
Be sure to keep checking out NEA Member Benefits—they keep adding programs and products that help our members save money, like the “Student Loan Forgiveness Navigator”! For information on NEA Member Benefits and lots of other benefits of membership, go to: https://maineea.org/benefits/
Reading is year-round–March 2nd has come and gone, but let’s keep students reading! Check out resources for each month of the year here: https://www.readacrossamerica.org/ And the books for first-graders are still being delivered—we will get them to you! Thank you to all the staff and members that have been helping with this huge effort, and thank you to the teachers who are being so patient!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST—MEMBERSHIP DRIVES ARE YEAR-ROUND, TOO! KEEP TALKING TO ANY COLLEAGUES WHO ARE NOT YET ENJOYING THE MANY BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP! ENCOURAGE THEM TO SIGN UP TODAY!
Muchas gracias for all you do for our students every day!
