Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/498229
What's new at cta.org CTA Online Most popular post Viral video Favorite comments More top tweets eresia Rogerson | M A R C H 2 5 I've been in several elementary schools this past week and teachers are the saints! Lynn Eyer | M A R C H 2 4 I'm glad that California is realizing that charter schools are designed to rip off the public education funds. Lynda Bossert Gordon | M A R C H 2 1 Writing strategies for K-2 was wonderful (at CTA's Good Teaching Conference). Dennisse Santana | M A R C H 1 8 I would love to work with a smaller class size! A district that averages our enrollment, and then states that we need to wait a few weeks to level out, is outright unfair to our students. Suzi Tornberg | M A R C H 1 8 CTA is working with legislators to change testing requirements. What we can do to help is contact our lawmakers and educate them on how overtesting is decimating our education system. Please call your senators and reps to help CTA and NEA. Debbie Rogers Hardin | M A R C H 1 6 Thank goodness for unions! Renee Lucas Haugen | M A R C H 1 4 Testing isn't bad when it is used to actually assess STUDENT progress and is used to inform instruction. It is not an effective tool for assessing schools or teachers. @vlynch5969 Last session of Good Teaching Conference. CCSS on text complexity with narrative & informational text. Great ideas! @eenriquez05 Super fun, interesting science experiments with everyday materials with George Lightholder at GTC. @fresnota Over 200 parents, students, county partners & teachers #StandWithStudents! Our collective voice will be heard! @AngelicaSleiman Do schools revolve around using educators' existing strengths? #CTATopT weet Use this hashtag in your tweets and we'll select our favorites for each issue of the California Educator. Trainings, trainings and more trainings From Communications to Women's Leadership, CTA offers a variety of trainings that provide tools and techniques to enhance educators' professional development. www.cta.org/ctatrainings 1 2 Do you need to update your beneficiaries? The CTA Death and Dismemberment (D&D) Plan is an automatic benefit available to eligible CTA members at no additional cost. Register/update your beneficiaries today. www.ctamemberbenefits.org/dd 3 Can parents opt their children out of state-mandated testing? The answer is YES. CTA's legal team has developed a handy Q&A that should help if or when the "opt out" question arises in your classroom. www.cta.org/optout 4 April is National Poetr y Month You're a poet, but you don't know it, but your feet show it, they're Longfellows! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow isn't the only poet we'll be celebrating this month – join in! www.cta.org/poetry Bolster your school project with an IFT Grant Have a project that will improve student achievement? Does your project address the needs of diverse or at-risk students? Apply for an IFT Grant! Deadline is April 30. www.teacherdrivenchange.org 5 M A R 1 6 174 likes 49 shares "We're changing the world!" Fortuna High School's Change the World Project, supported by a CTA Institute for Teaching grant, lets every senior develop a unique service project. www.youtube.com (search for Change the World Fortuna) 7 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 8