New Apples

EAST will meet at 4:15 PM on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at the EEA offices on Coburg Road. We have a full agenda with Westgate USA, Inc. Exectutive Vice President, Hideki Kokubu there to speak about teaching in Japan and NEA Uniserv Consultant, Nancy Sheehan giving a workshop* on the rights of guest teachers and contract language. There will be an update on the new Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission Law change for all licensed teachers.

Also, there will be a special prize drawing for bringing a ‘new’ (to EAST meetings) guest teacher to the meeting. Even if you have never been to a meeting of EAST and you bring yourself you can enter the special ‘Newbie’ drawing. And, the newbies can enter a separate prize drawing – so, if you do bring yourself you can enter two prize drawings.  There will be snacks to carry you through to dinner and plenty of information.

*Attendees will be given one professional development unit for taking part in the workshop.

I will start the conversation here on the continuing professional development situation with: Yes, all teachers – even those working on a restricted license, for instance a Substitute Teacher License – are required to earn CPD in order to renew.  Teacher license holders will need to earn 25 CPD per year of the life of their license. That means either 75 PDUs for a 3 year license or 125 for a 5 year license and restricted license holders 10 PDUs for every year of their license.  But don’t worry; the requirement will be phased in in some way that will be workable. At Oregon TSPC the meeting of February 20 there was extensive discussion of what should constitute CPD and the argument for days worked is not getting a favorable reception with the Commission. Commission Chair, Robert W. Sconce, Jr., at that meeting, did not see value in guest teachers’ time in a variety of classrooms using a wide variety of curricula, classroom technology and lesson plans. It is EASTs position that the time guest teachers spend in the classroom is valuable and enriching, leading to a great deal of learning so I asked the Commission to consider a 10 for 1 deal where a guest teacher can earn one PDU for each ten days worked up to a limit of 5 PDUs total per year of the life of their license. I hope that reason prevails and we are giving some credit for the hard work we do as guest teachers. I will have more details and handouts at the EAST meeting of Thursday, March 22.