Since schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and instruction moved online, teachers are at home spending their days trying their best to help their students — across a range of conditions simply unimaginable before the pandemic.
Tech support powers online classrooms behind scenes
Tech staff are the essential employees who are turning digital classrooms from a pipedream into a working educational system since California schools physically closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn who's behind the scenes.
College faculty rise to the challenge of distance learning
Faculty say they miss contact with her students, but they are overcoming extraordinary obstacles to deliver education online. Extra hours, perseverance, and union support assist in this unprecedented transition.
Yes, now is the time for contingent faculty to organize
Long before the virus, uncertainty was a given for contingent faculty. Many have little sense of the next teaching gig, and can barely sign a lease, let alone get a mortgage on a house. Yet, averaged across all higher ed institutions, contingents are responsible for teaching the majority of college courses.
“Social distancing” is a hallmark of the coronavirus pandemic and online meetings using Zoom have expanded exponentially, even among seniors whose eyes once glazed over when the talk turned to tech. It’s part of the new normal.
Working from home to deliver education to our students while simultaneously caring for families is a challenge teachers and staff have never experienced before. But I know that you are committed to our students and to our union, and that commitment is deeply inspiring and a cause for hope.
The big hole in the state budget and what it means
The governor and the Legislature know the COVID-19 pandemic has blown a huge hole in the state budget, but they can’t easily project state revenues or the impact on Proposition 98 — the mechanism that gives K-12 schools and community colleges about 40 percent of the state’s General Fund.
Students & Communities Firstqualifies for the November ballot — and CFT members collected a whopping 20,000 signatures!
State Councilpassed a half dozen policy resolutions, several related to the pandemic. Others addressed higher education issues and special education. Read them here.
CFT, A Union of Educators and Classified Professionals
Jeffery M. Freitas, President
Luukia Smith, Secretary-Treasurer
L. Lacy Barnes, Senior Vice President
Please send comments and letters to the editor.
CFT United, April-May 2020 | Volume 73, Number 4
The union's magazine CFT United was formerly known as California Teacher
Please forward this newsletter to your colleagues at work!
Sent via ActionNetwork.org.
To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from CFT Newsroom, please click here.
