Friday, September 13, 2013

Updates!

Hey Everyone!

Hope y'all had a great week and are as ready as we are for the weekend!

We have great plans coming up in the two weeks but if you're looking to get more connected or informed with New Orleans Ed reform in the meantime, check out the following websites:

Cowen Institute Report on the State of Public Education

nola.com Education Section

Orleans Public Education Network (OPEN)

Keep an eye out for details about our upcoming trips on...

September 17, 5pm, Orleans Parish School Board Meeting

September 25, 6pm, Recovery School District Meeting

Have a fantastic weekend and as always, feel free to contact us at sfertulane@gmail.com

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Welcome Back!

Hi Y'all,

We hope you've had a wonderful summer and are settling in to the new semester easily enough! Classes are getting rolling and SFER is gearing up for a fantastic and successful year.  If this is your first year with us, Welcome! We are thrilled to have you.  For all of our returners it's great to have you back and can't wait to see what we accomplish this year.

Coming down the line we have several important events and dates...

1. Sunday, September 8th: Deadline for letters to the Congressional Black Caucus.  Please join us in sharing student voices with Congress about educational struggles facing today's students and ask them to support efforts that will facilitate change!  Letters can be sent to GeauxSFER@gmail.com to be collated and delivered to Washington D.C.  Please contact us at our email (sfertulane@gmail.com) with any questions about this initiative, we'd love to work with you on this.

2. Tuesday September 10th: Our very first meeting of the semester!  Join us at 7:30pm in Hebert room 212 for a screening of the film Rebirth: New Orleans and general introductions.

3. September 17th and 25th: Join us for the OPSB (Orleans Parish School Board) and RSD (Recovery School District) board meetings and receive a free shirt.  Make sure that those in power of education are aware that they are being carefully watched.

Mark your calendars with as many of these as possible, looking forward to seeing many of you there!

As always please contact us at sfertulane@gmail.com with any questions, concerns, or comments.  Send those letters in and we'll see you on Tuesday!




Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Greetings Readers!

Tomorrow the House Committee will be meeting to discuss HB 478.  This bill is designed to benefit  Louisiana students by allowing effective teachers to remain in the classroom.  It ends provisions for policies which can remove some of the most dedicated instructors while protecting senior teachers who may be stagnating.  Essentially, the provisions in the bill will allow for the best quality teachers to remain in the classroom with students.

While we support HB 478 we would like to keep in mind that removing seniority as a criterion for teacher hiring and firing leaves measures of teacher effectiveness as the primary consideration.  However, teacher effectiveness can be determined in many ways, and we want to urge the committe to be mindful that methods for teacher evaulation cannot solely rely on student test scores; there are many factors which contribute to the success of a teacher in the classroom.

If you share our opinion on HB 478, we hope you will sign our petition to let the committee know that there are eyes watching them!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/101/807/274/pass-hb-478/

Thanks and have a fantastic week!



Saturday, April 6, 2013

Advocacy Training Night


Hey Everyone!

Hopefully you're enjoying the beautiful weekend weather.  Even though the semester is beginning to wind down, we still have a few things planned.  The first is this Wednesday, April 10th at 5:00pm in Gibson Hall room 310.  

The agenda will be as follows:

1. Peter Davis from OPEN (Orleans Public Education Network): Discussion on upcoming education policies in Louisiana as well as "how to" advice on lobbying.
2. Discussion of education Issues.
3. Westley from STAND for Children and Ernest from Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children: Organizing 101, tips on how YOU can be the change you wish to see in the world.

Dinner will be provided!

This is going to be a really fantastic event, it will provide us with greater knowledge of the education landscape and give us the tools we need to advocate for real change in education.

We urge you all to come, even if this is the first SFER event you attend; we promise it will be well worth your time.  Bring your roommate, bring your friends, invite everyone! This is the perfect opportunity to learn how both SFER and you as an individual can make a difference in NOLA education.

To ensure we have enough food, please RSVP to sfertulane@gmail.com or sspiege@tulane.edu

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Welcome SFER Loyola

Hey Y'all,

So tomorrow we have the exciting opportunity to welcome Loyola's brand new SFER chapter into what is sure to be a fantastic partnership with us!

Stop by LBC Room 203 at 7:30pm to meet members from Tulane and Loyola.  We would love to hear your thoughts on K-12 education and use our combined knowledge and experiences to bring about positive change in the New Orleans education system.

As always don't hesitate to contact us with any questions:

sfertulane@gmail.com

Facebook: SFER Tulane

Twitter: @sfertulane

Stay tuned to hear how our meeting goes and for updates on the events we have planned for the rest of the semester!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Hi All!

Sorry for our hiatus!  This semester has been a little bit crazy but we are finally geared up and ready to go.  Tonight we had our first general meeting of the semester.  SFER National has just appointed someone to oversee their operations in Louisiana, and we had the pleasure of welcoming her!  The lovely Hamida came to speak with us and lay out some rough plans for the remainder of the semester.  Here's a teaser of what's to come...

Rally with BAEO (Black Alliance for Educational Options) coming up in March
School Visits
Opportunities to hang out with real students in the K-12 system
Making our presence known with the Orleans Parish School Board
A Spring Education Week
Screenings of Films such as "Left Behind"

And most importantly...

THE SFER SPRING SUMMIT
Next weekend (March 1-3)
Much of this event will be held on our campus.  Bring an open mind and a friend>
Stay tuned on the blog and twitter for more details!

Thanks for everyone who came today, can't wait to see everybody at our next general body meeting (date/time/location TBA--stay tuned)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

WE WON!!

Today I have some exciting news for you all...

We won SFER National's Visual Awareness campaign with our display from Education Week!

If you didn't get a chance to see the display when it was up on the LBC Quad check out the picture.  We're so excited to have won the competition and can't wait to keep up our good work!

That being said, don't forget to come to our next meeting...

This Thursday, November 29th at 6:30 pm in Classroom 3 of Hillel.

Amy Holiday, one of our founding members of the Tulane chapter will be here for a discussion over delicious pizza!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hillel, it is located at 912 Broadway (the intersection of Broadway and Burthe streets), and the classrooms are on the second floor of the building.  If anybody is unsure or wants to walk over together, meet in front of Dixon hall at 6:15pm.