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School Funding

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Betty Weller: We’re Leading on Issues That Matter

Betty Weller, MSEA President As our students return to classrooms this year, many did so with challenging concerns. Are they confused, frustrated, or outraged by what they watched on TV just a few hours’ drive away in Charlottesville? Do they experience trauma at home with no the support to process and overcome their experiences? As […]
Teacher Toolkit

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Toolkit: History Comes Alive One Rowdy HUZZAH! at a Time

Mark Haring is a veteran social studies and history teacher at Severna Park High School in Anne Arundel County. Huzzah! I’ve been known to exclaim Huzzah! to accentuate a point. By the end of the course, students join in on hearty “Huzzahs.” I also write “HUZZAH” across the top of the assessments of students who scored […]
School Funding

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What Would YOU Change?

The news came in last year: Maryland schools are underfunded by a huge $2.9 billion. That’s according to national school funding experts advising the Kirwan Commission, the 25-member board rewriting Maryland’s education funding formula. This daunting figure can come as no surprise to on-the-ground educators. We see the effects of this funding shortfall snowball every […]
Legal Questions

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Collective Bargaining — It Makes Your Contract Legally Binding

You probably know that every several years your local education association negotiates the employment contracts for educators through the collective bargaining process. It’s serious business and a very big deal. Collective bargaining is so important that it’s part of the Education Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, which gives certified and non-certified public education […]
Union Updates

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MSEA’s Summer Leadership Conference — Empowering Educators and Building Skills

MSEA’s 2017 Emerging Leaders at the Summer Leadership Conference. They will be studying and meeting throughout the year. MSEA members came to MSEA’s 2017 Summer Leadership Conference at Salisbury University July 19–21 for insight, support, and skill-building to improve their schools and workplaces. Eight different three-day schools focused on union and workplace issues like advocacy, conflict […]
School Funding

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Inside MSEA: Build Power, Get Stronger, Organize

MSEA Executive Director David Helfman Here’s the good news: according to a recent Gallup poll, unions have their highest approval rating in nearly two decades. Here’s the bad news: the far right realizes our effectiveness fighting on the front lines for the working class and against income and social inequality. In state after state, they’ve introduced — and […]
Discipline-Related Issues

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Nurturing Resilience — Post-Traumatic Growth

“So many educators are already using trauma-informed practices and don‘t know it. It’s the nature of educators to be nurturing and accessible, but the real win for students is when we have schools that are consistently responding to students with trauma–sensitive classrooms, embedded restorative practices, and high-quality social-emotional learning resources.” — Prince George’s County School Psychologist Robert […]
Legal Questions

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Medical Cannabis and Your Job

In 2014, Maryland decriminal- ized the possession of small amounts of marijuana and legalized medical marijuana. Since then, patients must acquire written certification from a licensed physician and register with Maryland’s medical marijuana program. Medical cannabis is only available in forms that can be vaporized (not smoked), or as extracts, lotions, ointments, and tinctures. On […]
Union Updates

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“We need to fight for the things we need for our students.”

MSEA’s 2017 Summer Leadership Conference at Salisbury University (July 18–21) brought together activist members from across the state to build the skills they need to fight for change and progress in public education. Eight different three-day schools focused on advocacy, conflict management, contract bargaining, leadership development, empowering leadership, grassroots organizing, union organizing, and restorative practices. […]
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