Campaign Speech #2

I want to give teachers the power to use their creativity and control their teaching. Thus my slogan: Let Teachers Teach

* The current administration has done nothing to protect our work conditions, our work hours, our curriculum consultation rights, our evaluation procedure, or our job security through tenure.

* All we get is endless yellow paper talking about negotiated items without explanations of really what they are or why they are important. And then the message is always the same: negotiation resumes.

* Our overtime work should be voluntary and on projects we feel passionate about. Instead we have been forced to work overtime, without the slightest compensation, on District mandates that we were never properly consulted on per the terms of the contract.

* The District has no incentive to give on any issue that you may be concerned about as long as it knows that CVE remains ineffective at asserting its rights.

* I will use my legal skills to protect you and your families, to enforce the contract, and to allow you to again love your profession.

I can think of no other profession that is as micro-managed and put upon as elementary teachers. Even high school teachers are treated with the respect of being allowed to teach in the ways that they know best, answerable to the results and not the process. Somehow it is in this profession that every district official thinks that they know how to do your job better than you. They don't get that teaching is not a collection of unproven strategies. It is a performance which draws upon knowledge, human interaction, spontaneousness, a flexible but organized course of study, and lots of patience and love. And the teachers that master this performance know that good teaching is way beyond a particular strategy, a particular environment, a particular desk arrangement that can be captured in a "walk through." 

I ask you please to view my campaign speech on YouTube and come out next Thursday at a site to be determined to hear the candidates speak.

http://youtu.be/d29BWuEQvNo

Sincerely,

Manuel Yvellez
Let Teachers Teach

PS. For those that would like to help me, please contact me if you would like to pass out leaflets at your site. But the best thing you can do is to write a personal message of why you are voting for me and send it out to your friends and colleagues. Thank you for your support.