Here's What's Brewing Today

Monday, October 3, 2022

Teachers Deserve a Fair Contract

Upcoming Events:

Oct 11, 7 am at Tenleytown Metro – See flyer

Oct 15, 10:30-2pm – Teacher Voice Festival
WTU will have a table and campaign flyers at the African American Civil War Memorial Plaza
Register to volunteer

Contact your Building Rep or Field Representative for more information. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT ANY ACTIVITY YOU PARTICIPATE IN TAKES PLACE OUTSIDE YOUR TOUR OF DUTY. DCPS is watching!

Student Debt Clinic

Debt clinic at Ballou High School on October 20^th – Click here for more details.

Virtual Student Debt Clinic

AFT will continue to host a student debt clinic webinar Thursday evenings. Register at https://cvent.me/17XZka Webinar will include information about how to enroll in the free AFT Summer student loan member benefit. Additional information can be found at www.forgivemystudentdebt.org – this website contains all of the information on how to access PSLF in an easily digestible and understandable format.

STUDENT DEBT CLINIC RESOURCE GUIDE

After attending a Student Debt Clinic, we want to make sure you’ve got all the tools and information you need to take the next steps to start reducing how much you pay every month and get on a path towards a debt-free future! See attached for more information.

FoodPrints

WTU staff partnered with parents, teachers, and local community in support of Watkins Elementary School’s FoodPrints program on Friday, September 30th. The program aims to integrate hands-on learning about healthy, nutritious eating into DC elementary schools. As you can see from the short video, we learned quite a bit from our young tutors thanks to their amazing teachers!

DCPS Strategic Planning

DCPS is currently hosting a series of listening sessions for communities, students, and DCPS staff to develop DCPS’ new 5-year strategic plan. DCPS hired Give Better Group to facilitate this process. Give Better Group is interviewing government officials and decision makers as part of this work. The founders’ bios are on their website (additionally, co-founder Jessica Rauch worked at DCPS under then-Chancellor Kaya Henderson during the first planning process). We encourage teachers to participate and share with their communities.

• DCPS strategic planning process for the next 5 years: https://dcpsstrong.com/strategic-plan/
• Community engagement sessions: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/dcps-strategic-plan-engagement-events-1114269
• Existing Capital Commitment Plan for 2017-2022: https://dcps.dc.gov/capitalcommitment
• Give Better Group: https://www.givebettergroup.com/

#RedforEd

Please wear red each Friday and post photos to social media. Please tag us @WTUTeacher

Update your member email 

The AM Brew is distributed as a benefit to members of the WTU. In the coming weeks, we’ll be updating our database removing non-members from the distribution for the AM Brew, as well as other important Member –Only emails.

To ensure that you’re not inadvertently removed from the distribution list, please update your member information by clicking here.

AM Brew News and Notices will be archived at https://www.wtulocal6.net/AMBrew.

Professional Development

Register Now -- Fall 2022 Professional Learning from the WTU

TO VIEW AND REGISTER FOR FALL COURSES, PLEASE DOWNLOAD WTU'S 2022 FALL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BROCHURE.

Check out these upcoming WTU Courses!

Accessible Literacy Framework

This course covers how to provide reading instruction to students with developmental or intellectual disabilities. The essential components of reading instruction—phonological awareness, sound blending, initial phoneme segmentation, letter-sound correspondence, decoding and shared reading—are framed to address students with complex communication needs.

https://www.wtulocal6.net/fall_2022_accessible_literacy_framework_alf

Reclaiming Assessments

This course is designed to help you understand the power of assessment and monitoring student growth to inform instruction. All teachers want to know where their students start, how they progress, and the results of the teaching and learning process.

https://www.wtulocal6.net/fall_pd_2022_-_reclaiming_assessments

SEL for Adults

This course will cover ways to promote SEL in your life, better assist your students with managing their emotions, build more positive relationships with others and make mindful, proactive decisions. 

https://www.wtulocal6.net/fall_pd_2022_-_sel_for_adults

Upcoming events

Oct 25, 2022 at 1PM – DC Council Hearing on Teacher and Principal turnover

Committee Hearing Signup: Teacher/Principal Turnover and B24-355 Statewide Data Warehouse

Reminders:

WTU Endorsements

The WTU announced its endorsements for the 2022 November Elections.

City Council:

• At-Large: Elissa Silverman
• At-Large: Karim Marshall
• Ward 1: Brianne Nadeau
• Ward 3: Matthew Frumin
• Ward 5: Zachary Parker
• Ward 6: Charles Allen

DC State Board of Education: 

• Ward 1: Ben Williams  
• Ward 3: Michael Sriqui 
• Ward 5: Robert Henderson 
• Ward 6: Joshua Wiley  

Read more here. And watch for opportunities to get out and support our candidates!

Facility Concerns SY 22-23

Over the past two years, the WTU has met regularly to discuss facility issues with DCPS. Yet, many schools continue to have health and safety concerns. We ask that you let the WTU know of any health or safety concerns in your building by completing this brief form.

We’re continuing to update our database.

Please help us ensure we have your current personal contact information on file. Please click here to update your member information. Email [email protected] with any questions or to be added to member mailings.

Be sure to follow the WTU on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to keep up on the latest from your Union.