Teachers Network Conference Features Mayoral
Candidates & Workshops
By Jan Aaron
Three hundred of New York’s brightest (teachers) and
other concerned citizens gathered recently at The Fourth Annual
Curriculum, Community, Collaboration & Celebration Conference,
hosted by Teachers Network, Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina
and the East Side Community High School. Teachers Network,
a non-profit group, has for more than 20 years worked to support
and connect innovative teachers through grants and networking
opportunities. The daylong conference featured all the Mayoral
Candidates discussing education issues and 14 diverse workshops.
Keynoter Cynthia Nixon, star of Sex and the City,
said, “I am here today because there is no other profession
I admire more and value more than teachers.” Nixon,
spokesperson for Alliance for Quality Education, extolled
teachers’ efforts as superhuman. She then described
her teachers and their traits by name, from her kindergarten’s
Mrs. Friedman who always smiled to Hunter High’s Jane
Lewis who made history come alive. Nixon sends her own daughter
to public school and will enroll her son when he’s
old enough. She covered her involvement through the Alliance
in full funding for public schools and called special attention
to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which threatens
public schools. “Log on to www.ourkidscantwait.org,” she
said “and join the fight against State Senators supporting
a cut in funding for NYC schools.” In closing, Nixon
thanked the teachers. “Without you, our city, state
and our society would be in big trouble,” she said.
Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina
began her workshop, Children First Initiative in a Mayoral
Year, by explaining she had been a teacher, principal, and
parent whose children went to public school. “All kids
in New York schools can learn to think and ask questions,
and all schools must have good teachers. We must develop
the whole child,” she said.
Quoting occasionally
from the charming children’s book, Hey, World Here
I Am by Jean Little, she stressed the importance of reading
and writing and provided ways teachers might improve these
skills. “Kids may know how to read, she said, but do
they want to read?” She suggested matching children
to books. “Get them reading books about their interests,” she
said. Deputy Chancellor Farina advised teachers to get their
kids to write about their feelings like the young girl in Hey
World.
“Teachers
who think silent classrooms are good classrooms are wrong.
Get kids to talk, discuss their ideas and defend their opinions,” she
said. She advised teachers to trade ideas. “Develop
something you’re good at and pass it along to others” she
said. No doubt, the participants knew she was right. They
soon began buzzing about what she said amongst themselves.#
