First Day Reflections

I was very surprised that more of the administrators within our class had not been a part of the collective bargining process as administrators. I think that in our large urban district that several administrators are chosen as a part of the team. This class has peaked my interest in this regard, so first thing Monday morning I will ask about who served on the last team. I know who the main teacher representative is for the Union. She has had this position for many years and the DEA (Union) says that she is very effective. Would I be effective? The skill set of active listening and not speaking much and making no immediate committments or statements of verbal agreement may be hard for me. I would love to see the process as an observer. I had heard that active participation in the Union, such as on the CBA team, would seal your fate as never being considered for an administration position in our district. I was surprised how many classmates had been a part of the CBA on the teacher or union side. They still obtained administration positions, so that was positive news. I liked working in groups to brainstorm the list of what to bring to the CBA meetings. I work fo a large district and I assume that there would be ten different department heads gathering all that information. But in the future, maybe I will find myself employed at a small district and I will wear all the administrative hats and I will need to obtain these pre-meeting materials myself. Either way it is good to have a list of what would be usefull to bring, so that you are prepared and beeffective at the meetings. I like the group work because I am still a teacher with loads to learn and I appreciate being paired with active administrators who have great background knowledge and experience. This session generated another question for me. What was the history of Iowa losing the right to strike? That would seem like a loss of leverage for the teachers. I just wonder how that happened. Maybe I can do my reasearch report on this topic. One last thought in regards to the first day, the book and the professor both stated how important that a good note-taker is at the CBA meetings. Are you allowed to tape record or video tape the meetings? That could be useful for both sides to review prior sessions. Do most districts send in an administrative assistant who knows short hand for the note taking task? Or is it one of the bargaining members?