Are you aware that the United Teachers of Lowell sponsors a scholarship each year? The Farrell-Grady Scholarships were established to honor two UTL495 greats: Bill Farrell and Tom Grady. Each year the UTL awards a scholarship to every graduating high school senior whose parent is a United Teachers of Lowell member. In this episode, we speak with Midge Farrell, the wife of Bill Farrell and a formidable educator in her own right. Midge graciously spoke with us to tell a bit about the establishment...
May 02, 2019•8 min•Season 1Ep. 39
This week’s podcast was suggested by our own United Teachers of Lowell Office Manager, Nancy Giblin as a topic that members are interested in. When a personal illness strikes or a member needs to be caregiver for a loved one, it is comforting to know what the process is for initiating Family Medical Leave. And if a member’s illness prompts the need for an extended leave, UTL495 members have each others’ backs. Today we’re talking with UTL Office Manager, Nancy Giblin about one of the most freque...
Apr 17, 2019•10 min•Season 1Ep. 38
We could not be any more fortunate than to work with the dedicated paraprofessionals in our Lowell Public Schools. To quote AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos: ““Paraprofessionals are essential members of our team of educators, and they do critically important work every single day, helping students of all abilities to learn, grow, and succeed. Our schools would not function without them.” ” — Beth Kontos, AFT-Massachusetts President Today, Wednesday, April 3, 2019, is Paraprofessional Appr...
Apr 02, 2019•23 min•Season 1Ep. 37
In this Episode of Straight Talk, we are learning about the impact Massachusett’s underfunding of state public colleges and universities is having. University of Massachusetts Lowell junior and Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) member Jack Bove talks about the importance of the CHERISH act to students and their families. Jack also spoke at our Lowell Education Justice Alliance Legislative Forum in March about the urgent need to reverse this trend and he is articulate abou...
Mar 27, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 36
As almost everyone with a stake in public education knows, Massachusetts funding of Public School education is in dire need of updating. Since 1993 when Education Reform and the Foundation Budget calculations were developed, there has been little done by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to update the funding formulae and account for changes in costs over the past 26 years. Last July, after the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed legislation to update the Foundation Budget formulae, the atte...
Mar 18, 2019•15 min•Season 1Ep. 35
The Rotary Club of Lowell has a long-held core belief of “Service Above Self”. The Rotary Club members serve the community is many ways from providing volunteer support to groups like Lowell’s WISH Project to organizing a Harvest Dinner Dance for area seniors or organizing a clean-up of Lowell’s Rotary Park. Since 2000, the Club has organized a Celebration of Teaching during Teacher Appreciation Week to celebrate the hard work and dedication of Lowell’s educators and paraprofessionals. The theme...
Mar 13, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 34
The history of the American Industrial Revolution and the history of Lowell are deeply intertwined. Lowell’s founding as the country’s first planned industrial city cemented it as a magnet for technological innovations, capitalist investors, and industrious workers from New England and abroad. Those legacy, as well as present-day progress are shared through education programs at the Tsongas Industrial History Center, the 27-year partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Colleg...
Mar 05, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 33
With a flurry of activity over the last month, the Lowell School Committee has commenced their search for Lowell’s next Superintendent of Schools. There are many stakeholders interested in finding and retaining a District leader who will be able to navigate the politics of Lowell and the challenges of 21st Century urban school leadership, so there is a lot riding on an effective screening of potential candidates. With those challenges in mind, we thought it would be instructive to get an histori...
Feb 26, 2019•26 min•Season 1Ep. 32
When we talk about underfunded schools and the effects of over 25 years of Foundation Budget calculations that have not been revised, it is quite easy to see how school districts across Massachusetts eventually start to feel the pain. Colin Jones from Mass Budget and Policy Center prepared this video explainer recently about how Chapter 70 impacts different communities to differing degrees: those communities with greater agility to raise local revenues through, say, property taxes, have been abl...
Feb 20, 2019•16 min•Season 1Ep. 31
One of the biggest disappointments of the Massachusetts Legislative session which ended last July was the failure to reach agreement between the Massachusetts Senate and House on revisions to the Foundation Budget. With a flourish of last minute information - some of which mysteriously came from our own Department of Elementary and Secondary Education - the clock on the bill and the Legislative Session ran out and no House-Senate Compromise could be reach. As disappointing as the failure to revi...
Feb 13, 2019•19 min•Season 1Ep. 30
As a union local, we have many people working on our members’ behalf. When a member reaches out to our local, one of first people you most likely will speak with is Office Manager, Nancy Giblin. Nancy, as you will learn, has been with our UTL495 office since 1992. That means Nancy has invaluable background and knowledge of how things work, who to contact, and can often point members with questions to the answers they are looking for. Nancy is calm, courteous and always on top of Member requests ...
Feb 06, 2019•16 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Lowell has so many talented and dedicated educators working with our students and families. Today we are privileged to chat with STEM Academy Newcomer teacher, Mariana Athayde. Mariana Athayde is a newcomer teacher for Grades 3-5 at the Rogers STEM Academy in Lowell, MA. Born and raised in Brazil, Mariana has experienced first hand the challenges newcomers face during their first years of education in a second language. Mariana holds a Master’s of Education in Curriculum and Teaching from Fitchb...
Jan 29, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Here in Lowell, Massachusetts, our municipal workers receive health insurance benefits that are procured through the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission. Last year, as members will remember, the Group Insurance Commission - or GIC - attempted to not only significantly raise insurance premiums for members, but also proposed to limit access to particular insurance plans including some plans that many of our local members subscribed. The cuts to benefits and increases in co-pays, deductibles, ...
Jan 24, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 27
We are more than fortunate to have dedicated powerhouses like AFT-MA Director of Organization Brian LaPierre supporting all of us! One of the most talented and passionate advocates for public education, Brian is a member of the Lynn Teachers Union. He formerly taught at the Thurgood Marshall Middle School and at Lynn English High School. Tireless, enthusiastic, and resolute, Brian’s energy, enthusiasm and support for public education makes him a force to be reckoned with. As a political organize...
Jan 16, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 26
The United Teachers of Lowell continues to press City and School officials about facilities issues that continue to impact our students and our members. In today’s podcast, Mickie and I update members about what has transpired since Paul, Mickie and several of our UTL Executive Board members attended a Lowell Board of Health meeting on December 5, 2018. We have had some subsequent contacts and today, we are asking UTL members to help us continue to collect data that will provide School and City ...
Jan 02, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Public School - and public education - is probably the institution that reaches the most people. This is an area we should all care about. -Darcie Boyer, LEJA As a result of the successful “No on 2” Campaign here in Massachusetts, parents, students, educators and community members came to the realization that through collaboration and partnership among community members, important educational issues could be brought to public attention. While stakeholders from each of these groups view education...
Dec 20, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 24
We continue to hear from our members about facility concerns that impact student and staff health. Despite raising these concerns over and over on behalf of our members and students in the Lowell Public Schools, after decades of what UTL President Paul Georges terms “benign neglect”, building environment concerns continue to impact our students and staff in ways that are not conducive for learning. The Collins Report offers an accounting of facility concerns throughout the city and specifically ...
Dec 11, 2018•20 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Today, we start a series of December Member Meet-Up podcasts so that you can meet and learn a little about some of the hard-working leaders in the UTL and how they support members. In this episode, we introduce our UTL VPs. The United Teachers of Lowell’s Vice Presidents are a tireless group advocating for grade level bands of educators across the Lowell Public Schools. Our UTL VPs bring attention to some of the unique issues that affect a specific grade level band Susan and Kristen also serve a...
Dec 06, 2018•19 min•Season 1Ep. 22
In this week’s episode, Episode 21, Mickie and Amy are joined by Lowell Teacher Academy Facilitator Pina Maggio as we take a close look at the Educator Evaluation cycle especially as it applies to those educators who are in Year 1 through Year 3. Today’s discussion is focused upon the definitions and expectations in the evaluation process, including, but not limited to, the four types of Educator Plans, proposed goals and the Evaluation Cycle up through January 15th, 2019. We will be back again ...
Nov 28, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Educators know how valuable collaboration can be. As Bartlett School Math/Science teacher Laura Schofield shares …for me, one of the biggest take-aways was how much collaborating with colleagues keeps me fresh as a teacher. In this 20th Episode of our podcast, we hear how powerful collaborations between two seemingly unlike disciplines can foster student engagement and make for a curriculum that is both rich and deep. The collaboration between Laura and Rachel is not only a collaboration between...
Nov 14, 2018•16 min•Season 1Ep. 20
As our members know, United Teachers of Lowell 495 , or UTL represents about 1,700 teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, cafeteria workers, and security guards serving across the Lowell Public Schools. What some may not realize is that we are part of two larger groups - American Federation of Teachers, or AFT and AFT-MA, our state organization. It is through these larger organizations that our members’ voices are represented not only in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but across the United...
Nov 06, 2018•32 min•Season 1Ep. 19
As accustomed as the Lowell Public Schools are to non-native English Language speakers and their needs, there are special challenges for those students who are newcomers to our schools. Today we have the privilege of speaking with Holly Fleury. Holly teaches first and second grade newcomer students at the STEM Academy at the Rogers School. Teaching newcomers, those students whose native language is not English and who have had limited exposure to English, is a unique challenge. In an effort to m...
Oct 31, 2018•22 min•Ep. 18
“Massachusetts public school students are #1 in the United States in reading and math on NAEP and #1 in the world on the PISA International test.” — Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Schools website Each spring, our students take a set of standardized tests, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS. Along with individual student scores, schools districts and schools are labeled according to the students’ scores on these tests. Recently, the Massachusetts Depa...
Oct 23, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 17
A Lowell School Committee agenda item posted for the July 18, 2018 School Committee Meeting caught our attention quickly. Three motions on that meeting’s agenda centered around placing the current Lowell Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Salah Khelfaoui, on administrative leave with the intent of severing the Superintendent’s contract before its expiration in 2020. Many teachers, parents, and community members spoke at that July 18 meeting in favor of retaining Dr. Khelfaoui as Superintendent of Sc...
Oct 08, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Here at Podcast Central, we love when members give us ideas for podcasts. Today’s Episode (Number 15!!) is one of those moments when members’ frustration about health care expenses prompted us to reach out to Health Reimbursement Arrangement or HRA provider UltraBenefits for some information we think our members will be glad to know about. From there, a podcast was born. The City of Lowell provides all City employees and retirees with a free benefit - an HRA or Health Reimbursement Arrangement. ...
Oct 03, 2018•19 min•Season 1Ep. 15
As United Teachers of Lowell 495, we are affiliated with American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts or AFT-MA. There are so many accomplished people supporting members and the work of our union through their advocacy across the Commonwealth at AFT-MA. One of those talented people is, AFT-MA Secretary-Treasurer Brant Duncan. Brant began his career as a Math Teacher in Lynn, Massachusetts. He served his local, Lynn Teachers Union 1037 as its President and he also organized LTU’s first two First...
Sep 26, 2018•19 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Marti Cohn, Lowell Public Schools Social Studies and Science Coordinator and Patty Myers, STEM District Specialist are not just experts in curriculum, but two of the most supportive administrators/coaches in the Lowell Public Schools. A lifelong Lowell resident and LHS alum, Martha “Marti” Cohen became a science teacher after a career as a medical technician. She began her teaching career as a middle school science teacher at the An Wang school in Lowell, and in 2012 became Lowell’s Social Studi...
Sep 18, 2018•22 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Lowell Public School's has had a commitment to integrating technology into classrooms since the mid-1990s when George Tsapatsaris was Superintendent of Schools and Steve Arnoff was Chief of Information Technology. Eventually each school had an Instructional Technology Specialist and a computer lab. Technology - and times - have changed, but Lowell Public Schools continues its commitment to infusing technology into the curriculum and teaching in innovative ways that support teaching and learning ...
Sep 12, 2018•26 min•Ep. 12
Welcome back to a new school year United Teachers of Lowell Members! We know everyone has been hard at work preparing for the return to school and Fall routines. We send warm wishes for a great school year and welcome our newest members to Lowell Public Schools and the United Teachers of Lowell. We'd like to ensure everyone understands the importance of their Weingarten Rights. How and when you might wish to invoke these rights is explained by Mickie Dumont in this podcast. We also talk about th...
Sep 04, 2018•24 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Lowell has some terrifically talented and enthusiastic educators, and today we are fortunate to speak with Kathryn "Katie"Budinger who works with at-risk 7th and 8th grade students in Lowell's B.R.I.D.G.E. program. Katie has a passion for science and teaching through hands-on activites. Her enthusiasm comes through during this conversation about her participation in Honeywell's Educator Space Academy Program. This past summer, Katie traveled to Huntsville, Alabama a second time as one of four am...
Aug 22, 2018•20 min•Ep. 10
