NEA May Launch Weblog

by mcmama | More from this Blogger

06 Jun 2006 09:00 AM

The blogosphere is developing a stratosphere. And soon, the educational blog layer may be subject to global warming of even more hot words.

The NEA has announced plans to develop its own blog - one that you can respond to with comments. The blog will be developed by the union's magazine, NEA Today. The NEA is the larges teacher union in the United States. Other teacher unions have posted excellent blogs on their websites. The AFT has a noteworthy blog about No Child Left Behind. Also, the UFT, teachers union for New York City, publishes Edwize, about ssues affecting teachers. A prominent blog, The Education Wonks began asking the NEA months ago when they would follow the lead of these two unions. The NEA has a huge website, and certainly the resources to enable such a valuable means of communication.

You currently have the ability to speak your voice on a number of educational issues by posting comments to prominent blogs. Undoubtedly, the NEA blog will attract a lot of attention, and a lot of commentary. Imagine telling the NEA how you feel about No Child Left Behind, vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, school safety, standardized testing, special education. I suspect that the whole world of American education will be watching!

This has the potential to be a wonderful resource for discussion of educational issues, free speech, and sharing of ideas. At first the blog will be launched with no commentary. I hope that they eventually allow for free commentary, within the usual limits for profanity and harassment. I suspect that if they have the commentary open they will have a huge and well informed response. Probably too big for the average blog commentary.

Maybe after developing that blog they should expand their existing forum, and link it to the blog. Imagine a forum where rank and file members, teachers, parents, the general public, administrators, school board members, and students can all read each other's points of view and educate one another.

You can (and should) read blogs about education and post comments. There is a huge national discussion taking place about educational reform, and blog commentaries have a lot to say. Be informed, and let your voice be heard!

Learn more about mcmama

I am a mother of two sons, and a former NYC substitute teacher.

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MAC (5) 04 Jul 2006 05:12 PM

A blog is way overdue! NEA and specifically FEA (Fairfax Education Association) should have a blog up now with commentary from teachers and staff members highly encouraged!

Teachers are not encouraged to dialogue at the workplace about anything other than the current work. We desperately need the freedom to converse about important issues. Our educational organizations should have begin a teacher as soon as possible. This is the bare minimum support needed!

How else can teachers compare notes about the workplace, about actions taken by the administration, about time devoted to teaching outside the regular work day, or about resources needed?

I implore NEA to set up a blog with an area for general nationwide discussion as well as an area for state/county discussion! I will encourage my co-workers to check back to see the progress being made by NEA. There is no reason for delay!

mcmama (51978) 04 Jul 2006 07:02 PM

Thanks Mac, I agree. What they have onsite is very spammed and hacked. They need to get control over it for everone.