Teachers in the Nashua (NH) school district have made a series of videos that communicate their concerns with the current budget negotiations. If you want to see yet another use of YouTube in education, check some of these out. Pretty powerful…
Speaker, consultant, writer, learner, parent
Wow – very bold, and what a powerful media to speak across generational lines! Thanks for sharing.
Chris O’Neal
http://www.edleadersonline.org
This is great! It inspires me to think of ways we could use this approach to reach to the community in my school district.
Thank you.
Maria Knee, NH teacher
I don’t want to sound like a nay-sayer here, because I think this is a powerful form of expression. I guess my concern is that it can be powerful for the better AND powerful for worse.
These videos are well-done, and they definitely evoke the same sentiments and emotions from just about any sane person watching them. Negotiations, however, are often complicated and messy. In an imperfect process that we go through, with varying degrees of financial health from district to district, and with limited budgets coming from state governments, I dare say it is extremely easy to oversimplify the situation through ads like these and unjustly turn the community against administrators who are trying to do what is best for the district as a whole, not just what is best for the teachers alone.
This just pulled my trigger today because I am currently watching a community and school district that is near and dear to my heart play out something reminiscent of this scenario and is in the process of tearing itself apart.
I just wish that the folks making these sorts of pleas would be more specific about what it is that they want. It would also be nice if administrators had a legal way of making videos like this to explain their side of this situation. Unfortunately, they are often bound by law (and ethics) to keep quiet about negotiation and personnel issues. Of course, in the community’s ears, silence often sounds like guilt.
Can you tell that I’ve been burned? Responsible use of this loud speaker is advised…
Yelling fire in a crowded room is only a good thing if there really is a fire.
I produced and uploaded these “spots”. You are certainly right that the issues are complicated. In this case, the administrators and the BOE are on the side of the teachers, but I do get your point. In my view, these are voices that need to be heard in the debate, and voices that had been previously ignored. To be very specific, I did this because I was uncomfortable with the suggested traditional path of picketing in front of the schools with slogans on poster board. This, at least, is a step beyond that.
I’m very pleased that we are discussing this here. That’s good for everyone.