It’s taken more than four years, countless hours of preparation, reams of paper, a hearing before an administrative law judge, appeals to the state education labor board and court, who have all agreed that a former teacher at the SPEED special education cooperative in the south Cook County suburbs should be given her job back. [...]
What you did last summer
September 23, 2009 By
The Advocate asked IEA members in July what they were doing during their summer vacations. It’s no news to us that educators are 100 percent dedicated professionals who work hard not only during the year but whose dedication lasts throughout the summer. We heard from several of you who used those “months off” as an [...]
Hinsdale retiree case can serve as a lesson for the future
September 22, 2009 By
By James Crandell, Hinsdale High School Teachers Association leader After 25 years of association activism, I’d thought I’d seen it all. But the Hinsdale District 86 school board blew that smugness away when it reneged on 30 years of contract history to change retirement benefits for teachers who had already retired. The prospect of having [...]
Ken's Commentary
September 22, 2009 By
As I ponder the challenges we find before us, I am reminded of Jimmy Buffet’s song “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” IEA must rethink how we approach candidate recommendations for federal and state offices. We need to review how we can hold incumbents accountable for their performances, how we evaluate the viability of challengers, [...]
The birth of a new website
September 4, 2009 By
We think you’ll agree. The new IEA website is an effort by the association to ramp up its ability to communicate with its members through Web 2.0 technology. Come visit and you will see “a mash up of several technologies, including WordPress, Google, Blip, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, facebook, Feedburner and several more,” said Dan Billingsley [...]
Maine West school counselor recognized for work
September 1, 2009 By
When Claudia Rueda-Alvarez was called into her director’s office at Maine Township High School West and he put the phone on speaker, she assumed it was so she could translate for him. Instead, the call was to inform the 18-year veteran school counselor that she had been recognized by her peers as the 600-member Illinois [...]
Decatur teacher wins presidential award
August 10, 2009 By
A fifth grade science teacher from Decatur has been awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science in Teaching, the nation’s highest distinction for teaching in these fields. Nola Wilkinson teaches at Johns Hill Magnet School and was the only science winner from Illinois and one of 87 teachers nationwide to receive the [...]
July 2009 Advocate
June 30, 2009 By
July Advocate Hanover Park resurrects the computer lab When Danielle Benefiel first started teaching computers at Spring Wood Middle School in Hanover Park nine years ago, no one was sure how the program was going to take off. Monroe Elementary animates and blogs with Apples Theresa McGee, art teacher for grades K-5 at Monroe Elementary [...]
January 2009 Advocate
January 1, 2009 By
Barry Latham — Fuel for Thought Barry Latham, a Bloom High School chemistry teacher, has found a unique way to bring the classroom to life. Not only have his students built the lab where they convert vegetable oil into an alternative fuel, but they’ve also developed a curriculum for the class and a marketing plan [...]
Illinois Education Association is an association of more than 130,000 members composed of Illinois elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.