Sunday, December 8, 2013

Terry Pruess Announces Her Candidacy for Presidency of Broward Teachers Union- With My Endorsement

FROM:  Terry Preuss, NBCT, Career Public Educator, BTU Executive Board Member, District Advisory Council Appointee @ www.terrypreuss.com
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND PHOTOS CONTACT:
Terry Preuss, NBCT, SBBC Teacher 954-665-5052 terrypreuss@yahoo.com www.terrypreuss.com
Mark Naison, BAT Co-Founder, Professor, Fordham University  (917) 836-3014!  mnaison@aol.com
Herman Smith, SBBC Guidance Counselor  (954) 600-4704 Herman.Smith@browardschools.com
Katie Donlevie, First Book Special Projects – 202.870.5510
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FCAT Blues by Terry Preuss, NBCT
I watch.
They sit, quiet.
Testing. Quiet testing.
Children! Quiet!
Children quiet?
Hush...
Turn off their HEARTS!

Broward County, Florida teacher, Terry Preuss, NBCT, and author of Voices in the Hall, gets national endorsement for her upcoming run as president of the Broward Teachers Union, the 6th largest union in the country.
Mark Naison,  Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, and a founder of the 34,000 member strong Badass Teachers Association, who is prominently featured in the just released documentary..."Standardized," calls Terry Preuss "The right person for the job...  exactly the kind of eloquent, passionate and effective voice the BTU needs to represent its members...  she cannot be intimidated, she cannot be silenced and she cannot be bought."  (Full Endorsement Below)
"Teachers today are being vilified, and that has to stop!" Preuss says.  "I'm happy to join AFT President Randi Weingarten, and the BTU, and stand for teachers and kids on this day of action!"
On the national front,  AFT President Randi Weingarten said various protests are expected to take place in at least 60 cities on Dec. 9.  Locally, Preuss said The Broward Teachers Union will be joining actors and athletes in donating “First Book” reading books to hundreds of children just before the holidays and “Share My Lesson” resources for teachers to use in increasing literacy. (Press Releases sent from BTU Friday)

Preuss believes that while corporate and private interests "rape" taxpayers' educational funds, more so since the onset of programs like NCLB No Child Left Behind and RITT Race to the Top, that force districts and schools to utilize funds to measure student and school achievement through standardized testing,  the media and corporate advertising machinery, simultaneously seems to blame teachers and neighborhood schools for the failure of society.  
"It is simply not true!"  says Preuss.  "Our problem is poverty.  Children of poverty tend to  score lower on tests. Poverty continues to be the greatest determining factor in a child's success at school!"
As more affluent and high achieving children flock to the flavor-of-the-month charter school, creating a false sense of security and new kind of unprecedented segregation, our public schools have more children of poverty to teach, service, test, and inspire to reach the educational goals being mandated by the states and federal governments.
 "Our teachers and schools work hard with the little funds that are left.  Fix our problem of poverty in America.  It's got to be fixable! Fix that, and you fix the main factor that affects public education,"  Preuss says.
Heart wrenching true stories about the children of poverty Preuss has worked with over the years are featured in her book, Voices in the Hall, available on Amazon, and provide an eye opening account of what really ails education today. 
According to Preuss, "Our problems with education go far deeper than the quality of a teacher's instruction and can certainly not be measured by a standardized test."
Presently Preuss is organizing a South Florida screening of the new documentary,  Standardized, by Rockfish Productions, which will be attended by community leaders, activists, parents, teachers and students. 
"I want to get the message out there that what we are doing through over emphasizing standardized testing is harmful.  It hurts our kids, our teachers, and our communities, and it funnels billions of dollars in the wrong direction." Preuss says.

Mark Naison Endorsement of Terry Preuss for President of Broward Teachers Union
Dr Mark Naison

As a founder of the Badass Teacher Association, now 34,000 strong; a Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, and someone with more than 45 years experience teaching and coaching in inner city neighborhoods, I would like to strongly endorse Terry Preuss for president of the Broward Teachers Union.
At a time when teachers are under attack in Florida and around the nation, when they are increasingly subject to absurd and inaccurate assessments and evaluations developed by those who have never spent time in the classroom, Terry Preuss is the right person for the job. She is an eloquent speaker, a brilliant writer, and a fearless advocate for the most vulnerable of our students, as well as for teachers. But most of all, she cannot be intimidated, she cannot be silenced and she cannot be bought.
She will stand up to all those seeking to script teaching and learning and silence teachers voices, and be a formidable advocate for the Broward Teachers Union in the public sphere as well as a stubborn and effective negotiator behind closed doors.  At a time when union teachers need to get the public and the media on their side, Terry Preuss is exactly the kind of eloquent, passionate and effective voice the BTU needs to represent its members. She is smarter, more eloquent, and more charismatic than anyone in the camp of teacher enemies, in Florida or anywhere else. She has my full and unwavering support, as well as that of BATs around the country!!!!
On the National Day of Action, Preuss will most likely be teaching students she loves at the school she has called 'home' for 14 years, Olsen Middle School.
 "For me," says Preuss, "There is no bigger or more important 'action' I can do on the National Day of Action than teach the kids I love, right in my community."
Terry Preuss, NBCT, and BTU Executive Board member, marks  the National Day of Action, Monday, December 9, 2013 planned by the AFT and NEA with an announcement to, "stand for teachers and kids, at all cost and run for BTU presidency," where she feels she can make a real difference.
Preuss was 2002 Olsen Middle School Teacher of the Year, and a 2003 Broward Hispanic Teacher of the Year in Dania Beach, Florida, but is native to Cienfuegos, Cuba.
 Preuss is the author of Voices in the Hall, called by the Sun Sentinel in their June 30, 2002 story, Teacher Turns Life's Troubles into Lessons for her Students...  .a book, "of surprising depth, 

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