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APRIL 2005

Cynthia Nixon

Teachers Network Conference Features Mayoral Candidates & Workshops

By Jan Aaron

Three hundred of New York’s brightest (teachers) and other concerned citizens gathered recently at The Fourth Annual Curriculum, Community, Collaboration & Celebration Conference, hosted by Teachers Network, Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina and the East Side Community High School. Teachers Network, a non-profit group, has for more than 20 years worked to support and connect innovative teachers through grants and networking opportunities. The daylong conference featured all the Mayoral Candidates discussing education issues and 14 diverse workshops.

Keynoter Cynthia Nixon, star of Sex and the City, said, “I am here today because there is no other profession I admire more and value more than teachers.” Nixon, spokesperson for Alliance for Quality Education, extolled teachers’ efforts as superhuman. She then described her teachers and their traits by name, from her kindergarten’s Mrs. Friedman who always smiled to Hunter High’s Jane Lewis who made history come alive. Nixon sends her own daughter to public school and will enroll her son when he’s old enough. She covered her involvement through the Alliance in full funding for public schools and called special attention to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which threatens public schools. “Log on to www.ourkidscantwait.org,” she said “and join the fight against State Senators supporting a cut in funding for NYC schools.” In closing, Nixon thanked the teachers. “Without you, our city, state and our society would be in big trouble,” she said.

Deputy Chancellor Carmen Farina began her workshop, Children First Initiative in a Mayoral Year, by explaining she had been a teacher, principal, and parent whose children went to public school. “All kids in New York schools can learn to think and ask questions, and all schools must have good teachers. We must develop the whole child,” she said.

Quoting occasionally from the charming children’s book, Hey, World Here I Am by Jean Little, she stressed the importance of reading and writing and provided ways teachers might improve these skills. “Kids may know how to read, she said, but do they want to read?” She suggested matching children to books. “Get them reading books about their interests,” she said. Deputy Chancellor Farina advised teachers to get their kids to write about their feelings like the young girl in Hey World.

“Teachers who think silent classrooms are good classrooms are wrong. Get kids to talk, discuss their ideas and defend their opinions,” she said. She advised teachers to trade ideas. “Develop something you’re good at and pass it along to others” she said. No doubt, the participants knew she was right. They soon began buzzing about what she said amongst themselves.#

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