Momma Bears, BATs, and TREE are still on cloud 9 after Wednesday night's event with Diane Ravitch.  It was powerful to see so many "just Moms," Dads, grandparents, teachers, administrators, elected school board members, and legislators there to support the PUBLIC education of children.  It was uplifting, it was inspiring, it was definitely something we will do again!

Words of widsom from Diane Ravitch's speech:

• Race to the Top... What is the top?  As long as we have 25% of children in poverty, we cannot reach the top.
  
• They say that charter schools are for black and Hispanic children so the Democrats will fall for it, but the money goes to the Republicans.
  
• Public education is a civic responsibility, not a consumer good.
  
• We should reduce poverty and segregation as a matter of public policy.
  
• Billionaires love the free market because it worked for them.
  
• Reformers want us to think as consumers, and not as citizens. 
  
• Education is a basic human right.
  
• Charter schools will never take over an entire district. There must always be public schools to dump the struggling students.
  
• The biggest hoax of all is that school choice is the civil rights issue of our time.   
  
• We are the most over-tested nation on earth.  We are the only nation testing every child every year.
  
• Japan has the highest test scores in the world, but a stagnant economy.
  
• If we want to raise test scores, we need to reduce the number of 'have-nots'.  
  
• There's this crazy idea that if kids can't pass the test, just make the test harder.
  
• The Opt-out movement is the biggest way to say 'no' to the testing.  It is growing day by day.
  
• Test results don't show student learning, they show who is in the class.
  
• The strongest educational systems in the world don't allow amateurs to become state superintendent.
  
• Reformers love data more than they love children.
  
• Poor kids get computers to teach them, rich kids get teachers. That's not right!
  
• Charters today look like the schools of the 19th century (with regards to segregation and rigidity)
  
• We are many. They are few.
  
• Merit pay  for teachers is like a zombie... It never works and it never dies.
  
• Teach For America makes a lot of money renting young people to school districts.  It is destroying the teaching profession.
  
• There is no 'Teach for Finland'.  You cannot fire your way to Finland.
  
• I think it is very important to interact with children before becoming a teacher. (referring to TFA-like programs)
  
• Don't hire amateur teachers, amateur principals, amateur superintendents... or amateur commissioners of education!
  
• Poverty is not an excuse.  It is a reality. 
  
• There are too many billionaires in America for so many children to be in poverty!

There were so many great things she said.  Even the Q & A at the end was terrific!  Watch the entire event below or click HERE to open it in a new browser:

Shocking news:  this was NOT a grassroots event.  
No, it was something much more terrifying to reformers... Click HERE to see what we mean.

Every fashionable Momma Bear, BAT, and TREE should have a shirt!  Click HERE to get your very own festive green shirt just in time for the holidays!  You can order and pay online via Paypal.  To get a shirt:
   1. Log into Paypal. 
   2. Click "Pay for goods and services"
   3. Enter April's email:  wawinton@gmail.com
   4. include $15 per shirt + $2.50 shipping for a total of $17.50 per shirt 
   5. In the notes, include your shipping address, shirt size, and contact info (your email or phone).
The proceeds from these shirts will help to make other such events possible in TN.  Thank you!!! 

Thursday, I was cleaning up macaroni and cheese noodles.  24 hours later I was in a 4-star hotel giving a speech to a convention room full of really important people.  I kept thinking "somebody pinch me" so I would wake up.  All these people seemed to want to hear what I had to say (or if they didn't, they were really good at hiding it).

My speech was called "Listen to your Mommas!".  This was my first real public speaking engagement.  To say I was nervous is an understatement!  Even though my presentation was an hour and fifteen minutes long, I didn't see anyone's eyes glazing over or notice anyone playing candy crush on their phones.  The audience members were all smiling and nodding along with the things I said.  Since technology and I sometimes have issues, I was thankful that my PowerPoint presentation worked flawlessly.  I don't think I stammered or said "like, um, like, uh, ummm..." (I was like really scared I would umm like end up like doing that like some people do when, uh, you know, they like get nervous).  I made it through my presentation and was flabbergasted to receive a standing ovation.   

So, what did I talk about?  
I told them about the magical way that some ordinary moms in Tennessee came together and how we started Momma Bears. Less than one year ago, we launched our Momma Bears website & blog.  The first month, we were ecstatic to reach 50 readers on our blog... Now, 11 months later, we are amazed to have had over 800,000 readers!  Seriously, we're just moms who have no clue what we're doing.  We've spent a whopping $17 total for the website domain name.  That's it. 

I also spoke about what we've accomplished through our blog and social media... how we've educated parents on many issues and forced inappropriate surveys to be stopped in school districts.  We've encouraged parents to take action with easy steps and links to contact elected officials.  We've supported teachers and shared their voices when they do not have the freedom to speak up.  We've been a voice for students, parents, & teachers. 

(*I'll post a link to my PowerPoint presentation at the end of this blog so you can see my mastery of PowerPoint.  If you want, you can click through the slides and pretend you were there.)

Surprise!
A few were astonished to learn that Momma Bears are opposed to Common Core, so they asked quite a few questions about why.  They seemed surprised that we're not extremist, radicals, Tea party, crazy, misinformed, or ignorant like the politicians portray opponents of the core to be.  We just don't fit in to that stereotype that Arne Duncan and the reformers have labeled us to discredit us.  We're normal moms concerned about our children's education.  I supported our positions against common core with evidence and facts.  And I told them, "Don't believe me:  read the Race to the Top agreement (and especially Appendix C) and decide for yourself."  One person joked that I knew more facts and information than their company's research department, and asked me how on earth I knew all of this.  I told them it was because the Momma Bears research and share information.  We read a lot of other bloggers, too, and I told them about the many awesome ones out there (they are listed on the PowerPoint).  I even quoted some of our favorite bloggers including: Diane Ravitch, Mercedes Schneider, Mother Crusader, Edushyster, and my new personal favorite: Curmuducation.

I couldn't talk about the Momma Bears without talking about the BATs.  If you don't know about the BATs, you should.  Don't let the name scare you, BAT is an acronym for "Badass Teacher Association." The BATS are a force to be reckoned with and they won't be ignored. The BAT movement started about the same time as Momma Bears last summer and has since grown to nearly 50,000 members!  There are now groups for special BATs, State groups, secret BATs, retired BATs, and even BAT Parents!  Like the Momma Bears, the BATs have advocated with little or no money.  Our success has come thanks to the power of social media and people who put their foot down and said "Enough!"  Warning: if you see a teacher with a BAT symbol in her classroom or on her clothing, you know she's committed to fighting for her students and her profession.  Momma Bears have the utmost respect for the BATs.    

I also talked about bad teachers.  I asked the audience to think of the worst teacher they ever had.  Did you learn something from him/her?  Did you learn how to deal with difficult people? (because we're all going to have to deal with a difficult person at some point in our lives whether it is a teacher, boss, family member, neighbor, IRS agent, 3 year old toddler throwing a tantrum, etc.)  Did you learn patience, tolerance, compassion, or that you're not as smart as you thought you were from your "bad" teacher?  Was your worst teacher someone else's favorite teacher? (mine was).  You just can't put a numerical rating on the worth of teachers. I spoke about how teachers are unfairly targeted and blamed in our society, and how we need to elevate and respect the teaching profession. We need to give them the support they need to teach.  Lots of heads nodded, so I am pretty sure I was preaching to the choir.  I think someone even said "Amen!" (or maybe it was a cough?)

To close out my presentation, I quoted one of my brave BAT friends who said, "We enjoy the shade of trees that we did not plant".  The public schools are our trees.  They were created before we were born with the intention of them lasting indefinitely for future generations.  The reformers are chopping down those trees, though.  When you chop down trees, you can't just put them back and have shade again.  We must protect our public schools for our children.  Don't let the reformers chop them down to make a quick buck.  Public schools belong to the public.