Go Knit a Scarf

That's what I want to tell Governor 1% Cuomo's brother in law, Kenneth Cole, after reading about his teacher-bashing bulletin board the other day. A friend of mine set up a petition to protest this nonsense, while another says we ought not to give him the attention the billboard seems to demand.

It could indeed be that Cuomo's brother in law simply wants attention for his product, and that he hopes this blows up into some controversy. But I wonder how this would look if he pitted one racial or religious group against another, rather than simply pushing the tired motif of teachers vs. students. This is pretty much the standard playbook of "reformers," who trot it out as children first, students first, and Governor 1% calling himself a student lobbyist.

One thing all these demagogues don't tell you is that teaching conditions and learning conditions are often identical. Hence, the folks who put "Children first, always," dump my students and me into a trailer. Bloomberg, in 2007, said he'd get rid of trailers by 2012. He later clarified and said he would not. In fact, there are just as many trailers today as when he said he'd get rid of them.

Another thing they forget is that our fondest wish for children in our care is that they grow up. If they trash and degrade the jobs facing them when that happens, they're hardly doing anyone any favors. Perhaps Mr. Cole would like today's children to work under the same conditions as those in his Bangladesh factories. Maybe he'd like to see our unions treated like theirs.

Now I can't read Cole's mind. But short of a public apology, I won't ever spend a dime on anything with his name on it, and I had no problem signing the petition.

Not to Be Missed

Diane Ravitch has a brand-new blog, and she's opened it today with a defense of teacher tenure.

You Don't Need the Amazing Kreskin Today

Yesterday morning I watched NBC 4 announce that Mayor Bloomberg would replace 50% of the teachers in the schools he was closing. Actually that's President Obama's model. Bloomberg has opted to follow the model in article 18D of the contract he negotiated with the UFT, which states that 50% of most senior qualified staff must be retained. Does that mean 50% of working teachers will keep their jobs? Not necessarily. But the folks at NBC 4 couldn't be bothered to look up details.

They also commented that this would be decided at the PEP. It's kind of incredible that they would not bother to inform their viewers that 8 of the 13 PEP members are selected by Mayor Bloomberg and vote as he says, or are fired before they get a chance to dissent. It reminded me of things I read and saw when I was in East Berlin in 1984. And it's pathetic that it's what we get in mainstream media today.

There was also a comment about federal funds available via turnaround. But the good folks at NBC couldn't be bothered to look into the fact that this was based on Obama's model, which Bloomberg is no longer following.

I called and complained. The woman who answered the phone said they couldn't possibly comment on how the PEP could vote, despite their 100% record. She had no response for my remarks about 18D vs. federal turnaround plans. She said I should write up something and send it in. I told her I couldn't because I had to go to work.

The woman said she was already working. I pointed out that when I worked, I actually had to do things. Then I wished her a nice day.

But for our colleagues at two dozen schools, and their debased neighborhoods, it's far from a nice day. I'm very sorry they have to go through such pointless nonsense simply to appease the megalomania of the richest man in New York, who considers NYPD his army and the DOE his personal fiefdom.

I wrote this last night and set it to post this morning. For me there's no mystery whatsoever about the PEP vote.

This is what happens when you give the richest man in the city absolute power. How could we not have predicted this?

Othello, the Mohawk General of Venus

The scene: Miss Eyre's students are writing essays on Othello.  Miss Eyre is helping a student we'll call Brandy revise her essay.


BRANDY [in essay]: Othello, a Native American, was a great Venusian general.

MISS EYRE [to Brandy]: So, Brandy, I didn't know Othello was Native American.

BRANDY: Wasn't he?

MISS EYRE: Um, no.  He was a Moor.

BRANDY: Oh.  So he was African-American.  'Cause Moor is black, right?

MISS EYRE: Well, kind of.  But this play dates from the seventeenth century.  So there was no America.

BRANDY: Oh!  So I should just put that he was a Moor?

MISS EYRE: Yes.  That will work.  Also, you might want to rethink your spelling of "Venetian."  That's the term you mean for someone from Venice.

BRANDY: Why?

MISS EYRE: Well, you spelled it "Venusian."  That means he's from Venus.  Like the planet.

BRANDY: Oh!  Right.  [giggles] Oh, miss, you know I didn't mean that.

MISS EYRE [to herself]: I sure hope not, or my teaching of Othello was more confusing than I thought.

Presto Chango

What on earth is the point of Bloomberg's turnarounds? Why is he closing 26 schools, renaming them, and taking in all the same kids?

The first reason is fairly obvious--to humiliate and inconvenience thousands of teachers by forcing them to reapply for their own jobs. This will certainly be a miserable experience for all of them, whether or not they succeed in getting their jobs back. That's how folks like Bloomberg build morale. As a side bonus, the numbers of ATR teachers are likely to explode. Though it's an incredible and idiotic use of city money and their time, he can use them as a convenient scapegoat while dragging his filth through the NY papers.

Another reason, I'm told, is this--if XYZ high school needs to make a certain graduation rate next year so as not to be closed, all we need to do is change the name to ABC high school, and voila! They don't need to meet that standard anymore! Michael Bloomberg has magically arranged for them to meet some lower standard and he isn't "accountable" anymore.

Of course, even if he were accountable, he could always blame those darn unionized teachers. They want classrooms instead of trailers. They want blackboards instead of hammers and chisels. Look, here's one demanding a computer instead of an abacus! Is there any end to their gall?

Smoke and mirrors. Bloomberg's got nothing more to offer. The turnarounds will not improve the education of the kids who live in those neighborhoods. It insults the heritage of these schools, and the neighborhoods that they're in. But Bloomberg doesn't care. Because now, even though fewer kids graduate, he may be able to meet arbitrary standards that are now lower than they'd have been otherwise.

It's endlessly ironic that this mayor has staked his reputation on education, he knows nothing whatsoever about it, and doesn't even care to learn. He's expert at PR, and it appears nothing else matters.

We Want to Go on Trips! No, Wait, We Don't

I've blogged a number of times about how valuable I think field trips are.  Not only can they be educational, but they present wonderful opportunities to build relationships with your students in new and unexpected ways.  We in my grade at TMS2 have been hearing our students' (loud, insistent, shrill) pleas for more field trips, and we are embarking on our second one in a month in a few days.

However, there's just one problem: only about 75% of the slots available for the trip are filled.

The trip is free, by the way, lest you think financial difficulties might be holding students back.

One of my colleagues who teaches a different grade is in an even tougher position.  She's hard at work putting together an overnight trip, this intrepid gal, and more than half of the invited students haven't returned so much as the permission slip, let alone the medical paperwork and trip fees.

I'm starting to think that what the students really want is a few attendance-optional school days, since the students not going on the trip naturally aren't in school.  It really seemed, at one point, though, that the students really liked the trips themselves.  They liked hanging out with each other and, God forbid, their teachers, going somewhere new and learning something new outside the classroom.

What's going on here?  Why will students beg for trips, only to have interest levels hover somewhere between 40%-75% when they actually happen?  And in what universe don't students want to go on field trips, anyway?

Don't Know Much About History

Is NY State right to abolish the Global History Regents exam? Lots of us have had our fill of standardized testing, and would like to see far less of it. Of course that's not the case, as the state plans all sorts of nonsense, largely to assess teachers. Kids will be spending hours of potential learning time indulging in nonsensical junk science, to appease those who wish to fire teachers by any means necessary.

The problem with this proposal is not that there will be one fewer test. The problem is the rationale behind eliminating it--that too few students pass it. As the test with the worst record, it needs to be eliminated, disappeared. There is a counter proposal to make two tests rather than one, but that will cost more money. It's kind of amazing where they choose to make cuts--like the January Regents exams that not only allowed kids to graduate on time, but also boosted school stats.

That, of course, was a huge waste of money, as the notion here is to close as many schools as possible. This global exam, though, not only made the schools look bad, but also made the state look bad. That is unacceptable. So, like Geoffrey Canada dumping an entire cohort rather than deal with scores that make his school look bad, the state is exercising its absolute power rather than deal with a problem.

If the state were taking a reasonable approach, like empowering rather than vilifying teachers, we could present history in a way that might actually interest our kids in it. We could incorporate current events, and try to develop involved citizens. Or, we could simply dump the tests, hope interest in history wanes, fire hundreds of teachers who don't contribute to valuable test-taking, and try to raise a generation of citizens who believe people like John King, Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo, and Arne Duncan actually work for them rather than zillionaires like Bill Gates.

On Getting a "Seat at the Table" with Bill Gates

Earth Day Musing

Everything Is POV

Thanks to Richard.

SleepLearning?

Kids asleep in class has been a scourge of school since, probably, forever, but for some reason it's really on my nerves lately. I really resent being made to feel responsible for the learning of students who sleep through my class day after day. I know--these are teenagers with no sense of their body's limits, so staying up until 3 a.m. playing Call of Duty or doing whatever it is that they do doesn't sound like a terrible idea.

It doesn't kick in until 3rd period and you're supposed to be taking notes on annotation strategies. Putting your head down for a few minutes sounds so easy and lovely. I'll just rest for a minute, then, boom, the teacher is shaking you awake. "Wake up. Come on, buddy. You're missing these notes. I don't want you to miss this. You're going to be confused later if you don't get this."

"Mmmmmphmmm."

The teacher shakes you again. "Come on. Stay with us here."

You pick your head up and scribble a few notes, then put your head back down. So tired. Stupid English class.

When you finally pick it up again, the teacher, having given up on waking you up, knowing that students in a deep sleep occasionally come out of their slumbers with torrents of profanity that will be much more disruptive than letting them sleep, has moved on in the lesson. It's half an hour later. You have no idea what's going on. Well, might as well go back to sleep. Then I'll feel nice and rested for geometry.

And if you're the teacher, you physically can't put a student out of your class for sleeping, because what are you going to do, pick them up and deposit them in the hallway? Calling home for a kid sleeping is pretty damn useless, too, I've found.

There are some decent tips for dealing with sleeping students here, though I can't see my kiddies doing jumping jacks. I might try the "you can sleep if you're standing" trick. But until there's evidence for SleepLearning, we've got to fight the Sandman as well as every other battle in our classes.

Common Core, Uncommon Assumptions

I have, in general, been in support of the Common Core. I'd like it if every child in this country had the opportunity to learn from the Core Knowledge curriculum, especially in the early grades; I've witnessed the chaos and despair that results from students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and then receiving substandard educations. Common Core is at least one small step towards unifying curriculum in this country, which, in general and in theory, could be a good thing.

But recently, I started to worry. A few of my colleagues and I sat down with a draft of a "performance-based assessment" that is aligned to the Common Core. This assessment came with a pair of nonfiction texts about "green consumption." A fine topic, but one that would need to be taught carefully and explicitly to many of the students we teach in order for them to be successful with it. I would bet money right now that maybe 2 of my current students could define "locavore." My colleagues and I completed a gap analysis of this task and quickly became overwhelmed and, I think it's fair to say, concerned by the prospect that something like this could appear on a Regents exam, or whatever they're going to be calling the Regents exam, in 2014.

The cultural bias in these pieces was blatant to teachers who teach in high-poverty schools. How many of our students, for example, know what a "thread count" is in a set of sheets, or even know how much a car-seat cover or a pound of pomegranates should cost? Yet all of these assumptions and more were built into the texts. And the assessment that emerged from these texts is the one by which our students, and of course we ourselves, will be judged.

If we're going to take all this time and money and effort to totally revamp all the state tests, can we at least not design ones that poor kids might have a fighting chance at passing?

A Modern Fairy Tale

One morning, bright and early, Ms. Finnerty got an email from the principal.

Please come to my office period 2.

Ms. Finnerty was confused. She taught period 2.

Are you sure you didn't mean period 3? I teach period 2.

Moments later, there was a response.


I know very well you teach period 2. Of course we will cover your period 2 class. Please be sure to leave a lesson so the person who covers you can teach something of value that period.

Wow. That didn't sound good. Ms. Finnerty searched her memory for what could be so important her class needed covering, and drew a blank. Period 2 she reported to the principal's office.

"Sit down," said the principal. The principal then started fumbling with her collar. Ms. Finnerty sat down, but was inwardly concerned. The principal only fumbled with her collar when she was angry.

"You came into the building this morning carrying two Macy's bags," the principal announced.

This was true. Ms. Atkinson had two sons a little older than Ms. Finnerty's son, and had just given her some clothes her son could wear.

"How did you know that?" asked Ms. Finnerty.

"Ah!" the principal practically shouted, standing, and beginning to pace around like a detective from a black and white potboiler. "How do I know? Because I saw you!"

Ms. Finnerty was getting worried. She didn't know that Macy's bags weren't allowed in school. Why would they forbid Macy's bags? It's not such a bad store. They don't sell narcotics or anything. Well, not as far as she knows...

"That's right, I saw you!" repeated the principal. "And you didn't even say hello to me!"

"I didn't see you," said Ms. Finnerty.

"Let me tell you something, Ms. Finnerty. I am the principal. I am the educational leader of this school.  You walked into this building this morning and did not even acknowledge my existence! That is simply unacceptable!"

From that day on, Ms. Finnerty's professional life deteriorated. In June, she was fortunate enough to find another principal who was happy to hire her. And she would have lived happily ever after, if only Mayor Bloomberg had not decided to close her new school for no reason whatsoever.

Vacation from Vacation

As I mentioned before my departure, I traveled to exotic climes for spring break this year. And as the vagaries of international travel would have it, I didn't return until quite late Sunday evening, and once I made it through immigration and customs and the taxi stand and what have you, it was after midnight.

Now, I had planned accordingly for this. Lesson plan and materials were already in place for Monday morning before I left, so it wasn't too bad. Although I was tired, I knew I needed to be at school, not just for the sake of saving a day, but to send the message to students that once vacation is over, it's over, and it's time to come back.

However, that message was lost on the one-third of my students who decided to extend their break yesterday, some of whom had also started their breaks early. I have one student who has apparently been in Florida since the last weekend in March and another who has been in Puerto Rico even longer. Don't get me wrong; you'll pry spring break from my cold, dead fingers, and it's important that kids get time to relax and have fun with family and friends, too. But it concerns me how many families seem to decide that they can take multi-week vacations smack dab in the middle of the school year. I especially love it when I'm asked to provide, say, three weeks' worth of work for a student going off to visit relatives abroad in, say, March.

I know, too, it's hard to fault the kids for this when the families explicitly endorse and encourage this behavior. And I'm not talking about a kid with a death in the family or something like that. I'm talking about parents who have told me openly that they're going to visit family and friends and designated break times were simply inconvenient.

Well, bon voyage, my students who I haven't seen since maybe March 30th. Hope you're having fun. But please don't ask for some kind of elaborate explanation as to why you're not passing English.

That Wacky Funster from New Jersey

Governor Chris Christie, though not a teacher by trade, has real class. You can tell, because he's brought his ALEC-inspired war on teachers straight to the classroom. It's one thing to attack teachers. That's pretty common, and has become pretty much as standard as no. 2 pencils. However, His Governorship has taken things a step further:

"There’s a lot of really great teachers in the state," said Christie. "But their union cares more about how much they get paid than they care about how well you learn."

That's why Jersey schools are short of supplies, according to Christie. It's so inconvenient for him to provide teachers with salaries that the only way he can make up for it is by pulling supplies from schools. After all, Christie long ago made sure taxes on the rich were cut, and that cost around a billion dollars. Yet those greedy teachers still won't agree to work gratis. Where is Governor Christie going to get funds to helicopter to his son's baseball games?

Christie, of course, is always concerned with the taxpayer. That's why he killed the tunnel that was supposed to run from Jersey to New York. It turns out that he just lied about the whole darn thing, and now there's no tunnel, and it appears he deprived his state of it just to advance his up-and-coming political career.  President Christie. Emperor Christie. Whatever it takes.

Still, teachers have to be careful what they say to students. It's kind of incredible the governor is not subject to such standards. This particular governor has no problem spouting outright falsehoods to his state, no matter what the cost.

So lying to a bunch of teenagers, for him, is like stealing candy from a baby. And that's precisely what I expect to see Chris Chistie do next.

Put Another Shrimp on the Barbie

Alas

Shocking!

This photo ran in today's Daily News. I can't remember what the story was about, or who this guy is, but when I saw that this young woman was a student, I was beside myself. This looks like improper touching to me.

As a regular reader of the Daily News, I know that teachers who've committed such acts of barbarism have been labeled perverts. I certainly hope they say the same about this man, whoever he is. Perhaps there's a letter in his file that was thrown out for being baseless, and we, the public, need to know about it so we can shun this man, whoever he is, for whatever it was he was acquitted of doing.

The New York Post should camp out on his doorstep, call him the worst whatever-it-is he does in the city, and run a story about it. And the Times should catalog all the instances of anyone in the world having been acquitted of committed such atrocities and run a story about that too.

This looks to me like something for which this man, whoever he is, needs to be removed from his job, whatever that is, and sent to some other place for a few years to await a hearing. Then, after that, if he's declared innocent, it's important that all the papers call him a pervert and demand he be fired anyway.

Because that's not simply justice. It's New York tabloid justice, the best kind money can buy.

Related: NY Times Schoolbook

Related: The ICEUFT Blog

Related: Perdido Street School

Related:  Assailed Teacher

Related: Pissed Off Teacher 

Related: Accountable Talk 

Related: EdNotes Online

Walcott Explains This Week's Turnaround Plan

 Good morning New York. I'm Dennis "Waffles" Walcott, NY City Schools Chancellor.

You know, we here at Tweed take the education of our youngsters very seriously. That's why, two years ago, Mayor Bloomberg decided to utilize the "transformation model" for 33 schools in the city. I fully supported this great innovation, as supporting our schools is something it's important for us to do. Also, using the Danielson Framework was helpful. While some people, including Danielson, felt our rubric was kind of a "gotcha" thing, I thought we did a pretty good job, especially since none of us had actually been trained in how to use the darn thing. I fully supported the way we used it.

Now, once we and the UFT were unable to come to an agreement on evaluation, I fully supported Mayor Bloomberg's decision to keep the federal money via the federal "turnaround" plan, which entails replacing the principal and at least 50% of staff. After all, we need that money to enact valuable reforms. When the UFT and the city came to a preliminary agreement on evaluation, I fully supported Mayor Bloomberg's decision to do the turnaround model anyway. After all, the UFT ought to know that we do what the mayor wants, when he wants, and how he wants, and that I fully support this approach.

Mayor Bloomberg also took the step of removing 7 schools who'd received As or Bs in our progress reports. We looked pretty stupid closing those schools, so when Mayor Bloomberg took them off the list, I fully supported him. 

Of course, there is that nasty contract that the UFT insists we use, just because we negotiated and signed it. While I think it's unreasonable, it turns out that the federal "turnaround" model violates the contract, which says we must allow a minimum of 50% of the most senior teachers to keep their jobs. Mayor Bloomberg wisely decided to follow this model rather than face a losing lawsuit, and I fully supported him.

So now it looks like we won't get the federal money after all. That was the main reason Mayor Bloomberg decided to use the turnaround model. But he has decided to go ahead with it anyway, and I fully support him. After all, it will be a nice change for kids to come to a school that's brand new, with lots of different teachers. Why? Because Mayor Bloomberg says it will, and I fully support him.

Sure there are those nattering nabobs of negativity, who wonder how a school will get off to a good start when it can't actually program for next year, or plan anything whatsoever given it has no idea who will be working there next year, and that the school technically will not exist next year. I say, embrace the challenge! Mayor Bloomberg changes his plans all the time, for any reason, or for no reason at all, and all I can say is I fully support him.

To My Student "Melissa," Who Is Transferring

A student who is very dear to me is transferring at the end of the academic year due to a move to a very "outer" region of an outer borough. This is for her.

***

Dear "Melissa":

I can't believe you're leaving. You were one of the first students I noticed when I came to your school almost two years ago now. At first you just seemed like another scared ninth grader. But as I got to know you over the past two years, I've learned a lot about you that sets you apart from your peers.

Even among many students who had tough starts in life, yours has been uniquely tough. It started when you were born early, disabled, and clinging to life. It got tougher when your dad went back to his native country, leaving you, your mom, and your sister to fend for yourselves in one of the most challenging cities in the world. And it got even tougher when you entered school, finally, and found yourself progressing so much more slowly than the other kids.

But the tough start that shatters so many children made you tough, Melissa. You fought back, maintaining at least an 80 average every year since 6th grade. You refused to disengage even when you were left back, and then left back again. You and your mom learned how to advocate for the services you needed and made sure you got them. You came to school every day, maintaining a 98% attendance rate. And by the time you reached the end of ninth grade, you were a star student in English class, typing out essays on your Blackberry because it was the only way you could type them at home and reading your poetry out loud to your classmates.

And as if you haven't had enough on your plate in your young life, it's been a difficult year for you as well. The challenges you've faced are so painful and personal that I don't want to post about them even with your real name and my real name left off this post. And yet here you are, with your mom, at parent-teacher conferences, discussing your (good) grades with me (except history, of course--it's always been your Achilles heel!). Here you are visiting me in the morning before classes start, talking about your dream of becoming a psychologist and writing your life story. Here you are, crying in the guidance counselor's office because you don't want to leave your school. So many kids, you have no idea how many, would have quit long ago. Here you still are.

On the very worst of days, kids like you remind me why I work so hard, because even on the worst days, there's at least one kid that I know for sure is giving everything in terms of effort and focus to make sure she gets an education, in spite of dizzyingly lousy odds. And I have to hang in there for that kid. Because if she can do it, I can do it.

You're that kid, Melissa. I'm going to miss you so much. But you? You'll be fine. If you've made it this far, nothing, nothing can possibly hold you back now.

Love,

Miss Eyre