Wrestlemania 2016

On Monday night I decided to take a peek at the debate. I didn't need to get up early on Tuesday, and figured I'd have little to lose. With luck, I'd fall asleep and miss most of it. For me, it's usually good enough to watch the little pieces on TV.

But fortune was not smiling on me and I stayed awake through all of it. I'd read about how Trump had assembled a group of women who had grudges with Bill, along with a rape victim whose attacker had been defended by attorney Hillary Clinton. Thus, his response to being caught on camera saying things most people would find unacceptable from a 12-year-old junior high school loser was to make it into even more of a reality show than it already was. Honestly, attorneys represent all sorts of clients, and I understand some even represent Donald Trump. It's pretty creepy to judge them for doing their jobs.

At the actual debate it seems like Trump was really pushing the edges of his limited vocabulary to describe how bad Hillary was. She was the dumbest, the worst, she was a disaster. And everything was her fault. Why didn't she change it when she was in the Senate? After all, you get one of a hundred voices over in that place. It was controlled by the Republicans, she said. But Trump thought that wasn't good enough. Maybe she should've twisted everyone's arm until they came over to her way of thinking.

And then it was Obamacare. Yes, what a disaster. I'm personally upset to have my daughter covered until she's 26 under my policy. What a horror that is. And oh, she wants single payer. They have that in Canada, and all the Canadians are climbing over one another to get here and have surgery. Only they aren't. Unless you're incredibly wealthy you can't afford to do almost anything in an American hospital, which charges you thousands of dollars a day simply for being there, let alone having anything done.

And unfortunately, Hillary is not for single payer anymore, having failed to push it through when her husband was President. I've read that she supports a public option, which beats the hell out of having to choose between various predatory insurance companies. But Trump will magically have those companies compete and offer reasonable options, even though they have never done so before and have, before Obamacare, pretty much excluded anyone who actually had the temerity to get sick before wanting to be insured. (Actually the public option would give them something serious with which to compete.) Yes, single payer would be a disaster. How awful to free doctors of having to bill 500 insurance companies and patients of various copays and fees over which they have no control whatsoever.

And then there's the tough guy routine. Trump favors the law and order that's dumped over 2 million Americans in prison, and when he wins, he'll appoint a special prosecutor and place Hillary there too. How dare she state he's unfit, let alone run against him? He'll show her. He'll put her in prison, just like his pal Putin. And if those Dixie Chicks, or anyone else, dare speak up against him, he'll dump them in a cell somewhere, just like Putin did to Pussy Riot. Maybe he'll dump them in Hillary's cell. None of that free speech crap for the Donald. If you're gonna be a tough guy you can't tolerate such frivolity.

And when they ask him about his remarks about women, he says I'm sorry but I'm going after ISIS. Somehow, in his mind there's a connection. Maybe we're supposed to be afraid that if we don't vote for him, ISIS will somehow become more powerful. They're not open-minded, like we are. Maybe they'll torture people, you know, like Trump says he wants to do. Maybe they'll win elections and imprison or otherwise wipe out their opponents. Stuff like that happens, you know.

Honestly, I can't believe I sat through this nonsense. I'm glad I'm not a social studies teacher who assigned students to watch it. I'd probably be on charges for corrupting our youth or something. Did you endure this? At the very least, shouldn't we all get a prize for it?

Slavery Prohibited, BUT...

You may generally disregard everything and anything preceding the word but. The important part comes afterward. When your supervisor says he liked parts of your lesson but, you're likely as not facing one of those much-coveted ineffective ratings.

Netflix has a real must-watch documentary on right now. I've cited the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, the one that prohibits slavery, when my members haven't gotten paid by the DOE. But this amendment is no joke, and the prohibition against slavery is far from total. People who are incarcerated can be compelled to work for little or no compensation. That's convenient for companies who want to get around those pesky sweat shop laws, and also for people who need that eight-dollar pair of jeans from JC Penney.

You don't get to see arguments like these on popular venues like Netflix all that frequently. The whole law and order mantra through the 70s and 80s has resulted in an explosion of the number of US prisoners, composed largely of people of color. We've gone from 300K back in 1970 to over 2 million today. Much of this was enabled by laws pushed by ALEC, a partnership of corporations and politicians it bought and paid for. We all know there's an explicit connection between tax cuts for the rich and reduced services for most Americans

You see the usual suspects like Nixon, Reagan and Bush. It shows that Bush one's people were explicitly aware of the message they were sending. It shows the participation of the Clintons, who've since stepped back a little. Bill Clinton was brilliant in reversing the perception that Democrats were soft on crime, helped to remove judicial discretion, and pushed the awful and simplistic three strikes you're out law, imitated by states. He's since backed up on this, but the damage is done. Trump has actually amped up the message, and wants to push us further into this quagmire. He still pushes not only the law and order message, but urges further tax cuts for the likes of himself.

When people are afraid, they buy guns and bullets. And one of the reasons to keep people afraid is so they'll do just that. Walmart makes a ton of money selling weapons. That's one reason Walmart was a member of ALEC. And that's why, even though they dropped out for PR reasons, members of the Walmart family still quietly contribute.

A portion of this film addresses the way immigrants are criminalized, warehoused in inadequate facilities that benefit only the ALEC members (or former ALEC members) who run them. In fact, Part 154 deprives New York immigrants direct instruction in English. What on earth are people supposed to do if they aren't even supported in their quest to speak the dominant language?

ALEC is painted as a great evil in this, an insidious organization that dispenses with any vestige of common decency in order to create profit for its members. If millions of people have to be virtual slaves to support its needs, so be it. But we who focus on education have heard of ALEC before.  Indeed, ALEC does not simply push laws like Stand Your Ground, the one that allowed George Zimmerman to get away with killing Trayvon Martin (even after authorities instructed Zimmerman to stop following him).

ALEC supports privatization of not only prisons, but also schools. Corporations that had supported ALEC, like Microsoft and Walmart, are still pushing for that, only via other means. Not a day goes by that I don't read fawning coverage on how the charters are working miracles with children we, the unionized teachers, are neglecting. Gates and Walmart don't give money to charter-loving Chalkbeat just for the heck of it. (Full disclosure--I was recruited to write for Chalkbeat, but my POV did not fit in with their agenda.)

Rahm Emanuel can fire unionized teachers and hire TFA members. He can close 50 public schools, dump all their students into those remaining, and still pump cash into charters. In Detroit, the conditions in public schools are horrendous. And if you need a downside of charters, that's a good please to look. Nonetheless, media regularly trumpets the story that charters are the silver bullet, and it doesn't matter if they abuse children, falsify graduation rates, expel inconvenient students, pick and choose who they accept, or even dismiss entire cohorts.

School closings are yet another symptom of the privatization push. If you think the ATR was created just for fun, think again. We've got maybe a thousand teachers running around from school to school, week to week. This does awful things to people, and it's probably intended to. If it rids them of a few unionized teachers it works. Replacing them with disposable temps cuts less into the all-important profits.

Our school system is directly affected by all the same people who've poisoned our prison system. Voucher supporter Corey Booker, in the Netflix documentary,  can talk about how prisons enable institutional racism, but that hasn't prevented him from taking money from the very people who push such things.

The scourge of poverty, studiously ignored by all the reformies, is what we'd be studying if we really wanted to improve education. How on earth can we reasonably discuss educational equity when more than half of our children live in poverty? ALEC's agenda includes the decimation of union, as personified by members like Scott Walker. How do worsened working conditions and fewer opportunities help our children? Your guess is as good as mine, and you'd better believe that charters don't want or support union.

Don't miss this important documentary. If you don't have Netflix, visit someone who does and watch it together. And while you do, bear in mind that the same people who've enabled this horror in our public prison system are actively in process of using our children for even more profit. They're not assigning them to forced labor just yet, but they're substituting test prep for learning and tedium for reading.

Reforminess may not be placing our kids in literal prison, but it's an atrocity nonetheless. 

When Things Come Together

 Full disclosure--I may say something good about an AP here, so if you can't take that, please stop reading now.

On Wednesday morning, my colleague Paula Duffy, English teacher and UFT delegate, Eric Mc Carthy, AP Security, and I met near the Francis Lewis trailers at 6 AM. From there, we drove to the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan for the Daily News Hometown Hero Awards.

I had applied posthumously on behalf of my colleague, Kevin O'Connor, who passed away suddenly last Spring. We had known since last summer that he'd won and had to keep it secret. Kevin taught social studies and worked as a dean.

Kevin would surely have done the same for me. Eight years ago I had to take a semester's leave when I got cancer, and he ran around seeking contributions from colleagues. He presented me with a $500 Visa card. That made for a lot of lunch dates for my wife and me before I went back to work.

Kevin had applied for the dean position a few times before he actually got it. He seemed to find his place and a really distinct voice in our school as a dean. He had endless patience for kids, and he had a way of connecting with the most troubled of kids. Kevin had had his own troubles, and he was able to quickly understand what troubled kids needed. Often it was a non-judgmental adult ear, and he was always ready and willing to provide one. Ears like those are hard to find.

Kevin himself found one in our AP Eric McCarthy, who would always listen and help him out with scheduling issues or whatever he needed. Any extended conversation I had with Kevin always included praise for Eric. I was really happy to hear this. As chapter leader, I get to hear absolutely every negative comment about every AP. It was very nice to hear something different for a change, and it's pretty good to be able to repeat it here.

Kevin, like me, had the insane habit of coming to school ridiculously early. He lived in Long Beach, which is not precisely a hop, skip, and a jump from Queens. The only way to beat the traffic is to leave well before you need to. Thus on days when there was some awful accident or something Kevin and I would be among the only people who showed up on time. Our drive to beat the traffic made for many early-morning conversations.

When my colleagues and I got to the Edison Ballroom, they were pretty impressed by the surroundings. I think they expected something like a school breakfast, with tables full of bagels and cream cheese, and a big coffee urn with 500 people waiting in line to take a cup. Instead, we got fresh fruit, table service, eggs, quiche, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. It was a nice change, though we'd all drunk too much coffee to eat much.

There were celebrity presenters, one for each of the eleven award recipients. There was Chancellor Carmen Fariña, a bunch of TV newscasters, and rapper DMC. But we all almost fell out of our seats when Mayor Bill de Blasio broke from his general comments and started speaking about Kevin O'Connor. It was almost too good to be true to see the Mayor of New York City recognizing someone much beloved by our children, a thousand of whom stood to mourn and praise him at a ceremony held in our courtyard.

We're the largest school system in the country, with 1.1 million students and 76,000 teachers. One out of 300 Americans is a New York City student. So there's a lot of bureaucracy, and a lot of nonsense. There are a lot of people sitting around Tweed who've never taught a day in their lives. There are principals who haven't either. Consequently there's a great deal of nonsense with which we have to contend. (I may even have written about that once or twice.)

But sometimes they really get everything right. On Monday, everything kind of came together, courtesy of sponsors NY Daily News, UFT, CSA, DOE, and CUNY, and the excellent judgment of the mayor, who obviously had choices, and chose to come out and speak about Kevin.

More please.

You Will Differentiate Instruction the Same Way for Everyone

That seems to be the main thrust of the new grading policy. A big thing, for me at least, is the policy on what is and is not acceptable for participation. I had been doing precisely the thing that the DOE seems to loath—granting a participation grade at the end of each marking period. I essentially gave a positive grade for students who raised their hands and were active all the time, a negative grade for those who spent most of the time sleeping, and various degrees in between for others.

Now here’s the thing—DOE gives an example that you give credit each day when a student brings a pencil and notebook. That is, of course, measurable. It’s also idiotic, as it’s a preposterously low standard. I think the reason they gave that example was because it was very easy for them to think of. And thus, we part ways. I actually think about grades a lot. To me, bringing a pencil is only a marginal step above breathing.

But they don’t need to think about it. They just need to sit in air-conditioned offices and tell us what to do. Why bother considering the real lives of lowly teachers, let alone the students they ostensibly serve? Treat everyone the same.

So if someone places a student in my class, tells me she has a 70 IQ, and the girl looks appears so fragile that if you touched her she would break, well, rules are rules. If she doesn’t participate each and every day, screw her, she gets zero. If one of my students is from a country where they have classes of 50, if she’s been taught all her life to sit down and shut up, if she’s so painfully shy that she actually trembles when you ask her a question, give her a zero. Everything is black and white in the ivory towers of the DOE.

Your opinion cannot be quantified. Let’s say you teach strings. Let’s say one of your students comes in and plays a beautiful piece, with perfect vibrato. She makes you feel as though you have reached nirvana. I come in and scratch out something that sounds like I’m strangling a cat.

But we’ve both brought in our violins and cases, and how the hell are you gonna prove she plays better than me? Is it on the rubric? And who’s to say I didn’t find my own piece to be breathtakingly beautiful? Who the hell are you to judge me without a rubric? And if you do have one, and you tell me how badly I played, maybe I’ll just report your ass under Chancellor’s Regulation A-421, verbal abuse. You made me feel bad. So screw you too.

After all, the supervisors are using rubrics. They come in with that Danielson thing and check boxes. These boxes contain the evidence.  Plus they have notes. So who cares if the notes came from the voices in their heads and nothing they say actually happened? I’ve seen supervisors outright make stuff up.

So is that the solution to this ridiculous rule? Do we lie and say that students who didn’t participate did?

I have a disagreement with my co-teacher over what volunteering means. For her, it’s, “Did you raise your hand and get up and do something?” For me, it’s you, you, and you. Thank you for volunteering. I usually do that and call on everyone. Should they get less credit because I forced them to? Or should I wait and hope for the best? Here's another manner in which I part ways with the DOE--I'm willing to negotiate or discuss it. I don't just say, "Here's how we do it. If you don't like it, screw you." Because that's not how you work productively here on Planet Earth. 

Here’s what I think—I think if you’re a teacher you should have discretion. I think it’s ridiculous that everyone must be graded the same without exception. I think what’s excellent for me may be so-so for you. What if you’re the person who plays that violin like an angel? Do you seriously believe the Department of Education won’t place you in a class with a cat strangling, off-key person who can’t spit out a tune to save his life?

Oh, and your self-contained class must be held to the same standard as the gen. ed. class. The fact that there are only 15 kids is the accommodation. That’s it. The fact that the Regents exam holds them to a lower standard doesn’t mean you can because screw you. And screw the kid too. It’s no problem for the DOE, which is impeccable in treating everyone fairly.

And that class with the push-in ESL teacher? The one where everyone is learning about the Civil War for 40 minutes a day and the ESL students are supposed to be concurrently learning English? Too bad the native kids only need to learn about the Civil War. You need to learn both, in the same time, because screw you. NY State says that’s how we have to teach it and that’s the way it is. So screw you, and screw your students too, because you have to be fair but we don’t.

That’s what the new grading policy looks like to me so far.

Rock Steady

That's the United Federation of Teachers, according to the million-dollar commercial I keep seeing on the morning shows. The politicians throw barbs at us but we never waver. It doesn't matter what positions they take because we're above it all. We're hard-working and passionate. About what I have no idea, nor does anyone watching the commercial.

We show up every day. We teach kids every day. We walk around classrooms and call on our students. I kind of take that for granted. If the assumption behind the commercial is that this is unexpected in some way, shape, or form, I have to say I'm a little surprised.

Some teachers, like those in the commercial, are young and good-looking. That may or may not be part of the message. Of course, being a lowly teacher, I can't be entirely sure what the message is. I'm also not sure who the commercial is directed at, or of what exactly it's intended to persuade them.

At the Executive Board meeting President Michael Mulgrew, who deigned to show up for ten minutes or so, said it was reviewed very well. I have no idea who reviewed it or what they said about it, but I guess that's on a need-to-know basis, like Mulgrew's top secret plans for "authentic" evaluation measures. Evidently, in a union with ostensible democracy, no one's supposed to know what the hell the people they elect are doing. Who knew? (Besides, if he told us what it was, I'd certainly report it here, and that would ruin the whole surprise. Therefore it's my fault.)

Another thing I learned at the Executive Board was that there was a song called Rock Steady, and that it was recorded by both Aretha Franklin and some group I'd never heard of. Leroy Barr advocated for the Aretha version while Howie Schoor stressed the importance of whoever else sang it. The controversy raged all night while we upstarts from MORE/ New Action discussed class size and overcrowding, which did not happen to appear on the Unity/ Rock Steady agenda.

Usually UFT commercials show up a few months before union elections. The last one showed Mulgrew running around with a UFT bus telling people what a great job we're doing. I doubt it gained him many votes because most of us can't be bothered voting at all. We're too busy trying to keep our heads above water. We're too busy trying to survive Danielson observations from Boy Wonder supervisors who need either glasses, brain and personality transplants, or all of the above.

But the important thing to know, if you aren't fired by an insane supervisor for being rated ineffective, is we're Rock Steady. And it's true, you know. For example, we in the UFT haven't even tried to negotiate a reduction in class size in half a century. That's why there are still 34 kids in your high school class if it isn't oversized. (Unless, of course, you teach music or gym. Then you have up to 50 per class, 5 times a day, often on an alternating basis. So you might have 500 students a week. You also might be expected to not only know all their names, but also to differentiate instruction.) Like I wrote the other day, we don't bother with frivolities like air conditioning classrooms, and it's likely plenty of schools still use relatively toxic heating oil. Too bad we finally got rid of those coal furnaces. That would make us even more Rock Steady.

It's a little ironic that the UFT claims to be above the fray even as they have a Clinton campaign office embedded at 52 Broadway. I only know this because Mulgrew told us at some meeting or other. I can't remember how many times I've been offered AFT-Hillary t-shirts over the last year. I guess that wearing them won't make me any less Rock Steady.

Here's the thing--I don't want to be above the fray, and I don't want to be Rock Steady, if that's what it means. I am absolutely partisan, and I'm always amused when UFT Unity commenters come here and accuse me of presenting only one side. Of course I present one side. (So do you, by the way.) I'm here to speak about what I believe in. That's why I've been Rock Steady in my opposition to leadership since 2005, when it dropped the UFT Transfer Plan in favor of the Absent Teacher Reserve, you know, the thing that gets smaller every year. It's therefore OK that over a thousand teachers haven't got classrooms.

It's not easy, and it's not fun. But someone has to speak out for better education. Someone has to spend time thinking about what's wrong for our members and kids, and someone has to speak out about it. We will be rock steady in our advocacy for better teaching and learning conditions.You can invest our dues money in nebulous TV commercials that influence no one.

But we will let people know exactly what you do, and when it's appropriate, exactly what you fail to do. We are, and will remain, rock steady in our advocacy for reasonable learning and teaching conditions. We will not sign loyalty oaths, and we will not sit down and shut up. Sorry if you don't like that.

Fight us or join us. We're up for whatever.

Update: There's also a song by Bad Company with the same name. I don't like it all that much, but here it is. 

Saint Rudy Digs a Hole

Wouldn't you rather have a genius for President than a woman, asks Rudy Giuliani. This comes after a few days of outrageous statements, including an assertion that everybody cheats on their spouse. You see, to Rudy, it's no one's business what happens in your personal life. Unless, of course, it gets in the way of your personal convenience. That's why, back when he was NY Mayor, Rudy sued for the right to bring his mistress into the home he shared with his wife and young children.

Meanwhile, the man Rudy says all this crap for, Donald Trump, openly ridicules Hillary Clinton for staying with Bill after his various escapades. Not only that, but Trump speculates that Hillary wasn't faithful to Bill either. Why should she be, he asks. Now there's part of this that these guys aren't wrong about. Why should Hillary be faithful to Bill? I don't know. I don't much care either.

That's the point where Rudy is right. I sure don't want to know who or what he's having sex with. The notion of a loathsome creature like that reproducing, or even attempting to, is something I certainly don't wish to contemplate. His best buds Trump and Christie? Maybe I want to know even less.

Rudy used to have to pretend to be moderate on social issues, as did Trump. Or maybe they actually are moderate on social issues and are lying now. It's hard to say. But now Trump's all for allowing discrimination against the LGBT community because, I can only suppose, you don't land the GOP vote without it. It isn't enough to just vilify Mexicans and Muslims when you're aiming for that particular demographic.

Both of these guys paint a very different picture when they're looking for support outside of New York. I guess New York can take it as a point of pride that when people run here they behave differently than when they're trying to sell themselves to the country at large. Prejudice and hatred don't sell quite as effectively in our neck of the woods.

I've got a lot of reservations about Hillary, but at this point I will probably vote for her. For one thing, it's much different choosing her against Donald Trump than against Bernie Sanders. I was very proud to vote for Bernie, and quite disappointed that the media presented him as a loser even when he was winning.

But there are two reasons I'm choosing her now over Jill Stein, for whom I voted four years ago. For one thing, I gave Barack Obama a chance eight years ago. He kind of broke my heart by selecting slimy little worms like Arne Duncan and John King to run education, or do the bidding of Gates, Walton, and their merry band of billionaire hedge funders. In fact I voted for Hillary in the primary against Obama. I guess I have to give her a chance.

More persuasive, though, was a message from activist Fred Klonsky, Fred says even if you reside in a reliably blue state, like his Illinois or our New York, that it's important to send a strong message rejecting the likes of Trump and Giuliani. The hatred, misogyny and bigotry that they represent must be repudiated as strongly as possible. If I can contribute some small piece of rejection, I'm gonna do it.

Hillary will owe us big time as far as I'm concerned.

110 in the Shade (and in the City Classroom, Too)

Yesterday I played fiddle at Terrhune Orchards in Princeton, New Jersey. On guitar was Bob Harris, who spent years playing with late and legendary fiddler Vassar Clements. He told us stories of playing with Vassar in Houston on 110 degree days. He spoke of how Vassar, who used to think Nashville had the worst weather, changed his mind in Houston. We were lucky yesterday. For one thing, it was October. That helped a lot.

Now my heart goes out to musicians playing in hot weather. It's uncomfortable, and miserable, and it's hard for me to understand why even fans want to be out there watching music they love. But you have to respect people who brave miserable conditions to do their jobs. And I suppose a lot of you see where I'm going by now.

At my school, a lot of rooms are air-conditioned. That puts us in a better place than a lot of other schools, which simply are not. (Some administrations will say they just can't, that the electricity is limited, until Moskowitz comes in and air-conditions an entire floor.) The Department of Education, in its infinite wisdom, places no upper temperature limit on classrooms. So when my members email me about the miserable conditions they're suffering, my best bet is to ask them if they've got some medical condition that precludes their being in such a place. Can you get a doctor's note? Because then you're protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. And while pregnancy is not a disability, if your pregnancy causes some condition that makes it inadvisable to sit in a pressure cooker, you can find alternate placement.

I was in trailers for maybe 12 years. I feel like they're part of me. I strongly advise you not to trust anyone who tells you that tin is a good insulator. They are miserable when the AC is out. You really cannot be expected to accomplish anything in a tin box on a 90-degree day with no AC. To its credit, my administration will let you leave the trailer when it's particularly miserable, with no AC, no heat, a sheet of ice on the floor, a sheet of ice on the path to enter, or a flood outside. I'm confident other administrations can't be bothered with such trivialities.

In fact, newer DOE buildings are completely air-conditioned. That's a great idea, particularly because these new buildings haven't got windows you can actually open. Of course, sometimes the AC goes out in these buildings, and when it does the DOE just keeps them open anyway. After all, when the snow comes up to our noses, Carmen Fariña declares, "It's a beautiful day," and says that because Macy's is open, we should be too. What Fariña fails to consider, though, is that Macy's AC is maintained so that it does NOT go out on hot days. No one is going to walk into a miserably hot store to buy anything. And I'll bet you dimes to dollars that Fariña's office is air-conditioned, even as tens of thousands of city kids swelter in miserable classrooms.

This year, I'm in a computer room. It's a large room, with space enough that we can run a class, and the computers are along the perimeter. In fact, the room is so large that it has not one, but two air-conditioners. One has been broken since day one, and with our southern exposure, the room has been miserably hot most of the term. It's particularly awful in the afternoon. I think last Friday was remarkable for not being as uncomfortable as the rest of the year. I'm told the school has ordered a new AC for that room but that it hasn't come in yet.

I really looked for ways I could file an effective grievance. Thankfully, neither I nor my co-teacher suffer from any respiratory ailment. I thought perhaps there were regs for computers. I know that AC has been an addition to computer rooms for decades, even as we humans were told to sit and suffer. I can remember many times I've opted to go to computer rooms or language labs simply because I knew they were air-conditioned. I thought perhaps I could find some regulation in place to protect the computers but alas, I've come up empty so far.

Listen, if they're gonna judge us on student engagement, they ought not to place us in rooms where the natural inclination of sentient beings is to lie down and sleep until the heat passes. And if that argument isn't enough--how about this one? It's 2016. The city is obsessed with making students college and career-ready, and colleges and careers are now air-conditioned. That's a fact, Jack, and we're not preparing our students well by making them suffer in sub-standard conditions.

We, the United Federation of Teachers, opted to wait until 2020 to get paid for what our brother and sister unionists got back in 2009. Consequently, the city is sitting on a ton of cash we lent them interest-free. Why the hell not invest in making learning conditions not miserable for one-million kids?

How about that, Chancellor Fariña? What's more basic than that?

Food for Thought

Take a gander at this video and let me know what you think.

I'm the Worst Tutor in the World

Yesterday I had to tutor one period in the library as part of our school's SBO agreement. A kid came over looking for an English teacher. I said I was one and asked what I could help him with. He said he needed help with the SAT. I asked him what exactly he needed help with and he said writing. But when I asked to see his writing he showed me a booklet he'd gotten from some SAT prep program. He opened it up to a baffling paragraph about journalism.

There were two multiple choice questions. I was able to figure out the first one but the second one didn't make any sense to me no matter what answer I used. I asked the kid what he wanted, and he said he wanted the answers. I asked him how it would help him if I answered the questions for him, and he couldn't really answer.

It was really an awful paragraph. I was sorry anyone had to read it, but happy none of my students had written it.

I asked some questions about what he liked to read. I got the impression that he'd read a whole lot of things like the one he showed me, and that reading was not something he looked forward to. If I had to read crap like that all the time I would surely not look forward to reading either.

I asked the boy where he got the book. He said he'd taken a prep course, and that he finished the first part, but they'd given him the second part books for free. I told him if I were him, or if my kid were taking the SAT, I'd buy a review book that contained explanations. He didn't seem to like the idea, and went off in search of a better tutor.

Later, another teacher told me that the SAT was being given this Saturday. I didn't understand the pressure he was under, and I now know my advice was not helpful at all. The thing is, though, that had I known the test was Saturday, I don't think I'd have been able to come up with much better advice. Maybe he had waited a little too long to seek help. I don't know.

Anyway, when he walked, the girl sitting across from me asked me to read her work.

"I am flat screen TVs," it began.

"Why are you a flat screen TV?" I asked her. She appeared to have multiple features I'd never seen on a flat screen TV. If she didn't I'd have worried.

She said it was a poem. Her poem contained a whole lot of other things she was, but she didn't look like any of them to me. Then she showed me another poem, which this one was evidently based on. I noticed that she had stolen a line about some tree, "the branches of which are my very soul," or something like that.

I told her she couldn't just go stealing lines from poems because it was plagiarism.

"But it's in the template!" she said.

"What template?" I asked her.

Then she showed me an outline of the original poem, with some pieces missing. Evidently the branches of something were going to have to be her very soul whether she liked it or not.

She made some funny comments. I told her she seemed very smart, which she did, but that I had never written poetry, and that her teacher was looking for something that was a reflection of who she was. I didn't believe she was a flat screen TV, not for one minute.

The girl was amused if not assisted. If anyone had brought me stuff they'd written without a template, I may have offered better advice. I must be old-fashioned or something.

Tons of Coverage, Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Charters--We're on Our Own

I cannot believe the crap that passes for news nowadays. Families for Excellent Schools says any damn thing it likes on behalf of Eva Moskowitz, who terrorizes young people into peeing their pants over tests. She's celebrated in the pages of the tabloids and, of course, in Chalkbeat NY, which considers her every move worthy of a feature story. They just had another expensive customized t-shirt heavy rally for more charters.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting in a school that's been over 200% capacity for decades and we have no place to put kids. My inbox is full of complaints from teachers in rooms with no windows that may or may not have air sources. I myself am in a room with a sunny southern exposure on the top floor that gets so hot I can barely concentrate. There's a non-functional air conditioner in front of the room. I complain and I'm told it will be fixed tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

It's a dual-edged sword for public schools here in Fun City. If your test scores and graduation rates aren't where the city wants them to be, you're under one program or other, and now they don't close your school anymore. You simply rehire the entire staff, and everyone has to apply to keep their jobs or become one sort of ATR or another. A lot of teachers don't bother to reapply, as they don't want to jump through all the various hoops demanded by the city and state, and who can blame them? Root causes like poverty, learning disabilities, and lack of English are no excuse for low test scores, and the core problems are vigorously ignored by all levels of government, right up to and including Secretary of Education Reformy John King, who happily dumps hundreds of millions of federal funds into charters.

And make no mistake--charters are not public schools. We don't run them, and we don't get to make decisions about them. We are, however, graciously allowed to pay for them. There is no way Eva takes the kids I teach, the ones who arrived here last week from countries all over the world. There is no way Eva takes the kids my school does, essentially everyone, up to and including alternate assessment students who are not expected to graduate and are a drag on the all-important stats. There is no miracle whatsoever in selecting students, dumping those who don't measure up, and achieving high test scores. If you or I allowed a student to pee her pants in class, we'd be up on corporal punishment charges via CR A-420. Of course Eva doesn't need any stinking rules.

My school is the most requested in the entire city. Any kid who lives in our district, or can successfully pretend to live in our district, gets in. As such, admin scrambles to meet contractual class size, but whenever you push out of one class, you push into another, and it's almost impossible. Our class sizes are already too high and we can barely keep up. Even if we do, 100 kids can walk through our doors on any given week and we'll be right back where we started.

It's a disgrace that the media celebrates the moneyed charter school astroturfers while studiously ignoring the effect on public schools. The more they draw from our best students, the more they can vilify us for not attaining the scores that they've achieved. The more they ignore what's actually happening on the ground, the more the public uncritically accepts their nonsense.

I don't know about you, but it's pretty clear that critical thinking is not being propagated no matter how much Common Core Crap we hurl at our hapless students. If so-called Families for Excellent Schools can regularly feed the media soundbites and stories, why the hell can't we?

Stupid Stupid Stupid

This week I’ve been examining the new DOE grading protocols, which insist everything be fair and transparent. I’ve written about their notions about homework, which I deemed borderline clueless, but I’m learning even more about them.

In our school, we are semi-annualized. This means that most classes last a year, though they get one credit for each half. We have an understanding that if a student gets a 55 in January, it will be reversed if the teacher grants a 65 at year’s end. This, since it’s understood by staff, makes sense to me. But it doesn’t make sense to the geniuses at Tweed. You see, the average of 55 and 65 is 60, and if things aren’t properly averaged, it’s likely the world will stop turning. We can’t have that, can we?

So teacher discretion is a thing of the past because it’s all about the numbers. To me, that’s ironic because our esteemed chancellor made her bones by running a school. She was legendary. She turned the whole thing around. And she did so by turning down 6 out of 7 applicants, according to the New York Times. If that’s not juking the stats I don’t know what is.

In any case, God forbid some kid should rehabilitate herself, start attending, and actually learn what I have to teach. If her average does not rise to 65, screw her. Let her take the whole course over for no reason because fairness. After all, there should be no discretion whatsoever on the part of the teacher to help a child. Who the hell do these teachers think they are anyway? Why on earth should their individual subjective judgment or desire to help a child trump an average?

It’s funny how people in NYSED and the DOE who regularly mess with figures have no trust whatsoever for working teachers. People who aren’t trustworthy, for some reason. seem to assume other people aren’t trustworthy either. Now I have my bad qualities, and I could line up a lot of people who would characterize me as a pain in the ass, but my word is my bond.

Nonetheless, that’s not actually the stupidest thing I’ve seen this week. While I’d actually planned on saying it was, something happened this morning that made me reconsider. This morning, after a test, a girl in my class almost passed out. I called for a wheelchair. I was told that there was a directive that they not be used. It seems people have not been sufficiently trained in their usage and maintenance, and are therefore not only unqualified, but also liable in the case of anything untoward occurring.

I’m supposing that someone got hurt while using a wheelchair somewhere. What the geniuses at Tweed fail to consider is the number of people who will be hurt by not using wheelchairs. It must be good to sit around an office all day, come up with stupid ideas, force schools to use them, and blame the people who actually teach children for everything and anything that goes wrong.

Sure beats working.

Correction--Actually the document gives as an example that a student with a minimum grade of 75 in June will have her  January grade adjusted to 75 as well. I'm not sure this is minimum policy. 

UFT Executive Board Minutes September 26th, 2016

 Apologies to names I missed. I spoke, and included are the notes from which I spoke.

I arrived at 6:06, missed speaker.

Approval of minutes for last meeting—Howie Schoor uses his new gavel.

Adcom minutes approved

President’s report—Secretary starts to explain Mulgrew not here, but Mulgrew objects, clear evidence secretary was mistaken. Mulgrew asks we keep it short for debates. AFT will be giving us instructions on how to support FL, Nevada, and PA. Says we all know what is at stake.

ATR negotiating session did not go well—no agreement. As of Friday 5794 new teacher hires. Asks we support them.

Paperwork being resolved, Manhattan school no longer needs to write goals for conferences.

FSF—we were ruled out of order—had hoped this admin would change it—even Rhee stopped using it. Believes there are political issues preventing its being revoked.

UFT ad—says there are great reviews. Mentions op-ed he wrote against Eva Moskowitz, who wants to double charter cap while half of her classrooms are empty due to discharges. Expects bad press. Says we will win. Plays ad.

Says they always say public ed. is failing, it isn’t. Graduation rate excellent. Community learning schools, with high need numbers, level 1, 2 down, 3, 4 up. We empower members to help kids.

Mulgrew exits.

Staff Director Report

Leroy Barr—Parent conferences, various dates. Wants to push teacher union day 11/6. Making Strides 10/16. We are largest group who raises most money for last few years. Next meeting 10/16 DA 10/19.

Much debate about who had hit with some song, debate continues all night.

Questions

Mike Schirtzer MORE—speaks of issue with budget. School underfunded. Experienced staff. High average teacher salary. Principal has been transparent, DR helpful. Problem is no title one and experienced staff. No per session, no per diem. Lost administrator. Have one principal, one AP, 3 counselors. Will work with SLT and parents. Question—I know we’re doing a lot.We have 33 oversized classes because we’re underfunded. What else can we do as a union?

Secretary—we can bring it up with DOE at next consultation. Asks Jonathan Halabi to provide info about his school as well.


Ashraya Gupta MORE—what data do we have about how many oversized classes there are? Why isn’t it published in NY Teacher anymore? In Detroit a parent took photos of overcrowding. Went viral on net. Teachers can’t do that. How do we highlight this?

Ellen P. Grievance dept. We will post them. Slightly up from last year. Queens HS have most because of space

Arthur Goldstein MORE—By a very conservative estimate, my school is at 200% capacity. Our problem with reducing class size has to do with lack of space, despite 8 trailers and having halved rooms and created additional space via conversion of closets and bookrooms. When de Blasio demolishes our trailers, it will be a disaster for our school community. I suspect we won’t be alone in that. In fact, our neighbors in Forest Hills are having even worse problems.

Let me add that we do simply not need additional seats in Queens. We need additional seats in the schools most requested by students. We need, actually an extension on our building.

I’m really tired of hearing about Students First, Families for Excellent Schools, Educators for Excellence and all the nonsensical reformy groups supported by Gates and hedge-funders. I’d like to see the United Federation of Teachers at the forefront of really making things better for all students.

How can we help to create seats for students and schools that most need them?


Ellie Engler staff director, will set up a meeting. Will meet with space allocation to brainstorm. Says they are open to our ideas. Will set up next month.

Kuljit S. Ahluwalia—New Action—Asks about ATRs. Many feel discriminated against for age. We would like a report broken down by age, experience, license. Perhaps data would help. We would like to know UFT position.

Secretary—We will get you info that we have. We don’t ask ages. ATRs are safe due to contract. Subject to same layoff provisions. Board wanted to limit ATRs. We did not give them that. We do not plan to give that up and ATRs have nothing to be nervous about. Says numbers are down but not exact.

Report from district—George Altomare—reports on Italian American committee. Would like everyone to celebrate Italian American culture month in October. 40th year of celebration. Speaks of BRAVE, anti-bullying, Peter Yarrow doing concert for it.

Secretary celebrates George as founder.

Karen Allford Elementary VP speaks of learning retreat. Says they helped build communication between admin and teachers. UFT community schools make teachers the base. Says there is always UFT teacher center, model teachers, and job-impeded PD. Says we bring programs to school, not cookie cutter models, that there are food pantries or reps from food banks to take care of primary necessities like these and dental, vision.

Paul Egan—Mentions debate, hopes for movement. Will phone bank in October. Says race is tightening. Ohio, PA, FL are important. Asks for members to make calls. We cannot have Donald Trump as President.

Special Order of Business—election appeal report

Secretary shows letter with 7 complaints, considered and rejected by Exec. Board. Are 8 additional complaints from Solidarity Caucus. Opens for debate.

Ellen Dreesen.—says some things are questionable. Were reps from every caucus at every step. We made decisions equitable to every caucus. Questioning of AAA surprising. They make money by being fair. Don’t work only for UFT. Union pays a lot of money to ensure fairness, proper handling. Doesn’t know what was untoward. These questions must be addressed and understood. We use them because they are fair.

Secretary asks for move to accept challenge and reject report. Many yeas. Few nays.

Motion carried.

We are adjourned.

Homework--Threat or Menace?

I've recently become privy to a DOE directive about grading policies (and I'm sorry, but I haven't got a link). It says that homework may be used as a tool to measure mastery. It seems to place less value on teachers walking around the room and giving simple credit for homework, or giving a grade of 100% for completion. On this astral plane, that's more than a little disappointing.

Homework is routinely copied, and anyone who doesn't think so is either a fool, in some proverbial ivory tower, or composing directives at Tweed. Most homework I give is relatively easy. While I don't want to make kids miserable, I have no problem giving them a few minutes of review at home. Were I to always grade homework I gave, I'd have to not only penalize students who honestly entered incorrect answers (which they could review and correct the next day in class), but also grant higher grades to those who copied from someone more capable. I'd rather just give everyone 100%.

In my sordid past, I did not give number grades to homework. I simply entered check marks in a book. But I now grade via a program that likes numbers, hence the 100. It's certainly true that students who copy homework get undeserved credit, but I can see who does and does not understand in other ways. For one thing, I'm in the classroom every day and I can see who does and does not complete and understand the work. I have a pretty good idea of who will and will not pass actual tests, which happen to be another indicator of who has mastered the material. Homework alone will not make anyone pass my class.

Another advantage of electronic grading is the chance to assign weight to various assignments. A homework assignment that I grade up or down has a value of one. If I simply walk around and look, it's 100 for completed homework, 50 for incomplete homework, and zero for nothing. My program enables this by allowing me to give a grade of 100 to everyone, and alter only those who vary via icons I set in advance.

I don't do that for all homework, though. if I assign, for example, a paragraph, I'll grade each one individually, and assign a value of two, so that it counts double what a short-answer homework assignment does. If I assign a multi-paragraph assignment, I'll grade that individually, and assign it triple value. On assignments like those, copying is quite a bad idea, as I notice pretty much all of it.

Unfortunately, if I were to expect my students to do homework assignments like that on a daily basis, they'd likely as not hate me and everything I stand for. That would make me sad, particularly as there's no need for it. Also, some kids do not do homework alone, or at all. Some families employ tutors who simply do homework for students. Some kids hand assignments to these tutors, or friends and/ or family who complete them. Often kids, perceiving nothing wrong with this, just tell me.

For a few years, I taught ESL students how to pass the English Regents, which of course they should never have had to take in the first place. At that time, it was a marathon writing test. I showed students how to complete formulaic four-paragraph essays that I would never dream of using for anything but that test. At first, I had students complete a lot of writing at home. That didn't work well.

I'd get papers that clearly had nothing whatsoever to do with what students were writing in class. Sometimes they were not even on topic. Sometimes I could find sources from which students had plagiarized, but often I could not. To stop wasting my time, I utterly eliminated homework in these classes. Absolutely every piece of writing was done in class, before my eyes. It gave me a much better idea of what my students could and could not do.

In fact, there is another potential value to checking homework, one of which the DOE never dreamed (what with their not being real teachers and all). If teachers check homework immediately upon student arrival, it's a great tool to discourage lateness. Oops! You're late and I already checked the homework? Gee, that's too bad. Not doing it again. Hope you're quicker tomorrow.

DOE also wants to make sure there is a policy explaining how late homework can come in, and they're much more patient than I am. When can students make up homework? Should it be a week after it is due? Should it be up to the end of the semester? I'd argue that it ought to be made up only if the student were legitimately absent, and only within a day or two after said student's return. Are teachers seriously expected to monitor whether or not students copied late homework weeks after it was assigned? How long does it take a kid to copy thirty homework assignments and why the hell should I give credit for such dubious effort?

The DOE is obsessed with making everyone college-ready. I taught in colleges for twenty years and I was never handed a policy instructing me to grade like this or like that. The DOE thinks everything can be measured on a rubric. The DOE is wrong. We are routinely subjective in many things, but our opinions are crafted on observations of who is and is not doing the work, or at least trying to, when we spend time with our classes each and every day. There needs to be a balance, and in fact there needs to be trust. Of course people whose careers revolve around manipulating data to make themselves look better have trust issues.

Nonetheless, teachers, as professionals, ought to be able to exercise discretion. If not, why are we even here?

Not Insane---A Supervisory Blueprint

Chalkbeat writes about the "authentic" learning standards pushed by UFT President Michael Mulgrew. I am not at all sure there's any validity to judging teachers by student work, be it tests, portfolios, projects, or whatever, and I've seen no evidence supporting this presumption. In fact, there's a lot of evidence pointing otherwise, including that of the American Statistical Association, which suggests that teachers affect student work by a factor somewhere between 1 to 14%.

When the junk science rating law was passed, Mulgrew boasted of having a hand in writing it. The official position was that we were very smart to place this in law, as it would now be firmly in place (proven wrong when Cuomo and the Heavy Hearts made it worse). It was supposedly a good thing, a counter against crazy supervisors. I know multiple teachers whose ratings have been dragged down by this junk science, some all the way down to ineffective. (In fact, I know one who got crappy ratings from a UFT rat squad person, and much better ones from a working supervisor. That's ironic, because the rat squad was supposed to be a check against crazy supervisors.)

What makes someone want to be a supervisor? Well, there are those who want to help. Maybe some principal respects a certain teacher and asks that this person get trained and contribute. Maybe some people fall into supervisory positions and catch up to keep the jobs. Of course, some people were recruited by Joel Klein's Leadership Academy and were trained to actively go after working teachers. You read a lot about these supervisors in the NY Post, about how they're removed from one position after another, and are given new positions either in schools or shuffling papers at Tweed.

Then there are those who want to "get out of the classroom." In my humble opinion, anyone who wants to do that is unfit to lead. The classroom is the center of school activity. It is where the most important work takes place. Anyone who can't or doesn't want to do that ought not to be rating teachers. Unfortunately, a whole lot of people like that opt to take supervisory courses and are now running around with iPads passing judgment on those of us who actually do the work. I have seen incontrovertible video evidence of supervisors saying any damn thing they like, whether or not it actually took place in the classroom.

On the other hand, supervisors who are not insane can be supportive and reasonable in a system that is (or is not) supportive and reasonable. I'd like to see a focus on hiring and retaining such people, as I think that would lead to retention of teachers and more effective education of students. When I read Carol Burris I know she's smart and capable. She was a teacher, she was a principal, and now she's a writer and movement leader. You will not see that from any supervisor who checks off boxes and settles personal vendettas via teacher ratings.

Mulgrew's intentions notwithstanding, the issue is not which variety of junk science we use to rate teachers. We can jiggle forms of junk science but it won't fundamentally improve the morale of rank and file. No matter which form of junk science we use, crazy incompetent supervisors can jettison anyone they choose. I've seen brilliant, inspired teachers walk because they simply could not take the pressure of working for people who were nuts.

If UFT leadership wishes to really support us, they need to take a bold stand against unproven nonsense of any stripe. You can't just jiggle around nonsense and hope that today's nonsense is better than yesterday's. At the UFT Executive Board, MORE/ New Action proposed moving to get rid of incompetent supervisors. Leroy Barr likened our proposal to a scatter gun, which I assume to mean would attack supervisors indiscriminately.

Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. If our proposal was not specific enough, let's adjust and tailor it. We could start with little things. Barr mentioned PINI, principals in need of improvement. Let's restore and expand that. Let's re-open the Apples and Worms section in NY teacher and tell members who is and is not doing a good job.

Let's insist that supervisors be not insane. Let's stand together and show working teachers we have their backs. Alternatively, we can continue painting and repainting the lipstick on the pig that is APPR.

If UFT Unity doesn't like our proposal, it behooves them to work with us to find a workable alternative. If not, we'll know that crazy vindictive supervision is not a priority for them.

Andrew Cuomo's Education Philosophy

Governor Cuomo visited Queens, gave a teacher an award, and made an announcement. Here it is, word for word:

“Education always comes down to one factor and that one factor is the teacher,” Cuomo said. “And that’s what makes education work or not work.”

This is very convenient for our esteemed governor. After all, he's failed to fund schools adequately since he's gotten the job, owes millions upon millions to our schools due to his failure to fund as the CFE lawsuit mandated, and now that the only factor is the teacher, he's completely off the hook.

It's kind of amazing that, even as he's ostensibly praising a teacher, he manages to vilify us. The fact that over half of our students live in poverty is neither here nor there. Andrew Cuomo can't bother himself with that. Governor Cuomo is more concerned with saving millionaires from the inconvenience of paying taxes, even when millionaires write and ask him not to. Evidently the folks who contribute to his campaign coffers are not of that persuasion.

It is pretty incredible Andrew Cuomo made it this far as a Democrat. Of course, he's one of those "New" Democrats. In fact, he ran first term on a platform vowing to go after unions. As a lifelong Democrat, I couldn't believe that this was who was representing us. I mean, if Democrats are going to do that, who needs Republicans?

Cuomo has been quiet about teachers for a few months. After all, he's already managed to take the worst evaluation system I've ever seen, at the lowest point of his popularity, and make it even worse. I shudder to think of what ridiculous "authentic" assessments our union will negotiate. I fear it will make us spend time doing pointless busy work so as to fill portfolios with crap to meet some arbitrary standard or other. I fear it will take time away from the important work of teaching children. I hope I'm wrong, but I've seen no evidence anywhere to suggest Mulgrew's ideas have merit, just as there was none that the "growth model" worked, and there was none that VAM worked.

But every now and then Bill Gates pulls yet another golden egg from his fruitful hind quarters, and the entire country must follow. After all, he's an education expert, like Whoopie Goldberg, Campbell Brown, Pitbull, and whoever that famous guy is who started another charter school in Harlem. Bill's got money to burn and once he makes a mistake, everyone else has to make the same one. It's certainly paid off for Andy Cuomo, Eva Moskowitz's favorite pawn now that she hasn't got Joel Klein to kick around anymore

I cannot find words to adequately express the depths of Andrew Cuomo's ignorance. When I get little girls falling asleep at 9 AM because they've been up all night delivering Newsday with their grandmothers I want to take pictures and send them to Cuomo's house, you know, the one in which he won't permit local inspectors because as governor,  why the hell should he have to pay taxes? Why, to support public schools in which money plays no role, since the sole factor in education is the teacher?

I guess I'm a miserable failure. My students, having been here only weeks or months, don't tend to speak a whole lot of English. That's my fault for not running over to China and El Salvador and Korea and Afghanistan to teach them. I was preoccupied with going to my job in Queens to support my family and failed to pay attention to those obligations.

That's about the level of logic utilized by our esteemed governor. You know, we're New Yorkers. We have reps as being nobody's fool.

How the hell did we elect this guy?

The Late Log

For years I've been hearing about this magical phenomenon called the late log. Here's what it is--it's a list that students sign when they're late. They come in, note their name, the time, and a reason for their lateness. This, they say, will discourage students from coming late. And by doing this, you don't have to interrupt your class with any sort of confrontation or discussion that doesn't relate to the rest of the students.

I've resisted this, though it's been suggested by a few principals of mine. I actually prefer to ask them why they're late, right then and there, and show my horror and shock to everyone who showed on time. I think they notice, and I think they think twice before coming late to my class. It's all about tolerance, and my feeling is if I have to be there on time, so do they. So frankly, I haven't got much tolerance for kids who come late for no reason, and no reason happens to be the most popular reason kids come late.

In fairness, I understand if a student is late now and then. But I'm a little upset by students who come late each and every day, and I like to discourage that if I possibly can. 

Sometimes I give the kids an assignment for the first few minutes, pick up my cell, and call the homes of the students who've yet to arrive. This sends a message to the students sitting there that if this teacher is crazy enough to do it to them, he's likely crazy enough to do it to me too. Actually few students come late to my class, but there are some with whom you just can't make headway. Some kids don't care if you call their homes, and some parents don't care either. But they're in the minority, in my experience.

This year, I have a co-teacher. She's a little more receptive to suggestions from administration than I am. So the first day, she established this late log. The second day, she was otherwise occupied, and maybe fifteen kids walked in late. I didn't know where the log was. But day three, I was ready. As soon as the bell rang, I pulled out the folder with the log in it. When the same kids as the previous day showed up late, I put it out and they made a line.

Now despite the assurances that this late log thing would reduce disruption, it actually slowed down things a whole lot. All the kids had to fill out the form, and they all had to wait for everyone in front of them to fill out theirs. It was interesting to read the answers. Clearly some of the kids copied the reasons from whoever preceded them. A popular response was, "too far." That was interesting to me, since it precluded the possibility of their ever arriving on time. Too far is too far. That's it.

Now a good thing about having a co-teacher is the possibility of doing two things at once. So while my co-teacher ran the class, I pulled the students on the list out one at a time and talked about their issues. Our classroom is on the third floor in the easternmost part of the building. As it happens, when the first bell rang I was talking to my supervisor on the first floor on the opposite side of the building.

So a question I asked the students was this--how can I, an old man with one foot in the grave, make it to class on time while you are late? This was a tough question for them to answer. There really wasn't a satisfactory response. Only a few students had a really good reason. Their math teacher had kept them after the bell to work out a problem.

After I interviewed twelve students, I saw there was another page and I had six to go. I was pretty sick of having these conversations, and none of the students wanted to have them either. So I interrupted my co-teacher, and explained how deeply hurt I was by lateness. Then I taught them a new sentence.

"My English teacher is crazy. I can't be late."

I had them repeat it chorally, and then I had a few of the students say it individually. It seemed to make an impression. The next day, and the day after that, no one came late.

UFT Executive Board September 19th

 My apologies to those whose names I did not get or misspelled. I will correct them if anyone can provide me info. DR--district representative. CL--chapter leader

Howie Schoor, UFT Secretary, welcomes us. Videotaping and audiotaping not permitted, he says. Hopes for good discussion about issues.

Open Mike--

Norm Scott—Speaks of abuse on part of principals. There is a pattern, a blueprint, by DOE legal and/ or Leadership Academy. UFT unprepared to respond. Norm advises people, anticipates complaints, says they are exacerbated by fair student funding. Asks union pay more attention, perhaps devote TV time to what FSF has done to schools.

Central Park East place 10 of 40 teachers under investigation months after new principal arrived. Other school had 90% turnover. Is this discussed at DR meetings? Do they support membership or urge votes for Hillary? Says there is pattern of supes telling principals to wipe out staffs, go after chapter leaders and get their own. Is declaration of war. We need to stand up, use NY Teacher, publicity and commercials.

Georgia Allignu—WC Bryant High School—on CL elections. Found themselves with no CL in beginning of year as CL was victim, targeted, transferred. Was going to present case for renomination but as they are now planned she says thank you. Says this serves democracy.

Rema Margi—District 15 CL now, was abused by principal in district 7, left school after 14 years. Was part of community, had to leave parents and children. Had a good career, but new principal came and diminished everything. CL, elected previous year, resigned. Was attacked, all administrators observed, multiple times on several days. Frank Hernandez principal. 3 people resigned year before she did, two early retirement, and then 5 people transferred to other DOE schools. Got D rating despite having no previous issues.

At new school, was effective continuously. Year after she left, over 25 members left. Last year, 15 left. One who resigned midyear last year developed panic attacks. Principal had called police accusing him of drug possession. Para wrongfully terminated, overturned. Principal looks good on paper.

Dermot Myrie—Asks how DRs are accountable. Too many teacher abused while DRs collude. Teachers brought up on bogus charges. Can this body show data with # of grievances, charges, discontinuances based on race and age? In my school there is no CL.

Minutes reviewed. Accepted

President’s Report—Mulgrew has not arrived 6:15

Staff Director Leroy Barr thanks us for supporting LIU teachers in resolution. They are back at work with 8 month extended contract. Welcomes us. Speaks of breast cancer awareness month, Making Strides walk.

Secretary mentions how breast cancer walk activates many members who had not previously shown up.

Questions—

Jonathan Halabi, New Action—Body passed res calling for return of unit costing. This was how people were assigned. Now principals have to take experience into account. Bad for school, teachers, students. Said we would work on ending it. What were discussions with DOE and what are we doing about it?

Secretary defers to Mulgrew, who has not yet arrived. Says it may be managerial prerogative

Ashraya Gupta, MORE—At CL meeting we asked about paid family leave, but members don’t know what’s going on.

Secretary says we are still negotiating with city. 30K managerial employees not represented by union had two holidays and .5% of salary taken from them. We will not accept that. We are negotiating. Nothing comes for free from city.

Kuljit S. Ahluwalia New Action—Came from phase out school, Many of my colleagues are ATRS, considered pariahs. What are we going to do for them? Will they get jobs, or just keep moving on?

Secretary—DOE not phasing out schools anymore. Seeing fewer ATRs. Treatment in schools will vary. Depends on principal

Amy Arundell—No exact numbers yet, but generally number is lower than it has been in many years. People being picked up daily. There is no increase.

Secretary advises that ATRs get in touch with Amy.

6:25 Mulgrew arrives.

President’s report—School year off to decent start. Thanks victim support people. Had great communications with NYPD. Says ATR numbers lower than ever since he became President. We don’t know exactly, and also have no evaluation agreement. Negotiations are private but we want authentic learning measures and not standardized tests.

CFE push—small cities filed lawsuit and lost today. Problem for us, though CFE already adjudicated. We want full funding, not dribs and drabs. We need this money now and cannot wait for their appeal.

Mulgrew speaks of Single Shepard Program. Says it will help people with additional guidance counselors who will track students’ entire academic careers. Counselors assigned to kids, not schools.

NYC grad rate now about 70% first time ever.

Secretary says Halabi’s question will not be addressed by President until next week.

6:33 Mulgrew leaves.

Rep thanks Michael Mulgrew for supporting her district. Asks for support 10/16.

Mindy C.—CL Speech Improvement—Had 250 Speech teachers trained all day.
Camille Edy D16—First D16 kickoff. Over 500 teachers.

Paul Egan—Legislative Report—Last Tuesday, Primary Day, by and large positive. Good night in Queens and Brooklyn. Were 4 people targeted. Spent 2 million against us. We spent 250K, but did better job. Latrice won 6 to 1. Pam Harris 5 to 1. Bronx won 4 to 1. Big money did not fare well.

In Manhattan, we worked hard for Robert Jackson but were not successful. Micah Lasher of Students First was not elected. Few hundred votes was difference. Elections decided not so much by those who vote, but by those who don’t. Only 20% showed in that district, and that is relatively high turnout. When people don’t turn out it’s important. Says we need to get Hillary elected as Trump would be bad for unions, working people, Supreme Court.

NY should be OK. We need to look at PA, Ohio, and FL. Too many union members don’t vote. If we’re going to be successful we must put in people who help us. Urges us to get people to vote.

Secretary speaks of COPE money.

Resolutions

In support of streamlining CTE programs

Sterling Roberson—CTE skills and academic based programs preparing students for career and industry. Challenge is in applications. NYSED makes process an impediment. 3-5 years for approval. Calls for NYSED to streamline and simplify process. Asks we support resolution.

No opposition. Debate closed.Passes unanimously.

Removing abusive administrators—

Mike Schirtzer MORE—Speakers told stories of abuse. Abusive administrators are big problem. Bloomberg years remain as 2-year teachers became principals. They really do have blueprints on how to make people miserable, run them out of schools. In fact, schools have budget issues. Ours does because of veteran staff. This causes bad admin to run people out.

We must do something as a union. Teachers, counselors, social workers ought not to feel threatened and harassed. We are a union of 200K and we must take action using any means available to us. Admin with two unfavorable ratings from staff should be removed. If this happens to teachers, why shouldn’t it happen to them?

We need a check and balance, and we need to be the check and balance.

Leroy Barr—Rises to table. We have been engaged with trying to get APs either checked or removed. We had a program principals in need of improvement. Some items here are the same as we’ve pushed. We know they are there, we are engaged in those fights every day, we have no problem bringing entire weight of union against them.

Can’t be scatter gun. Depends on nuances of individual schools. Agree with essence. We want to make sure we are creating a great environment and ensure it for our kids. Want’s to raise title of District Rep tonight. You will never know all the work they do to save the jobs of our members. They do the work every day and you don’t know what they do. Some are behind closed doors. Some members want to leave. There is a variety of answers. We need to talk about how we solve and create good environment for both teachers and students. Asks we table this tonight.

Secretary—Invites voice of support

Marcus McArthur MORE—I walked into a building 6 years ago, my first job, and CLs classroom had been defiled, garbage everywhere. Principal was responsible. Still in power, in that school. Was a lot of fighting and conflict. Was traumatic.

While union has tried, it has been a catastrophe for those who had to work under these conditions. For me, as new teacher, I was completely at mercy of that principal. Didn’t get a classroom, placed with another teacher to retaliate against that teacher. Was a big threat to me remaining as African American male, as special ed. teacher. Without support of staff, I’d have left system like half of special ed. teachers.

Asks reconsideration of resolution. We must take all action in our power. Cannot tolerate such abuse.

Vote on tabling resolution.

Resolution is tabled as Unity appears to vote Yea in unison. MORE-New Action votes Nay.

Secretary says supervisors are represented by union, that there is a yin and a yang.

Meeting adjourned.

A Safe Place

I teach kids from every corner of the globe. It's one of the best parts of my job. You never know what stories the kids have, what struggles they've been through, or where they might offer something you've never conceived of before. In short, they're very interesting.

And yet, human nature is such that the most interesting people might carry the most mundane of prejudices. I like people from my country, but not yours. If you don't speak my first language, I'm not speaking to you. Your religion is weird. Why do you dress like that? But they're teenagers, and hopefully they're still open to new viewpoints. I've actually seen kids overcome negative attitudes. I'm thinking of one who's come a long way from last year.

But while prejudices come in and out of vogue, new ones can always replace them. Sometimes I see

teachers vilified in ways that make me think we're public enemy number one. With kids, though, there is a built-in adversarial nature. I understand they might not want to do homework, and I understand they might want to go to the park on a nice day. I might go with them if I had half a chance.

Last week we did an activity related to identity. As part of it, students had to write on the board one thing that they are, and one thing that they are not. One student wrote, "I am not gay." Another, in a gesture he deemed hilarious, erased the word "not." I was going down the list and discussing it with the class when I encountered this.

I was not pleased. I explained to my kids that we are from other parts of the world and from various cultures, and told them that someone, somewhere, hates each and every one of us just for being who we are. I told them that was not acceptable in this classroom. I told them there was no difference between judging someone for being gay and judging someone for being Christian, Muslim, Jewish, black, white or green.

They were a little surprised. Isn't it okay to make jokes about that group of people? Well, not in my classroom it isn't. My classroom is a safe place. No one here will make fun of you for the way you speak English. No one here will make fun of you because you come from this country or that, or even if you come from the moon. No one here will make jokes about your language, your religion, or your family.

I don't remember everything I said because it was kind of a torrent. I expect better from kids in my classes. I expect that we will have the sort of respect for one another here that we may not find out on the street. I expect not to see that kind of attitude in my classroom, and the next time I do we're gonna have a long talk about it when I drag your parents to school.

I don't know, really, how effectively I can unset or remedy deeply held prejudices. But anyone in my classroom who chooses to act on them will find it inconvenient to the extreme. My classroom needs to be a safe place for everyone. My students now know that, all 46 of them, and if they ever fix my class size, I hope even those who move bear this in mind wherever else they go.

Chapter Leader Meeting Takeaway

The overarching theme at 52 Broadway on Wednesday was paperwork. There's a lot of paperwork, too much paperwork, paperwork is the scourge of civilization, and the number one concern of UFT members is paperwork. Principals are evil, among other reasons, because they don't hand teachers paperwork filled with curriculum, scope and sequence. Mulgrew goes off on tangents, makes in jokes with his BFFs, but every road leads back to paperwork.

I'm sure there are abuses of paperwork. I'm sure there are abuses in making teachers write curriculum. I've seen them, and I've moved to correct them. Now, though, there is a form for that. I certainly hope it's more effective and less restrictive than the APPR complaint form.

In my job, I get complaints all the time, from all sorts of people. In my building, at least, paperwork is not a particularly pressing concern. Members are more concerned with ratings. Why did this AP walk in and see things that didn't happen? How come when a dozen kids raise their hands, on video, my supervisor sees only two? Why does he always observe me last period on Friday before vacation in my worst class? Can Mulgrew really get rid of crazy supervisors? That would be something good for everyone, even remaining supervisors who aren't crazy.

Mulgrew shared some interesting news. We're going to replace the test-based junk science in the APPR system (the one Mulgrew himself had a hand in writing and creating) with authentic measures, or it's no deal. What will they be? Who knows? Portfolios perhaps. You may recall them rearing their heads maybe twenty years ago. You needed a portfolio for every student. It needed to be in the classroom at all times. If you didn't have one it was the end of the world. Until the next year, when portfolios were out, passe, utterly without value.

And with the new matrix, the portfolios, or whatever the hell there is, will count for half your rating. This, evidently, will reduce the principal's input to 50, rather than 60 percent (or perhaps less, with the magical outside observers who know nothing about you, your school, what you do, or who you teach). Of course Mulgrew vehemently denies that the matrix makes the junk science/ authentic ratings or whatever they may end up being 50 percent. But with only two axes, it's hard for mathematically-challenged individuals such as myself to fathom why they don't count for half. On the other hand, if they actually do not count for half, won't the principal still have the lion's share of control in evaluation?

Mulgrew spoke of the ATR, and said it's at its lowest ebb since his caucus created it in 2005. Evidently, though, provisionally placed ATRs, the overwhelming majority of whom will return to the pool in June, are not counted. And there are still hundreds of wandering ATRs without classrooms. I cannot tell you how unhappy I would be to be in that position, and I'm very sorry so many of my brother and sister teachers find themselves stuck there. I'd hope we'd give them jobs rather than lip service as to how few of them there are, but that's just me.

Ironically, after listening to Mulgrew lecture for hours on excessive paperwork, I went downstairs at the end of the lecture to find a huge package filled with--get this--excessive paperwork. I thought it might contain a revised chapter leader manual and various forms for my members. Instead, it contained two huge stacks of COPE recruitment cards and a big stack of forms which I'm supposed to give my hundreds of members so they can update their UFT information. You know, since we almost never do boots on the ground stuff anymore, we can send them emails and stuff and hope for the best. Ground up organizing is a thing of the past now that we're content to get paid interest-free a decade after everyone else.

Mulgrew was very specific that new teachers had to get bathroom keys. Now you can't deny that all of us, teachers of all ages, have certain biological imperatives. Yet the most new teachers ask me for bathroom keys is never. What new teachers ask me about, over and over, is tenure. They ask me if they're going to get it. They ask me whether they've already gotten it. They ask why it's delayed. Some in other schools ask me why they were discontinued and are involved in lawsuits stretching out over years after losing their jobs for no good reason.

Another thing new teachers, and not so new teachers, are pretty worried about is the new 100 PD hour requirement. I've heard exactly nothing from UFT on that, though a special rep seated next to me said they now have an idea of what the requirements are, and that they are not so onerous. She said under certain circumstances school PD would count. Hopefully she's right. I'd like to see something in writing to that effect.

I was also approached by several people who handed me Team High School pamphlets. There were a few Team High School people giving courses or something. As it happens, high school teachers voted against each and every one of those people. I know, because high schools selected Jia Lee as President and James Eterno as VP for Academic High Schools. Of course, uppity high school teachers, having chosen a non-Unity candidate decades ago, are no longer permitted to select their own Vice President. In fact, the only people high school teachers were permitted to elect for themselves were seven of us who actually won seats on the UFT Executive Board. Yet none of us are remotely involved in Team High School in any way, shape, or form until they need us to hand out their pamphlets. Go figure.

As for the smooth opening, I can only go by what I see. In my school, I reported 246 oversized classes. As I write this, three of them are mine (Update--all of my classes are now oversized). I just checked my sheet and my two classes of 43, which went up to 44 yesterday, are down to 43 again. My air conditioner doesn't work, and the day I went to 52 was particularly brutal for me and my students. The teachers working in converted bookrooms and closets with no windows were not precisely jumping for joy either.

But Michael Mulgrew, as President of the United Federation of Teachers, hasn't got time to speak to me, the lowly chapter leader of the largest school in Queens. Instead, he complains that I report on what happens at 52. Evidently NY Post reporters may read about what he said, and then, heaven forfend, ask him about it.  It appears that, while Mulgrew can easily duck talking to classroom teachers and working school reps who haven't signed loyalty oaths, NY Post reporters need answers.

I'm not sure why Michael Mulgrew thinks when he tells thousands of people something that it's remotely confidential. I represent fewer than three hundred people, and I don't place secrets in mass emails or announce them at staff meetings. I need to keep a lot of things confidential. They don't go out in mass emails, and you don't read them here.

As long as Mulgrew surrounds himself with people sworn to support whatever, as long as he avoids conversation with those of us who question the orthodoxy, as long as he's angry with those who report what he says rather than keeping it buried in his carefully crafted bubble, we're not gonna hear the message we need from leadership. Leadership says we win when we get VAM, we win when we get rid of VAM,we win when we get Common Core, we win when we lose Common Core. In fact, Mulgrew said we won all the political races in which we were involved. I was therefore pretty disappointed to learn later that the candidate we supported against a couple of reformies, the one I followed most closely, Robert Jackson, in fact lost his race.

From all I see, it appears our President is perfectly happy to paint a happy face on whatever and have us hear very little of substance. Unfortunately, there are substantial problems facing us. We're gonna need to acknowledge them, and do a whole lot more, if we're gonna help our current students and future colleagues.