It Can Happen to You

Being that I am now an ATR, I've actually contemplated changing the blog's name. I mean "A Day in the Life of a NYC Teacher"  doesn't seem to be truthful considering the menial tasks I have been performing this school year.

But, I'm not. I'm still a teacher and I will not let this ATR business bring me down. I'm scheduled to be at the present site till October 16th, unless the powers that be make a change.

Every day last week, I entered the school with my head held high. I made eye contact with everyone that passed by me. I smiled at the students and made small talk. It wasn't as bad as some other ATRs have it.

Sure, the first day I spent it on the phone making calls to parents regarding their kid's attendance. Then, the second and third day were spent handing out metro cards and on the fourth day, I was once again on the phone calling parents about a Meet and Greet tomorrow.

It could have been worse. No one thumbed their nose, no one stared me up and down. Well, actually, that's a lie. There is this woman, a dean I believe, who has yet to  smile back. But, I think she's just snooty, nothing to do with me.

It's a beautiful school filled with all the new technology. I was even pleasantly surprised when I was directed to the Teachers' Lounge.

I walked into an actual room with four walls and a door. The hole I came from had a space in the main office, about 8 by 8. It is divided from the main by a row of lockers. There is no privacy.

The present school has about 8 computers, Macs and Pcs. The hole had 3 Pcs that still ran Windows 98.

The present school has black, comfy couches and chairs, several tables for group planning as well as chairs at each computer. The school I came from had a small, round table and a total of 7 chairs.

I can go on but the gist is this school seems to value their teaching staff. Where I came from made the room happen because contractually they had to abide, not because anyone cared. There are several underutilized rooms that could have been used as a Teachers' Lounge.

I do not know what is ahead for me in this ATR journey. Yesterday I checked my DOE email and found two mandatory interviews for this Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, since I am presently appointed as a 7-9 English teacher, both are in Middle Schools. I want to continue my career in a High School.

I don't know how to go about doing this.....

All I'm sure of right this very minute is that I do not deserve this. I have devoted my life since the age of 21 to teaching. I am a caring and fair person and none of my actions throughout the years led to this.

One piece of advice to anyone who reads my story: It can happen to you!

I Already Knew This: Cuomo is Dangerous for Our Children

Sometimes there is no reason to state what has already been said eloquently. I can totally say these are my words but why plagiarize. 

I came across the NYSAPE page and read the article The Message of 220,000 Opt-Outs Has Not Been Heard:  Elia Calls Opt-Out Parents “Unreasonable” and Cuomo Continues Trampling on the NYS Constitution. The following is an excerpt.

"Parents know that Andrew Cuomo is not part of the solution.  Cuomo is the problem. 
It is Cuomo who forced his unproven teacher evaluation system down parents’ throats.  
It is Cuomo who slashed and underfunded the State Education Department staffing.   
It is Cuomo who accepted 'Big Donor' campaign money and enabled the build-up of a privatized, unaccountable shadow government within the State Education Department –The Regents Research Fellows—who created the “Implementation” mess Cuomo now blames.
It is Cuomo who repeatedly tramples on the New York State Constitution--which gives a NY Governor NO authority over education policy—with his serial habit of forming pro-corporate education reform stacked panels, complete with Washington lobbyists salivating to eliminate parental consent for data profiling of children."

This is in response to Cuomo's latest press release where he states, "I believe the implementation (Common Core) by the State Education Department (SED) has been deeply flawed. The more time goes on, the more I am convinced of this position."

Really? How is that possible? You have berated teachers, put students through excessive test taking, called on parents to not opt out of these tests and now you believe the CC is flawed. I could have told you that a long time ago.

While I am not against the Common Core as standards, I am against a system that expects teachers and students to strictly abide by them. There is the flaw! I know my students and I know when the standards are appropriate or when I need to tweak to help the students meet them.

However, because the CC is coupled with the Danielson Rubric, which in it of itself does not allow for creativity, this is a match made in hell.

Add to this, evaluators (principals and APs) that use them to fulfill their own agendas. It is a recipe for disaster; not a vehicle for the betterment of education here in New York. 

Now, of course, I'm speaking from my own experience. 

I was thrown into this without any professional development. (I sought it on my own!) 

I have a vindictive administrator. (Used Danielson and the Core verbatim and did not leave any room for creativity.) 

It isn't like this everywhere, for sure.

I spent four weeks working in a different school this summer. The administrator basically said, "Do what you need to do. I want them to write. Whatever it takes."

Let me tell you, this experience was a vindication of sorts, one that I truly needed to get my self esteem back.

The kids who came regularly to class all passed the English Regents. Some even passed the Common Core as well. My face hurt from smiling. My body was numb from all the hugs and pats on the back I received when the REDS came in. Oh, and these were English Language learners.

So, this is testimony that as long as a teacher is allowed to be creative and use her own personal library of ideas and strategies, students do learn and meet the Standards.

This experience will also look great when I sue the pants of the DOE and my administrator for the Ineffective I received after 28 years.

High Stakes Testing

I don't know about you but, testing in my eyes is a waste of time. Time that could be spent working in the classroom teaching kids real life skills and content that will help them shine in their future. Growing up, I only remember classroom tests and spelling tests. It wasn't until high school that Regent's exams come to mind. And, yes, the teachers prepared us for them by teaching us content not test taking skills.

Education has been reinvented over and over by people who apparently need to fix unbroken things. I have been witness to this. What I hear now being called "old school" worked. I learned the "old school" way. And, I was an English Language learner. This is probably the reason why when I started in 1987, I taught the "old school" way. They were all Ells and speds. My students passed and went on to their higher studies. They didn't have a test hanging over their heads to worry about, just plain ol' learning. Teaching them was fun!

This whole climate of test taking is simply out of control. Never mind the fact that these tests are for money making purposes, they are not evaluating kids and what they know. And, I won't get into the impact these tests have on the sped kids or the ells. Just regular ed kids. I don't think they evaluate what kids know because they are being taught test taking strategies, not content.

It has taken several years but, the focus is not on learning geography or math, history or literature. The focus is on how can you do better on the multiple choice of the Global Regents? Or, how do you make sure you cover every element of question 26 in the English Regents to get full points?

Instead, why don't you let us focus on literature and its elements? Why instead of working on multiple choice strategies or succeeding in the DBQ's, let us teach them about the Incas, the Silk Road, or the Japanese feudal system? Not only will they learn information that in the future will distinguish them as educated, in the present, they will pass the regents.

I am in this situation right now. I am teaching an English Regent's Prep and all I'm doing is teaching them strategies. How about if I worked on some short stories and poetry and actually taught them how to learn to read them and analyze them? No, because they want me to show them what  the secrets are to passing.

As if,,,

This is probably why I am so frustrated being a teacher in this present climate. Now you might argue, there has always been classes to prep for regent's exams and you would be correct. I have taught them. But, as I remember them, I was actually able to continue teaching literature not just prep for a test.

So, when I read the article in The Post about the principal who committed suicide, I blamed it on the test taking culture and what it has done to education on every level. Of course we don't know this woman nor do we know her circumstances, but if in fact this was part of the reason she did it, even a tiny, tiny part, it should be a lesson to the city, the state, and the federal government that education is not being fixed; it is being destroyed by those would- be educators who create these exams. These policy makers who don't know the slightest thing about teaching and what it requires. They don't know why teachers become teachers: that innate need and desire to have children learn and excel. Because, we do know that they are our future: our future bankers, technicians, nurses, mechanics...

You get my point.

These pundits that go on every possible media outlet to tell the world how much they know about education... (Campbell Brown)

How they can fix this broken system... (Andrew Cuomo)

How they have all the answers and teachers are the problem... (ummm, anybody who's anybody)

Go back to the values of yesteryears and you will find the solution. Our society has put emphasis on the wrong thing. Let's put aside the fact that teaching is no longer perceived as a profession and paid as such. The system is broken but not by any fault of teachers.

Let's just bring back the values and the core commitments that made this country great.

Let's put the emphasis on the 123's and abc's and seeing our students as real learners and not just numbers.

Let's find a way to reach the parents and give them the rights they had when I was a little girl.

But, this last one would mean giving back a voice to the parent....

Hmmm, I think I'll leave that one for a future post.

It's Been a Long Road

It's been four years since I have been struggling under my present administration. I have been subjected to bullying, intimidation, retaliation, scrutiny, micromanagement, and the every day reminder that I am not a good teacher. All of this began after 24 years of excellent service and plenty of kudos for a job well done.

Not that I have needed praise, but it  was always given and it is no wonder that I continued to excel even in difficult situations with an even  more difficult population. I have been a mentor to other teachers. I have been an advocate for my students. I have been entrusted with the coordination of programs and deemed qualified to teach students negotiation and mediation practices as their coach. Right out of college, I was entrusted with supervising the English department at the high school in which I started my career. Heck, even at my present appointment, the principal always gives me the most challenging classes. She thinks I see it as punishment, when in fact, it is more proof that I am the one capable of dealing with them. And, I'm the AP Psychology teacher...

This is why it has been so difficult these past four years. None of this experience mattered. In fact, I was constantly asked to go and look at lesson plans from brand new teachers. The only difference between our plans was simple: I graduated form a graduate education program and learned to write efficient plans. The new teachers did exactly what the administration told them to do and followed their format. Again, my time in the system and knowledge of the contract was and is a threat and I was deemed personae non grata.

Enough of this. I can sit here and keep talking about the mismanagement and intimidation practices to which I have been subjected. That is not today's topic.

After writing to everyone under the New York Education sun, someone finally heeded my plea. I have been contacted by someone in the system who wants to speak to me regarding my allegations. It must have been my threat to go public. And, I don't mean through this blog. I have been careful not to divulge the names of those who on an everyday basis make it a living hell to teach. I finally put it out there: If you do not at least respond to my letters, I will take it to the news media and  will file a complaint with EEOC.

I guess that must have hit a nerve.

I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. I will not be rated ineffective by a system whose problem is not its teacher force. Yes, absolutely, there are some bad apples in the city. A very small number. I am not one of them. Even with the negative environment I work in, I still wake up in the morning and teach my difficult students. I still put up with the micromanagement. I still put up with being called a bitch by students because I expect them to excel and don't give out passing grades just because they are there. I still revise lesson plans who began as great and as they give me feedback, lose their rigor in the name of rigor. Yeah, that's what I meant. Every other word out of the administration is rigor, yet, they want us to water down our lessons in such a manner that rigor goes out the window.

I just feel like maybe now someone will investigate my school. Someone will actually come in and see the malpractices that go on every day, every minute. Someone will see how there are teachers doing their very best and yet administration is driving them out, not only from the school, but out of the system, as in my case. I'm 50. They want me out and there is no other way to do it. So, they figure, "Let's show how ineffective she is." And, now thanks to Cuomo, they have more ammunition to get rid of us. Two for one is how they see it and they can tell them what to do because these kids out of college or those who change careers have no clue what their rights are nor what real education is. Because that is not what is being taught in colleges today. Just like the new Leadership programs don't teach administration. They teach gotcha strategies and call legal, as my principal always says whenever she is painted into a corner.

Education is not teaching to the test. That is the case nowadays.
It is not about learning. It is about numbers.
It is not about creativity. It is about conformance.
It is not about our future. It is about money.

I Didn't Think It Could Be Possible

Who am I kidding: politicians with big backers get what they want. What I don't understand is, how can something that I have been working for the past 27 years of my life, something I have gone to school for and are considered "Highly qualified" doing can just be taken from me.

I worked hard to be tenured in NYC and now that I'm about to retire, Cuomo says I can lose it in the blink of an eye. Those of you following my blog know that I don't have a sympathetic administrator. In fact, I'm sure the only thing she is upset about is losing a great portion of her say when it comes to observing her teachers.

But that aside, two ineffective ratings and they can move to fire you! Where do these people live? Do they not understand that the problem is systemic? 

And, this is not about firing teachers who are not good for education. This is about firing teachers who cost too much.  

My school is brimming with Teach for America and Fellows, all of which are under 25, inexperienced, come from the Midwest, and cost half as much as I do. They are sheep and have no clue. The principal loves them and constantly sings their praises. She has gone as far as to send experienced teachers to get tips from them. I am living a farce.


Here are two articles that are a must read.

Budget Proposals

Here Come the Independent Evaluators

Just One More for Today

It made me smile!!!!

Michael Mulgrew Saddens Me

I was very sad when Michel Mulgrew, the head of the teachers union, took it upon himself to  make the call to march against the police on behalf of teachers. He alienated a very strong ally.

Now that the State of New York, heck the entire country blames teachers for the ills of our society, we need as many allies as we can get. The PBA is a very strong union. I am married to a cop for many years and know the dangers that they encounter on a daily basis. Also, many cops are married to teachers. How dare he be our mouthpiece.

Mulgrew took it upon himself to create a divide that will not serve anyone in the long run. Our last mayor was a union buster and now we are faced with a Governor who is out, in his own words to New York State: Your Teachers Stink. I Will Fire Them. I will Break Their Union.

What's going to happen when he decides to go after other unions?

We must all unite and show a common front. We cannot be intimidated by politicians who know nothing about what teachers, cops, firefighters, and EMTs do.

Let's show Cuomo that he will not break us. And, he certainly will not break our unions!

 

Alarming!!! How did Cuomo get reelected?

Andrew Cuomo to New York State: Your Teachers Stink. I Will Fire Them. I will Break Their Union.

How dare he! The comments of this man are offensive and detrimental to the low morale that already exists in the school system of the city of New York.

Like Bloomberg before him, I invite you, Mr, Cuomo to take a week, if you can last that long teaching in one of our public schools. Choose anywhere: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens... I want to see how long you will last trying to reach every single student regardless of reading level, new to the city with no English and some having received no formal education from the country they come.

I would love to see you constantly going to new professional developments where the only thing we are learning is to follow an impossible Danielson rubric and are being ripped apart because of it.

No development to help with those needy students that require special attention and cannot receive it because there is one teacher to 30, all of whom have learning styles that differ from one another.

Our measly paychecks go into professional courses that actually help in finding new solutions to reach every student, The DOE nor the state Department do not facilitate this for us. It comes from our pockets. And, guess what, I have two children a mortgage and a car note. I also have to feed and clothe them. 

Yet, I still take online courses devoted to the Common Core, differentiation, and Danielson. Whoever found her to be the end all be all is insane and not an educated person.

Let me continue with the fact that I sponsor underprivileged students who cannot even afford a notebook or a pen. This year, I am sponsoring a graduating student who not only hasn't got the means but who lives in a shelter. I had never spent so much money since my own two girls graduated.

Don't get me started on Teacher's choice. Every year it dwindles. Last year was a joke; this year we received $77. This is meant to supplement the hundreds we already spend on our students.

My favorite line form the article was: 

"Governor Cuomo’s teacher evaluation plan is set to punish teachers for not graduating vastly more students ready to succeed in college, as measured by one test score, than currently attend college."

Not all students want to go to college. Do you want to do the right thing: bring back specialized schools that allow students to earn certificates and upon graduation enter the work force. I had a great student several years ago with a 3.50 GPA. Guess what was her dream? She wanted to be a mechanic!

My next point of contention shows how little you know about the inner city:

"Following Governor Cuomo’s logic it is not that these schools and their teachers struggle with the long established deprivations of poverty upon their student population and would benefit from aggressive plans of economic renewal and integration; it is that their teachers are ineffective and need to be fired.

Have you ever heard of gaps? Gaps that need to be closed so that Black and Latinos can catch up to their suburban counterparts. Even in the suburbs you will find these disparities!

You are so out of touch, Mr. Cuomo, You really need a reality check! I am personally inviting you to my high school; if you dare. Come in as a visitor, not as the Governor of the State of New York. Maybe then you will see how hard we work reaching every student and giving the best of ourselves.

For the full article, follow the link: http://danielskatz.net/