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.

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.

Trying to Catch Up

It has been very hectic at work which translates to "I haven't had a minute to update my blog." Even as I write this, I am putting off writing next weeks' plans. But, too much has happened not to write.

The end of the second trimester came and went. None of the ideas the principal used to convince us to switch from semesters to trimesters has yet to happen. Her main idea that students would be able to accumulate more credits in less time and graduate early, turned out to be a joke.

I looked at many of the students' programs and instead of meaningful classes that will help them graduate, they were filled with made up electives, "Teaching assistant" credits, and gym classes they did not need. Not one class that could help them get ahead.

As for me, I finished teaching English 3 and 4 and was assigned to teach a class she made up called "Writing in the Humanities." That would be great except that it is really a Global History Regents prep class, one that I had to spend an entire weekend learning about.

Then, on the day before the trimester began, she walked into my classroom with a change: a repeaters class for English 4. I am now teaching four classes which I had always heard was against our contract. I spent the entire day trying to come up with lessons for the next day. I was losing my mind!

Now, this is all tame and I guess something expected in every school (I suppose) but, to this I must add that in between all this she continues her vendetta against me. I have, once again been summoned to her office for a variety of things as well as receiving letters informing me of some kind of misbehavior.

Every time I receive one, they happen to follow a grievance I have put into the union. None of them ever result in things getting better. In fact, if I was someone else, I would have stopped fighting for myself because they make things worse for me.

My latest grievance brought about several ineffective and two developing ratings in my last observation.  I then filed APPRs, a union  Resolution Assistance Request. 

Of course, these were also found to have no merit. That was that.

So, I grieved my four preparations as well as the fact that my latest observation was not based on classroom observation, but on my lesson plan, which, according to anyone that has seen my plans will tell you, they go beyond what is expected. Both were found by her to have no merit.

She then countered my grievances by filing verbal abuse charges.

I have no recourse. I have written to every person I can think of and no one has even bothered to acknowledge my letters. I do not know where else to turn. I never expected this, 25+ years into my career.

Here we go.....

I just couldn't believe my eyes.
I thought things couldn't get worse.

Our AP had kind of alluded to this but we hadn't really heard the details. Thanks to the good ol'e New York Post for informing us.

Mr. de Blasio has just come up with another solution to better our NYC schools, as if our classrooms needed this.

Alas, our students will be receiving less disciplinary actions, all in the name of equality. He claims he is doing this in the name of equality. I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with color or ethnicity. Here again, he is trying to use the race card in his latest debacle. And in doing this, he will also keep the schools safe.

What, youre kidding me right?

Our classrooms are already a mess, but let's make it harder on the kids who come in to actually learn.
It is not like every time a student acts out he/she gets suspended. Nope.

And it is not like every time a student calls me a "Bitch!" or tells me to go "Fuck off" there are consequences. "He/she is having a hard day," says my AP sheepishly,

Let us now show how little we care about the kids who come in willing to learn, respect adults, and want to graduate and become productive in our society.

"They'll be fine, right?"
Well, not really, because as it stands these students lose a lot of time to the clowns, and the "playas".

They fall behind when teachers find themselves having to repeat themselves because there are five kids in the back who couldn't care less and have no respect for themselves or anyone else, for that matter.

They lose a lot of time every time a fight breaks out in the classroom and the kids, having faced no consequences, are right back in the classroom to start another fight 10 minutes later.

You get the picture.

And now he will drastically reduce punishments!!!
And all in the name of Blacks and Latinos!!!

Kudos, Mr. Mayor, you have done it again. You are a brilliant man. Just like your take on cellphones in school (he believes kids should have them), you have no idea what is happening in our schools.

Are you letting your teenage son help you dictate policy? Sounds like it to me.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR WISDOM AND LEADERSHIP

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/