Eye Opening

This is a "Must Listen" audiocast featuring, "I'm getting too old for this shit" Danny Glover, of Lethal Weapon fame. He and Steve Zeltzer eloquently discuss the facts behind charter schools, their creation, and their true purpose.

For those not familiar, in California since 1992, charter schools were implemented following the win in Minnesota who wrote the first charter school law in the United States in 1991.

Glover and Seltzer discuss charter schools in California and other parts in the United States and the results from their implementation.

They discuss the effects on the children, the teachers, and the unions.

They also discuss the racism behind them and the millions of millions of dollars that drive them.

My favorite quote comes around 14:25, when Mr. Glover discusses teachers and the fact that we are being scapegoated and "...like teachers are at fault for that..." referring to students not learning.

You have got to listen if you're a teacher or love a teacher!

Happy listening!

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.

Letter to Cuomo

If you are a NYS teacher or support the efforts of the educators in our state, 

sign this letter. It will tell Governor Cuomo to open communications and 

listen to what those who know education are saying. 

I JUST DID.

nyteacherletter.org

Common Core

Now I understand why it is that the PBA and other city unions fought for fair and equitable contracts. They waited it out till they received what they deserve.

The UFT fell for it very quickly and Michael Mulgrew made it a point to instill fear so that the contract would be ratified by the majority of teachers, even when most knew that we were getting the short end of the straw.

It was the Common Core mentality that we have been indoctrinated for the past several years. Look at the next example:

Mulgrew is a big advocate of the Common Core which basically, in its quest to increase critical thinking has made simple math look like a puzzle from the New York Times.

I am not a math teacher but what  I do know is that the increases we will be receiving in no way will match the cost of living in 2020. We were short changed in ways that the union blatantly accepted because they will continue to receive their fat checks as we speak.

Now, I say this in jest, not really but think about, why? Why is it that teachers who are creating the future of tomorrow are treated like second class citizens? Why is it that after three degrees, I am still considered substandard according to the new evaluation system?

My principal who did nothing to support us when it came to Danielson, rated me as Developing. It was only after the test scores came in that the students who took the local exams passed, that I received Effective. Then the state exams results came in and I was found Highly Effective.

Morale is the lowest since I began as a teacher. And it is not just me! It is every teacher who has seniority and is making the top salary. Hell, I worked for that! It's taking me 27 years to get there. Cops hit top pay at five, and trust me, I take nothing away from them. They protect us and keep us safe. But, teachers go through it too. Last week, I was pushed by a student and verbally attacked by another.

The new chancellor regs now stipulate that unless there is an immediate threat we are not to remove students. Well, both were back in the classroom: one the same period, the other three days later. 

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/