This just in...

So the California Supreme Court is saying that tenured teachers ruin education.  What a load....just more proof that all you need is a big fancy corporate law firm and you can erode any decision.  Here's the link http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/california-teacher-tenure-laws-ruled-unconstitutional.html?emc=edit_au_20140610&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=55289402&_r=0

Seriously, how does this happen?  My school is a total FAIL FACTORY, as you may have read in the NY Post.  There are several articles related to my school, just type FAIL FACTORY NYC Schools and you will find it.  The latest in a series of miscues has us proctoring for 6 hours straight with two bathroom breaks, starting at 12pm.  This is the weirdest schedule I've ever received.  12pm to 6:55pm with 47 minutes for "dinner?"  And I get two 10 minute bathroom breaks in between?  Yeah, us teachers, JOB FOR LIFE, RIGHT? RIGHT?

Drives me up the damn wall.  I go in each day, love working with these kids, even the annoying ones, implement the different strategies, Danielson and the like and they have some nerve to say it's all developing.  Like, what the heck.  Developing?  Developing is someone who barely tries anything, has little interest in the kid's lives and spends all their time telling kids to log on to some website like castlelearning while they check espn.com.  Which by the way, does happen at my school, it's just called Blended Learning and that brings up another point.  How are these "teachers" being evaluated?  They can't really differentiate since everything is on the computer.  They must be getting ineffectives across the board....though I wouldn't be shocked if they were rated "highly effective" while poor schlubs like me who works with live students have to stick with "developing."

Met some fellow teachers as part of the MORE protest in front of TWEED.  Was good to meet people and listen to their stories.  It still amazes me, as bad as my school is, some are far worse.  The incompetent morons the DOE sends into schools to run them as principals and then I have to read about what is going on in California and be subject to more anti-teacher propaganda.  And bet your bottom dollar, the Post, The Daily, the Times will all having glowing editorials tomorrow praising this victory against those "evil" unions!  Because we all know, teachers hate kids.  The only people that love kids are corporate ceos and super rich charter school operators like Eva Moskowitz, who want to destroy unions so they can hire Teach For America kids who will use their experience working with urban area kids as a resume line as they tried to get into Harvard Law.  All of it...makes me sick.  Good day!

I have returned....

Dusting off the cobwebs here.  For some reason I feel like blogging again which I haven't done in quite awhile.  Seven years of teaching! Wow.  You know before I moved to NYC I never envisioned teaching would be like this.  I remember in Grad school they made it seem like all teachers were just not getting it done.  That there were more constructive ways of reaching kids.  Boy, was I misled!  Teaching is hard!  Especially if you want to do right by the kids.  Sure, you could take the lazy man's way and just copy something off the internet but that kind of stuff doesn't work with kids who lack the motivation.  They want to be engaged, to be inspired, so I have learned that I have to find different ways to engage them.  Which is fine, I enjoy the challenge nowadays, just wish some of them would remember to bring their pen once in awhile.

New principal, well her second year.  She's different from the last one, but worse.  I harbor ill feelings from the last one since I was unjustly "U"'d in my 5th year.  This one is never around.  Today was a NYC snow day, which means schools are OPEN.  In truth it wasn't that bad, but we who know know that kids just don't come to school when it snows, or is icy, or if it rains.  Come into school, see one of my students in the halls then see security come out and be all like "all students need to go to the auditorium."  This was 8:15am.  So I think, hmm ok, no 1st period?  Go into my room, do some editing, teacher walks by and says I have to go to the auditorium to get my students.  I go down and manage to get the two that were there.  Ended up even teaching them something.  Rest of the day passed with bells out of order.

But here I am thinking is.  Would it kill administration to make an announcement?  They never make announcements, ever, unless it is AP security announcing a fire drill.  But surely the magnitude of this storm and its effects would warrant some kind of announcement to teachers.  I was one of the few who was informed to pick up his kids.

Well, at least my lesson is already done for tomorrow!  Just hope more kids show up, so I can teach them the common core "skills" which are so damn important.

Reviewing the past and other ramblings...

After taking so much time off from writing, I read through my older blogs today. Basically because I am in the credit recovery room as a senior basically retakes his US government course in the span of about one hour. Nice to know that a student can do nothing for about 4 months and 4 days before graduation make up that course within the span of two hours. Gotta love the education system we have in this day and age.

Quite frankly, why do we bother teaching 9-10 months of the year? Why not on the first day, just tell the students that it will be a four week course. We give them online packets to complete and at the end, they either pass or fail. Those who fail can just take it again, with a new batch of students and this can become an education factory instead of a school. Might as well right? We're just pushing them out into society with a worthless piece of paper anyways.

One teacher mockingly made the suggestion several weeks ago that instead of giving them grades in the sense of pass/fail, we give them grades but do not fail anyone. They take their courses, and in four years they get a diploma with their overall score on the bottom. So if their overall is a 45, it's a 45. Just hand them the diploma and send them off on their way. Think of the possibilities! Not counting dropouts, His Excellency can boast of 100% graduation rates (though somehow someway, some students would still manage to screw this up).

I notice my blog is less positive than it used to be. Maybe I am becoming one of those old curmudgeony teachers who sits in his room and gives students ditto's to complete while I read through the Wall St. Journal. That's actually a scene from a movie in the 80s called "Teachers" (which is good to watch actually, has Nick Nolte, the guy who played the Karate Kid, some other people). Kind of funny actually when I think of the plot of the movie, which was basically how you had this school where there was a student who was passed through the system who didn't learn anything and was suing the school for this reason. And the main character played by Nolte, was this Social Studies teacher who had a problem with this and still believed in the Karate kid character even though the kid was a lost cause. Ok, maybe not so realistic. But ironic how we are basically doing the same thing to all these students, just pushing them through, even though they lack the skills to achieve, just so our stats are high.

Sure, it's not really our fault. Half the students we get read below grade level, some have psychological issues, some can't perform in the class environment even with a good teacher, half the parents are either unresponsive, don't care, or are too busy to make a concerted effort (among a host of other possible variables). I'm not saying we all need to re-introduce vocational schooling (wouldn't hurt in my opinion), but something needs to change and it can't always be an absolute intense focus on academics only. Creative arts programs are cut because they aren't seen as worthwhile, but if a student shows interest in that maybe they can produce something that would be rivalled in the arts community.

I don't know what the answers are, but demonizing public schools in favor of charters is not the answer. Plus the fact that it creates a simmering war between public and charter schools which is unfair because all teachers work towards the same goal, and I am not better than charter school teachers, nor they me. But when politicians say this this and that about the public schools and do nothing to improve them except more tests the students can not pass, then throw the blame on the public school teachers and the "evil greedy" union, then, there is a problem.

Credit Corruption

Ok, so I haven't written here in nearly a year, actually since the start of the school year under the new principal. Which is kind of funny, because looking back I can provide some sort of piece on how things went under the reign of this new principal, who in some ways isn't so new anymore and yet, I still feel like I barely know her.

But first, I write this now on the Board of Ed's dime, babysitting...errrr facilitating a group of "unsuccessful" students in credit recovery. This is something I am sure all of you are familiar with. I will be honest, in the four years I have been here, I haven't had much exposure to it. Perhaps it is because I have always been someone who was away from all of this. And so, now during Regents week, my AP assigned me to oversee this, or basically, add the kids to the program so they could do the work.

Now, I don't know about anyone else, but to me, this whole system is something more along the lines of corruption. Within the class right now is one kid who the other teacher told me is a good kid who just wasn't successful and then two not so good kids who did the wrong thing for four years here and are basically being rewarded for their bad behavior for getting a second...scratch that...third...no....fourth? fifth? sixth? chance? Et cetera, the list goes on. For whatever reason, the idea of this credit recovery thing goes against all my moral beliefs about education. Is it wrong for me to all of a sudden feel devalued as an educator (notwithstanding all the previous b.s. the mayor and his minions have done to demonize the people in our profession)?

But think of this. In the minds of these kids, who in their minds think all they need to get a H.S. diploma is a 65 (and for the most part, how can we really dissuade them from thinking this), they can goof off all year, fail their classes and no matter how much of a jerk they are, just say "Oh I will take credit recovery" come in for an hour or so, do the minimal work possible for an online course and graduate on stage with their friends a week later. And because the school is so intent on pushing kids through, because the mayor wants us all to pass students, not for their own benefit, but because it makes him look good, then schools do this. The principal forces the teachers to do this, because if they don't they will be fired, and as much as tenure is supposed to mean something, if you consistently get U ratings, you won't be teaching very long, or get sent somewhere you really don't want to be teaching.

What is my moral dilemma here? Why do I feel so devalued? Besides the fact that regents exams are more a joke that they used to, where I am told to give 3 and 4 ratings to essays that are barely a 1. To allow essays in World History that talk about Thomas Edison, even though the rubric says otherwise. Why am I bothering? If a student knows they can screw around/cut class all year, then come in the last week of June and pass the course, why are we here? There is no point for us really, we may as well just do what everyone else tells us to do and get a "real" job.

I love teaching. I love teaching engaged students and helping students who struggle but honestly want to do well. I feel good when students become engaged in a subject or activity, and show that they thought deeply about something. I love when I read a good essay on a subject that shows transitions, interpretation and analysis of a question. Yeah there are some problem instances during the year, but for the most part, the student equation isn't all that bad. It's all the other things that drive me nuts.

In my day (wow I feel old), if you failed something, you went to summer school to make up what you didn't learn (I went twice, guess I enjoyed summer school XD). Yeah, they still have summer school, but with credit recovery, there is no need for it now. You can just fail the class and take it later on. Sure some might argue with regents classes that students need summer school and sure they all do, but with the rampant corruption that goes on regarding regents grading, that argument might not be as strong as before.

What the real problem is this. We are handing diplomas out to students who are going to be shoved into a world they are not ready for. They will think they are ready for college, get there and face a hard truth, that they aren't ready for college, that the skills they failed to learn in high school are actually useful and they will face a serious issue in their life. Instead of us taking a reasonable approach to the education of these students, we show them through all so His Excellency at Tweed can talk about how many kids are passing. But if they are passing without having learned anything, what do they gain? A false hope and a brutal slap in the face. So when these kids realize the best job they can get is a job they could have had in high school, where are they going to turn? Their parents won't be around forever, some of which come from one parent households anyways. Drugs and crime are always around them, and the sad reality is that the school, the place where they are supposed to get a proper education is the place that is denying that education.

Who's to blame? I mean yeah, the mayor is mostly at fault, but if we are complicit in this, even under the guise of, well it will save our jobs (which is debatable), then we are at fault as well. And to be honest, if this is how it will be, I'm seriously considering other career options.

New Year...New Fears....

Has it really been since February since I last posted? Wow. And to think, June feels like it was just last week. Where did the summer go? For all those who say we get too much time off, I say, no, we don't. We don't get enough, and I actually enjoy my job. Then again, what do I know? I sure as hell ain't telling people how to do their job, even though every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they can tell me how to do mine.

We have a new principal. Let's call them Wu. Wu is very much like the pleasant looking kind of person, with a mean streak. Wu wants us to teach a certain way. Wu wants the classrooms to be organized a certain way. Wu wants the boards to have some kind of "agenda" on it everyday, so late students know what we are doing. Wu wants a lot of things. Many teachers at our school do not understand what to do, because many A.P.'s at my school are incompetent fools who couldn't lead the way out of a room with four exits. Moreover, many teachers at my school get frustrated. They don't know what to do, the AP's hand out directives that are not exactly what Wu said, they create a climate of fear, and suddenly everyone is screaming bloody murder.

Fact is, my school has not performed well. It's a big school. We have some bright kids and we have some lunatics. But no one's ever been stabbed since I've been here, we don't have metal detectors and I don't really think it's a bad school. There's a host of things we could be doing better. I don't really understand how a school becomes successful, but I do know that what we've been doing isn't the way, at least according to the DOE. Not that the DOE has the best standards, but they cut the checks, so we have to do what they say.

And here is my point, which Wu enunciated today. We can whine and complain all we want, but the fact is, unless our school gets a passing grade next year, we're done. Finished, caput, out to pasture. Wu will still have a job, because principals obviously are not held to the same standards. (Hell, a former AP of mine who is the most incompetent man I have ever met, is a principal at a school in Queens. Teachers are getting U-rated and leaving the school in droves, yet it would be no surprise to me if the man has a long career in the NYC public school system). Where was I? Oh yes. Reality is this. We either do what Wu wants and pray it works, or we get turned around, many teachers lose their jobs, most likely the ones who actually work their asses off, and things will be done Wu's way anyways.

I am still debating how to view Wu. This is my 4th year. The previous principal was someone who really did care about the school, and was someone who was approachable. You didn't always agree with them, but you knew their heart was in the right place. This one makes crazy decisions and you almost wonder if the DOE sent Wu in here to intentionally sabotage the place, so the DOE can turn around and say "big schools don't work." IDK. I just know what I see, and this is it....

I see teachers who don't enforce the rules in this school. Security doesn't do anything except take up space in the hallways. I always tell students to take off their hats, put away their electronic devices and pull their pants up, and this is not limited to my classes either. I stand by the door and tell all students this, and observe teachers who say NOTHING, but rather walk right by because it isn't "their" problem. Security won't do anything unless I tell a student right in front of them, then they get their bravado. I do this because I will not allow my students to be unsuccessful. My job is to turn them into professionals, and I explain as much to them. I want them to be respectful, and I model respectful behavior everyday to them. I model it in the hallways as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm a pro-teacher kind of teacher. I realize we get shit on and blamed for all the world's problems and the majority of it isn't our fault. However, I can't do my job that well if everyone else isn't doing their job.

Maybe if some of my associates were less apathetic, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in. The fact of it all is, this is what we are dealt with. We either step up, accept what is given to us and strive for success, or we don't, and we all get screwed.

Random break stuff...

Haven't updated this in a long time. I'd be surprised if anyone still reads this. Anyways...

Went to the gym today, part of my routine. Up to about 60lbs lost since last June (wait for applause). But that's not what I write. What I don't get are the people who get on the subway with a guitar or even worse the people that give a sob story about their lives and want people to give them money. Don't get me wrong, I feel for them, but why burden me with your problem? Shouldn't you seek help? Aren't there enough shelters in the city where you can seek assistance? Or maybe you can get a train ticket out of NYC and find some help somewhere else if there is not enough help here. I don't know, maybe it's because I have a job and don't think of it, then again, if it were me, I could just go back upstate and figure out where to go from there. I would have a support group, so maybe it doesn't bother me. Kind of reminds me of my students, actually...

They expect EVERYTHING for free. Give me an A, I showed up. Give me a good grade, I did your work. Yeah, you kind of did, except you had your ipod out the whole time and talked while I was trying to do the lesson. So, no participation points for you. Day after the storm, class numbers were low and people expected things just for showing up. I know kids are selfish and expect something for nothing, but they need to understand that nothing in life is easy. High School is ridiculously important, and if you screw up in the first couple years, it won't be a surprise when they are on the subway begging people for change.

Of course I offer my help wherever I can. Do I ever get a response? Not usually. Rarely, even. What pisses me off most is the fact that whether or not my kids do well on these exams could be tied to whether I have a job or not. I'd love for them to do well, obviously, and I bust my ass so they have an opportunity to do well. Do they take advantage of it? No, of course not. Half of them still can't figure out that school starts at 8:10am and not 9:00am. Seriously, if you can't realize by February that you need to be at school on time, there isn't much else I can do. I can call home and talk to parents (with the little time I do have for that), but there has to be some kind of personal responsibility. We can't throw it all on the parents. Heck some of these people are probably working three damn jobs just to put food on the table. And some of them are lazy, total reflections of their kids and vice versa. Like it or not, the government is putting this on our shoulders, and maybe that's what frustrates me. I don't expect to reach everyone, but it would make my job a little easier if I had just a little hint of understanding from ObamaBush and Emperor Bloomberg.

Now I can breathe....

I got the packing removed from my nose today. After waiting about an hour at the ENT clinic (which stands for Ear, Nose and Throat for those interested). Funny how whenever you make a doctor's appt. you rarely ever see them at the time you schedule for. My appointment was for 9:30 am, I got in to see them at about 10:30 for something that took all of about 2 minutes. I mean, seriously, it really only took 2 minutes tops to remove the packing. Then more waiting to get a phone number of a plastic surgeon I will never have to see because my nose looks fine as it is. Ugh, doctors. Thank god I have health insurance!

I was near Atlantic Avenue and Court and figured I should go into Trader Joe's. Never been there before but heard great things (mostly because of the Simpler Times beer, wicked cheap). It dawned on me how different supermarkets are based on socioeconomic location. Where I live, near Parkside and Flatbush, the population is mostly Hispanic/African American, I, being Caucasian am in the minority. The supermarkets there, Pioneer and Associated have most of the basic staples of food but the variety is less, there is only so much you can get. They have no lean meats, at all. At Trader Joe's, they had 80%, 90% and 96% (I got the 96% and made myself some healthy burgers for lunch). What amazes me though is a particular item that Pioneer carries as well: Morningstar.

For those who don't know Morningstar is a company which makes veggie burgers and other foods. They are great for breakfast or a quick snack, not a true substitute for real burgers. At the Pioneer, they are 4.99 a box, at Trader Joe's, they were 2.99. Milk was even cheaper at Trader Joe's. Now, here's what I found a problem with: Why is it more expensive for a product in a high minority neighborhood as opposed to a high caucasian neighborhood. It could be demand, sure, but is there something else at play? And why is it Trader Joe's can offer more variety? Is it because they are bigger? I've been to Walmart's where they didn't have much variety, and while Target has Morningstar products, they have very few of them. Which is shocking because out of all the veggie substitutes, Morningstar has food that actually tastes like food (as opposed to cardboard).

It's caused me to maybe have my economic kids do their own personal study of the markets in their neighborhoods and do a cost/variety comparison with markets in markedly different neighborhoods. See, and people think taking a day off does nothing for teachers.