Summer School Update

My friend redid her lesson. She put on one of the best Dog and Pony Shows ever. Her chairman loved it! It's amazing how one day you can be an unsatisfactory teacher and the next day you are G-d's gift to teaching.

Harassing Summer School Teachers

I am on the phone right now with a friend who is teaching summer school English. She has always gotten excellent reviews and is considered by all who know her to be an excellent teacher. Well, guess what? Her supervisor observed her on Friday and stayed in the room one hour. He found nothing good to say to her. In fact, he left her a letter at the end of the day threatening her with a U rating. She elicited the aim from the class and he complained because it wasn't on the board when he walked in the room. She did journal writing, group work and had the kids act out a play that they had written. He complained that the plays were not good and not well acted. Her supervisor left her a long letter, mentioning all the points she supposedly missed. He told her he would redo the observation on Tuesday and she could talk to him before then. Unfortunately, summer school leaves no time for meeting with supervisors. Teachers are paid about one-third their usual salary and are supposed to do three times the work. While she is more than happy to meet with him, he will probably be gone the second the last class ends. While the lesson might not have been exemplary, it was certainly satisfactory. These kids are taking English in summer school which means that they probably did not do the right thing in the first place. They are not motivated, do no homework and very little class work. She is glad that they come to class every day, with notebooks and pens. She cannot go to their homes to force them to do homework or reading assignments. The school should be glad that they have a bright, caring person teaching summer school instead of harassing her and making her life miserable.

AP Scores

My kids AP scores are starting to come in. Lots of them got 5's. I don't care if my principal does hate me--the kids know I am a good teacher and they have the grades to prove it!

Bargain Summer School

A friend of mine is teaching summer school English. Her first period and her second period class each has 70 kids in them. Administration came to her room today and told about half of each class that they were not supposed to be attending school now. These students should go home and come back in 3 weeks. It seems, that all they have to do is show up for three weeks and they will be given credit for the whole semester. The kids have always known that to pass in summer school showing up was almost a guarantee of success. Even attendance standards have now been lowered. But hey, now the city is saving money. Seventy in a class for the price of 35. What a bargain! Bloomberg and Klein must feel so proud.

Teacher Abuse

On a sad note, a colleague's father died on Friday. Only good thing I can think of saying right now is that the administration will finally stop hassling her about all the time she was out of work, taking care of him. I guess they will have to find someone else to browbeat or something else to abuse her about.

I'm Glad I Wasn't This Kid's English Teacher

HI MISS HOW R U ALL I WANNA SAY TO U IS DAT IF IT WEREN'T FOR U I DNT TINK I WOULD HAVE GRADUATED ON TIME CUZ OF UR SUPPORT UR JOKES N UR MOTIVATION I PULLED THROUGH IN DA END I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL UR SUPPORT N THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING SINCE DA MOMENT I HAD U AS A MATH TEACHER I HOPE U HAVE A VERY SAFE N WONDERFUL SUMMER N I WILL DEFINATELY COME BY NEXT YEAR N VISIT U N TELL ALL UR STUDENTS BOUT MY UNDER DOG GRADUATION VICTORY N HOW IT ALL HAPPENED LOL N BY DA WAY WATS UP WITH DA 65 U GAVE ME ON DA REPORT CARD TAKE CARE LOVE YOU MS.