Q & A Session

Mr. New left a note informing the staff that there will be a faculty meeting tomorrow before parent teacher conferences. The note was sweet. It invited us to come and ask him questions. The tone of the note was inviting.

Mr. New asked us to leave questions for him in his mailbox. Not being a shy one, I decided to take him up on his offer and left him the following. I look forward to his answers.

October 23, 2008

Dear Mr. New,

As you are probably aware, Principal Suit made sure that everyone who passed the Integrated Algebra Regents or the Math A regents in June and had gotten a 55 in the class had their grades reversed. All these students are now taking MG 21 (geometry).

Many of these students are failing miserably. They lack the skills needed to succeed and have trouble with basic concepts. As their teacher, it is breaking my heart to see how many are not succeeding. I gave a test on Tuesday and mailed copies of 28 (out of 60) papers home because the grades were so low.

I would like to know how you are going to help us address this problem. Going slow does not seem to be the answer, as I have been doing that.

I also hope that you can address the issue of computer access for teachers. The library only has four computers available for teacher use. Yesterday, the printer was not working. Today, only two computers were working. It is very upsetting to spend the better part of a prep period waiting for a machine or working on one only to find that you cannot print out what you need.


Thank you very much for taking the time to deal with this issue.

Sincerely yours,

Ms. POd
Math Dept