Great Op Ed From Newsday

Lesson From A Veteran Teacher

When I read this story in today's Newsday, I knew I had to share it.  Here is what teaching should be about.  Here is a teacher who knew teaching was so much more than a test score.  Here is a teacher that, today, would probably be harassed and rated ineffective by a no nothing incompetent administrator, threatened by a teacher who understood what it is all about.

Take The Day Off

Several years ago I remember that the decision to close schools was made after many teachers had already left home.  I remember one teacher who bundled up her young child and drove in from Long Island and was pissed that she endangered herself and her child for nothing.  I remember thinking the teacher was an idiot.  How could any parent in their right mind expose their offspring to dangerous road conditions for a job.  Teachers have ten sick days a year.  Intelligent teachers use one for a heavy snow storm.

When I bought my house I settled for a small one in the city, on a major, (actually two major) bus routes.  With inclement weather, I crossed the street and took public transportation.  If the bus wasn't running, I turned around and went home.  I liked my life and my cars too much to endanger them going to work, especially on a day when no real teaching took place.

I just read a Facebook comment from a wise woman who wrote:  "I'm just taking the day and not dealing with it."  My sentiments exactly.  Call the registry and turn off your alarm.  When you wake up, you can go shovel your walks and clean your cars.  And, be glad you have the options of using a sick day.  My husband was never allowed to call in sick on days like tomorrow.  He worked for Con Ed and there were no excuses tolerated for not being on the job.  Many others have the same type of job.  Teachers, be happy you can use your days.

Find Another Career

The teacher ranted and raved at the child in front of the entire class.

"If you need tutoring this early in the term, you don't belong in this class."

The crestfallen kid turned away, walked to the back of the room and sat down.

Some teachers should not be teaching.

Reptiles Amongst Us

Ms. H and I were trailer buddies around the time of Columbine. Although I am tough on the outside, our vulnerability out there began to bother me and I requested that she lock her trailer door when her class was over and she left.

Ms. H told me she couldn't do that. She had another class right after the trailer that happened to be opposite the Principal's office. She refused to be late for that one even though it meant letting her trailer class leave 8 - 10 minutes early or just leaving the kids in the room when she left.

The kids that stayed behind were quite rambunctious. When I spoke to her, she shrugged her shoulders and said there was nothing she could do about it.

Needless to say, I was not happy. A door connected the two rooms and anyone could enter hers and then waltz into mine without any problem. The noisy kids she left behind were also an issue.

I told Ms H that I would speak to the administration as her problem was jeopardizing my class and my safety. She told me to do what I had to do and I did just that. the next day she was removed from the trailer.

Ms H no longer speaks to me, although this incident happened many years ago. I'm sure she considers me a snitch, but I have no problems being called such a thing. This time the shoe fit and I wear it proudly. (In case anyone is wondering, Ms H is not a dirty talker. I bet no one is surprised to read that.)

Vampires Amongst Us

At a high-school faculty meeting midway through the school year, the principal had presented an agonizing list of our sins, failures, flaws and transgressions, and we were all feeling rather tense. Then the principal announced that the science-club project would be a blood drive, and that in order to promote faculty participation he would donate the first pint of blood. The meeting burst into laughter when a voice from the back of the room demanded anxiously, "Whose?"

Math B Worries

The Math B regents was yesterday. The kids were worried as it is probably the last time they would be able to take this exam. (We are only offering the new trig course in September.) Here are a few pictures I took of the kids right before the exam. Most had books and study notes in front of them for that last minute cram. I even had eight show up this morning for some extra help. (I am not even teaching Math B this term.)












This one was taken in front of Subway, about 3 blocks from the school.

The more juicy part of this post is not here. I originally wanted to publish it publicly, and while this guy deserved to be castrated, I cannot be the one to do that to a fellow teacher so you can only read about it if you have access to this.

A Tribute To My Teachers

I didn't know until the announcement came on that today was Teacher Appreciation. The SO gave every teacher really nice bags. I decided this would be a good time to write a tribute to some of the teachers I had along the way.

I am proud to say that I am a product of a New York City public education. Most of the teachers I had along the way were also products of the same education system. I didn't attend magnet schools or schools in very good neighborhoods, I am a girl from the projects and my schools were all local schools, some with poor reputations.

My first school was PS 41 in the Bronx, the zoned school for the Gun Hill projects. To get there, I had to walk through the project, across two big streets and then down a hill. When I was little, I went with the parents of kids in the building. My mom had a baby and it was easier to let them take me than to drag the baby out in all kinds of weather. Although the memory is weak, I remember certain things about most of the teachers. Ms. Riser (kindergarten) was very rigid,. She was supposed to be the best kindergarten teacher in the school. Ms. Casione, my first grade teacher was young and beautiful and she got married the year I was in her class. Mrs. Shenker was old but really nice. She allowed me to skip from second to fourth grade. Mrs. Levine had magnificent white hair, although she was not that old. She had me taken from the "1' class and put in with the "2" in fifth grade, It was traumatic. Mrs. Korman, my fifth grade teacher was like every one's mother. Her only shortcoming was that she hated math and never taught us any. By sixth grade I was back to the "1" class. I don't remember my teacher's name but I remember dancing around the room with her to Little Eva's Locomotion. We had to read the NY Times every week and do awful percent problems. I still remember, with regret now, copying the current event answers from my neighbor and writing the percent conversions on the back of my ruler for use during exams.

I hated Olinville JHS 113. I lived at least ten blocks away but was not eligible for a bus or train pass. (I sometimes snuck on the train with friends). I was not in an SP class. The kids were rude and disrespectful to the teachers and mean to the kids not in their circle. The teachers that stand out in my memory are Mr. Meirgh, who made us stand up and greet him every day. He was really good looking but very mean. He was one of the few teachers no one messed with. I always felt terrible for Mr. Vure, our homeroom and English teacher. The poor man tried so hard but the kids chewed him up and spit him out. They called him Dick Vure, the meaning of which went over his head. I myself never understood what they were trying to accomplish by calling him that until I was in college. I did service for Mr. O'Leary. He was over six feet tall and drove a tiny Volkswagen bug. At the end of the school year he took all the service aids out to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Coming from a kosher home, this was too much for me so I ordered a lettuce and tomato sandwich. I met my two best friends in junior high and we are friends to this day (soon to take a cruise together and relive our youth.) Unfortunately for me, cheating was still going on in some areas. I gave Rosie math answers in exchange for Spanish answers. This was mild in comparison to the rest of the class, Tina copied so much on a math test that she even put her friend's name on top instead of her own. Marla and her crew wore bangle bracelets during science exams and shook out multiple choice answers across the room.

Evander Childs HS came next. This school had a really rough reputation but being in all honor classes I was mostly able to avoid trouble. I never used the school bathrooms and never left the room during class. I joined clubs to avoid the lunchroom and had a pretty good overall time. My tenth grade math teacher took everyone who scored 100 on the regents to Patricia Murphy's for lunch. It was the first time I was ever in such a fancy restaurant and it was the first time a teacher ever called my house (to tell me my grade). My mom nearly had a heart attack when she heard a teacher's voice on the phone. For years I took students out also. My students were not 100's, but they deserved to be rewarded for their hard work. Mrs. Nirenblatt was the oldest teacher I ever had. She taught economics and ran some club that I was a part of. I remember being invited to her house for an end of term celebration. It was a real thrill, being in a teacher's house. Mr. Levine (Mrs. Levine from the fourth grade's husband) was mean through and through. He never had a nice word to say about anyone and laughed at my friend and me when we told him we were going to be math majors. He used to open all the windows to freeze us out. In retrospect, I thank him for the math he burned into my brain and for showing me everything a teacher could possibly do wrong so I could do the exact opposite in my teaching career.

Only a few teachers stand out from college. My calculus one teacher spoke with a lisp and addressed the board. No one understood anything he said. Luckily I took the same course in high school with a teacher I thought could not teach and aced the college class. Boy was I wrong about him. Professor Baumel, my physics teacher was one of the greatest teachers ever. I loved that class but could not get the hang of the electricity part, no matter how much I studied or went to tutoring. The most influential teacher I ever had is now the dean of education at CCNY--Professor Alfred Posamentier. I took every class he offered both undergraduate, graduate and post graduate. He was entertaining and his love of math carried over to his teaching. I recently saw him at a workshop and realized that much of my teaching style was derived from him.

It would be interesting to read about the teachers that shaped the lives and careers of other teachers.

To The Teachers Who Molded Me

A special thank you to some of the teachers I have had. You gave so much more than academics. You helped me become the kind of teacher I wanted to be.

From JHS 113, in the Bronx

To Mr. O'Leary who took a whole bunch of us to Chinese restaurant for lunch in his little Volkswagon bug. He did not say a word when I ordered a lettuce and tomato sandwich.

From Evander Childs HS, also in the Bronx

To Mr. Josephs the English teacher who met with us in a neighborhood church during the teacher's strike in the 60's.

To Mrs. Nierenblatt, the economics teacher who invited us all to her fancy house in New Rochelle to celebrate our successes.

To Mr. Stohler, (I think I might have his name slightly wrong), the academic team's advisor who drove us there.

To Mrs. Palley who took us out to lunch to celebrate the perfect score we got on our regents exams.

To Mr. Sodicow, the ARISTA advisor and English teacher who claimed to hate us all but spent hours after school working on special projects with us.

I hope there will be a day when students will have these good memories of me and what I tried to do for them.

Stupid Teachers

I hate to say anything negative about my colleagues but some of them are the epitome of stupid.

We had a faculty conference today. The administration was great. (I'm waiting for the lightning to strike me for writing that.) They said what they had to say and were ready to let us leave early. You would think veteran teachers would appreciate this and keep their mouths shut. But, this did not happen? NO!!!!!!!

The APO was talking about protocol for regents exams. She pointed out the problems with cell phones in the past and told everyone proctoring to collect phones at the start of the exam. She said she would provide rubber bands to attach phones to ID cards so the phones would be easy to achieve at the end of the exam.

Sounds simple, right? Sounds uncomplicated? If I was not in the room I would not have believed the comments I heard. "What if a kid forgets?" "What if you hear a phone go off?" "What if the sky is falling?"

We finally have a principal that respects the staff and respects our time but we still work with a bunch of morons that cannot possibly think for themselves or get through a forty minute meeting without hearing their own voices.

I need a drink.

Worksheets Are Not A Substitue For Teaching

Prentice Hall ruined our math students in more ways than one. The poor quality of the text book forced teachers to hand out worksheets every day. The students got in the habit of never opening a book. Prentice Hall encouraged individual work. The students got in the habit of doing sheet after sheet after sheet. They forgot how to listen to the teacher. They forgot how to think.

I'm old fashioned. I really believe kids come to school to be taught. The teachers job is to model the problems and to explain along the way. A good teacher will be able to have the class develop the concepts along with her. Thinking is the most valuable skill these kids need to learn. Worksheets did not teach this. I've watched the wrong answers spread quicker than a forest fire. I've seen kids hand in perfect papers and not have a clue how to arrive at an answer.

A few days ago I gave my geometry class a worksheet, something I rarely do. It was as strange day and many of them were absent. I didn't feel comfortable teaching anything new. The kids loved working on it but I did not teach. I walked around and helped them. I made sure they stayed on target but I did not teach. I did not earn my salary that day.

Addressing The Problem

Principal Suit to Young Ms. Math Teacher: Your lesson was fine. You hit all the good points. But, traditionally about 1/3 of these students fail. I would like you to think about how you will address this problem and get back to me. I don't need an answer today, but I would like one soon.

Ms. Young Math Teacher just shook her head. She has no answer, at least no answer she is willing to give Mr. AP. She is young and needs her job.

Some of the old math teachers had a few answer for him, however.

1. Why not program kids for classes they are capable of passing? Maybe then the results will be better.

2. Why not try getting students into the correct class on the first day of school, instead of the first day of the second marking period? Maybe without all the disruption, they can actually learn something.

3. Why not order a book that actually covers the curriculum instead of that crappy new Geometry book put out by Amsco that has no problems and no explanations?

4. Why not try smaller classes?

5. Why program every second of our day so that we have no time to work individually with students or call a parent?

6. Why don't we just pass them all so the results will be better?

Too bad he won't ask any of us how to address the problem. He's afraid of the answers we'd give him.

Supposedly Principal Suit is leaving on Monday. No one can figure out why he is doing this stuff!

Mr. Frenchie

All the physical education teachers had to be released from their proctoring assignments to so some stupid work that should have been finished last week before classes ended. It was not their fault the work wasn't done. The paperwork they needed did not arrive on time.

Lucky me!! I got to proctor the French regents for one of these PE teachers. The PE teacher started the exam and when I took over Mr. Frenchie was reading aloud. I don't know Frenchie. I never even spoke to him until that day. I don't even know his real name.

Frenchie was reading instructions when I walked in, instructions Ms PE had already read and explained quite thoroughly. Then Frenchie asked "Is everyone happy that I am reading? Would you like another teacher?" He then smiled and patted himself on the back. He repeated the question after every third reading. He also asked "Am I reading too slow? Am I reading too fast? Am I reading just right?" Again, he smiled, and patted himself on the back. He complimented his clear pronunciation and commented on the ease of almost every question. The reading in this room took 20 minutes longer than the reading in every other room.

Joey walked into the exam twenty minutes late and missed 24 points of the exam. Joey's teacher agreed to read the part he missed to him privately. Frenchie was not happy about that. He said Joey should be penalized and asked the students in the room if they agreed with him. The kids just wanted to get on with the exam and raised their hands to get Frenchie to stop blabbing about nothingness and get on with the reading. Frenchie never even bothered to find out if Joey had a legitimate reason for being late. Thank goodness Joey's teacher had compassion and helped Joey in spite of Frenchie.

French is the language of love. I hope Mr. French enjoys whispering love phrases into the mirror because no one will ever say them to him better than the way he says them to himself.

Workspace

This is how one math teacher has been spending her lunch period every day.

I'm usually just as busy. Today I tried to do some computer work on my lunch. As luck would have it only TWO of the THREE COMPUTERS available for teacher use were working. So, in the "BEST LIBRARY IN NYC" I could not find a computer to use.



Yes, in a school with a staff of over 400, in the twenty first century, teachers have access to exactly two working computers.



Isn't NYC education grand! Thank you Bloomberg. Thank you Klein.

Limitless Inability

Is it possible that there are math teachers out there that do not know math? The shocking answer to this question is YES! I 'm not talking about not knowing advanced math or even high school calculus, I'm talking about geometry, intermediate algebra and trigonometry. My AP said the new geometry course is going to be a problem because most of the teachers in my department don't know the subject and can't teach it. Little by little the old timers are retiring and those left behind are a sad bunch. (Not all new teachers are this uneducated in math, but lots of the ones in my school fall into this category.)

One of the young ones who will be around for a long time (and probably become an administrator) told me that if an answer is 3/2 and a kid writes 1 1/2, she marks it wrong. I tried to explain to her that she couldn't do that, the answers were equivalent. Her reply was, "my students know what I want and that is what they will give me." She taught the probability of picking a red and a blue marble from a bag of marbles and refused to recognize the answer had to be the probability of red and blue plus the probability of blue and red. It's her way or no way. My AP loves her. Even if he knew, he would probably not say anything.

There are teachers that go to the library for their C-6 tutoring assignment but who cannot help the kids with any math past the Math A regents. Even that is too hard for some of them. One teacher had to teach an SAT course over the summer and refused to learn the math. I have no idea what she taught but she will freely admit that she did not know the material and did not bother with it. The administration was just glad to have a body in the room and to be able to say the course was being offered.

A few weeks ago, my chairman brough a large part of the department in to watch one of the young ones teaching factoring. Her lesson consisted of doing the same exact problem (slightly different numbers) over and over. She never introduced coefficients higher than or lower than one or exponents higher than two. Don't get me wrong, she was excellent, but she doesn't know how to progress and there is no one to show her. She's a teaching fellow and her math education is limited.

My school is a good school. Attracting quality teachers should not be a problem. But, in a system that does not value senior teachers this does not happen. Seniority transfers are no longer available. Administrators want the newbies who take a much lower salary than the experienced teacher and jump to follow all their directives. Experienced teachers in the schools already are being harassed and told to transfer (as if some other school would take them.) Only the young are valued.

When I started teaching there were many experienced teachers around. I needed to learn and they were around to help. Sadly, this is no longer true. Sadly, even the older teachers still around are so overwhelmed with work that there is no time to help the new ones. Soon the only teachers left will be the ones who don't know the material and can't teach. These teachers will embrace the horse shoe seating arrangement and they will embrace group work so my guess is they will be embraced by the administration.

Scary

No words needed on my part. This story and Justice say it all.

My only comment is that right now classes are being stacked so that some teachers have more difficult kids to teach than others. One of the and low level classes is now being given only the lowest level classes in the school. Her classes are full of repeaters, kids who should be juniors and seniors but have no math credits (and not too many in other subject areas either.) The AP is aways harrassing her. The newbies have much better kids in all or most of their classes. When a newbie took over for a teacher going on sabbatical last year, the AP removed all the trouble makers from that class. Guess where they went?

While I agree that incompetent teachers should be removed, test scores are not the way to go.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Today was really cold but not cold, enough to keep the phys ed teachers from bringing their classes outside. This was not the first time I have seen them out in this weather. I have even seen them out in the rain.

Most of the kids did not have sweatshirts or sweat pants so they went out in shorts and tees.

I met one of my students on her way out. This girl is prone to asthma and looked like she was freezing inside the building. I took off the sweater I was wearing and made her wear it. Her PE teacher got mad at her for this! Let me add, the teacher was wearing a hoodie and sweat pants.

I don't claim to know anything about teaching PE, but I do know when it is too cold to go out in summer attire. Today was one of those days. I don't understand why the parents aren't screaming about this lack of consideration for their children.

Nothing Like a New Couch to Make You Feel Good

This is the old chair and couch from Principal Suit's office.
Here is another chair. It was nice of the school to put it next to the phone so we can comfortable make the phone calls we need to make.
Here is the cafeteria where the chairs are located. They are located in a nice quiet and private spot so if someone feels ill and needs to lie down and rest, privacy is assured.

Suit got a whole new office of some really nice leather furniture. This is not a picture of his office, but the furniture in this room is just as nice as his new stuff and his office is just as large. I bet Bloomberg is happy to see a good use for school money. (I assume the money for this furniture came out of some school budget but I don't know that for sure.)

Suit donated his old furniture to the teachers cafeteria. Believe it or not, this is the only comfortable furniture in the entire building available to teachers. Our school has no faculty lounge, unless you count the little room connected to the bathrooms(separate for men and women.) These rooms have the same chairs one would find in a classroom and one round table. Everything that goes on in the stalls is both smelt and heard in this room. But, teachers really don't need any comfort since we have no free time during the day to enjoy it.

My trailer still has no loudspeaker or fire bells. The paint on the walls is still mosaic style. Kids are still sitting on the floor when they have internship periods. Teachers are still tutoring in the halls, but he has a new office suite. I'm sure Suit and the DOE would have a great way to defend this.

Disparity

Sweet Young Thing and Thirty Year Veteran have both been absent quite a few days lately. Thirty Plus' two year old son was hospitalized last week and had emergency surgery. She is a single parent. Sweet Young Thing lives at home with her parents. Neither one of these teachers had coverage material for their classes on the days they were out.

AP to Sweet Young Thing:

His Ms. Sweet. Welcome back. I hope you are feeling better. We all missed you. Don't worry about substitute work. Mr. Z will run stuff off for you.

AP about Thirty Year Veteran (she has not returned to work yet.) Rant was made in the office--full of kids and teachers.

I can't believe Thirty is still out. She takes off too much. She did not leave any work for her classes. I am going to put a letter in her file. I will not put up with this behavior from teachers in my department.

By the way, Thirty has quite a few sick days in her bank even though she had hip replacement surgery and was out eight weeks last year. She almost never takes a day off. She even arranged to give birth while on sabbatical.

Mr. AP is making his feelings about us veterans known. He is also making the veteran teachers resent the sweet young ones, which is sad. Most of them, including this one, are good, caring teachers. They don't want this special treatment. Overall they want to be treated like everyone else.

Report Cards

I hate making up grades, not because I don't want to do the work but because I hate to make decisions that have major effects on other people's lives. I spend a lot of time looking over exam grades, homework, attendance, etc and come to what I hope is a fair and reasonable grade. My students usually don't complain too much.

Yesterday I made the error of telling some of my kids their grades in advance. Of course the complaints started. One kid, with a 67 average got a 55 because he was missing 15 homeworks. "Miss, you didn't collect mine." I asked him, how did I missed his and got every other homework. He couldn't answer and walked away angry. He's not really a bad kid. Today he came in, "forgave" me for failing him but failed to hand in homework again. He told me that it was okay that he didn't pass. I said, "Joey, you are good! You know that I won't change the grade, you know that you deserved to fail, so you are justifying your grade in your own mind. Just do what is right and your grades will go up." He smiled and walked out. Hopefully he will improve. I had this kid last year and went through the same scenario then. He's bright, he just has to learn that he cannot get over on me.

My real problem with grading is the administration. They are not so easy to deal with. My AP complains if we pass too many and the principal complains if we pass too few. The principal thinks that if a kid gets a 55 the second marking period, he is going to pass the third one and programs the kid to move ahead. The only way we can guarantee that this won't happen is to give out grades of 40 and 45, something I hate to do. I don't want to pass someone that does not deserve to pass, but I don't want to destroy a kid's average either. It is much harder to recover from a 40 or a 45 than a 55. I would like to be able to just put down an F for kids that fail. Too bad the administration won't let us do that. I know there are teachers out there that love to give the "true average". This accomplishes nothing. I would rather put down a comment or make a phone call to let the parents know the true story.

Too bad I didn't pay attention as to when report cards will be issued. That would have been a good day to be out sick.