Coach Susie

I met Coach Susie at a party this weekend. Susie works F status at the school she retired from. She coaches a bunch of elementary and middle school teachers on the art of teaching math. She went on and on about what a valuable function she serves for her school and how wonderful the principal is, keeping the best interests of all her students first. Her school, an alternative school has no special education students or students that score below level three. If, on the rare chance that one does score a one or two, that child is burnt at the stake.

Coach Susie made me think of the F status people 15 More Years is always complaining about. This woman spends a good part of her day doing data analyis and test coordination. This data analysis is necessary so students can be trained for the tests and not to many will be burnt.

By the way, everyone in Coach Susie's school went to the end term party because it is such a jovial place to be.

I Forgot to Mention...

the three F status people milling around and facilitating the staff development and our Broad Award. I saw the banner as i was leaving today. I wonder if that is how Suit funded his new leather furniture.

ATR

Recently I have become friendly with an ATR in my building. I guess my hostile, anti-social vibes attract other people feeling the same way. We tend to have free periods together and sit and bitch together. It is very enlightening.

I'm glad I got to know this woman. Without her, I would have no first hand knowledge of the plight of an ATR. This woman is in her position because her school was closed. HER SCHOOL WAS CLOSED! She did nothing wrong. SHE DID NOTHING WRONG This woman is a warm caring person. She is bright. She wants to teach. She wants to help kids. She is a good teacher.

When this ATR first showed up in our building the AP wanted to put her in a classroom. Principal Suit said NO. When a vacancy in her license appeared, this woman wanted it. Principal Suit brought in an inexperienced person to fill the position. He would not even allow her to teach a model lesson to audition for the job. This person would love to work with a regular class or with small groups of students to give them extra help in a subject that she knows well. Suit still says NO. And, so she goes from room to room, from class to class filling in for absent teachers. I am sure they are trying to get her to leave. She won't. She's smart. If they want to pay her to do nothing, she will have to come to terms with that to keep the checks coming. She doesn't think they can do anything about her or to her. I hope she is right.

I worry about this ATR and others in her position. I am willing to bet that Bloomberg and Klein are busy trying to figure out how they can get these people off the payroll. I know they can't get them on teaching, especially if the subject they are expected to teach is not in their license area. They will get them on classroom management. This ATR has been covering classes where there is no work for the kids to do. It is hard to keep kids behaved when there is nothing for them to do. Administrators are watching and criticizing. I don't think the union will protect these teachers.

The school system is spending a fortune on F status people yet, there are people in the building that are not being allowed to work. Some things just make no sense.

What A Racket

I walked past one of the offices this afternoon and found the F status person working hard. This was after she spent a period in the cafeteria socializing. Check out her picture on the left. (Not really her picture, she wasn't even pretending to work.)