The Affair

I just finished watching the last episode of  The Affair.  It took 5 episodes to get me interested and I am glad I stuck with it.  This last episode hit home.

The male lead, Noah, is a NYC high school teacher who ends up in the rubber room for a discretion.  (Won't go into any other details of the show here because they are not relevant to this post.)  Although I have not been to a rubber room, the show portrays all that I have heard about them.  The "inmates" are signed in by an evil looking guard.  They sit quietly at tables, reading, using computers, sleeping and being bored.  One has slumped over and is only noticed by a fellow captive who happens to turn around.  EMT removes him and no one seems concerned as the stretcher is carried passed them.  In order to go to the bathroom, ID must be left and the teacher must be signed out.

Noah is one of the few that succeeds in this hell like room.  He is a writer and finally completes his second novel which ends up being a huge success.

If you can't get into the series, just go to the season finale.  I would like to thank Showtime for portraying this for all to see.

Damned If You Care, Damned If You Don't



If you are a teacher in New York City there are times you just can't win.  Take Eric Chasanoff, for example.  Eric is a warm, caring teacher who had a young woman in his class who was not doing well.  He could have taken the easy way out and ignored her and let her fail.  Instead, he talked to her, encouraged her and did the unspeakable, HE PRAISED HER.  She passed exams and for this he was punished and eventually exonerated.  The Daily News and the NY Times are keeping the punishment alive.

Another teacher I know takes the opposite approach.  He feels kids should do well, or not, on their own so, when he has a child who is not performing well, he leaves that child alone.  He was recently observed by his Principal and written up for not involving this young man in the lesson.  This teacher, while still in the classroom, is also worried about eventually getting that ineffective rating.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.  There is no answer to the right way to hold on to your job.  There is an answer to the right way of doing it and Eric has that answer.  I worked with this man and know that while he might have used an inappropriate phrase and let's face it, who hasn't--even the almighty education mayor and his poodle have done so, he is not a sexual pervert or a danger to students in the classroom.  I would have been thrilled if he had taught one of my children.

Not only is Eric and the other teachers being punished with these so called news articles, but every teacher in the system is being put on notice.  A teacher has a major job not only teaching, following ridiculous common core standards and now must censor every word and deed before it is actually said or done.  Robotic teachers and videos might be the wave of the future.  At least these things can't make the mistakes these educators made. 

(No reason for the picture except that I love these old wooden escalators in Macy's.  I hope they keep them in spite of all the renovations.)

Mulgrew's Propoganda

From Mulgrew's latest e-mail:

We reached a landmark agreement with the city to shut down the so-called "rubber rooms" and put a faster, fairer hearing process in place.

Go visit Fidgety or Moriah and get the facts from people who have been there.

Mulgrew and company are feeding us some pretty heavy propaganda. For teachers like the two mentioned above, nothing has changed.

Target

The arrogant, crotchety, ignorant principal has an agenda. S/he wants to "U" rate a specific number of teachers every year. Everyone knows this is true because s/he told this to an AP and is on this AP's case because of the refusal to do so. Since the AP is honorable, Principal From Hell ( PFH) has picked a target his/herself.

Target teacher has been teaching for many, many years. S/he has always been well respected and liked by fellow teachers, students, and even administrators. In over 15 years, Target has never received any evaluation short of glowing. Target however, has one major flaw. S/he speaks his/her mind. S/he does not let people walk over him/her and when something is not right s/he says something. PFH does not like this. PFH is not that bright and does not take any of these conversations well.

Target teacher was recently observed by his/her AP. The lesson went well, the kids were engaged and the AP was very happy with what s/he saw. PFH was not happy when she read the observation and decided to pay Target a surprise visit. PFH visited Target's worse class, on the first day back from spring break, without any warning or pre-observation conference. Target was intermittently showing a film and stopping for discussion and question time. The majority of the kids were engaged and working. One student did say the work was boring and did not want to do it, but that happens in every class. The class ended and Target was reasonably satisfied with the lesson she taught. PFH was not happy. To quote Target, "S/he ripped me a new ass hole. Nothing I did was right. S/he did not understand the topic I was teaching although the kids knew exactly what I was doing and did not stop finding fault." Target was given a "U" for the lesson.

Target is strong, and a fighter and PFH is weak and stupid. Target will end up winning this war, but, how many teachers, in similar situations will not emerge victorious? How many are sitting in rubber rooms or are in schools, worried if there livelihoods will be taken away from them by principals like PFH? All the victims of these sick, stupid, ignorant despots, will be on the streets if Klein and Bloomberg have their way.

UNITY just won the election. The people have spoken. Now is the time for UNITY to stand up and protect teachers like Target and all the ones falsely charged and unfairly incarcerated in these reassignment cents.

The Accountable Mayor

He spends a mini fortune to go on television and talk about how he improved NYC schools.

He talks about accountability, how he himself is accountable.

Wake up public! NYC schools are no better today than they were 10 years ago and in my opinion, they are worse. Kids are graduating without knowing basics. Things like credit recovery and boot camps are pushing them out without real educations. Incidents are going unreported. Hundreds of good teachers (ATRs) are sitting without classes. Others are sitting in the rubber room on trumped up charges with no substance made by principals who can barely wipe their own rear ends.

Bloomberg, you talk about accountability, but, how are you being held accountable? How about being accountable for the students in the community colleges who barely know reading, writing and arithmetic? How about being accountable for substandard trailer and split room classes? How about being accountable for school built to hold 1800 now holding 4500? What is your penalty for failing the children of NYC?

This Just In...

Henry is cleared of all charges. There is justice in this world.


Now, let's hope he ends up in a much better place.

Real Rubber Room Story

Rubber rooms, the real story

They Finally Did It To Her

They did it to her and they can do it to any of us.

She knew it was coming and nothing she did could stop it.

Down with the DOE and the UFT and the administration of Moriah's school.

Go over and offer her your support. It is the least any of us can do.

Update On My (Almost) Brush With RR

It seems Mr AP was very busy Monday afternoon. My class was not the only one he paid a visit to. He visited quite a few of the other repeater classes.

Every teacher had the same reaction I did--wait until the memo comes out on Thursday. All our classes were "wild." Two days off followed by one day of school and then another two days off is not exactly conducive to learning. Attendance was awful. (At least my attendance was good.) He did not say one word to me, but asked another teacher to speak to him after her class. Maybe my class wasn't as bad as I thought it was or maybe it was good compared to what he had seen in the other rooms. Misery loves company and today we all laughed about the observations.

Ms. ATR passed Mr. AP in the hall and said "Hi, how are you doing?" He answered "terrible" and walked away. I'm sure he is very worried about how the kids in these repeater classes will do. A failure on their part is a reflection on him and from what he saw, there is little hope of having great statistics this year. Oh well, this is not my problem. I just go about my business, teaching as usual, and hoping for the best.

The class from hell was even on good behavior today but I don't have confidence that it will last. My motto--one day at a time.

I'm Not Worried But Thanks For The Concern

I am not going to the rubber room. I am not being setup to go to the rubber room. I am not worried. Yesterday's class was just an awful reminder of what happens to my colleagues every day.

I'm lucky. I won't have any lasting problems because of that class. The worst thing will be a few nasty words from Mr. AP. I've decided to agree with everything he says and walk away. He hates when I do that. He loves an argument. He also hates winning in this manner. I've even rehearsed a scenario:

Mr. AP: Ms. POd, you are too nice. That class was walking all over you.

Ms. POd: You are correct.

Mr. AP: You have to change seats.

Ms. POd: I've done that twice. I will do it again.

Mr. AP: You have to call their parents.

Ms. POd: I have called some. I am teaching six classes and have a C-6 assignment. I try to squeeze in a few phone calls between periods.

Mr. AP: Please go watch Ms. Teenie Bopper. She has great control.

Ms. POd: I will be happy to do that only if I can do it during my C-6 assignment.

Mr. AP: This is a different world we are living in. If you don't improve I will be forced to put a letter in your file and give you a U rating.

Ms. POd: I understand. Do what you feel is correct.

It Made Me Cry

They Don't Own Your Soul

Teacher Abuse

Please read this account of a persecuted teacher and this one and all of the other rubber room horror stories listed in the left column of this blog.

The Big House

Our founding fathers built Eastern Penitentiary to treat prisoners humanely. Now, things did out that way. It can hardly be considered human to keep people in solitary confinement 24 hours a day, years at a time, with only the only light coming in from a small window in the ceiling, but humanity was the goal They believed that everyone had some good in them and if they repented (hence the name penitentiary), it would come out.

Too bad the powers that be don't feel the same about teachers. Rubber rooms are not much better than the conditions these men and women had to endure.

The only light in the cells.
The long, gloomy hallways. Prisoners were brought to their cells with sacks over their heads to keeps their anonymity.
The cell which only had bed, toilet and a bible.

Locked in.



And, last but not least Al Capone's cell.

While prisoners had no comforts or luxuries, Capone had a double cell furnished as it is shown with a full radio in the back.

Thank goodness no group of people gets such preferential treatment today.

The Future (OF ATRs) According to Klein

I just copied this from Ednotes:

Klein to Go After ATR's Weingarten Says
A correspondent reports:

Randi's visit to the Queens Rubber room

Aside from a lot of useless prattle, she also indicated that Klein was going after ATR's as a form of featherbedding. She, as always, the unsuspecting, unknowing, innocent lawyer, does not seem too sure about her ability to uphold the union's ironclad policy of protecting ATRs. What else is new?

An ATR in my school came to the cafeteria today visibly upset about something. When pressed, she told us that she had been called down to the APO's office. It seems APs, deans and school aides have been complaining about her classroom management. It is interesting that this incident came about today, the day after the above story came out. This woman has been in the school since September and in all this time has only had two classes that she could not handle. The classes she could not handle are classes that give their regular teacher a hard time. Yesterday, she had the class from hell. One AP walked into the room and got the kids to settle down for a little while. Unfortunately, this pompous a** did not show his face until the last twenty minutes of the period and did not stay around for long.

We sat and tried to figure out who could have complained about her, aside from him. He gave her no indication that she was doing anything wrong. No one could believe a school aide would say anything and we are guessing that words were put into some aide's mouth. As for the dean, we have suspicions. There are quite a few young wannabes around.

Someone posted a comment asking me if I knew about the rubber room. My answer is yes. Did I know anyone who is or has been in one of those rooms? My answer to that is yes also. The charges against these people are top secret, sometimes they don't know themselves what these charges are. Teachers fear these rooms as they can languish in them for months. This woman and other ATRs fear for their futures. They fear ending up in these rooms and then losing their jobs. They are being put in impossible situations. They are given classes that are impossible to control and are given no work to do with them. There is nothing they can do. Klein wants them off the payroll and principals will do anything and everything necessary to oblige.