Safety First

I had a flat tire yesterday, so I got out of the car and opened the trunk.

I took out my cardboard men, unfolded them and stood them at the rear of my car facing oncoming traffic.

They look so life like you wouldn't believe it! They are exposing their nude bodies to the approaching drivers.

Cars start slowing down looking at my lifelike men which made it safer for me to work at the side of the road.

Traffic starts backing up. Everybody is honking their horns and waving like crazy.

It wasn't long before a state trooper pulled up behind me.

'What's going on here?'

'My car has a flat tire,' I said calmly.

'Well, what are those obscene cardboard men doing here by the road?'

I couldn't believe that he didn't know.. So I told him,

'Helloooooo, those are my Emergency Flashers.'

Honeymoon

The algebra classes are not what I expected. ARIS gave me a whole bunch of data that just seems wrong about most of them. The kids are great and they seem to have more than a clue as to what is going on.

They were ready to begin on the first day of classes. No one said "I don't have a notebook" or "I need a pen." And, when I started working, they worked without complaint. They were not afraid to participate. Nobody observing would have been able to distinguish the special education kids from the regular ed kids. The only way I noticed was from the code on their attendance sheets. I even got homework from almost all of them and the grumbling about weekend homework was barely there.

I'm still not sure how I like this team teaching bit. So far, I've only had a substitute in the room. The extra hands, eyes and ears are nice but there is a price to pay for it. (More on this in another post.) Not that the price is high, but if you remember from previous posts, I am cheap, and it is more than I want to spend.

Well, I won't let myself get too comfortable. It is only the first week and we are still on our honeymoon but I think I will enjoy it for as long as I can. Who knows, maybe this relationship will last for the year? Stranger things have happened.

Sharing My Magical Kingdom

As the new year starts, I realize that the kids are as worried as I am. I just got this from a former geometry student:

Hey Mrs.POd,

How are you? Omg i havent seen you at all =(
I misss you and your class soooo much ugh wish i can go back to those days you always had something nice to say to brighten my day. I have Mrs. XX as a teacher idk what do you think about her? Is she good i really want to do better in school and focus more. My mom gave me a 30min leture on how junior year is the most important . What do you teach this year?


and this from a graduate:

Hi Ms.POd! this is Hannah:)

I hope you remember me from AP calculus last year. well technically last semester.I was sending you an email because I came to think about you while doing my calculus homework from college. oh and I forgot to tell you my AP grade,..I didn't do as well as I expected, but I got a 3.I once told you that I answered my long questions in pencil, and asked you if it was alright. And someone told me I had to write them over in pen. so I think I got a 3 because of that. Well, I miss my senior AP calculus class with you. And I hope to keep in touch with you and talk to you through email. Is it ok to email you when I have trouble with Calculus?I really miss you and hope to talk to you again.

I am glad that they write, that they confide their fears and I always try to answer immediately, to remind them that although I am no longer their teacher, I will always be around for them. I know it helps them as much as their e-mails help me.

Plan Update

Schoolgal asked and I answered here.

Magic Kingdom

I know this goes against what almost every teacher I know would say, but I was ready for the end of summer and ready to go back to work, even looking forward to it. There is something to be said for being able to walk away whenever you want that makes the return desirable. The "Teflon" coating I got for my 55th birthday also helps. I can pretty much say and do whatever I think is best and know that there are no repercussion that can stick. I don't like it when Mr. AP is in one of his ranting moods but, I have learned to do what kids have done to teachers for years, I turn a deaf ear.

I love the first couple of days of school when last term's students run up to me and throw their arms around me in a big hug. The hugs come from the 40's and 50's as well as the 90's. (I know Chaz, I have to be careful--again a benefit of my non stick status.) One of my former students was upset because he ended up with a teacher he had a horrible experience with a few years ago. I was able to help him get the class changed. He told me that he wanted to package me up and take me to college with him. I've got my "floor" tutoring program worked out because the geometry students from last year are already struggling with trig.

I'm terrified of the beginning of the school year. I used to know every name by the end of the first day. Now, the week is ending and I only know about 80% of them. I feel guilty. The Asian names are so similar that it is hard for a dumb Caucasian like me to get them all right. I have two students with similar names sitting one behind the other. One has the initials SJ and the other JS. Both agreed to let me use these letters for a while. They saw I needed a crutch. I worry about my classes. I worry if the kids will like me, listen to me and be able to learn from me. I worry about screwing up and doing some irreparable damage to their education. I hate assigning seats and don't so. I worry about them playing around instead of working. I like kids to be comfortable and sitting with friends as long as they are working, not chatting is important to this comfort. I worry that this policy is not educationally sound because almost no one else does it. No one should have to sit in the back every semester because their last name begins with a Z. I stress so much about the first day one would think I was a new teacher instead of a 30+ year veteran.

Maybe it is this fear combined with the love that makes the return to school magical, like the thrill of riding a roller coaster or jumping out of a plane (something I plan to do this year.) I don't have to travel to Orlando to visit Disney World. I have it right here at Packemin HS. I love my summer adventures but the magic kingdom here keeps drawing me back. My family tells me I will probably die with a piece of chalk in my hand. They are probably right.

Former Student

I got this e-mail on Tuesday. The student who wrote it graduated two years ago. Don't let the poor grammar and spelling bother you. She only lives in this country a few years and came here knowing no English. Her reading comprehension and her speech are good. It is too bad that this girl's English teacher had to focus on her passing the regents, instead of what really mattered. It is too bad that schools are funded in such a way that she tested out of ESL before she had a good command of the English language. In spite of this, Judi is going into her sophomore year at a good four year college, majoring in architecture and running close to an A average.

Dear Mrs POd:
How's your summer vacation.
This is from judi, you remember me right?
I own you a calculator since i went to college.
I finished the math class last semester,, therefor, i m goin to give it back to you in few days.
thank you for lending me a calculator,
I appreciate.

I'm Getting To Them Already!

Just got this from a calculus kid. We talked about some of the history and background of calculus today. This quote made mine!

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - "Miracles are not to be multiplied beyond
necessity."

A Little Thing That Makes Me Happy

The first day of school I give the kids an e-mail address that I use daily and ask them to send me an e-mail with their name and class so I can create a class e-mail list for the class.

The e-mails are pouring in. I'm even getting them from my four term algebra classes!

More work for me but I don't mind. I'm glad to have kids that care and I'm glad to be able to help them.

Honk Honk

After hearing about how we should be like geese, I decided to do some research and see for myself what was involved in being a goose.

The first thing I came across was the old French proverb:

It is a stupid goose that listens to a fox preach.

Are teachers stupid for listening to administrators preach?

Then I read that Canadian geese drop two to four pounds of excrement a day and create major health problems. They are also extremely noisy.

I also found a bunch of goose meanings here. I decided to just copy a few.

A stupid and inane woman is called "un'oca" (a goose) in Italian as well.

Geese are also "stupid" in idiomatic expressions of German: "dumme Gans - stupid goose": the meaning is "silly/stupid woman". This seems to go back to classical fables - or at least German Wiki lists geese as (supposedly) stupid acording to fables tradition, without reference to a particular fable.

Proverbial behaviour tends to be given to familiar creatures, and geese will have been extremely common and familiar from early times. So this makes them a target for having some sort of attribute assigned to them, and they may not need to be outstandingly stupid for this quality to be associated with them. It's possible that it is simply to do with how they look, move (they are somewhat ungainly on the ground) and some of their behaviours that make them seem comic or ridiculous, rather than unintelligent per se. (They may be fairly intelligent as domesticated birds go, but that's not really saying a great deal.) In English, words like "giddy" and "silly" often accompany proverbial mentions of geese, and perhaps stupidity as such is a perhaps unfair extension of this.In Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium (early 19th c.) the writer (unlike Johnson) finds it self-evident that geese are stupid. He says he only includes them to give examples showing they are not always stupid, which seems self-defeating as an entry in an etymology, but there you go.

Also in Swedish, geese are stupid. I haven't found any particular fables, either, depicting geese as stupid, but it seems to be an widespread European It does exist in Hungarian: hülye liba (stupid goose) idea.

(I guess I am not a big fan of metaphors)

Satan

Here

An Apology

I found a use for ARIS!

I was able to export my class list to excel and get my class spreadsheet in seconds.

I guess it is worth $80 billion afterall.

Educaton Vs. Statistics

Is the most important part of our jobs good stats?

Has it really come to that?

No one cares what we do as long as we get close to 100% passing? The stats are the only thing we will be judged by.

Should we get rid of the failing kids to increase our stats?

Gee, what is happening to education today?

Day 1 and I am already bitching!

Procrastination

All summer I planned to clean out my book bag, organize lesson plans and get ready for the new year.

School starts tomorrow and I just started the process.

This is part of the job I hate

Tribute To A Friend

One of my best teaching buddies at Packemin just celebrated a milestone birthday. Colleagues like her make the unbearable bearable. She reads this blog regularly and I post here to show her again how much I love her and value her friendship.


Her hubby's flowers--he has great taste in flowers as well as in women.

Pre dinner wine and snacks

Pushing Buttons

I love pushing buttons and clicking things and ARIS has given me a whole new set of buttons to click on.

I clicked the button to find the eight grade NYS assessments. After conferring with a colleague, I even think I understand them.

In my class of 35 students (over sized at the moment), I have three 2s and two 1s. In my class of 33, I have one 4, four 2s and one 1. The T class, which is combined with one of the other two will add four more students split with 2s and 3s. I also realized that the T class will be very over sized as these kids are just an addition to the already existing classes. I wonder whether this is a problem that will be rectified or a new way the Bloomberg/Klein regime found to legally create over sized classes.

I thought 3s were okay until I talked to an colleague from an intermediate school and she convinced me otherwise. I've heard the 2s and 1s know almost nothing.

What I would like to know is why an $80 billion computer like ARIS can't come up with a program that will put like abilities together. The poor kid with the 4 will be sitting in a class with kids who can't add. What kind of education will he get? With 34+ kids, there is no way to differentiate enough to help the child with the 1.

Somebody else better start pushing some buttons and start getting these kids in the right classes. I've got the data at my fingertips but I have no clue as to how to use it to help these kids.

Just In..

A very prestigious high school in one of the five boroughs of New York City will be the first school in the country to hold classes 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Mayor and Chancellor combined with the UFT to solve the overcrowding problem. They have even managed to find placements for all current ATRs. These teachers claim to be eager to return to the classroom and there will be quite a few openings in the midnight to 7 AM shift. Any ATR unwilling to work this shift will be terminated immediately.

There Is Always Something The Teacher Can Do

Last week, Anthony Pantaleno had an opinion piece in Newsday on on how teachers should "go the extra mile" to get to know troubled students on an intimate level.

I sent in the following reply:

The article is right on target except for one thing--it does not give a clue as to how this can be done in schools as large and over populated as many in NYC are. I teach at Packemin HS, in a building that was built to hold 2000 students but now holds over 10,000 and is growing every day. It was just announced that we are adding a 27th period to our day which means we, like Seven Eleven are open 24 hours. Class sizes are at their capacity level 34 students. There are no empty classrooms or offices to use during the day so there is no place to get to know the student. In other words, his plan is impossible.

One of the biggest problems in education is all the solutions to the problems being offered by non educators, people who have not been inside a school since they were students and have no idea what is going on. If people like Mr. Pantaleno really care, they have to get their hands dirty, get involved in the buildings and then offer advice.

Billions of dollars are being spent on computer programs to show us the problems that exist but zero dollars are being spent on the actual solutions.

(I sent this to Newsday, but it has not been printed. They only print one per person per 90 day period and I think I am still in that 90 day period.)

The Plan

Here it is.

Data Stress

The more I look at data, the less I like it. I just noticed an ME 41 T class on my program and this has me quite nervous. If my calculus class is still a 7/8 split, it gives me six classes, which can't possibly be correct. If calculus is a single period, I have to revamp the way I teach. The school tried this once before and the grades plummeted. These kids, while good, are not natural math students and need the extra period.

The T means team teaching, something I only did once and dread doing again. Years ago, I team taught with one of my closest friends and it was a nightmare. He was going through some personal issues and I ended up doing all the work. Team teaching now means having a special education teacher with me. I'm nervous about two adults in one room. I tend to do a lot of talking and can't see how this person will help. And, if I end up with a teacher who does not know the math, I will freak. My job is to teach the kids, not the teacher.

In an e-mail, Mr. AP just confirmed my fears--it is a team teaching class with a special ed teacher. Calculus is still the 7/8 split.

Why, did I have to look? Damn you ARIS!

Priceless

Schools are improving due to standardized test data and teachers that can't improve their stats are not doing their jobs. I'm in trouble this year.

I just looked at my two algebra classes.

Class 1 has a register at present of 30 students. Last year 15 were absent more than 20 times, and 8 more than 25 times. Class 2 has a register of 33,with 20 absent more than 15 times, 8 absent more than 25 5 times and 6 absent more than 30 times. One kid was out 45 times and another was out 64 times. (I am willing to bet all I own that the registers of both classes will be up to max before the end of the first week, if they are not up there already.)

Their Acuity Predictives are low. Their attendance is awful. Yet, I will be held accountable for what they produce in my class?

It seems to me these kids have big problems, bigger than anything I am equipped to handle. According to Accountable Talk, if Jack Welch, former CEO of GE and man on top at the Leadership Academy, has his way, you will find me on the unemployment line in June.

$80 billion on a computer to provide the data to show the problems......$0 on how to solve the problems. Priceless.

My Last Big Fling Of Summer

Well, summer is ending and I didn't get to do everything I planned, but I did do a lot of those things.

I finally made my walking tour of Harlem. Years ago, I could never have done this. While I attended CCNY in the middle of this area, I went to school and came home with no neighborhood excursions. Now, anyone can walk anywhere in this beautiful neighborhood.


The next few pictures are of my beloved school--CCNY. I did both under graduate, graduate and post graduate work here. I got a great education and I still marvel at the old buildings. Unfortunately, some are gone but the school has been modernized and it's prestige is returning.

St Nicholas Terrace, a fantastic park that I saw for the first time. The sad thing is that it is almost on CCNY campus.

Abyssinian Baptist Church

Part of Abyssinian house across the street.
I found this Jewish star in the window of an old church.

Old church

Harlem State Office Building.

Strivers' Row

Old water tower on 125 St.


For Apollo pictures, click here.

Resource Room and the Twenty First Century

Until I started teaching at Packemin HS, I had no clue as to what a resource room was, what kind of students were involved in it and what went on in one.

I began my teaching career in the special education department of Packemin HS. In my previous school, I taught some very low functioning students and I always had special ed kids mainstreamed for my classes. (I was good with them and they liked me.) When I had the opportunity to teach these kids full time, I jumped at the chance.

Mrs. V was one of two resource room teachers at that time. Her room was situated in the middle of the special education floor and we chatted quite a bit. She tried to convince me to go teach main stream kids because her kids needed kind, caring teachers. At that time, I just wasn't interested.

Over the years I got to see first hand what Mrs. V and the other resource room teachers did with their students. I saw how they tracked down main stream teachers and got extra work for their students. They collected exams so their students could have the extra time they were entitled to. They worked with the kids on the basic skills they needed. They counseled, admonished and consoled when necessary. They advocated for these children without a voice when there was no one else to do so.

Now I would like to fast forward to resource room in the twenty first century. Things are different, very different. Back when I met Mrs. V, every resource teacher had five resource room classes. It was easy to find the teacher, talk to the teacher and give the teacher any materials they needed. Now, resource room is covered by many different teachers, some teaching one or two classes in this area, one in the gym and maybe another as an inclusion teacher in a history or English class. There is no continuity. It is hard for the student to get the extended time needed because no one is in one place long enough to provide it. Finding the teacher to deliver a test to is another disaster area. The teachers themselves are spread so thin they cannot do for the students what was done years ago.

In spite of all this, the students that have this resource room are far more fortunate than the ones that have resource as a "push in" for English or History. Yes, there is an extra teacher to give help in one of these subjects but the students are not getting any help in any other subjects. No one is helping them meet standards in math or reading. It is hard to find the time and space to give them extended time. The resource teacher may even go days without having a real conversation with the student.

Mrs. V taught me that the students in resource room were for the most part bright kids with some disabilities. They were kids that just needed that "little extra " and then they would be able to succeed. Under the Bloomberg-Klein era, the Mrs. Vs of the world can no longer do this job. Resource room is not the same and in some cases, it is just a room, minus the resource.

It is time for the education mayor to start doing something about education. And, resource room is a good thing for him to fix. After all, he is the one that broke it.

Stupid Sign

What exactly do they mean? Do we pay nothing or save nothing or did someone just fall asleep on the job?

(Picture taken at Pathmark on Central Ave in Yonkers. --the manager was not happy when he saw my camera out but he did nothing because I put it away.)

Enjoying My Last Few Days

Riding home on the subway, my friend encountered a former assistant principal from her school who is now a principal. When he hugged her I cried "Principal Cooties!" Everyone who knows me knows I have poor verbal control. Luckily, this guy laughed at my comment.

It turns out that this guy is retiring soon. His job has consists of doing things to make Bloomberg and Klein look good and he just can't take it anymore.

I immediately retracted my comment.

Pictures taken while walking through Central Park, near the lake at 110th St on one of my last vacation days. We were on our way to a walking tour of Harlem. I'll post those pictures soon. Sorry the pictures are not as sharp as usual. I forgot my Nikon at home.

From My Friend At...

etc., etc., etc

Live everyday like you've

got all day tomorrow

to apologize."

~~Sweet Potato Queens~~

Trying To Use My Data

They want me to use data, so I am using data. No one is going to accuse this old teacher of being computer illiterate.

At first, I had no idea what all the numbers meant. (I am still confuse about most of them.) Then, I found out that the column I looked at was their Acuity Predictive.

Now, I am not an educational scientist, just a lowly teacher, but it seems to me that kids who scored 58% or higher should not be mixed in with kids who scored 20% or lower.

I've been sending e-mails, doing my usual, busting chops, trying to get answers and get my classes straightened out. Teaching this group does not really appeal to me, but if I am going to teach them, I am going to do it right and I am going to do my darnedest to get them to pass. That means, the group better be as close to homogeneous as possible.

Seeing Red

I just have to answer this Daily News article. Since I know they would never print my response, I will just post it here. My comments are in red because that is what I saw when I read this article. The black is from the News.

With the new school year nearly here, with principals bracing for budget cuts, almost 2,000 teachers are getting ready to pass their days at full salary - doing nothing.

DO NOTHING!!!!!! The author of this article has not seen an ATR at work or he would never write this. One of the ATRs in my school taught 5 classes (some not even in her license area) one term and the other term she taught 4 classes and mentored two new teachers. Yes, the teacher that is deemed too unfit to be in a classroom was asked to help two young newbies. She was also asked to run staff development. Another ATR worked in the college office and spent almost every period counseling students, helping them fill out college applications and all the other stuff that goes with applying for the universities. Still another one worked as a daily sub (not her choice.) She got to know some of the most difficult students in the school and was able to help them. They are more than earning their salaries and if there are schools where they aren't, the administration is to blame, not the teacher.

They have no place to go because the city's more than 1,100 principals have not offered positions. Which is a biting commentary on how well-suited many seem to be for the classroom.

HOW WELL SUITED!!! The problem is not the ATR, it is the fair funding policy and the fact that principals want the young, moldable teachers. The mentor program no longer exists so quite a few ATRs are former mentors. Klein told them they were the cream of the crop. Now they are undesirable. Take a 30 something principal who is lucky he can wipe his own bottom and take his word on suitability. Give me a break!

The roster is now a couple thousand long, at a cost of $200 million a year. The Education Department has offered résumé-writing help and other job-hunting aid. And Chancellor Joel Klein has assured principals their budgets will not take a hit if they hire pricier, more experienced teachers rather than younger peers.

All the help mentioned is true however most of these people don't need the help. They are experienced, qualified people who know how to present themselves. And, schools will take hits in the long run. Principals don't want teachers who might ask why instead of answering "Yes sir, may I have another."

The longer teachers stay idle, the smaller their chances of finding work. Long timers are more likely to have unsatisfactory performance ratings than colleagues outside the pool. More than 325 have sat for over a year.

Isn't it interesting that only older teachers are undesirable and have unsatisfactory ratings. I smell a rat here. The three ATRs I know all have satisfactory rating for their entire careers and they still cannot get teaching positions.

The waste is unconscionable.

IT SURE IS. Klein ought to force principals to hire these wonderful teachers.

I know I am rambling on a problem that is not mine. But, it could be. Besides, I grew up in an era where people stood up for others, we weren't afraid of consequences. We stood up for what is right.

This is only a little blog but when I look at the counter in the sidebar, I know it is well read. I would be just as guilty as Klein, Bloomberg, the principals out there who won't hire ATRs, and the writer of this article if I kept silent. My message has to be heard and it has to be repeated over and over again. We can't let ATRs lose their job because of the negative propaganda being spread.

You might be safe in your job today, but you never know what tomorrow will hold. Your "A" school today might be an F school next year and Klein will decide to shut it down. You will then be an ATR. The principal that loves you now might be replaced by a teenie bobber leadership academy one next year. You might then become an ATR. You might be young now but trust me, if you are fortunate, you too will be old and the system will want to put you out to pasture as well.

Here To Stay

This summer has been so great that I don't want it to end. (I also realize my body needs the rest work provides.) Four trips, three of them major ones, walking the length of Manhattan multiple times, museums and parks, I just want to do it all. Retirement seemed like a great idea.

And then...I met with my college class tonight and all thoughts of leaving the profession evaporated from my brain.

I love being in front of a classroom and having all eyes watching me, all ears listening to what I say. Okay, in my remedial, I might only get one eye and ear per student if I am lucky, but I am still on stage. I can't give it up, not yet anyway.

I didn't get to do all I planned this summer. I only walked across the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. I still need to cross the Williamsburg and Queensborough on foot, I need another visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (planned for tomorrow), I need to visit the new JC Penny on 34th St and I need to do countless other things I won't even know about until I open this week's TimeOut New York.

All these activities will have to wait. Taking me out of the classroom would be the equivalent of cutting the wings off of a bird. I know I am being selfish. My husband would like me to retire. The young teachers needing a job want me to retire. I'm probably not even doing as good a job teaching as I used to so the admins and the kids could probably use some young blood too. That is just too bad.

So, back to the college I went last night and back to the high school I go next week. A few words of warning for anyone who gets in my way:

Get ready, I am not going away!