Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York, enjoys regularly pontificating on the coddled school teacher and her undersized classes, her oversized pension, and the generally overfunded budgets making for fat cats at the public schools.
According to his local paper, he really should be addressing these concerns to the city's private schools:
Tuition, more than $40,000 at some schools, typically covers only 80 percent of the cost of educating a student. So schools need additional fund-raising to cover financial aid, maintain and expand facilities and broaden program offerings.
For the record, I just led a certificated staff meeting putting together a budget assuming $5,055 in annual funding for each student.
Maybe Mikey One Percent should take a break from lecturing us poors and look at the real numbers.
My punishment for years of running with scissors: teaching today's scissor marathoners.
I'm baaaaaaack and full of rage! Yay?
Hating Teaching from Home Since 2020.
27 March 2012
Information Is Important
One of the things that makes me the biggest geek ever hard to silence in difficult meetings is that I read many, many boring documents about education policy, funding, legislation, and politics.
I truly recommend this often eye-bleeding dull literature list to my fellow teachers. It keeps you from being surprised when a new policy comes down or your district decides that the annual teacher layoffs should also challenge the Ed Code. When principals pushing a point of view claim the school can't afford something the community and staff want, being able to pull out the numbers - and explain how restricted and unrestricted monies work - makes you a fabulous advocate.
Some important state and local information sources:
I truly recommend this often eye-bleeding dull literature list to my fellow teachers. It keeps you from being surprised when a new policy comes down or your district decides that the annual teacher layoffs should also challenge the Ed Code. When principals pushing a point of view claim the school can't afford something the community and staff want, being able to pull out the numbers - and explain how restricted and unrestricted monies work - makes you a fabulous advocate.
Some important state and local information sources:
- The Governor's Budget Proposal. Don't make the rookie mistake of assuming this is the budget; this is what the Governor's policy and finance people think sounds good. The state Legislature and lobbyists never agree in toto. So following state political news is important. The Governor must also offer some revisions based on state revenues: this is the May revise. Some school districts - including SFUSD - are fond of using the prospect of the revise or its contents to explain why they laid you off. Knowing what the revise actually says helps when drafting one's comment to the Board.
- The Legislative Analyst's Office Publications. Mac Taylor and crew crunch the Governor's numbers and provide the Legislature easy-to-read analysis. Since the Governor's calculations are often suspect, this is an important information source. It is my opinion that the LAO has an anti-education funding bias. They also recently came out against tenure - not for equity reasons, but to get on the education reform performance evaluation bandwagon.
- Publications of the Board of Education. The agendas - which generally upload after business hours on the Friday before Board meetings - provide all kinds of interesting information (for instance, looks like we'll officially have Superintendent Carranza tomorrow evening). The minutes and K resos are also of interest; the minutes are uploaded irregularly but following K resos lets you follow the money.
- Other publications on the District website. You can also take a look at the annual "sky is falling, cut teachers" analysis of the budget. It looks like the beyondthetalk.org site (which hosted all the Balanced Scorecards) is dead, but the Data Center still lets you look at a lot of stuff.
- In fact, I recommend hunting around the SFUSD website - you can find the most interesting projects there.
25 March 2012
The Chaos School
Personally, I think that if you are a paid op-ed columnist for a newspaper, one's columns should demonstrate at least a passing familiarity with stories published in that paper.
Apparently David Brooks disagrees, since this week he wrote a very silly column about the New American Academy. He finds its plan - sixty students per class in an entirely open space, and teachers loop with students - incredibly novel and exciting.
So did his employer, The New York Times. However, they found it the kind of novel excitement that a trainwreck offers. What with the overwhelmed, under-experienced teachers, the lack of student work or progress, and the pithy quotes from students ("We don't know what we are supposed to be doing, but we are learning about math"), they seemed less positive that this model was anything but a way to make absolutely certain children learned nothing.
Well, maybe Brooks did skim the piece - he notes that the school's lack of structures "was a problem at first" and notes the principal stating that they had "better control" over the students now. Brooks is impressed by the "subtle tricks" the school uses - lining students up at transitions, making them enter a new open classroom together, greeting the teacher.
David Brooks had better not be planning to visit any regular public school classes anytime soon, because the "subtle tricks" he finds there are likely to amaze him into cardiac arrest. Seriously, this kind of stuff is Remedial Classroom Management! If the New American Academy staff didn't have these procedures down on day one, they have no business working in elementary education.
Mr. Brooks is also impressed by the $120,000 annual salary provided to master teachers. I'm not: each master teacher is ultimately responsible for sixty kids and training/deploying some number of under-teachers (who aren't paid so well). Moreover, something tells me that if Brooks were offered a $120,000 annual salary, he would primly refuse such penurious compensation as offensive to a man of his talents.
Of course, Brooks and the New Academy gang share a tendency to casual racism; Brooks notes that the teachers demand "proper diction" (by which I assume he means codeswitching to Mainstream Academic English from AAL or similar). The school's founder and principal refers to the first graders as coming to the school "in a state of nature...[with] no civilization". Oh, and many of these kids apparently will have "familylike" relationships for the first time with their looping teachers. It may come as a surprise to Mr. Brooks, but poor families - even poor families headed by single parents - do not exist in solitude. There are other family relationships than marriage, and despite Ruby Payne's unresearched nonsense, poverty is not a Hobbesian state.
But mostly the column lauds something disturbing. Brooks notes the founder was inspired by expensive boarding schools; I am quite certain Phillips Exeter does not have classes of sixty students. He notes the school serves "poor minority kids"; he neglects to mention that the school took less than a quarter to remove three high needs first graders to "more structured environments" and lost at least seven more to withdrawal. He admires the master teachers, but fails to mention the rest of the teachers are "novice early childhood teachers". He's excited by the "interdisciplinary" approach, but that approach includes no art instruction.
The New American Academy is indeed an experiment, but it's one that is presently responsible for "educating" two hundred and forty children this year. Brooks' "great experiment" is a gamble that sacrifices the education of those kids if (when) it fails. So amazed is he by the school's "guerilla" leadership and its innovations that he ignores the real problems with the model. So incapable of basic research is he that he can't even read his own paper before publishing such a PR piece.
Apparently David Brooks disagrees, since this week he wrote a very silly column about the New American Academy. He finds its plan - sixty students per class in an entirely open space, and teachers loop with students - incredibly novel and exciting.
So did his employer, The New York Times. However, they found it the kind of novel excitement that a trainwreck offers. What with the overwhelmed, under-experienced teachers, the lack of student work or progress, and the pithy quotes from students ("We don't know what we are supposed to be doing, but we are learning about math"), they seemed less positive that this model was anything but a way to make absolutely certain children learned nothing.
Well, maybe Brooks did skim the piece - he notes that the school's lack of structures "was a problem at first" and notes the principal stating that they had "better control" over the students now. Brooks is impressed by the "subtle tricks" the school uses - lining students up at transitions, making them enter a new open classroom together, greeting the teacher.
David Brooks had better not be planning to visit any regular public school classes anytime soon, because the "subtle tricks" he finds there are likely to amaze him into cardiac arrest. Seriously, this kind of stuff is Remedial Classroom Management! If the New American Academy staff didn't have these procedures down on day one, they have no business working in elementary education.
Mr. Brooks is also impressed by the $120,000 annual salary provided to master teachers. I'm not: each master teacher is ultimately responsible for sixty kids and training/deploying some number of under-teachers (who aren't paid so well). Moreover, something tells me that if Brooks were offered a $120,000 annual salary, he would primly refuse such penurious compensation as offensive to a man of his talents.
Of course, Brooks and the New Academy gang share a tendency to casual racism; Brooks notes that the teachers demand "proper diction" (by which I assume he means codeswitching to Mainstream Academic English from AAL or similar). The school's founder and principal refers to the first graders as coming to the school "in a state of nature...[with] no civilization". Oh, and many of these kids apparently will have "familylike" relationships for the first time with their looping teachers. It may come as a surprise to Mr. Brooks, but poor families - even poor families headed by single parents - do not exist in solitude. There are other family relationships than marriage, and despite Ruby Payne's unresearched nonsense, poverty is not a Hobbesian state.
But mostly the column lauds something disturbing. Brooks notes the founder was inspired by expensive boarding schools; I am quite certain Phillips Exeter does not have classes of sixty students. He notes the school serves "poor minority kids"; he neglects to mention that the school took less than a quarter to remove three high needs first graders to "more structured environments" and lost at least seven more to withdrawal. He admires the master teachers, but fails to mention the rest of the teachers are "novice early childhood teachers". He's excited by the "interdisciplinary" approach, but that approach includes no art instruction.
The New American Academy is indeed an experiment, but it's one that is presently responsible for "educating" two hundred and forty children this year. Brooks' "great experiment" is a gamble that sacrifices the education of those kids if (when) it fails. So amazed is he by the school's "guerilla" leadership and its innovations that he ignores the real problems with the model. So incapable of basic research is he that he can't even read his own paper before publishing such a PR piece.
22 March 2012
The Decoration Monster
I assume the popularity of Kindergarten teachers with first grade students is universal. After all, everything was better in Kindergarten. Kindergartens are 100% more likely to have play kitchens, and there is a standard expectation that you will get messy at least once a week. First grade, not so much.
Anyway, I see my K alumni several times a day and play any number of games with them, including blowing kisses, copycat, pretending that I think they're chasing me/staring at me, declaring I have no idea who these giant first graders are, etc.
Today I grabbed one off the recess yard and decorated her face with fancy stickers. I did the same thing to another kid at lunch recess; she reported to her teacher "She stole me and stickered me!" Needless to say, my current class thought this was the best thing ever, so while they were finishing a little project I invited them to be decorated one by one (it was optional but almost everyone went for it). By popular request, I also decorated my own face.
...something tells me that just wouldn't fly down at the Central Office, which is why I'm never leaving the classroom.
Anyway, I tried to express repeatedly that even my vast sticker supply could not support endless steal-and-stickering, but I don't think I was successful. Happily, break begins at dismissal tomorrow and that should provide ample time for the craze to die down.
Anyway, I see my K alumni several times a day and play any number of games with them, including blowing kisses, copycat, pretending that I think they're chasing me/staring at me, declaring I have no idea who these giant first graders are, etc.
Today I grabbed one off the recess yard and decorated her face with fancy stickers. I did the same thing to another kid at lunch recess; she reported to her teacher "She stole me and stickered me!" Needless to say, my current class thought this was the best thing ever, so while they were finishing a little project I invited them to be decorated one by one (it was optional but almost everyone went for it). By popular request, I also decorated my own face.
...something tells me that just wouldn't fly down at the Central Office, which is why I'm never leaving the classroom.
Anyway, I tried to express repeatedly that even my vast sticker supply could not support endless steal-and-stickering, but I don't think I was successful. Happily, break begins at dismissal tomorrow and that should provide ample time for the craze to die down.
19 March 2012
And also good things!
So the nice part of the Enrollment Saga is seeing how many siblings I didn't even know about are enrolling...and requesting me! This is always a really good feeling. And it makes for some kids who are a little less nervous on the first day of school.
Tomorrow I need to set up the land snail terrarium, so any visitors will be greeted by gastropods and muddy professionals. But Kindergarten is like that sometimes.
Tomorrow I need to set up the land snail terrarium, so any visitors will be greeted by gastropods and muddy professionals. But Kindergarten is like that sometimes.
18 March 2012
OH BOY!
It's that fun time of year when enrollment letters go out and I can read all over the Internet how I am a lousy teacher at a lousy school full of lousy kids. Dear unhappy parents: thanks for spreading the unhappiness.
Really, the biggest argument for EPC just giving unhappy parents whatever it is they want is that the online commenting is really bad for morale at the Lousy School Brigade.
Moderately displeased parents, if you do come to visit, please avoid demonstrating shock at the work the kids are producing, their good behavior, or their general well-being. Also, it's very rude to ask why a teacher has a student teacher, or indeed why a school has an entire training program for pre-service teachers (no, not Teach for America, silly). Presumably, someone thought people were doing a good job.
Also, referring to my neighborhood as "the ghetto" is straight-up offensive, and the people living in the projects are my neighbors and our fellow people, not "those people" in the "dangerous projects". What's dangerous about the projects is our collective acceptance that it's okay for people to live in housing meant to be torn down in the 1950s.
No, our PTO does not raise oodles of cash. Nor do we get fat stacks of free money from the District. We are pretty industrious grant writers though (so please: don't advise us on hiring one). But for the most part we muddle through unfunded. It doesn't make for a lousy school. Many of my students are poor, and some don't speak English at home. They are all brilliant, generous, exciting young people.
Like anybody else, I have bad days and good days. Sometimes I have an awesome idea for a lesson and it fails. Or I get grumpy because someone kicked over a full tub of paint just as the dismissal bell goes off and nobody's got their backpacks yet. Even teachers at those awesome schools get shirty or have to reteach something. But the thing is, my kids learn what I need them to and have a blast doing it. I can't walk across the school yard without collecting an entourage. And parents are happy with their children's progress.
So go ahead and quit calling me a lousy teacher.
Really, the biggest argument for EPC just giving unhappy parents whatever it is they want is that the online commenting is really bad for morale at the Lousy School Brigade.
Moderately displeased parents, if you do come to visit, please avoid demonstrating shock at the work the kids are producing, their good behavior, or their general well-being. Also, it's very rude to ask why a teacher has a student teacher, or indeed why a school has an entire training program for pre-service teachers (no, not Teach for America, silly). Presumably, someone thought people were doing a good job.
Also, referring to my neighborhood as "the ghetto" is straight-up offensive, and the people living in the projects are my neighbors and our fellow people, not "those people" in the "dangerous projects". What's dangerous about the projects is our collective acceptance that it's okay for people to live in housing meant to be torn down in the 1950s.
No, our PTO does not raise oodles of cash. Nor do we get fat stacks of free money from the District. We are pretty industrious grant writers though (so please: don't advise us on hiring one). But for the most part we muddle through unfunded. It doesn't make for a lousy school. Many of my students are poor, and some don't speak English at home. They are all brilliant, generous, exciting young people.
Like anybody else, I have bad days and good days. Sometimes I have an awesome idea for a lesson and it fails. Or I get grumpy because someone kicked over a full tub of paint just as the dismissal bell goes off and nobody's got their backpacks yet. Even teachers at those awesome schools get shirty or have to reteach something. But the thing is, my kids learn what I need them to and have a blast doing it. I can't walk across the school yard without collecting an entourage. And parents are happy with their children's progress.
So go ahead and quit calling me a lousy teacher.
17 March 2012
Unsent Letters
Dear SFUSD Facilities,
Indeed, a boiler room flooding at 2 PM is an "act of God".
However, fixing the boiler at 3 PM yet choosing not to reset the heating system, apparently to avoid overtime costs, is not an "act of God". (It is by your own admission not an act of safety, either.)
It is an act that will cause frigid air to blow into classrooms all afternoon, evening, and night, so that they are barely above 50 degrees F the next morning.
Children and adults should not be subject to endure in such conditions until several emergency calls the next morning rouse you to send a technician.
Moreover, it is a fiscally stupid decision, because - as you know, since you have received a signed document stating it - one of those classrooms is led by a teacher who will suffer severe pain and nerve damage from exposure to such temperatures in the classroom.
I assume that in the future you will take my health and safety seriously. My five years in SFUSD have taught me that freezing children don't raise any eyebrows, but I figure that potential litigation might.
Best,
E. Rat
on behalf of her hands and feet, which should really not be all clawed and witchy at her age.
P.S. I sent a kid home that day with a fever of 102.5. How do you think the frosty classroom was for that child? Or for my classroom animals? Even when it's not enough days for a Williams complaint, children still suffer. They can't wait for you to decide to put in a better heating system.
I actually got to deliver this to the Heating Manager myself by phone...after explaining that no, it would really have to be the Heating Boss himself to whom I spoke. This was necessary because it will no longer be possible for the Heating Office to be unaware that I actually have a medical reason - doctor-verified and everything - why I cannot be in an unheated classroom. Nor will the Heating Boss note, "But your site hasn't had any heating problems this year, right?" when the truth is we spent two weeks without heat waiting for a part to come from Georgia - former Soviet Republic I assume given the wait - and another week for unknown reasons, and then several days here and there. The Heating Boss also admitted that the classrooms in question are not supposed to use space heaters, since the electrical system can't handle them. Perhaps they need to buy us a lot of those foot warmer thingies.
Indeed, a boiler room flooding at 2 PM is an "act of God".
However, fixing the boiler at 3 PM yet choosing not to reset the heating system, apparently to avoid overtime costs, is not an "act of God". (It is by your own admission not an act of safety, either.)
It is an act that will cause frigid air to blow into classrooms all afternoon, evening, and night, so that they are barely above 50 degrees F the next morning.
Children and adults should not be subject to endure in such conditions until several emergency calls the next morning rouse you to send a technician.
Moreover, it is a fiscally stupid decision, because - as you know, since you have received a signed document stating it - one of those classrooms is led by a teacher who will suffer severe pain and nerve damage from exposure to such temperatures in the classroom.
I assume that in the future you will take my health and safety seriously. My five years in SFUSD have taught me that freezing children don't raise any eyebrows, but I figure that potential litigation might.
Best,
E. Rat
on behalf of her hands and feet, which should really not be all clawed and witchy at her age.
P.S. I sent a kid home that day with a fever of 102.5. How do you think the frosty classroom was for that child? Or for my classroom animals? Even when it's not enough days for a Williams complaint, children still suffer. They can't wait for you to decide to put in a better heating system.
I actually got to deliver this to the Heating Manager myself by phone...after explaining that no, it would really have to be the Heating Boss himself to whom I spoke. This was necessary because it will no longer be possible for the Heating Office to be unaware that I actually have a medical reason - doctor-verified and everything - why I cannot be in an unheated classroom. Nor will the Heating Boss note, "But your site hasn't had any heating problems this year, right?" when the truth is we spent two weeks without heat waiting for a part to come from Georgia - former Soviet Republic I assume given the wait - and another week for unknown reasons, and then several days here and there. The Heating Boss also admitted that the classrooms in question are not supposed to use space heaters, since the electrical system can't handle them. Perhaps they need to buy us a lot of those foot warmer thingies.
14 March 2012
Missing the Point.
At last night's Board meeting, the District functionaries and Board members present seemed somewhat disconcerted to find that overthrowing seniority did not win an admiring chorus of approval from the San Francisco labor council. What? said the faces of various administrators and officials, especially those interested in pursuing other elected positions. But we're all about social justice!
Leaving aside the purported commitment to social justice, I'm still not clear on why so many people seemed surprised the skip proposal wasn't popular. I mean, being the first district to attempt to overthrow the Ed Code's seniority provisions has "high paid speeches for soon-to-be retired Superintendent" written all over it, along with demands for first class airfare and luxury hotels just like Michelle Rhee gets for her speaking engagements.
I'm not opposed to setting up a system that would somehow retain teachers at high-needs schools: the actual on-the-ground implications of strict seniority can be really nasty for equal access to education. But the thing is that SFUSD can't even be bothered to provide my five year olds with heat, let alone veteran educators and equitable funding. If they really wanted veterans on the southeast side, there are simple job condition issues that would make a big difference in teacher retention.
(Not to mention those retention bonuses - you know, the one I didn't get this year because financial conditions mean I need a bigger paycut than the Superintendent.)
(Speaking of which, what did happen with the equity plan for furlough days - the one where you take more of your salary is higher, so that classified employees have the fewest and the Superintendent the most? I guess it got circular filed with the annual Equity Report.)
But few things are as delightful as watching one's former Resident teacher totally school the Board (see what I did there?) about showing simple respect for the educators and allies who came out on a rainy night to speak before the Board. If only this would have an impact on our Superintendent, who really needs to bring his laptop like his Deputy. See, the mobile phone texting is just too obvious, whereas one can peruse the DFER website in peace on the computer while managing to pretend to care what these people have to say.
Leaving aside the purported commitment to social justice, I'm still not clear on why so many people seemed surprised the skip proposal wasn't popular. I mean, being the first district to attempt to overthrow the Ed Code's seniority provisions has "high paid speeches for soon-to-be retired Superintendent" written all over it, along with demands for first class airfare and luxury hotels just like Michelle Rhee gets for her speaking engagements.
I'm not opposed to setting up a system that would somehow retain teachers at high-needs schools: the actual on-the-ground implications of strict seniority can be really nasty for equal access to education. But the thing is that SFUSD can't even be bothered to provide my five year olds with heat, let alone veteran educators and equitable funding. If they really wanted veterans on the southeast side, there are simple job condition issues that would make a big difference in teacher retention.
(Not to mention those retention bonuses - you know, the one I didn't get this year because financial conditions mean I need a bigger paycut than the Superintendent.)
(Speaking of which, what did happen with the equity plan for furlough days - the one where you take more of your salary is higher, so that classified employees have the fewest and the Superintendent the most? I guess it got circular filed with the annual Equity Report.)
But few things are as delightful as watching one's former Resident teacher totally school the Board (see what I did there?) about showing simple respect for the educators and allies who came out on a rainy night to speak before the Board. If only this would have an impact on our Superintendent, who really needs to bring his laptop like his Deputy. See, the mobile phone texting is just too obvious, whereas one can peruse the DFER website in peace on the computer while managing to pretend to care what these people have to say.
13 March 2012
Since I'm pretty sure I'm the person who first told the union that no really, the district was going to request Superintendent zone skips ('cause I'm that nerd who waits until the after-business-hours-Friday-evening BoE agenda upload)*, I found it interesting that there was a full cadre of Zone principals at the meeting, explaining how the standards-based education and extra bodies on the ground constitute a special program so that intern credentialed teachers have "special skills and competencies" necessitating a skip. I mean, the District sure wasn't mentioning this to all the schools taking a bigger hit to protect Zone schools.
(Or something like that. But what's for certain is that for all that SFUSD keeps saying this is about equity, they don't seem as willing to make that argument on paper. Maybe because it doesn't look so good with all the actual troublesome facts about high-needs schools.)
This week the rest of us are bringing our response. I'm glad the agenda is only 87 pages; what with all the comment this is going to get long, and I gave up eleven vials of blood yesterday and just am not feeling it.
*No, really. I emailed to ask about it right away, and my Saturday response was that it wasn't going to happen. To which I replied that actually, it was. For real. Check the agenda.
(Or something like that. But what's for certain is that for all that SFUSD keeps saying this is about equity, they don't seem as willing to make that argument on paper. Maybe because it doesn't look so good with all the actual troublesome facts about high-needs schools.)
This week the rest of us are bringing our response. I'm glad the agenda is only 87 pages; what with all the comment this is going to get long, and I gave up eleven vials of blood yesterday and just am not feeling it.
*No, really. I emailed to ask about it right away, and my Saturday response was that it wasn't going to happen. To which I replied that actually, it was. For real. Check the agenda.
12 March 2012
Spring into Donations
Just visit your favorite teacher's personal site at Donors Choose, make a donation and put BLOOM as your match or gift code: doubled donations!
Goodness knows your local district, state education budget, and puny federal dollars are barely covering the pencils these days.
Goodness knows your local district, state education budget, and puny federal dollars are barely covering the pencils these days.
10 March 2012
The Grade a Banker Project
So New York City public school teachers have had their "value-added ratings" released to the media. Despite some concerns that value-added ratings may be inaccurate, it's clear to any right-minded deformer that value-added ratings and public shaming are the way to go. Besides, the DFER types probably had lousy public school teachers who didn't teach them about data, graphs, analysis, and statistics, so this is just desserts: So what if these ratings aren't very accurate? We can't do the math anyway!
Anyway, I think that all of us public school teachers should get behind value-added ratings. This doesn't mean I plan to pass out the #2 pencils to the Kindergartners on Monday, though!
What I think we need is to bring this method of rating job performance - including public data release - to the world at large. Given their focus on free-market efficiency, meritocracy, and all that noise, I propose we start with our great houses of financial capital.
Like New York's data, we can start institutionally and then drill down to individuals. We'll rate the success of corporations - return on capital, impact of investments on the broader economy, need for federal intervention, etc. - and then move on to individual bankers. Just what did Lloyd Blankfein do to build greater wealth in the United States last year? Hedge funds, private capital managers, and big banks will provide a strong start for our objective approach.
Good banks and bankers can look forward to having their picture in the company newsletter and perhaps discounted tickets to a baseball game. Bad banks and bankers can be publicly shamed and fired, just like we do with teachers!
It might also be of use to see what the data proponents use to grade their own progress. I mean, John Arnold's standards for a good performance evaluation are pretty different than mine - and I don't think his are really in line with what we want our children to learn.
Anyway, I think that all of us public school teachers should get behind value-added ratings. This doesn't mean I plan to pass out the #2 pencils to the Kindergartners on Monday, though!
What I think we need is to bring this method of rating job performance - including public data release - to the world at large. Given their focus on free-market efficiency, meritocracy, and all that noise, I propose we start with our great houses of financial capital.
Like New York's data, we can start institutionally and then drill down to individuals. We'll rate the success of corporations - return on capital, impact of investments on the broader economy, need for federal intervention, etc. - and then move on to individual bankers. Just what did Lloyd Blankfein do to build greater wealth in the United States last year? Hedge funds, private capital managers, and big banks will provide a strong start for our objective approach.
Good banks and bankers can look forward to having their picture in the company newsletter and perhaps discounted tickets to a baseball game. Bad banks and bankers can be publicly shamed and fired, just like we do with teachers!
It might also be of use to see what the data proponents use to grade their own progress. I mean, John Arnold's standards for a good performance evaluation are pretty different than mine - and I don't think his are really in line with what we want our children to learn.
09 March 2012
Marginally Nifty.
Getting through the last three days - which included a day with a videographer present, all but two of my Parent-Teacher Conferences (one no-show to reschedule and one where the scheduling is tricky because it's a Provide Your Own Translator conference - just something to keep in mind when reading SFUSD's mission statement, which includes affirmation of linguistic diversity - and I need to get the translator to schedule it, too) - on about eleven hours of sleep has got to be impressive in some sick, sad way.
Or at least it's responsible for that grammatical chasm above. Anyway, in addition to the shortened days and PTCs, two butterflies hatched as adults, the pond snails arrived, and I managed not to have a tantrum at anyone who works for the district, including those unwilling, unable, or incapable of fixing my roster so that I can actually provide parents with report cards. And since I was gearing up for one of those hot-afternoon-first-week-of-Kindergarten style tantrums, I think this showed remarkable self-control, especially with the low sleep and the ADHD and all.
...Although the cheerful distractability may have been what kept me tantrum-free. Who knows?
Or at least it's responsible for that grammatical chasm above. Anyway, in addition to the shortened days and PTCs, two butterflies hatched as adults, the pond snails arrived, and I managed not to have a tantrum at anyone who works for the district, including those unwilling, unable, or incapable of fixing my roster so that I can actually provide parents with report cards. And since I was gearing up for one of those hot-afternoon-first-week-of-Kindergarten style tantrums, I think this showed remarkable self-control, especially with the low sleep and the ADHD and all.
...Although the cheerful distractability may have been what kept me tantrum-free. Who knows?
06 March 2012
Secret Teacher Knowledge: Parent Teacher Conferences Edition
Helpful Hint: Get together your next few permission slips for field trips and get them signed at conferences. It saves the hassle of the Kindergartner Paper Black Hole, a notorious swirling vortex of entropy that resists all known teacher methods (the paper necklace, the liberal use of Astrobrite, leaving the slips with the after school sign out person).
Reminder: Don't forget to comment on social-emotional growth with an eye to the rigors of first grade (less rug time, more independent work, etc.)
WHEN, SFUSD, WHEN!?! It never fails to alarm me how difficult it is to get SFUSD to provide any paperwork in Vietnamese...let alone conference translation.
Reminder: Don't forget to comment on social-emotional growth with an eye to the rigors of first grade (less rug time, more independent work, etc.)
WHEN, SFUSD, WHEN!?! It never fails to alarm me how difficult it is to get SFUSD to provide any paperwork in Vietnamese...let alone conference translation.
05 March 2012
Making it Work
SFUSD requires online report cards.
They are not required to provide functional computers.
They are not required to provide internet access at school sites.
They are not required to provide correct rosters of one's students.
They are not required to provide adequate server space so that the report card program doesn't crash.
They are not required to provide printers or ink.
I ended up doing report cards on a Kindle at an open wifi point, and I'm still not sure how I'll get the report cards printed.
So the next SFUSD official to yammer about 21st century learning and technology and online data collection and standards online and data-driven instruction is getting glitter-bombed. It's easier to yammer and buy a program than it is to make it actually function, and I'm tired of putting my time and energy into all the actual requirements of SFUSD's big talk.
Beyond the Talk, you will find teachers on the ground cobbling together systems to make it work while district adminstrators pontificate and pose for photos.
They are not required to provide functional computers.
They are not required to provide internet access at school sites.
They are not required to provide correct rosters of one's students.
They are not required to provide adequate server space so that the report card program doesn't crash.
They are not required to provide printers or ink.
I ended up doing report cards on a Kindle at an open wifi point, and I'm still not sure how I'll get the report cards printed.
So the next SFUSD official to yammer about 21st century learning and technology and online data collection and standards online and data-driven instruction is getting glitter-bombed. It's easier to yammer and buy a program than it is to make it actually function, and I'm tired of putting my time and energy into all the actual requirements of SFUSD's big talk.
Beyond the Talk, you will find teachers on the ground cobbling together systems to make it work while district adminstrators pontificate and pose for photos.
03 March 2012
Unsent Letters: Take It to the Top
Superintendent Garcia:
Given the size of the public relations office and its well-compensated staff, it's unfortunate that you don't run your comments past them before speaking to the media.
Because when you tell schools slated to lose almost 50% of their teachers that the skip order you want "won't tilt the Earth on its orbit", those schools are disgusted with you, your lack of concern for their students, and your blatant disregard for the actual, on-the-ground implications of protecting intern credentialed teachers over fully-credentialed teachers with experience.
Which is, by the way, a key point. The "special skills and competencies" of some fifty-eight protected teachers do not include a real, renewable California teaching credential. I'd say that puts kind of a low bar on whatever it is that sets "zone" schools apart from equally-challenged schools in other neighborhoods.
Let's face it. Union-busting is all the rage with soon-to-retire and retired Superintendents looking for lucrative speaking gigs in the future. And if you can union-bust in the name of the children, even better!
The problem is that you're going to knock the Earth off its orbit entirely at some schools that have bigger challenges than some of the arbitrary zone sites. And that it's hard to argue you have an elite and highly-trained, heavily-recruited teaching force at these arbitrary sites when some of them have credentials that are only controversially designated acceptable under NCLB.
Actually, maybe it's better that the PR office didn't catch you before you called the Chronicle. It's always good to know how little we schools matter for the top brass in our District.
Given the size of the public relations office and its well-compensated staff, it's unfortunate that you don't run your comments past them before speaking to the media.
Because when you tell schools slated to lose almost 50% of their teachers that the skip order you want "won't tilt the Earth on its orbit", those schools are disgusted with you, your lack of concern for their students, and your blatant disregard for the actual, on-the-ground implications of protecting intern credentialed teachers over fully-credentialed teachers with experience.
Which is, by the way, a key point. The "special skills and competencies" of some fifty-eight protected teachers do not include a real, renewable California teaching credential. I'd say that puts kind of a low bar on whatever it is that sets "zone" schools apart from equally-challenged schools in other neighborhoods.
Let's face it. Union-busting is all the rage with soon-to-retire and retired Superintendents looking for lucrative speaking gigs in the future. And if you can union-bust in the name of the children, even better!
The problem is that you're going to knock the Earth off its orbit entirely at some schools that have bigger challenges than some of the arbitrary zone sites. And that it's hard to argue you have an elite and highly-trained, heavily-recruited teaching force at these arbitrary sites when some of them have credentials that are only controversially designated acceptable under NCLB.
Actually, maybe it's better that the PR office didn't catch you before you called the Chronicle. It's always good to know how little we schools matter for the top brass in our District.
29 February 2012
New Definitions!
In SFUSD, equity means that it's better to lay off 40% of the teachers at your high-needs school than laying off 16% of the teachers at another high-needs school.
In SFUSD, bravery is displayed when one lays off teachers rather than challenging the state to fund education by refusing to meet their budget requirements or cutting Central Office expenses.
Also, it's really mean of teachers to try to make SFUSD feel bad for laying them off. Don't we understand how difficult it is to lay off teachers? It's apparently way worse than actually being laid off.
In principle, I agree that there needs to be some kind of mechanism so that the annual layoffs don't disrupt the southeast side while leaving west side schools untouched. I just find it hard to stomach that protecting staff at certain high-needs schools - certain high-needs schools that have also gotten all kinds of other advantages the rest of us haven't - and therefore making the layoffs even worse at other high-needs schools is some kind of answer.
And the whole "zone" thing seems arbitrary, really. The idea that the issues at, say, Flynn - with its relatively low poverty rate and significant middle-class population - are anything like the issues faced at schools in Hunter's Point strikes me as dishonest. If you're going to prioritize some schools over others, you might at least try to come up with some actual similarities beyond "extra funding" and "location".
Besides, any situation in which teachers without full credentials (er, intern credentials) are protected over teachers with actual credentials...that doesn't just upend seniority. It upends common sense.
I personally should not be laid off, which means I can look forward to another year of staff turnover, training on the fly, instability, stress, and making pink posters for every laid off colleague. What fun.
In SFUSD, bravery is displayed when one lays off teachers rather than challenging the state to fund education by refusing to meet their budget requirements or cutting Central Office expenses.
Also, it's really mean of teachers to try to make SFUSD feel bad for laying them off. Don't we understand how difficult it is to lay off teachers? It's apparently way worse than actually being laid off.
In principle, I agree that there needs to be some kind of mechanism so that the annual layoffs don't disrupt the southeast side while leaving west side schools untouched. I just find it hard to stomach that protecting staff at certain high-needs schools - certain high-needs schools that have also gotten all kinds of other advantages the rest of us haven't - and therefore making the layoffs even worse at other high-needs schools is some kind of answer.
And the whole "zone" thing seems arbitrary, really. The idea that the issues at, say, Flynn - with its relatively low poverty rate and significant middle-class population - are anything like the issues faced at schools in Hunter's Point strikes me as dishonest. If you're going to prioritize some schools over others, you might at least try to come up with some actual similarities beyond "extra funding" and "location".
Besides, any situation in which teachers without full credentials (er, intern credentials) are protected over teachers with actual credentials...that doesn't just upend seniority. It upends common sense.
I personally should not be laid off, which means I can look forward to another year of staff turnover, training on the fly, instability, stress, and making pink posters for every laid off colleague. What fun.
24 February 2012
Based on the Board agenda, I am going to be laid off to protect less-senior teachers at "zone" schools.
Non-zone schools that are also hard-to-staff and high-needs, therefore, will be taking the brunt of the layoffs. You know, schools like mine.
SFUSD has so many enchanting ways of proving that they really hate teachers, but this is probably my very favorite.
I mean, I'm apparently less important to the District than a first-year, uncredentialed Teach for American. Along with everyone on my staff. Because in the end, some high-needs schools are more important than others.
(For the record, the "special qualifications" for those zone positions? The ones that justify laying off teachers at other hard-to-staff schools? Exactly how many teachers do they think - do they really and truly believe - don't have them? I mean, everyone at my school does.)
Non-zone schools that are also hard-to-staff and high-needs, therefore, will be taking the brunt of the layoffs. You know, schools like mine.
SFUSD has so many enchanting ways of proving that they really hate teachers, but this is probably my very favorite.
I mean, I'm apparently less important to the District than a first-year, uncredentialed Teach for American. Along with everyone on my staff. Because in the end, some high-needs schools are more important than others.
(For the record, the "special qualifications" for those zone positions? The ones that justify laying off teachers at other hard-to-staff schools? Exactly how many teachers do they think - do they really and truly believe - don't have them? I mean, everyone at my school does.)
23 February 2012
Unsent Letters: Thesaurus Edition
Dear Various Departments,
A SFUSD procedure is not necessarily synonymous with state and/or federal law. While we might generally prefer that our in-house procedures be followed, it is in fact permissible to modify - even skip! - these procedures. Indeed, if our procedures and the law conflict, it is the law that we must uphold.
I think I speak for teachers everywhere when I say that the likelihood of procedures and processes being used to avoid costly services or programming - even when those are legally required - is infuriating. I hate hearing various talking heads and central office types claim procedures are law (especially when they contradict the law in question). And I loathe the idea that informing parents of their rights is somehow anti-education. Would these talking heads want to be informed if they were the parents in question? Or is it that only some parents in some situations deserve awareness of their options?
I really should start a SFUSD Legal Mythology blog (or at least a tag), because some of these things get recited at you over and over and over and over. I taught in a different district and am a big nerd, so I often can escape this nonsense with glorious facts as my lockpicks, but it's really a shame that new teachers are getting misinformed.
A SFUSD procedure is not necessarily synonymous with state and/or federal law. While we might generally prefer that our in-house procedures be followed, it is in fact permissible to modify - even skip! - these procedures. Indeed, if our procedures and the law conflict, it is the law that we must uphold.
I think I speak for teachers everywhere when I say that the likelihood of procedures and processes being used to avoid costly services or programming - even when those are legally required - is infuriating. I hate hearing various talking heads and central office types claim procedures are law (especially when they contradict the law in question). And I loathe the idea that informing parents of their rights is somehow anti-education. Would these talking heads want to be informed if they were the parents in question? Or is it that only some parents in some situations deserve awareness of their options?
I really should start a SFUSD Legal Mythology blog (or at least a tag), because some of these things get recited at you over and over and over and over. I taught in a different district and am a big nerd, so I often can escape this nonsense with glorious facts as my lockpicks, but it's really a shame that new teachers are getting misinformed.
16 February 2012
Furlough
Tomorrow there is no school in SFUSD.
As a reminder, while teachers are not working tomorrow, they will not be paid, either. This is the first of four furlough days this year.
Similarly, while the school year is four days shorter, students will still be expected to master the same content.
Should they fail to do so, or at least do so in a way that can be documented on Scantron, this is clearly the fault of their teachers and has nothing to do with the shortened year, reduced school budgets or anything else so clearly peripheral to education. Or at least it undoubtedly will be to any number of bright, young venture capitalists moving into the exciting world of for-profit charter schools, performance metrics, and general anti-union fervor.
As a reminder, while teachers are not working tomorrow, they will not be paid, either. This is the first of four furlough days this year.
Similarly, while the school year is four days shorter, students will still be expected to master the same content.
Should they fail to do so, or at least do so in a way that can be documented on Scantron, this is clearly the fault of their teachers and has nothing to do with the shortened year, reduced school budgets or anything else so clearly peripheral to education. Or at least it undoubtedly will be to any number of bright, young venture capitalists moving into the exciting world of for-profit charter schools, performance metrics, and general anti-union fervor.
15 February 2012
Kindergarten For Some
Yet another way charter schools work to manage their student load in ways actual public schools cannot: enforcing their own Kindergarten entry cut-off dates. Private schools do this too, officially or unofficially. I've been told that some local public schools strongly encourage their own cut-off dates to some parents, but even if that's true it's not something they can enforce.
That said, I'm still leery of the new Kindergarten entry cut-off points - especially as TK disappears, I don't see any evidence that the earlier cut-off will lead to more socially and academically ready students. I think they'll be bigger, but another year with nothing than more aging is not a panacea to Kindergarten readiness.
That said, I'm still leery of the new Kindergarten entry cut-off points - especially as TK disappears, I don't see any evidence that the earlier cut-off will lead to more socially and academically ready students. I think they'll be bigger, but another year with nothing than more aging is not a panacea to Kindergarten readiness.
12 February 2012
Valentine's Day Crafts
It ends up my Resident is soloing on Valentine's Day, which is a pretty good idea, I think: celebration-management is important and not really taught. I told her she was welcome to come up with her own crafts or I would provide the simple ones we generally do:
- Giant Envelopes. My school may be out of markers and most colors of construction paper, but we have a lot of 12" by 15" envelopes. Now that these envelopes can't be used for Donors Choose thank yous (too big for the no-postage-necessary label), their supply remains undiminished (site-wide, we've had maybe 150 projects filled). Anyway, these are great for collecting valentines - unlike paper bags, they don't stand up and then fall over, and they're sturdy. I have plenty of stamps, stickers, and scraps of construction paper for decorating these.
- Pattern Necklaces. I try to avoid foam craft items, I make an exception for these beads. The kids sort their beads, make a pattern, and then string it. This is a nice assessment, actually, because they have a variety of attributes to use and can use more than one, or make a pattern of two patterns, etc.
A couple of weeks ago, we had a small group covering "Cutting is Awesome", during which I taught the kids how to cut hearts (using the "draw the top of a two" method), snowflakes, etc. That's enough Valentine's action for me.
10 February 2012
Teachers of the Month
It's time to nominate teachers for the Mayor's Teacher of the Month Award!
Of course, 826 Valencia also has a nifty TotM award.
Of course, 826 Valencia also has a nifty TotM award.
08 February 2012
So someone asked me the total cash amount of the various grants and whatnot I've done over the last five years (which is how long I've been teaching in my current District).
Anyway, I started to do the math and then realized it was over $30,000, so I figured that was a nice, round number and I'd stop there.
The continued generosity shown by total strangers to my classroom is really awesome. It's a pity the state is not as willing to step forward, but given how bleak the annual budgets are, I can't imagine the austerity education that I'd be providing without this support.
This message brought to you by the shock of having a Donors Choose request fulfilled in less than twenty four hours, which is a personal record.
ALSO: A big hello! to visitors from the sfusd.edu domain. We certainly have some staff putting in long evenings!
Anyway, I started to do the math and then realized it was over $30,000, so I figured that was a nice, round number and I'd stop there.
The continued generosity shown by total strangers to my classroom is really awesome. It's a pity the state is not as willing to step forward, but given how bleak the annual budgets are, I can't imagine the austerity education that I'd be providing without this support.
This message brought to you by the shock of having a Donors Choose request fulfilled in less than twenty four hours, which is a personal record.
ALSO: A big hello! to visitors from the sfusd.edu domain. We certainly have some staff putting in long evenings!
07 February 2012
Workplace Conditions.
Our school has mice, regular ant infestations, encapsulated asbestos, and leaded pipes that require daily flushing. It also has certain systemic plumbing issues ("never correctly piped", briefly) and was one of the schools caught in the scamming-internet-wireless-installer net.
And like many SFUSD schools, we experience regular problems with our heating system*. The main building had no heat in December - no heat on any day in December - because the heater broke, it took several days for maintenance workers to come in, and when they did they identified the broken part as one manufactured in Georgia.
My classroom is in the original building, and has a very exciting heater. When it's broken, it doesn't just sit silent and sulking: no, it sends out refreshing gusts of freezing air. Much like the heater at Bryant described in yet another article about heating issues in SFUSD. I have a really great space heater courtesy Donors Choose, but I also have a very large classroom. So it's only partially effective. A second space heater is sadly not an option: the wiring is original too, and more than one space heater per classroom on the wing = total power failure.
Needless to say, this is one of those real-world situations other than terrible, horrible, no-good very bad teachers and their worse unions that actually has an impact on education. It's hard to focus when you're cold. It's not really ideal for five year olds to spend the day in coats and mittens. And so on.
Nor is it terribly good for their teachers, particularly those with troublesome immune disorders, which is why I am bringing a nice note from my rheumatologist stating that I will suffer serious pain and permanent damage, not to mention not be terribly effective at teaching, when forced to spend week after week without heat.
This makes me very, very happy.
ETA: Doctor's notes? Totally get you faster service.
*For the record, if Goldin is only getting two requests a week about heating issues, District-wide - well, first off that's really not a very good average, honestly. But second, hey wait - he's lying: this article says it's two schools a day! Anyway, thirdly: if he's only getting two a dayweek, well, his staff is protecting him from the calls, or he's out of the country a lot.
And like many SFUSD schools, we experience regular problems with our heating system*. The main building had no heat in December - no heat on any day in December - because the heater broke, it took several days for maintenance workers to come in, and when they did they identified the broken part as one manufactured in Georgia.
My classroom is in the original building, and has a very exciting heater. When it's broken, it doesn't just sit silent and sulking: no, it sends out refreshing gusts of freezing air. Much like the heater at Bryant described in yet another article about heating issues in SFUSD. I have a really great space heater courtesy Donors Choose, but I also have a very large classroom. So it's only partially effective. A second space heater is sadly not an option: the wiring is original too, and more than one space heater per classroom on the wing = total power failure.
Needless to say, this is one of those real-world situations other than terrible, horrible, no-good very bad teachers and their worse unions that actually has an impact on education. It's hard to focus when you're cold. It's not really ideal for five year olds to spend the day in coats and mittens. And so on.
Nor is it terribly good for their teachers, particularly those with troublesome immune disorders, which is why I am bringing a nice note from my rheumatologist stating that I will suffer serious pain and permanent damage, not to mention not be terribly effective at teaching, when forced to spend week after week without heat.
This makes me very, very happy.
ETA: Doctor's notes? Totally get you faster service.
*For the record, if Goldin is only getting two requests a week about heating issues, District-wide - well, first off that's really not a very good average, honestly. But second, hey wait - he's lying: this article says it's two schools a day! Anyway, thirdly: if he's only getting two a dayweek, well, his staff is protecting him from the calls, or he's out of the country a lot.
06 February 2012
Big Dilemmas
QUERY: Is it preferable to have catchy Kindergarten songs stuck in one's head, or totally Kindergarten-verboten songs stuck in one's head (providing one is a Kindergarten teacher)?
I mean, I'd rather not be stuck with "What Can One Little Person Do?" or similar jumpy tunes, but if I break into "Silent Hedges" that's not really ideal, either.
I mean, I'd rather not be stuck with "What Can One Little Person Do?" or similar jumpy tunes, but if I break into "Silent Hedges" that's not really ideal, either.
05 February 2012
In which I enjoy italics immensely.
Teach a primary school for a few years, and people begin to make certain conclusions about you:
- you own puff-painted clothing;
- all your shoes are sensible;
- you never, ever raise your voice;
- you are not too bright.
Seriously. I once had a research fellowship, and the principal investigator - who had a kid in Kindergarten - told me he had assumed I "just a teacher" until he heard what high-faluting fancy University I attended. And when he heard the esoteric field in which I earned a B.A. and M.A. together in four years? Well, then he "realized [I] must be pretty intelligent".
Which your average teacher is, for the record - along with fast on their feet, able to sing, paint, sculpt, and jump rope credibly, and so on.
I wonder if this explains the miserable quality of research spouted at teachers all the time. I'm not just talking the fact-free spin stories about charter schools (again, no more successful and sometimes far worse than real public schools) - I'm talking actual learned research.
Well, half-learned. Ruby Payne's credentials are iffy at best, and her understanding of simple terms like peer review is limited. That said, she sure makes a lot of money off school districts - although I was never more proud to be a teacher in my old district than when an audience of its teachers chased Payne's second off the stage.
But you also get bad research from actual university professors, which is presented to teachers with no critique to be swallowed whole. I think now of Drs. Hart and Risely, who discovered in the 1990s that poor children have a "vocabulary gap" and that that gap lowers their IQ.
Hart and Risely never trained as linguists; I did, so upon simply hearing their conclusion about a million-word vocabulary gap I began beating my head against convenient hard objects. When I later heard them explaining how their conclusions were not racial because they ignored all data about race, I waved my copy of the Lingustic Society of America's resolution about Ebonics in the air before resuming to bashing in my own skull.
I'm fairly well-spoken and I know the research around vocabulary gaps and deficit models in language study quite well. I can tell you why Louisa Cook Moats doesn't actually understand language, and note that the research that might have cleared up this issue for her was completed in the 1950s. So I generally make it my business to politely critique any professional development guru who starts yammering about Hart and Risely (I also thank the ones who sniff at the idea of the vocabulary gap).
Their shock is always magnificent. "This is data from UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROFESSORS," they huff. "YOU are a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I know that reading probably challenges you, but trust me: THEY DID RESEARCH."
So I really think it's best to provide my fellow educators with some links that will assist them in such situations. "Well," they can say diffidently. "It's true I'm just a lowly Kindergarten teacher, charged with teaching our future. But I've read these papers by learned university professors who also challenge the deficit thinking Hart and Risely assume. Have you?"
This little review essay sums up both the broader problem with deficit assumptions while taking on Ruby Payne and Hart and Risely. It's a nice start; anyone looking for more of the same is welcome to comment - I've got citations from the 50s to the present day ready for my fellow educators of high-needs students who are tired of hearing about how the fabulous and brilliant children in their classrooms have been destroyed by their rotten upbringings.
02 February 2012
Allies, Not Enemies.
I make a monthly donation to a project at Donors Choose to support my fellow teachers. I know several other teachers who do the same.
Today I saw a grant proposal that made the startling claim that high-performing/low-income schools get less money than struggling ones. This could be true, although they also get fewer expensive mandates to fulfill than lower-performing schools. It went on to say that high-performing, low-income schools are full of children whose parents emphasize hard work.
...because those parents of children at lower-performing schools don't?
Wow, way to be deficit in one's thinking. Separating communities into the worthy and less-worthy strikes me as unsupportive of one's fellow educators and their students. After a dozen years at high-needs schools, I have yet to meet those deadbeat parents that infest them in mass numbers, lowering test scores and depressing their offspring.
Today I saw a grant proposal that made the startling claim that high-performing/low-income schools get less money than struggling ones. This could be true, although they also get fewer expensive mandates to fulfill than lower-performing schools. It went on to say that high-performing, low-income schools are full of children whose parents emphasize hard work.
...because those parents of children at lower-performing schools don't?
Wow, way to be deficit in one's thinking. Separating communities into the worthy and less-worthy strikes me as unsupportive of one's fellow educators and their students. After a dozen years at high-needs schools, I have yet to meet those deadbeat parents that infest them in mass numbers, lowering test scores and depressing their offspring.
31 January 2012
Unsent Letters
Chris Christie*:
“We cannot ask parents to accept failure in teachers when their children’s lives hang in the balance.”
I couldn't agree more! Few things are more important than our children, and if in New Jersey you actually have children at risk of imminent death due to lousy teachers, then reform is clearly necessary. (To begin, perhaps you should take those with known mob ties out of your hiring pool? I mean, if the kids are getting the cement shoes and so on...)
I can't wait to see you fighting for parents to save their children from under-funded, segregated schools. Those schools are really important, since you don't think their parents need to retire.
So I'm sure we won't see too many more of decisions like this, since given New Jersey's financial debacle, at the very least some of that $102 million is needed for the consultants who build the teacher accountability program and to fund that Consent Decree in Newark you don't seem to keen on.
Best,
E. Rat
*I'm afraid any standard letter appellations like "Dear" might inspire the kind of sexist, vaguely threatening "joke" the Governor saves for female journalists. And I'm not going with some high-faluting "Honorable" or whatnot. Certainly such a man of the (1%) people wouldn't want that!
“We cannot ask parents to accept failure in teachers when their children’s lives hang in the balance.”
I couldn't agree more! Few things are more important than our children, and if in New Jersey you actually have children at risk of imminent death due to lousy teachers, then reform is clearly necessary. (To begin, perhaps you should take those with known mob ties out of your hiring pool? I mean, if the kids are getting the cement shoes and so on...)
I can't wait to see you fighting for parents to save their children from under-funded, segregated schools. Those schools are really important, since you don't think their parents need to retire.
So I'm sure we won't see too many more of decisions like this, since given New Jersey's financial debacle, at the very least some of that $102 million is needed for the consultants who build the teacher accountability program and to fund that Consent Decree in Newark you don't seem to keen on.
Best,
E. Rat
*I'm afraid any standard letter appellations like "Dear" might inspire the kind of sexist, vaguely threatening "joke" the Governor saves for female journalists. And I'm not going with some high-faluting "Honorable" or whatnot. Certainly such a man of the (1%) people wouldn't want that!
29 January 2012
100 Day Snack Recommendations
Our 100 Day annual snack varies by where I manage to go shopping, but the deal is as follows:
- There are nine different items, of which each child takes ten;
- The last ten items are added by me while the child counts;
- Those ten items are chocolate chips, the "sometimes snack" additive to celebrate the 100th Day.
This year the other nine items were:
- Popcorn
- Chex
- Raisins
- Plantain Chips (yes yes, not the healthiest)
- Dehydrated Sweet Corn Kernels
- Happy Puffs (this organic toddler snack thing - I eat it and had a lot sitting around at school)
- Almonds (no tree nut allergies in this class, nor any peanut allergy so no worries about contagion from ingredients)
- Dehydrated Apple Slices
- Animal Crackers (again, not the healthiest but not the worst, either).
When I have time to get to a Trader Joe's or similar, I tend to use more dried fruit and the animal crackers would probably be something of equally questionable health value like sesame sticks. I have in the past used wasabi peas, too - most of the kids like these. (Besides, if a child reports s/he doesn't like something, I observe that there are ninety other snacks in the bag - there's plenty to eat, but on the 100th day you need 100 snacks.)
If I had a lot of nut/milk allergies I would do something with fruit - like cutting a slice of apple/pear/melon/plum into ten pieces, adding ten berries and so on up to one hundred. This would be more expensive - as it is, even cheap 100 day trail mix is probably $30 or so.
Whatever you use, the snack is huge and the kids won't finish it, but they enjoy making it. I think they are less tempted to overeat it because they know it is 100 things, therefore a lot.
Bad school, bad school
So what exactly is a bad school? Does it beat you up and steal your lunch money? Exchange emails about the stupid investors buying their designed-to-fail securities with Fabrice Tourre?
It can't just be low funding. Some schools that get labeled bad have big cash right now, more than twice as much as some of the "good" schools.
Nor can it be simply low test scores. Again, some schools that people agree are good have middling test scores, and others have test scores way below what they "should" be (compared to schools with similar size and demographics).
Teacher quality can't be the metric, either. We don't have any real metric for deciding what a good teacher would look like as compared to a mediocre one, really. And there are an awful lot of teachers at "bad" schools who have won teaching awards, gotten competitive grants, or are teaching pedagogy to new teachers to great acclaim.
Bad schools tend to hang out in bad neighborhoods, but a closer look at the demographics and crime statistics around these "bad" schools might find the label misapplied, or bring to mind Vic Warshawski schooling the Northsiders on the South Side: "You make Hyde Park sound like the the site of the Tong Wars, Mr. Devereux."
I bring this up because I'm pretty sure that bad school - especially as applied by parents in SFUSD during the Kindergarten enrollment process - is some kind of proxy statement for a lot of ugly, scabby issues in American culture. A bad school is very likely to have few white students. It's likely that more than 75% of the students qualify for free lunch. And so on. These issues have nothing to do with the school per se. Nothing in such a student population makes it inherently bad. In fact, it's offensive to think so. Yet the bad school label gives convenient cover for the race and class issues we are not very good at discussing. Moreover, it exonerates us from the responsibility of making things better - if it is the school that is bad, then the school may need to be fixed (by others), but nothing about the wider society is broken.
Certainly a high-needs student population brings up issues and needs that other schools may not share. I once read on an online forum that schools like some of the West side elementaries in San Francisco aren't really the place for children from bad neighborhoods. After all, those kids might need services - a counselor, a social worker, a therapist - that good schools don't have on offer. Which is offensive on a lot of levels - children and families at all income levels sometimes need help, and if those schools are unwelcoming to high-needs students then they are self-segregating.
It gets depressing being a bad school teacher, too. Hearing about your rottenness is unpleasant. It also can boggle the mind. For various reasons I've recently had the opportunity to visit a number of SFUSD schools, many of which are good. My overwhelming takeaway was that school funding is really lousy. Kindergarten students at these good schools were stuck to dried-out markers, crayons and old watercolors. The Legos had bite marks. Many of the play people had been beheaded by classes past. Whereas in the Kindergartens at my bad school, we've collaborated on well over one hundred grants - in terms of materials, there are things we don't have that other schools do (computers, etc.), but there are other areas in which we put the good schools to shame. Beyond providing more stuff, we're doing it on our time (and dime) - all those grants didn't write themselves, after all. We have to do more to break even, and when we put in Herculean effort and go beyond, it makes no difference. We're still bad teachers working with bad children at bad schools.
It can't just be low funding. Some schools that get labeled bad have big cash right now, more than twice as much as some of the "good" schools.
Nor can it be simply low test scores. Again, some schools that people agree are good have middling test scores, and others have test scores way below what they "should" be (compared to schools with similar size and demographics).
Teacher quality can't be the metric, either. We don't have any real metric for deciding what a good teacher would look like as compared to a mediocre one, really. And there are an awful lot of teachers at "bad" schools who have won teaching awards, gotten competitive grants, or are teaching pedagogy to new teachers to great acclaim.
Bad schools tend to hang out in bad neighborhoods, but a closer look at the demographics and crime statistics around these "bad" schools might find the label misapplied, or bring to mind Vic Warshawski schooling the Northsiders on the South Side: "You make Hyde Park sound like the the site of the Tong Wars, Mr. Devereux."
I bring this up because I'm pretty sure that bad school - especially as applied by parents in SFUSD during the Kindergarten enrollment process - is some kind of proxy statement for a lot of ugly, scabby issues in American culture. A bad school is very likely to have few white students. It's likely that more than 75% of the students qualify for free lunch. And so on. These issues have nothing to do with the school per se. Nothing in such a student population makes it inherently bad. In fact, it's offensive to think so. Yet the bad school label gives convenient cover for the race and class issues we are not very good at discussing. Moreover, it exonerates us from the responsibility of making things better - if it is the school that is bad, then the school may need to be fixed (by others), but nothing about the wider society is broken.
Certainly a high-needs student population brings up issues and needs that other schools may not share. I once read on an online forum that schools like some of the West side elementaries in San Francisco aren't really the place for children from bad neighborhoods. After all, those kids might need services - a counselor, a social worker, a therapist - that good schools don't have on offer. Which is offensive on a lot of levels - children and families at all income levels sometimes need help, and if those schools are unwelcoming to high-needs students then they are self-segregating.
It gets depressing being a bad school teacher, too. Hearing about your rottenness is unpleasant. It also can boggle the mind. For various reasons I've recently had the opportunity to visit a number of SFUSD schools, many of which are good. My overwhelming takeaway was that school funding is really lousy. Kindergarten students at these good schools were stuck to dried-out markers, crayons and old watercolors. The Legos had bite marks. Many of the play people had been beheaded by classes past. Whereas in the Kindergartens at my bad school, we've collaborated on well over one hundred grants - in terms of materials, there are things we don't have that other schools do (computers, etc.), but there are other areas in which we put the good schools to shame. Beyond providing more stuff, we're doing it on our time (and dime) - all those grants didn't write themselves, after all. We have to do more to break even, and when we put in Herculean effort and go beyond, it makes no difference. We're still bad teachers working with bad children at bad schools.
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