Thursday, March 26, 2020

DOE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON REMOTE LEARNING

Here is a link to the Department of Education's Frequently Asked Questions that I believe the UFT signed off on. As usual, we are happy to help with anyone who is in trouble but we don't know anything more than what is in this Q & A which I read through and of course the contract.

Some notable questions and answers:
Q: What are the work hours for school based staff?
A: Employees should not be asked to work outside of the contractual work day (be flexible). 
Working remotely necessitates using time differently from a traditional period by period school day.
In consultation with school administration, school staff must use professional discretion to determine how to work remotely.
Work that is absolutely necessary and normally done in single session schools during PD, Parent Engagement, and Other Professional Work should be embedded within the flexible work time for employees.
Work that is done during faculty and department conferences in multi-session schools should be similarly embedded.


Q: Can a school supervisor require a staff member to report to school to discuss pedagogical issues and/or performance concerns?
A: No. Under the circumstances all conferences should be conducted remotely. School supervisors have the discretion to determine the date/time for the conference and should utilize available technology to conduct the conference.  To the extent possible anticipate the documents that may be pertinent to the conversation and share in advance with the staff member. UFT members who are subject to disciplinary conference retain the right to have union representation which may include the chapter leader or other UFT representative in the virtual conference. Prior to resorting to discipline, school supervisors should be mindful that our staff, students and parents may be caring for others, sharing technology resources and/or be battling illness themselves. 

Q: Can teachers be required to give administrators access to their online learning
platform (Google Classroom or other)?
A: If  asked  by  an  administrator, teachers  must provide access to their online learning 
platform. The change of the instructional delivery model to a remote learning paradigm 
does not change the ability of a supervisory staff member to “walk into a classroom.”
Supervisors  should  provide  guidance  and  feedback,  support,  and  pass  along  best 
practices  that  are  observed  in  the  various  modes  of  remote  learning
as  soon  as  is practicable.
Teachers must know when the supervisor is “present” in the classroom.

Q: How are teachers being evaluated this year?
A: No decisions regarding evaluations, including observations, have been made at this time. Until further notice, the focus should be on providing supportive, non-evaluative feedback.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do I have to add administrators as teachers? Why can't I add them as students. As teachers, they can mess around with my lesson.

Anonymous said...

Check out the NY Post. Carranza is claiming the cover up by the doe about Corona was made up by The Post.

Mike said...

James,

I’m an ATR and all I have been told is to check my email. Is there anything more you would recommend ? Contrary to popular belief, I believe most atrs want to be assets to the doe.

Also, to those who feel we won’t get paid, March 31 pay stubs are posted.

Thanks.

James Eterno said...

Nothing else you can do if they don't give you work Mike.

RBE said...

Can't wait until they start the online APPR evaluations using the Danielson rubric during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic.

That's gonna be a lot of fun.

You know they will try it too. If schools are still out in late April, administrators will be told to get the online observations going and finish by early June.

Can see the "feedback" now.

You weren't engaging students enough b/c only 18 engaged in the Google Classroom stream convo or Zoom set-up.

Developing.

12 students stopped responding to assignment postings and no longer answer calls/emails because members of their family are sick from Covid19 and/or laid off in the middle of a Depression/Pandemic.

Developing.

And the UFT braintrust, such as it is, will tell us we have to abide by the evaluation law, so suck it up.

The Unity bloggers and social media propagandists will explain to us that this is the law and we must abide by it for our own good.

Online DOE dystopian hell.

Yeah, that's gonna be a lot fun.

Anonymous said...

But you can't get a rating without the MOSL, so it's useless.