Monday, February 06, 2006
Extra Time Hits Home; Register Your Experience
Reports are coming in from all over indicating that the extra time has been run rather poorly. We have reports that in some schools students didn’t show up while in others not enough supplies or materials were provided. We would like to get your experience, especially those of you in our leadership who are not in schools. How did you use your extra time?
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45 comments:
Not only did we have the extra 37 1/2 minutes but we also had a faculty meeting as well. I live down the block from my school. I never thought I would be working from sun-up to sun-down! I think I'm going back to farming.
I reviewed reducing fractions.
Well, so much for the best of plans...we had 3 simulations of pick up
> and dismissal, coupled with flow of kids from one room to another -
> of
> course, this was w/o back packs, coats and anxious parents - both
> those
> down stairs with other tots in tow, as well as the ones who trickled
> upstairs DURING the 37 minutes to ask, "..where is my child..."
> After dismissing my eighth period class, b/c the "picker upper"
> wasn't
> ASSIGNED to
> this last period class, and sorting out who goes to the Children's
> Aid
> after school, who goes back to the teacher, and who goes home; I got
> to
> my 37 minute gig.
> Great.
> Now, tired first graders, a cranky teacher as my host and 3PM -
> perfect. With
> weekly "to be completed daily logs" I taped them into the student's
> journals, we wrote a heading, and a teaching point.
> Then, it was 3:25 - time to go ! 4/13 parents were NOT there by
> 3:30pm.
> Not bad for a first day.
> I am not sweatin' it. What gets done, gets done.
> I am more concerned about the other 6 hours !
>
> How was your day, y'all ?
>
How do you reduce 37 1/2?
our first day...
At last Mon's PD we worked on organizing the Extended Day. Actually, the principal gave all the class registers to the director of the agency after
school program to color code, who goes home at 2:50, who goes
to Extended Day and then goes home at 3:27.5, who goes to After School only, who goes to Extended Day and then after school, who goes home at 2:50 by bus, and
who goes home by bus at 3:27.5.
If you're confused, imagine how the parents feel.
The classroom teachers were told that would all have
their own kids in their own room. Those that had more than 10 or were close to 10 children, they would have an extra staff member working with them.
What are we to teach--what the children are behind in.
On Thursday I reminded the principal that the out of classroom teachers need to have their assignments. And that dismissal arrangements have to be made.
On Friday, I reminded the principal again. Also that
the prep schedule time had to be ajusted.
And to make matters even more complicated, Feb 6 is a
day when the TC consultant was in the school working
with half the staff. (Neither the principal nor consultant are good at keeping track of time)
Result--almost all the labsites and meetings went over
by about 10 minutes. Clusters complained that they had 2 classes together during the overlap--sometimes a 1st grade and 6th grade. The lunchroom or aides
didn't know or realize that lunch was starting 10 min. earlier.
Out of classroom teachers got their assignment in the middle of the afternoon. We were not told what we were to do until we got into the class. We have no
special materials.
Our 12-1-1 class has 12 out of 13 children staying for extended day. However no additional staff was assigned. The principal said that there are 3 staff
members working in the room. Our LEP teacher had tocover a class during the regular day, so she had to cover that class in extended day instead of doing what
she is assigned to. Nobody has figured out what will happen if a class is split.
dismissal time--The afterschool teachers picked up their students who do not go to extended day and
also dismissed the few children who were going home at 2:50. (Today they were pretty prompt, but
previously they have often been late.) Of course they don't
know the parents . Prek and K parents picked up their children in the rooms. My para took my chilren whose parents were late picking them up, and went and
gotthe kindergarten children from both classes who were not picked up on time, and watched them in front of the office until their parents came. Then she was
able to go to her assignment.
When I saw the principal at 3:40, she told me how some parents tried to take their children in extended
day home when they picked up another child. Also, no buses had come yet. So the bussed children who were not in extended day had been sitting since 2:40. And
the buses for the extended day children hadn't come either. (And our school is supposed to be the firstpick-up school.)
Afterschool teachers were going crazy. The extended day children have to eat their snack after 3:27.
So they have part of their class in 1 place and the other part some place else. And to make it even more difficult, the afterschol program services BOTH schools in the building. And the other school has a different time for extended day. (They are doing
50 min. 3x a week.) Don't know how to figure the time for the teachers that are shared between the 2 schools.
I also don't know what is happening with per session.
So this ends day 1.
My administrators, like some others, decided to punish us for being teachers and schedule PD that day. And keep us past the allowed time because Region 4 said they can. Yet another demonstration of sadistic, power-hungry behavior. Worse, the teachers are too afraid to file a grievance, including our Chapter Leader.
Whomever is writing obscenity and filth in the form of satire or parody or whatever as "Cleo Lacey," et al.: PLEASE STOP IT.
It's bad enough listening to cursing and adolescent rage all day long when I (we) teach. Teachers, past and present, don't need to write the "f word" on here. It's draining and discouraging.
Behaving and writing like intelligent, educated adults would be restful and encouraging to us exhausted, suffering teachers.
Thank you.
The lack of prep time is killing me. I am not a math teacher but must tutor math. I have to spend at least a couple of hours teaching myself the material before I feel confident to tutor.
We need to work prep time into this after school schedule. Why not tutor 3 days a week and leave Mondays as our prep for the tutoring time?
At my school, we have no materials provided. I'll be Goddamned if I spend my Teacher's Choice on this bullsh*t!
Dismissals are horrendous. Some parents don't bother to show up to pick up their kids, while other parents show how moronic they really are by coming on Friday at 3:18 to pick up their kids.
The week went pretty well. I had a group of 6 (really 7, but 1 didn't show). We were told to focus on math so I helped them with the work their math teacher gave them. Since we had to go downstairs to dismiss our class and then bring our group back upstairs, the 37 1/2 minutes was really more like 22 minutes. The principal said she ordered math kits for the kids to work from but they didn't arrive yet. All in all, better then I expected.
95 teachers at our high school were put on Hall Duty.
What is Hall Duty like? This is when you ask a kid you don't know where they are going without a pass, and these are the standard responses:
a. No response, they just keep walking.
b. No response, but they physically push into you to get by.
c. Possible response 1: Fuck you.
d. Possible response 2: Get out o' my face, Miss.
e. Possilbe response 3: Who're YOU? You not my teacher! (optional add-ons: Get out o' my face, Fuck you.)
f. Exceedinly rare response: I'm going to the Library.
I thoroughly enjoyed this experience from one viewpoint only: the inanity of it.
Still laughing at: "How do you reduce 37 1/2?"
I love my administrative assignment. I am assigned to the metal detector to make sure school safety is searching the students correctly. So far we haven't recovered anything but I feel so much safer.
In my school we have decided to round off the 37 and one half to 38. We're saving up the 30 seconds for a snow day.
Woodlass:
You are doing well. At my former high school, I used to get the 'fuck you' response when I asked a kid to take out a notebook. No doubt, these same kids will now benefit greatly from doing extra time!
I am exhausted from working as a teacher. Every Saturday, I wake up with a headache. It is never ending and non stop and the more we do, the more we seem to be put down and intimidated. Why are we working so hard?
Why don't we think about doing some type of job action before the end of the school year?
To Anonymous on the job action thing:
We seem to be locked into this stupid contract until October 12th, 2000-bloody-7. Right?
When do they start negotiating the next contract?
That's the day we do the first JOB ACTION.
By October 2007 we should have done a whole bunch more.
How far LEFT do we have to go to get our own union leaders to deliver something that ceases to hurt us?
Try getting new union leaders that are out to help the members and may have spent more than a term in a classroom
I have a very important job, I must ensure that the exit doors at my hallway post remain closed. I hope I'm up to the task.
I'd like to address the unhappy posters here. Turn your anger into political action. If your chapter leader and/or delegates were complicit in selling you this contract, and if they are running for reelection this spring, run against them. Get your like-minded colleagues to support you and vote for you. Then you can attend the Delegate Assembly meetings, where the union's power is. If enough disgusted teachers run and win, the dynamics at the DAs will change. Presently it is stacked with Randi/Unity people who are doing nothing for the rank and file.
I was so disgusted this fall with the way our leadership was pushing this loathsome contract that I ran to fill a delegate vacancy in my school. I won and have attended every DA since. There is a small number of active dissidents at the DAs, and if more reform-minded folks get elected from their schools things will change. Come and join the political process! Help topple the Unity monster that is strangling our union. Get involved and TAKE BACK YOUR UNION!
--Joe Mudgett, Director of the UTP
We'll need more than this.
D.A.s are rigged. RW has built a mega-list of ways to get around Robert's Rules and quash dissent.
And who are the members you are asking to organize? New teachers who have to do what they're told til they get tenure? Semi-new teachers who will get a salary and a master's degree, then quit? Teachers who after many years have gotten the programs they've wanted and are afraid to make waves? Teachers who have made deals with their principals (tons of those, I'm afraid). Delegates and chapter leaders who've been vocal and outraged and have subsequently been harassed and excessed into submission?
Even if we got tons of people to storm the delegate assemblies just to observe and make their presence felt, the 2nd floor room at HQ is too small to accommodate them. Another clever Unity trick: build a hall that can't even accommodate everyone physically.
Democracy doesn't suit Unity's purposes. Never will. They're not in the business to improve our lot in the classroom - starting from not making class size the most important issue, for kids and for teachers.
To the teacher who asked
>Why don't we think about doing some type of
> job action before the end of the school year?
and to the teacher that stated
>[the administrators] keep us past the allowed time
>because Region 4 said they can.
There's something to be learned here:
>Since we had to go downstairs to dismiss our class
>and then bring our group back upstairs,
>the 37 1/2 minutes was really more like
>22 minutes.
Everybody's fried and nobody seems to take this into account.
I think we should form a group to create a seditious program called something like Time Warpers
The sole purpose of Time Warpers is to provide an easy and, hopefully, fun way for students and their teachers to relax.
There are so many things to explore!
There has always been enormous creativity
in the teaching community; we just have to share ideas!!
Here are a few suggestions to get the brains stormin':
Which is the longest way to the room?
Who hasn't been to the bath room lately?
Opps, I forgot, let go get it!
Oh mi! We can't work in such a dirty room!
Oh wait, that's the wrong hanout!
Who can say why we are here today?
How do you feel about ...?
How can we make this fun?
Who can get ready to go the fastest?
Who is the slowest?
We have to start getting ready so that the slowest
is ready so we can be out the door at 37 1/2 minutes without rushing or running.
Looking forward to reading about your Time Warp strategies!!
Some thoughts from an ICE contact:
1. A friend of mine is a teacher and now has to pay an additional 200/month for aftercare for her son who is NOT eligible for the "after school" 37.5 minutes. He is dismissed early (because children who are not part of this program get a ten minute shortened day) and she is stuck in another school conducting the contractual 37.5 minutes. Where is her raise? Right into the hands of an aftercare that is housed in a NYCDOE school. Is this equatable?
2. In a middle school...children who get threes and fours are told to leave the building and return after 37.5 minutes to participate in their regularly scheduled after school activities. Is that safe? Where do children go in Bushwick for 37.5 minutes?
3. Children's civil rights are violated because grades are no longer a private matter. You perform poorly we are going to out you to the entire school and keep you after. What happen to children's privacy? Does this not matter anymore?
4. Children who do well are discriminated against and parents of these children are now inconvenienced by having an early dismissal 4 days of the week.
5. After school activities (MOSTLY SMALL BUSINESSES) rely on attendance and enrollment, however, if children have to stay later 4 days a week, they may loose business because children cannot attend.
Does any one here know of the rumor about a possible early incentive for retirement????????
Dear Woodlass,
The UTP knows that the DAs are rigged. Waging war against Unity is no easy task. Still, if enough brave men or women step up to the plate and knock off a chunk of Unity people in the up-coming chapter leader/delegate elections, that is a step in the right direction.
Forcing the issue of electing district representatives can help as well.
Putting together a decent slate of candidates to run against Randi and the other officers next year, and appealing to the masses of dissatisfied teachers to vote for these reformists, would also help.
This is no easy fight to reform our union. Randi/Unity are a monopoly that is running the show. Still, my motto is: the bigger they are the harder they fall.
The UTP would love to hear any and all suggestions that will help us downtrodden teachers topple Unity's control and take back our union.
--Joe
Randi CAN be defeated, but only if ALL opposition parties/caucuses UNITE and field ONE slate of candidates.
Thanks James for the info.
If it were offered to teachers, would teachers in Tier 2 still have to be 55 years old to take advantage of it or as usual will there be a penalty?
Would someone please explain why forcing a vote for District Reps is such an issue here. I'm a chapter leader (unaffiliated, but open-minded) and my Rep has always been very responsive to me and the other chapter leaders in my district. She's really nice and helpful. I'm sure she would get re-elected easily if there was a vote. Probably most if not all of them would be, so why is this such an issue?
Again James, thanks for the info.
I would think the mayor would not want teachers retiring on the higher salary, but then again, I and many others would be lined up to get the heck out of what was once a creative and satisfying profession.
As for the comment above. I too was a CL. While the vote for DR can be just as political as Randi hand-picking them, the difference is Randi would not be able to pull the strings as tightly as she is doing now. It stands to reason she would only pick Unity loyalist when other CLs would rather have someone who can deal effectively with all LIS and the RIS. Also, there will be more ass-kissing to get the job in the future.
If the original system wasn't broke, then why did she mess with it. She couldn't possibly know each and every CL unless they where brownnosing her every move.
(See Redhog)
Does anyone think the UFT or the DOE will respond to any of these Extended Day problems?
Here's an interesting take on it. Jules at Mildly Melancholy has declared that she must teach four in a row, but since the UFT has decreed the 37.5 minute class is not actually a class, she has no recourse.
http://mildlymelancholy.blogspot.com/2006/02/blah-blah-minutes.html
Rumor has it...and this is a rumor, the Doe has realized the error of their ways and will have all schools start at 8:10 and end at 2:50? 3:00 in September.
The "four in a row" discussion did come up during contract talks. It was ignored by the UFT and the DOE.
Are subs supposed to stay for extended day?
At my school, we were told that if there are not enough teachers available for cafeteria duty aides would have to be hired and this could result in teachers being excessed!!!!! In other words, if teachers do not volunteer to figuratively 'bus the tables', we will lose some of our colleagues so aides can be hired. Since when is money alloted for teachers diverted to aides? And since when are aides in the cafeteria more important than teachers in the classroom?
I didn't vote for this 'piece of garbage', useless contract. Yet, at every level, I feel things are getting worse. The atmosphere in my school is miserable. It is not a happy place to be.
I don't understand why I worked so hard in different fields througout my career and at this point feel so low; so demeaned, so disrespected! Administrators have the audacity to tell us that teachers jobs are on the line if they do not do cafeteria duty. How low can they go and how much disrespect can we take until we stay "enough"!
Say thanks to mean spirited, phony Bloomberg. Anyone who voted for him perpetuated the problem. He hates workers and especially teachers. In his mind, they are on a 'tenured' free ride. He fired a guy who worked upstate on behalf of the city. He made $27,000 a year. Bloomberg, on a visit, looked at his computer screen and saw he had been playing solitaire. He was fired for doing something personal on work time. This is who we are dealing with. Randy is too weak and vulnerable to handle him and he knows it. Bloomberg will drain every last ounce out of teachers. This is who he is; a mean spirited, power hungry dog who only concentrates on the bottom line. His actions have essentially told teachers to 'go to hell' And Randy? She seconded the motion!
Randi must now realize she missed a great opportunity. When she was going to call for a strike vote or for endorsing Ferrer, contract talks miraculously continued.
Unfortuately, she didn't see the writing on the wall and didn't have enough confidence in her leadership to overcome the fear of teachers. So instead she created fear and made sure we had to work under worse conditions.
What has changed for the better?
The money?
Does this raise really equal the amount of givebacks?
This is why Randi MUST control who works for her and who serves on the Exec. Board.
The money does not make a bit of difference. I want respect and to be left alone. We are now free game for APs and Principals who were waiting for the moment when they could take more control. The irony of this situation is that we all have the same education and there are many teachers who are much smarter than the APs and principals combined; more intelligent, modern and innovative in their thinking. Even Randi is too old school and old fashioned for these times. But of course, Randi only does Randi. She doesn't have a clue about teachers. I'd rather have a hard-coe, Mafia type union leader who would tell Klein/Bloomberg to go take a hike to Brokeback Mountain and let us do what we do best: teach. We don't do cafeteria or hall or bathroom duty. We teach, motivate and tap potential. Please, get a life and do not tell us how to do our jobs!
AMEN!
Write to Randi until she can't stand it any more.
We are supposed to be working with kids on their "functional" level. I have kids who can't multiply (8th graders) and the best the math coach could do was give me 7th grade materials. It's a waste.
Also, we are focusing on math. HOWEVER, the kids were chosen on the basis of their reading scores. I have students in my homeroom who have 3s in reading and 1s and 2s in math, but they are not getting the extra help. What's the point.
A couple of my kids have also been cutting the extended day. I am NOT chasing after them. It's not my problem.
There is also a rumor that we will be expected to keep portfolios.
The BIG PICTURE, people:
NO MATTER WHAT YOUR MISERY IS IN ANY SCHOOL:
it is precisely what the mayor, chancellor, governor and president ardently desire to happen!
Every single last personal tale of woe, from hall duty to rubber re-education room punishment is the SAME THING:
destroy public schools. Hurt the kids; eviscerate, torture and destroy the teachers.
Keep pulling new people off the street ("Teachers for Tomorrow" - aggressively advertised all over the country) to "teach," get rid of people over 40 and people who can teach and people who care.
One more time: THIS IS ALL DELIBERATE AND CAREFULLY PLANNED.
PUBLIC EDUCATION IS ENEMY NUMBER ONE IN NYC AND MUCH OF THE U.S.!
. . . which makes us stationary targets.
When are we going to finally get it?
When are we going to stop the swapping of war stories and do what is necessary to save public education and the kids and ourselves?
When? When?
What can be done? I want to keep teaching.
Step one: new union leadership at the chapter level if they are Unity this year and next year at the central level.
The first thing you can do is stop bashing your own union and giving joy to our enemies. The second is to rally around the leadership we have now. When the union speaks with one voice we are much stronger than when we squabble and vent our anger at our own elected officials. If you have concerns about the leadership, you'll have the opportunity to express yourself when you vote next year, but in the meantime, we need to provide a united front to save public education.
How does bashing leadership that isn't working in our interest helping the mayor?
There is nothing wrong with dissenting and/or giving you opinion. What is disturbing about ICE is that you have made everything about internal politics. From before the contract to during the contract discussions to now. All you ever cared about was the elections, not about what is best for the membership. Look at all of the activity and how often 2007 and "elections" are referenced. Why haven't you updated your webpage since Nov?
Hey James how is at Jamaica HS? Is it really bad there?
It is pretty sad how much energy so many of these posters have spent on exagerating their misery.
I teach. I took this job to teach. I spend the extended time teaching. I spend my class periods teaching . I spend my lunches and preps helping chapter members with their problems. I spend my salary that I earned teaching on a decent life.
I save my anger for the real enemy, Klein and DOE. My chapter will present an intelligent, professional argument against the curriculum changes through professional conciliation. Will the region listen? Probably not, but my school will know that they have stood up for themselves and made it clear that they stand for quality education.
If you can't figure out how to make your time in school valuable to your students and yourself, get out of the business. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.
If you can't figure out how to get involved in your chapter and your union to affect positive change, then you don't deserve the benefits of the union.
This is not the worst contract we have passed. The sky has not fallen. Get over the resentment and get to work making sure the implementation of new hiring regulations and open market is implemented correctly. Vacancies and transfers begin March 20th.
Where do you work Get Real? Maybe we should all transfer to your wonderful school where people are so happy under the new contract. The rest of us aren't so fortunate.
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