Saturday, October 19, 2013

SCHOOL COMMUNITY RALLIES TO STOP CO-LOCATION AT MARTIN VAN BUREN HIGH SCHOOL

In case you were wondering what I did after school on Friday, I raced on over to Martin Van Buren to attend their rally to stop the co-location of a new school in their building.  Co-location is the beginning of the end in many cases as space is lost, enrollments decline and the budget is cut which starts the death spiral. 

Hopefully the new mayor will have something to say about this in January.

Van Buren Chapter Leader on the left along with brothers Assemblyman David Weprin and Councilman Mark Weprin with Senator Tony Avella in the middle speaking

Students did a great job of mobilizing at Van Buren.  Great turnout particularly considering it was a Friday afternoon.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Teacher,

The Department is supplementing its model for supervision of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR). You are receiving this email because you may be included under this initiative.

Under this initiative you will be supervised by a licensed administrator (Field Supervisor), who will periodically observe your practice and provide you with feedback to support your professional development. The Field Supervisors are aware that as a teacher, in the Absent Teacher Reserve you do not have a regular program and that you rotate school assignments and they will take this context into account in their work with you.

Sometime in the next few weeks, you should expect your Field Supervisor to visit your assignment site to meet with you in person. At this initial meeting, the Field Supervisor will discuss expectations and how to support you in your professional growth and job search process.” The Field Supervisor will make an effort to contact you in advance of the initial meeting to give you a sense of when you can expect him/her, although know that they may not always be able to provide advance notification.

Sincerely,

NYC DOE

Anonymous said...

Yes, as an ATR this is exactly what I need. "the Field Supervisor will discuss expectations and how to support you in your professional growth and job search process.”

I guess re: job search they're going to increase budgets? Or maybe these field supervisors will wave a magic wand and bring back the seniority transfer? Holy Goodness, is there an honest soul working for the D O E? Support professional growth? START WITH ENDING YOUR SCHOOL-CLOSING SHELL GAME, D O E! I DON'T NEED professional development on how to hand out a sub lesson plan, and I'm pretty good with filling in the attendance bubbles. How about giving us a fair shot to be appointed to a school,say, any school, where the principal has 15 years of classroom experience. Oh, forgive the utopia-speak...3 years classroom experience!

Anyhow, I am one fed up ATR. However, I expect this from Tweed. It's the United Federation of Mulgrew that has me SICKENED. BEING OBSERVED WITH STUDENTS WHO I DONT KNOW IN A SCHOOL I DONT KNOW ON ANY GIVEN DAY I DONT KNOW IN A SUBJECT I MAY NOT KNOW...INSIDIOUS

Anonymous said...

I was told that an ALARMING rate of these ATR observations ended up as U ratings, and there is not ONE ounce of intellectual honesty involved in this process. While I was an appointed teacher for almost two decades, I would NEVER have wanted to be observed doing a coverage for a friend in the same department, let alone as a stranger in a strange land. HOW TOOTHLESS IS THIS UNION?

Anonymous said...

How toothless are we the teachers? It's up to us and not Mulgrew to fight back

Anonymous said...

Oh then I apologize. I thought the elected leadership of the union has a responsibility to stand up against those who harass the membership...you're right....the solution to the problem for any u rated atr from one of these nonsensical observations is to fend for themselves. How silly of me to assume Unity should assist in any way