This video is on how to differentiate instruction without doing hours of extra planning. It is from Education Week. It is worth a look. I also recommend showing it to your supervisor if you are accused of not differentiating.
Differentiated instruction is one of the educational fads I wrote about for the NYC Parents Blog earlier this spring. Teachers spend so much time trying to make things look good and not enough time educating in a way they feel will best help their students. This is especially true in the age of Danielson when teachers are observed so often. We are watching our back worried that the door might open and the latest drive-by observation could come at any second.
This is one of the comments that came in reaction over at the NYC Parents blog:
David Suker said:
This is why I plan to retire in the next 3-5 years and take my kid as far away from this system as I can; this isn't education. It's quantum stupidity and crazies are running it.
Hard to argue with David.
15 comments:
Hate to stray of the topic but I'm fuming right now. It's official: We are in for another 10 months of Danielson/4+observations. One of the teachers at my school just had her initial conference meeting with our principal and the choices for observations is the exact same as last year. Does the UFT even give a shit about us? If we don't get 2 observations in the next contract that expires in Feb, I am going to friggin' explode.
Why are you surprise? Mulgrew calls his evaluation system a model for other districts to emulate.
Naive as naive can be to expect positive change unless we scream and yell for it.
I'm pissed as hell about this as well. We are living in a post-Janus world and the UFT is operating like it is the same ole' same ole'. Do they actually want people to stop paying dues? I guess the more important question is if the UFT is actually pushing to have the choice for 2 observations in the next contract? If Mulgrew is so happy about "his" 4+ observations well, that is fine but tenured teachers should have the choice to have 2 observations like every other teacher in New York State. Anybody on the contract negotiation team want to spill some secrets and let us know if they are even talking about this???
DOE will want something in return for two pbservations.
UFT is using state law to get around Janus. They are making it next yo impossible to quit the union. The right wing lawsuit is coming.
3 points: 1) Yes, it is hard to leave the union but folks will soon know that the the opt out window is in June. 2) Yes, a right wing lawsuit is coming and that is to be expected. 3) If the DOE wants something in return for 2 observations I believe that many if not most teachers will be fine with that. However, I have an inkling that the CSA (principals union) would prefer that teachers have the option to do two observations as it is less work for them. A vindictive principal can go after a teacher with 2 observations just as easily as 4-6 observations.
If they go by pattern bargaining, the DC37 pattern is 7.25% over 44 months (47.5 for us) plus healthcare givebacks. Beyond that, there are no gains we know of. If you want two fewer observations, what are you willing to give up in exchange? DOE will more than likely want a pound of flesh from us for reducing observations. You think they are giving it for nothing? I hope they do but think of who we are dealing with.
Why is the DOE going to want "a pound of flesh" in exchange for 2 observations? A quick history lesson is in order here: Originally it was Cuomo who gave us 4 observations due to fact that the UFT and Bloomberg could not come to an agreement on a change to our evaluation system. Cuomo ended up punishing the teachers and administrators of NYC with the 4 observations. The rumor at the time was that the CSA and the UFT did not want to do all those observations but Cuomo pushed it on all of us anyway. The UFT and DOE could have changed the observations back to two a couple of years ago but did not. The million dollar question is why? I think it is because the idiots running the UFT are simply too lazy to even bring this up for negotation. However, it could be that the DOE may be quite happy that the teachers and admins of NYC are miserable. The fact is that simply OFFERING tenured teachers the choice of 2 observations would not cost the city a dime and as such, there should be no giving back "a pound of flesh". In fact, as mentioned above, I bet that the majority of even Leadership Academy shithead principals would be more than happy to fuck teachers over with 2 observations instead of 4 observations as it is less work for them. What is so sad is that this entire debacle is just happening in NYC. As most teachers know, it is only teachers in NYC who have to deal with 4 observations per year. This is the sad truth. I demand answers from the UFT. Please come to my school and face the music from the teachers of this city who pay your lavish double pension!
That is how negotiations work generally. You don't get something without giving something up. This is central DOE and the city, not CSA that is negotiating. I didn't say there would be financial givebacks, just work rule changes that we won't like in exchange for two observations. When was the last time the UFT got something for nothing? It's why I keep urging people to come out of the shadows and get involved in the union. It's the only way to make real change.
I'll never forget this:
In the fall of 2011, I had a formal observation in my third semester algebra class (I was a SpEd teacher). The lesson was part of a unit on factoring quadratic equations. I had made progress in helping some of my students become comfortable with what, for many students, IEPs or not, can be a difficult and anxiety-producing exercise.
In the post-ob, I got the usual blippity-blob about grouping and whatever (this was just as Common Core was coming into the schools but before Danielson). I got dinged for failing to differentiate my lesson appropriately though I squeaked by, ultimately, with an S for the ob.
I turned to La Grismaldy-Laboy, herself a math teacher for those two critical years she was in the classroom before being given her very own school to play principal in and said, "Ms. Laboy, I was wondering if you might be able to demonstrate for me how to differentiate a lesson in factoring quadratic equations?" She squinted at me and told me to get out of her office.
No supervisor and, certainly, no teacher in my masters program at City College, could ever actually model differentiation. It was all hogwash thought up by Carol Ann Tomlinson, the "Danielson of the late 2000s and early 2010s."
I knew the gig was up. The next day, I ran down to NYCTRS at 55 Water Street. I knew that if the BX 5 showed up just as I got out of school at 2:57 I could catch the No. 2 at Simpson Street in Soundview and walk in the door at NYCTRS at 4:23. I made it that day with two minutes to spare and so began my rapid march to retirement.
Not one part of this story is made up, much less exaggerated. Good luck, my teacher friends!
I'd be willing to do some bullshit in school things to get us 2 observations. (Maybe spend a few extra preps a semester mentoring a new teacher or maybe hand in a detailed yearly curriculum map or something else along that line) I can't believe that I even have to entertain this thought when every other teacher in NYS had to give up nothing to get 2 observations because all those other teachers work for sane school districts instead of the torture chamber that is the NYCDOE.
7:52 you stated why we are in trouble and why 2 observations might not happen.
I can't believe that I even have to entertain this thought when every other teacher in NYS had to give up nothing to get 2 observations because all those other teachers work for sane school districts instead of the torture chamber that is the NYCDOE.
TRS closes at 4:25?
Here are some remarks made to supervisors at my high school:
TEACHER A: You want to see differentiation? Come in when I’m teaching how to find the first derivative!
TEACHER B: I’ll do group work whenever the Regents Exam permits group work!
TEACHER C: I’m not working any harder! You want to give me an I-rating? Then give me an I-rating!
TEACHER D: What do you mean there’s no student engagement in my room?! Two of my former students, who met each other in my class, told me they were engaged for a year and just got married!
TEACHER E: What’s the Bullshit of the Week going to be about this time?!
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