I highly recommend UFT members proceed directly to the grievance section for the harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and discrimination by supervisors part and then go to the Whistleblower protection section in the Other category to take advantage of these rights that have to be used to be effective. Member fears are legitimate but if we don't overcome them as a group, this job will never improve.
· Absences
· Summons
· Homeroom
· Rotation
· Salary
· Grades
· Mentors
· Tenure
· Assaults
· Supplies
Other
· Arrests
"Under the newly negotiated contract language which applies to all UFT-represented employees, the Department of Education is required to maintain an environment that is “free of harassment, intimidation, retaliation and discrimination.”"
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? Better to blow the whistle to councilmamber Holden who is more supportive of teachers being threatened than the UFT.
http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2019/11/council-member-holden-writes-to-us.html
By supporting their failure, you allow UFT "leadership" to keep running over us.
HAHA. Yeah, right. If a student in your class is very disruptive, you have the right to have that child removed for a single period, a single day or up to four days. The removal process is spelled out in Chancellor’s Regulation A-443 (Student Disciplinary Procedures), a booklet that parents, children and staff are supposed to receive at the beginning of the school year.
ReplyDeleteBefore beginning the process, you should first let the student know that he or she is in danger of being removed for the class and listen to his or her version. If you are still convinced of the necessity for the removal, talk to the principal and complete a Student Removal Form. If the principal doesn’t help, ask your chapter leader about filing a grievance under contact Article 9 and Appendix B.
Make sure you maintain an anecdotal log of the child’s behavior for any hearings that may occur. For your log you can use the student removal form, which asks you to specify the disruptive activities as well as the interventions that you have taken.
I'm confused. Charters a re bad because they don't keep bad kids? Isn't that what the DOE should be doing? Get rid of the bad kids...A-It sends a huge message. B-The bad ones ruin it for the good ones. C-It gives staff control and doesn't allow students to run the building. It is a school. If you can't act properly, stay home or get a job.
ReplyDeleteThis is what the uft does. Spoke to a teacher tonight. Horrible story. Complained about her and her students' health due to mold in her school trailer. PS 209 in Sheepshead, Brooklyn. Fast forward she went to hospital and has permanent lung damage. She kept gasping for air on the phone and she's only 32. The principal changed her licence illegally and excessed her. Teacher filed for medical that was later denied. Now out of work, no insurance, can't breathe and UFT has stopped helping after this article.
ReplyDeleteCharters are bad in that the take money away from public schools but do not play by the same rules. They operate like private schools where they can counsel out problem kids who end up back in public schools.
ReplyDeleteBut getting rid of problem kids is the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteSo instead, we allow students, who are less than angels, destroy schools, classes, etc. From Chaz...
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst policies of the Bill de Blasio administration is his student discipline policy. Principals are no longer are allowed to suspend violent and misbehaving students without approval by Tweed and since the Mayor and Chancellor frowns on suspensions, far too many students are sent back to class to continue the reign of terror, Instead the violent or misbehaving student is required to attend the useless restorative justice session which they find as a joke.
To hide the unsafe climate at schools, the Mayor and Chancellor have made it clear that school administrators are not to report incidents and to quietly handle it at the school. The result is that fewer incidents are reported and the Mayor and Chancellor can claim that the schools are safer. Of course, if you ask students and teachers you would hear a different story. They would tell you that there is widespread bullying and intimidation as well as threats to students and staff.
The latest incident that school administrators tried to cover up was a middle school girl fight in the cafeteria at MS 158 in Bayside Queens. The school administration never reported the fight and it was only after a parent of the girl who was beaten up and reported the attack to the police who then arrested the other girl, did the school administration report the incident. You can see the fight Here. In another incident, last year,at the same school a girl was sexually harassed numerous times and groped by a boy who exposed himself to her and the school administration did not take any action. The boy decided he could sexually harass the girl whenever he wanted and finally the girl told her parents who called the police and he boy was arrested. The school also failed to suspend a male student who sexually molested another male student.
At the District 26 meeting, a teacher cited the new discipline code for lowering morale and leaving teachers unable “to effectively manage classrooms,” adding that staff are “no longer respected and supported.” Even the head of the usually dead-quiet principals’ union, Mark Cannizzaro, recently sounded the alarm, writing Carranza: “In many schools, misconduct is on the rise, leading some students to believe there are little or no consequences for disruptive, openly defiant and even violent behavior.” Principals and staff feel “unsupported” by system higher-ups, he complained.
Chancellor Carranza went to the District 26 Town Hall at MS 74 and when parents confronted him about the lax student discipline policy he refused to respond and quickly left the meeting without addressing the parent concerns. The Chancellor's cowardly action shows that it may be time to find a new Chancellor who puts school safety first. Read the New York Post opinion article on the Chancellor's cowardly action at the MS 74 Town Hall.
James, I have a question. Can principals dictate what you need to have on your board and make school-wide protocols in what needs to be in your lesson and dictate how long students should be spending on an activity and can they give ineffective if you don't follow these protocols?
ReplyDelete7:23, There has to be basic order before any teaching and learning can occur. We agree. Putting graduation rates and lowering safety incidents ahead of theintegrity of the numbers has been a disaster. The biggest problem is mayoral control. Giving a unitary Executive total power over the schools without any check does not work. I will have more to say on this soon.
ReplyDelete7:48, In a word, no. Lesson plan as to how you want to teach is up to the teacher. There are many acceptable, researched backed ways to teach. This should be taken up as a chapter but if chapter leader is not willing, please email us at iceuft@gmail.com.
James, don't waste your time commenting on student behavior. You will never admit the problem, so why bother?
ReplyDeleteWhy dont you post the 2014 contract, maybe people will realize it is bad.
ReplyDeleteI bet it will get better and this stuff will work when Bernie "empowers" us. LOL. 10 years from now, everything will be just as bad.
ReplyDeleteSince you posted the "rules"...I got my schedule for the spring semester...Including the c6, 6 working periods in a row. So much for a "contract."
ReplyDeleteWhat are your practices on assigning HW? I feel like doing away with it as 99% of the time it goes undone. Students pass anyway.
ReplyDeletehave been struggling with anxiety...and the students I’m currently teaching are challenging...(fights, uncooperative etc) I’ve expressed this to the administration...how would go about taking a leave? Would this be considered a health issue by the doe standards (currently seeing a therapist)
ReplyDeleteI’m pretty bad at writing conference notes (not enough time) and I’ve heard that soon my admin is coming around to collect our conference notes binder. They definitely retaliate if we have bad notes. I don’t understand the point of writing an essay every time I meet with a child. Are they allowed to collect binders? Are they allowed to dictate how we write notes?
ReplyDeleteI started teaching in a really disorganized chaotic school 4 years ago, had no idea what I was doing. Dreaded work everyday, no support, awful work environment, I transferred after a year to what I thought was my *dream* school which ended up not working out, that admin tried to ruin my career with discontinuance.
ReplyDeleteI felt discouraged after that, couldn’t find a job, didn’t know if I wanted to continue teaching, couldnt get hired in the doe because I had a discontinuance code on my record. So I took a leave replacement on Long Island, got paid pennies a day and commuted 2 hours each way there. I did it to see what the other side was like and that maybe it’d help me get a job.
Last summer I searched for a job in the doe again, found a school that was willing to give me a chance despite my situation . Despite the discontinuance, they got me back in the doe. I am juggling 5 classes and two brand new grade levels but in years 4 I feel like it’s just clicking. I finally found an amazing supportive school where I know I can take risks and try new instructional methods etc. I receive positive feedback from admin and I am just thinking back to my first 2 years where I was constantly beaten down by admin who were out to get me... and now I am doing well and thriving here. I just got back an excellent observation report and I can’t even believe it because I’d been conditioned to think that I was just a bad teacher or something.
I can’t believe it sometimes because to think back in 2018 I thought my career was done with before it even started. I just wanted to share because I know it’s easy to get discouraged and some of us may have been stuck somewhere that’s not supportive or where you feel under appreciated.
Tier 6 Teacher, who only wants to work for 10-15 years in DOE until vested (will be 45 years old when I resign).
ReplyDeleteAfter I resign, can I still collect retirement pension later on in life when I hit 55, (10 years after resigning?)
This is what TRS says:
“When you have attained 10 years of Total Service Credit: You attain vested status, which allows you to receive a retirement allowance when you reach age 55, as long as you are still in service at that time.”
What does it mean where it says “as long as you are still in service at that time.”???
I’m going to a pension clinic on the 30th but I want to have notes/questions ready from what I hear from you guys.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza crowed about the city’s “record high” high-school graduation rates last week, skipping over as usual the fact that it’s the result of a lower bar — not better schools.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, the rate is up nearly 9 percentage points since de Blasio took office — but city students’ showing on the national “gold standard” test for educational achievement, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is basically flat.
The real change: The state Board of Regents has made it easier to earn a diploma by creating more “pathways” to graduation — as well as by making it easier to pass state tests, including the Regents exams.
For the record, the Regents’ minions at the State Education Department deny this: “We cannot know whether a student would have been successful in the traditional pathway to a diploma,” an SED flack told The Post. And: The new routes to diplomas “keep students in school by allowing them to pursue a path that interests them.”
Those claims would stand up better if New York was seeing gains on the NAEP. It’s not.
For the city, and probably other school districts across the state, another factor is cheating by school administrators. De Blasio’s system can’t seem to go a year without some new grade-fixing or bogus “credit recovery” scandal surfacing in The Post, thanks mostly to outraged teachers.
What New York needs isn’t simply rising graduation rates, but rising numbers of seniors actually ready to go to college or start a career. Any “success” short of that is just a marketing ploy.
The principal of a troubled Queens middle school — where a wild cafeteria brawl was recently caught on video — is flunking with his own staff.
ReplyDeleteJust 25 percent of teachers at MS 158 Marie Curie said their boss, Henry Schandel, allows them any influence over behavior standards, according to city Department of Education surveys.
The dismal figure is 31 percent below the average for the district’s other principals — and 52 percent lower than the citywide number.
Schandel’s school is where a cafeteria beating was videotaped and the student attacker never removed from class, prompting the victim’s mom to speak out at a raucous District 26 meeting last week — and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to eventually storm off.
Based on these comments, Uft doing an impressive job.
ReplyDelete10:56, Grieve your program. You would win in two seconds. Principal would look stupid taking it out of the building. Reminder you only have two school days after you see the program to grieve it. If they retaliate, cry foul immediately.
ReplyDelete9:47, We will only find out if a just cause firing standard will help us if Bernie is elected.
8:24, Apply for a restoration of health leave.
8:34, Glad you were persistent. You clearly found the right administration.
8:29, If being forced to take and hand in PD notes is not an excessive paperwork complaint, I don't know what is. Go to your chapter leader. If your chapter leader won't handle it, get information to us. We will at least publicize the school.
8:34, Tier 6 retirement age is 63. To collect between 55 and 63 in tier VI you have to be retiring from active service or a leave of absence based on what I read from TRS.
8:45, I agree with the Post editorial. While their usual solution is more charter schools which will make the problem worse because competition for scarce resources will just make people cheat more to look good, the editorial board on the bs graduation rate is correct. A broken clock is right twice a day you know.
This paragraph is particularly impressive:
For the city, and probably other school districts across the state, another factor is cheating by school administrators. De Blasio’s system can’t seem to go a year without some new grade-fixing or bogus “credit recovery” scandal surfacing in The Post, thanks mostly to outraged teachers.
Integrity in the system is needed badly. Not blaming the teachers is kind of hopeful.
Integrity? LOL.
ReplyDeleteThe successful doe-uft partnership continues. Keep paying those dues. How is that working?
ReplyDelete10:16: Yes integrity, some of us old-timers still have it. IF you have none, leave the profession.
ReplyDeleteThe city has none. Thh students have none. The chancellor and mayor have none. Most teachers don't either...
ReplyDeleteWhere is some info for Special Education teachers about IEP issues? SE teachers are completely bastardized by the DOE. They are routinely expected to write IEP's on their prep. To conduct IEP's on their prep. To accomplished all kinds of Herculean paperwork on their preps. It's completely unfair that they are expected to do all these things on their preps. The only language I find in response to IEP's is that the school is supposed to pay if the meeting is on a prep. That's nice, but I bet most would actually like to be able to use their prep the same as any other general ed teacher (for actual prep and planning). I bet most would like the other issues addressed as well. I bet most would rather not have the IEP's on their preps payment or not. Maybe someone her knows some answers to these questions, but I can't find anything on the UFT page.
ReplyDelete