November 30, 2005

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Do Now

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by Bimsmile @ 6:09 pm

Do Now: What is the purpose of such an act?

Every teacher knows the wonderful term, “do now.” Before today this term was nothing but an ideal thought, another bureaucratic must, passed down from the board of education or the school administration. It was a way to keep students busy while taking attendance, writing out the aim or simply getting organized before the start of a lesson. It sometimes worked, but most of the time was simply one more task not completed by students.

I should preface this story by saying that many of my “do nows” up until this point have dealt specifically with the text we are reading. I also have simply asked for volunteers to share their responses before moving into the lesson, as opposed to calling on individuals. When I did begin to call on certain students I found that very few students were actually completing the task. They had no reason to do so. I had to think of some way to hold them accountable for this short period of work. (more…)

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Pay Now or Pay Later

Filed under: NYC DOE by Peter Goodman @ 6:07 pm

At the end of the second marking period my Assistant Principal used to call us in one by one and question us about pass/fail rates in our classes. Why did I fail so many kids? I explained that while I was working on my ESP powers: I had not yet perfected them and unfortunately I was not successful with the kids who weren’t in class. Did you call the absentees? Sorry, my Star Trek Universal Translator wasn’t working and I was a little rusty in Croatian, Uzbek and Mandarin. By the way, I asked, “Why did it take a month to complete program changes? Why wasn’t 9th grade class size significantly lower? Why did the counselors have humongous student loads?”

For a fourteen year old a high school can be a frightening place: threats of violence, demanding classes and total anonymity. The student becomes a faceless, nameless OSIS number in a sea of students. It is not surprising that a quarter to a third of high school kids are absent every day … and not the same kids. How many high school students are absent more than twenty days a term?

(more…)

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An Agenda In Search Of A Supporting Argument: The Story Of The New Teacher Project’s Unintended Consequences Report

Filed under: Contract Education Labor by Leo Casey @ 11:44 am

Two weeks ago, a Washington DC educational policy think tank, the New Teacher Project, issued a report entitled Unintended Consequences to great fanfare. The report demonstrated that staffing rules in union contracts were “bad for kids,” Eduwonk proclaimed to the blogosphere. So we decided to take a careful look at the claims. And here’s what we found…. (more…)

November 29, 2005

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Benefit For Teacher’s Voice

Filed under: Events by Leo Casey @ 5:00 pm

The Teacher’s Voice is a literary magazine of writing by teachers, about teaching.

There will be a benefit poetry reading for the magazine at the BOWERY POETRY CLUB on Friday, December 9th. It’ll be HAPPY HOUR (AND A HALF), 5pm to 6:30. All drinks are 2-for-1 and the cover charge is only 5 bucks! There is a great line-up of readers from the most recent issue of the magazine, including Paul Hostovsky and Hal Sirowitz!

We need to get lots and lots of people in the door, so pass this on to everyone you know. THERE WILL BE OPEN MIC AT THE END, IF TIME ALLOWS!

The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
212.614.0505
foot of First Street, between Houston & Bleecker, across the street from CBGBs

F train to Second Ave, or 6 train to Bleecker

November 28, 2005

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The NY Post’s Theatre of the Absurd [UPDATED]

Filed under: Charter School by Leo Casey @ 6:20 pm

Only the editorial writers of the New York Post could stumble unintentionally into a script for the theatre of the absurd, as it did last week with this editorial, “UFT’s Saddam Plan.” According to the brilliant political minds who pen their editorial page prose, the UFT’s proposal for ‘card check’ union organizing in charter schools is tantamount to the authoritarian rule Saddam Hussein inflicted on Iraq for decades. That will certainly come as news to the states of Illinois and California, which have ‘card check’ organizing for all public employees, as well as the states of New York and New Jersey, which have ‘card check’ organizing for not-for-profit and private sector employees not covered by the NLRB. But it does not surprise us that the adolescent editorial staff of the Post finds the law of Iraq under Baathist rule indistinguishable from the law of California and New York under Republican governors.

Let us dispose of the issue of ‘card check’ union organizing, which we discussed recently at some length. The long and short of it is that the Post’s claim, “the UFT would prefer the teachers’ votes be counted in public — you know, Saddam Hussein-style — so that it’ll know who its enemies are,” is such a gross misrepresentation of what ‘card check’ recognition involves that it is simply impossible to believe that it is an error made in good faith. (more…)

November 23, 2005

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Holiday Roundup

Filed under: Uncategorized by Kombiz Lavasany @ 3:37 pm

The Carnival of Education is up at the Education Wonks.

Don’t miss the Advocate Weekly from last week at Shut Up and Teach, (it’s the bunk bed version)

The Gotham Gazette the definitive website of everything wonkish in NYC, put together a rather comprehensive article on Charter Schools in NYC that’s worth a read. If you haven’t read Leo Casey’s post from last week about the seminar put together for charter schools by some prominent union busting law firms; it’s an important read, and it’s been excerpted by several other blogs over the last week.

Confined Spaces, a workplace safe and health blog has a round up of the UFT’s efforts to deal with blood-borne pathogens in schools. 

The following are two small excerpts that we’d like to share from an e-mail blast that goes to chapter leaders every week.

FREE SCHOOL SUPPLIES: Are you in a Title I school in the Bronx, Washington Heights or Harlem? Then your teachers could be eligible for up to $500 of school supplies from World Vision, a charitable organization. These supplies are for teachers in low-income schools.  Each teacher can get from $300-$500 dollars worth of supplies that include books, markers, pens, pencils, art supplies, staplers, tape, notebooks, binders and much more. The warehouse is located in the Bronx and the telephone number is 718-292-5600. Your principal has to place the call in order to get the form which is then faxed to the warehouse. The organization will then arrange a date for the school to come to pick up the supplies. 

The UFT established a Disaster Relief Fund to help in disaster situations like that visited on the Gulf Coast states this year. The Committee along with the AFT has set a goal of $2,000,000 to assist our brothers and sisters. The UFT commitment to that national relief effort is $400,000. To meet the goal we are asking our members to purchase the UFT Relief Fund pin by making a donation or $10.00. All monies will be used to assist all our members.

Finally, what is everyone reading over the holiday weekend? I just picked up Frank McCourt’s latest, Teacher Man.

November 22, 2005

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Small Learning Communities Redux

Filed under: NYC DOE Small Schools by Peter Goodman @ 4:28 pm

John Jay High School was a struggling low-performing school and the overlords at 110 were encouraging schools to create "Academies." Paul Feingold, the Jay Chapter Leader, and a number of his colleagues created a wonderful “Small Learning Community.” It had its own space and a “dedicated” staff of teachers, counselors and paraprofessionals. Student attendance improved, teacher morale was high and the classrooms were “exciting.” The school administration changed, the Assistant Principals abhorred it, funding ceased and the Academy ended, and, the school went into redesign. No good deed shall go unpunished.

The recent announcement of a “Small Learning Communities” initiative in nine high schools sounds a lot like “Houses/Academies Redux.” Tweed has created 150 small high schools in the last two years. These schools are supported by grants from the Gates Foundation to “intermediaries,” not-for-profit organizations that provide a range of supports for the schools during their first four years. For example, over seven hundred teachers in schools sponsored by New Visions for Public Schools, the largest of the “intermediaries,” trekked up to a hotel in Westchester and spent a day and a half working on a school “issue” of their choosing.

However, the small high school creation effort also “deflected” students into other schools and created serious overcrowding. The teachers in the small schools are predominantly new to the system and many of the principals have limited experience. The move to “small learning communities” is a reaction to the criticism of an overly aggressive small school creation effort.

Can you “redesign” an existing school? Some have compared it to repairing a 747 while in flight.

The real world of the urban high school: five classes a day and at least 150 student a week, common planning time takes place in the car pool and we race into school early to find a parking spot and a duplicating machine that works … The kids see six or seven teachers a day and rarely develop a relationship with any adult, except, maybe, the Dean. The factory model label fits, for teachers and kids.

 While Tweed has chosen to obliterate history we did go through the small learning community era in high schools, called “Houses,” or “Academies.” Taking a group of kids and calling them the “Harvard” House or the “Achievement Academy,” and telling the Assistant Principal that in addition to his usual duties he/she was the Academy Director was not a glowing success.

The irony is we know what works:

 • Block scheduling that allows teachers to teach longer blocks of time with significant fewer kids.

 • Common planning time during the school day that allow colleagues to discuss practice and talk about their students.

 • Family Group/Advisory were teacher and small groups of kids can develop relationships

• Lead teachers who can model and coach newer teachers.

Many of us are victims of a kind of Stockholm Effect. We rigorously defend a dysfunctional system. Change is scary and really hard: we have to figure out how to do it together, as colleagues. Change imposed from above always results in a teacher intafada and a continuing underground combat. We have to use our union to create a functional school system, not use it as weapon to fight a never ending fratricidal conflict.

November 21, 2005

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Irritations With the Reading and Writing Workshop Model

Filed under: New Teacher Diaries by BXMSTeacher @ 5:39 pm

Hello Everyone: This is my first post, and I’m obviously, a new teacher. I teach in an honors academy at a middle school (If I were to say exactly WHERE the school is, then various people who read this blog would know who I am. And, at the moment, I want to keep my identity a secret). I teach 6th graders, and it has been a very difficult, challenging, upsetting and ultimately life changing experience for me as a NYC Literacy Teacher. I’ve made a hell of a lot of mistakes, but I keep coming back everyday. My kids, very bright, lovely and full of potential, have definitely made my first few months "in the trenches" rewarding. But, I do have some issues. No, I have one issue: WHY is the Board of Ed STILL using the reading and writing workshop model?

I don’t get it: I understand that this "model" has been mandated for schools that are or were failing in reading and writing. I get that…but, did anyone bother to SEE if this model actually works? And, if they did bother to see that the model doesn’t work, why is it still being used?

The breakdown: it’s a 90 minute block, broken into Reading Workshop (45 minutes) and Writing Workshop (45 minutes). Each section of the 90 minutes has the following: a 5 minute read aloud (where the teacher reads a selected text to the students) a 10-15 minute mini-lesson (where the teacher explicitly models a strategy he or she wants the students to know for the day. In reading, it’s usually one of the seven reading strategies. In writing, it’s some aspect of grammar or writing) a 5 minute "Try It Out" period (where students actually spend a few minutes attempting to use the strategy the teacher just modeled in class during the mini lesson) a 20 minute Independent Practice/Link section (Where students are using the strategy on their own during independent reading or writing) a 5 minute Share Out (where students discuss whether or not the strategy worked for them and why).

So, according to this schedule, I should be able to effectively model a strategy I want students to know, they attempt it for a few minutes, then I let them go and do it during independent reading or writing (of course, I walk around to make sure they understand and are doing the strategy/mini lesson I taught them). And Boom! My students can move on to more challenging concepts, etc. NOT…I have had such difficulty with using the reading and writing workshop model. I feel as if it strips away any chance I have to attempt to be creative with my students. I am literally stuck with following a set structure everyday. It’s problematic because those who thought up this wonderful workshop model didnt take into account that kids DO NOT LEARN in the same way.

In my classroom, it takes me on average between 20-25 minutes to do my mini lesson, sometimes more. Why? My kids don’t all process information the same way. For some of them, spending more time "trying it out" helps them to really understand what I taught them during the mini lesson. For others, I have to be there at their table, showing them how to do it step by step. Still others don’t process it at all and I have to show them how to do it during reading or writing workshop. Also, the reading and writing workshop model was originally for elementary school kids (grades K-5). Honestly, middle school children are extremely sophisticated. I feel as if the workshop model isn’t very effective for middle school kids. Especially, if they are an honors student. I have kids who understand and can critically evaluate articles from the BBC World News website (i.e. in the unit I just finished for Persuasive Writing, one of my students was turning in daily responses about French Muslims who were, along with the various immigrants living in Paris and the surrounding suburbs, being harassed by the police. I admit that I wasn’t keep up with the news like I should have, so it was very refreshing and suprising to have one of my kids give me a well written account of the editorials the BBC World News were putting out. I also have children who are second language learners and are slowly l earning English. In short, I have students who are are various learning levels.

The reading and writing workshop hasn’t been effective in addressing all of my students’ needs. I have been doing the best I can with scaffolding my teaching to make sure that EVERYONE is learning in my class. It’s a daily process that has its ups and downs. But, I am doing the best that I can. But, I am being honest in admitting that the Reading and Writing Workshop model does not work in its current state. I don’t know of an alternative but, I would like to add a few ideas to ways of making it work if this is the mandated curriculum the board will continue to use for the next few years: a) Keep the 90 minute block.

But, make ALL subjects 90 minutes. I think that students get the short end of the stick in only having classes for 45 minutes a day. Extending subjects to longer periods (whether for 60 minute, 70 minutes, 80 minutes, or 90 minutes blocks) allows students to spend more time learning concepts. Also, a block period allows teachers to really focus on what they feel their students need to learn. b) 10-15 minute mini lessons: PLEASE. People need to realize that learning a concept won’t happen in 10-15 minutes. It make take 20-25 minutes to learn a particular concept in a classroom. It may even take a day or two to learn one single strategy. In my few months on the job, it has taken me about 20 minutes on average to cover one strategy in a mini lesson.

But, I’ve had to spend an additional day or two covering the same topic because my students either didn’t understand it or I didn’t believe that my students had mastered it enough. So, I will spend a day or days on a concept UNTIL all of my students have mastered it. That probably isnt what I’m supposed to do following the reading and writing workshop model, but it works for me. At the end of the day, my kids are my first priority. Their learning comes before any mandates given by the Region OR the Board of Education. c) Give teachers support for their instruction, NOT whether or not their bulletin boards meet Reading and Writing Workshop Standards. Are you evaluating me for my teaching, or are you evaluating me to see if my bulletin boards are neatly presented, my writing folders are clearly seen in the classroom, and I have the literacy "flow of the day" (i.e. a daily agenda of what will happen in class) neatly written on the board? I understand that these things are important to have up or visible in the classroom. But, do bulletin boards matter when I’m struggling to effectively teach students who are scared to speak during classroom discussions because their first language isn’t English? Do they matter when I have to figure out a way to reach those few students who don’t want to do their work and refuse to behave in my classroom? I am sure that bulletin boards matter in the whole scheme of things.

But, as a first year teacher, they just take a backseat to the everyday learning in my classroom. I do have most of these things up in my room (with the rest going up soon–don’t want to have my head served up on a silver platter because I don’t have student work up on the bulletin boards or my "flow of the day" isn’t neat and readable). It’s just that sometimes, things like bulletin boards and the like aren’t as important as making sure that all of my students are learning in my classroom. But, I’m new. And, I’m just learning about the realities of a NYC Literacy Teacher. It’s hard and will be even more difficult as the year progresses, but I do love my job. I just don’t agree with the structures I have to follow in order TO DO MY JOB.

November 18, 2005

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Multiple Pathways Two

Filed under: Uncategorized by Maisie @ 4:03 pm

Peter Goodman’s “Multiple Pathways” post last week scooped the DOE on its plans to expand the Young Adult Borough Centers. The Mayor announced the initiative yesterday, as the NY Times reports. While the Mayor was announcing, DOE senior counselor for policy Michelle Cahill presented the whole model more informally at an event hosted by Educational Priorities Panel. The YABCs are to expand and get job readiness and career exploration components, the idea being you have to connect these students to the world of work if they are going to see a reason to graduate. Thanks to another few million $$ from Gates and others, the DOE is also adding 15 new transfer high schools, and again, there is a work-readiness component to engage students in their futures. Or as the DOE says, “students have the opportunity to participate in intensive employability skills development and college exploration activities.”

Why, oh why, does the DOE feel it has to speak this way? And why do they try to sound as if they invented these programs? As Peter reported, last year and earlier this year the DOE closed GED centers and transfer high school programs. Then they did a study with gobs of foundation funding and discovered that not all kids graduate without a peep in four perfect years so they recreated this “multiple pathways to graduation” strategy, replacing what was a perfectly workable and well-thought-out system before they arrived. Whatever. Now they invented it and the concept is theirs.

What remains to be seen is if they can really implement. I took down this quote from Cahill: “We know what to do but not how to do it.” A lot of folks at the EPP event were skeptical. EPP director Noreen Connell asked, sensibly, why there wasn’t an effort to fix middle schools, where dropout problems first emerge. Cahill said the DOE is putting Carmen Farina on the case. UFT VP Carmen Alvarez asked pointedly about serving all kids well and Cahill got a tad testy.

The one piece of this that DOE hasn’t much focused on is vocational education schools, which several attendees pointed out have worked well for thousands of kids for years and years. Michael Mulgrew, the UFT’s new Career and Technical Education VP, noted that on average 80% of incoming students in CTE programs are “at risk” but that these schools graduate about 9% more of their students than the rest of the system. These schools offer students academics and career development and it works well for kids who aren’t academically oriented but have skills they develop and use. The “learning to work” components of the new DOE programs have to really connect kids with jobs, not just blab about “employability skills development.”

November 17, 2005

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Who’s Afraid Of Teacher Voice? Charter Schools And Union Organizing

Filed under: Charter School by Leo Casey @ 11:13 pm

Who’s afraid of teacher voice? Of union organizing in charter schools?

Not just the usual suspects on the anti-union, anti-teacher, anti-public education far right. Recent events in New York City provide compelling evidence that the NYC Department of Education of Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Mike Bloomberg is a player and a primary participant in this ‘camp of fear’ – and in ways that, at the very least, are skating on the edges of New York State’s Charter Law, which expressly forbids the use of public money to oppose the efforts of charter school teachers to organize and bargain collectively.

Our tale begins last Monday November 9, at a conference held in New York City’s Harvard Club that featured former Bush Secretary of Education Rod Paige as a luncheon speaker. It was there that the conference organizer, the Atlantic Legal Foundation, launched its “Charter School Advocacy Program.” This inaugural session was entitled “Leveling the Playing Field: What New York Charter School Leaders Need to Know About Union Organizing.” It marked the public ‘coming out’ of professional “union avoidance” and union busting law firms in the New York State Charter School field. (more…)

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