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Michael,not Michale

Perhaps Chancellor Klein feels he’ll encourage good will by vilifying the union and taking no responsibility whatsoever. On the other hand, he’s been doing that for what seems like forever, and it doesn’t seem to have had any appreciable benefit to morale.

From my vantage point, morale under Chancellor Klein is toxic and getting worse every day. Unless you’re Eva Moskowitz, of course, and judging from the way he treats teachers, parents, and the overwhelming majority of students, it would appear her opinion is the only one that matters.

It’s pretty ridiculous to have this silly debate on the LAST DAY of the school year. Did the Chancellor not look at September’s schedule until Friday? I agree it’s a bit crazy to only have school for one day on the first week back, but it was also a bit crazy to make students come in today, on a Monday, just to collect their report cards. Does anyone involved in creating the school year calendar have any clue about what goes on in schools?? This whole thing makes the DOE look a bit incompetent and petty as they scramble around to fix it and then try to blame it on the teachers’ union. As teachers, we do what we have to do and make the best of these situations created by a Chancellor and DOE that’s out of touch with the school communities and I guess parents and students will have to do the same.

Today was the most ridiculous day in the years I’ve been with the DOE. My classroom went up to 92 degrees and made me ill. The kids who came in said that if they’d known that they couldn’t get their reports cards last Friday, they wouldn’t have bothered to come in. The original school calendar, published about 18 months ago, listed Friday June 25, 2010 as our last day of school. Some time shortly before the City announced that teachers would no longer have to report to school two days before Labor Day, they announced that Friday June 25th would be a full day of instruction and that Monday June 28th would be the final (half-day for kids) day. Everyone seems to forget that today was really dreamed up by BloomKlein as a punitive measure for teachers who prefer to loafing off on the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day to spending them at school, working in stuffy, mostly un-air-conditioned classrooms. The start date for the calendar isn’t as stupid as it looks. We start the day after Labor Day, the kids come in the day after. It was just bad timing that a major two-day Jewish holiday fell right at that point. But it’s not the end of the world. Parents – geez – contrary to what BloomKlein would have you believe, we’re not your babysitters. Calendars aren’t always convenient. Deal with it.

At first I thought why the heck wouldn’t the union do this? Then I realized, if we give up BQ-Day – a day my school utilizes to get our regents weeks in order – then next year it may happen again. Before you know it, BQDay is a memory. Klein could simply solve this by starting school for the city on the 13th and ending it 1 day later in the calendar (teachers report on the 8th for their prep/pd).

And why did they make Friday 25th a useless instructional day?!? My school Admins didn’t know what to do with it. They eventually just sent the kids home because it was so badly organized no one knew what they were supposed to be doing. Teachers were wandering around expecting instructions that never came. Students were sent to the auditorium and the gym with nothing to do. It was just a mess. We couldn’t even give out the report cards because they weren’t ready yet.

To Mary, Although starting one day and being off for 4 is pretty dumb it sounds like that’s what it is going to be so we all have to just do the best we can with it. I actually think it may be a good thing for many students. They can get their first day jitters out of the way yet still have time to adjust their bedtime schedules so that the first full week back won’t be as traumatic as starting back with a full 5-day week. If it will be detrimental to your child, then maybe you need to do what’s best for him/her. It wasn’t like this crazy schedule was planned, it just happened because of the Jewish holidays. And please don’t think all teachers are cranky (well maybe when the classroom temperatures go above 100 we can’t help it but normally we’re not.) Many of us love our students and want nothing more than to give them a top rate education. Don’t let Klein’s little ploy to turn parents against teachers succeed. I’m sure you’re smarter than that.

This should have been decided months ago indeed. This directionlessness is embarrassing for everyone involved. Except parents, who just want a reasonable answer, for criminy’s sake.

Of course, NYSED is no better, making huge testing decisions at the 11th hour for the second straight year. Can’t these decisions wait a year so that schools can properly plan for the coming year and not have the rug pulled out from under them?

Are the schools intended to serve children, or politicians?

(Not the Mary who commented above, maybe I’ll use my real name one day!), but I think it’s time the decision-makers of UFT and Joel Klein start something equivalent to couple’s counseling.

Seriously, though, does anyone think that the union’s suggestion to let all schools start when they want to is a good idea? C’mon, MM. sheesh.

I just want to point out that, from anecdotal evidence, most schools don’t sponsor any actual PD on BQ day. As many teachers pointed out in this forum, many teachers perform clerical work, or prepare for the Regents, or begin to ready their rooms for the summer. The building where I work has more than one school, and I know at least two of them had all-day PDs. The UFT gave up BQ day with the 2005 contract, and the first year was the most ridiculous day on the calendar. For one thing, administrators, secretaries, and maintenance all still had the day off. That should have been a clue that BloomKlein wasn’t really interested in giving teachers quality professional development, rather, they just wanted us to work an extra day. And to Mary, the mom who took issue with the babysitting comment – the jibe was directed at BloomKlein. Every time they consider a calendar change or a school closing date, their only public comments have to do with accommodating parents who can’t find child care. That pretty clearly indicates that they are issuing sound bytes that sound good to parents. Even on the days when schools were closed for snow – once they didn’t post the information on the website until well after 6am, which is AFTER the hour when many teachers who live far from their schools must be on the road in order to make it in on time. What about giving some consideration to THEM? And let’s be honest – many parents do consider teachers to be babysitters, regardless of how good we are at our jobs or how effectively we teach their kids. Check out other blogs around the web and you’ll see what I mean. I can’t identify the specific website, but just last night I read a comment from a mom who said she liked the final-day-this-year-as-Monday because she viewed it as “free child care” and “one last chance to go to the gym.” And to you teachers out there who said “not all of ‘us’ feel that way about our kids” — HEY, I don’t either. I don’t babysit. I provide quality instruction, regardless of how hot is in my room (I’m supposed to feel lucky that I even have a room), regardless of how slow my computer is (I’m supposed to feel lucky that I even have a computer), regardless of with how little esteem my administrators view my work (I’m supposed to feel lucky just for having a job). I might not even have a classroom next year and might be teaching out of a broom closet. But my students like me, trust me, and learn from me, and they’ll willingly crowd into that broom closet with me. But let me ask this much – why should this be happening at all?

“Oh, and on another note, and for those of you who are checking my grammar with a fine tooth comb in this post, not every teacher is an English teacher and if I am tired and just speaking my mind – I expect my colleagues to understand. If they do not understand, I sure hope for there sake and for their student’s sake that they excel in EVERY aspect of what is taught in school and NEVER MAKE A MISTAKE EVER – not only grammar, but science, math, social studies, music, physical education, and any other subject for that matter. I never claimed in any of my posts to be a perfect writer, and I have never claimed to any of my students that I have never made mistakes. For those people who believe that teachers should be the ultimate standard of perfection, they themselves have a lot to learn.”

This is exactly the problem with our society today. Too many people are simply getting lazy, and then excusing themselves by saying, “Oh, I know the right way, but I’m just choosing to do it this way because I have no time/interest/etc. to do it correctly.” How many cranes, buildings, bridges have fallen because of similar laziness? You may say that that is a ridiculous analogy, but then why bother to teach our own children or students not to lie about little things? We do it so that later in life, they won’t lie about the bigger things. We castigate students who don’t work to their potential, we complain when they use textspeak in their homework and work they hand in for a grade, but we don’t hold ourselves up to a similar high standard. The fact that not everyone is an English teacher should make no difference. We are communicating here in the language of our land–English–and if it is important enough to make a point, then it is important enough to do so by spelling and punctuating correctly–tired or not. There are differences between using words like “allowed” and “aloud,” “clique” and “click,” and yes, even “there” and “their.” If teachers with Master’s Degrees are routinely using these words incorrectly, as I often see in handouts in my school, given out by teachers and administration (as well as on these blogs), it shows me that we don’t really care what we teach our students. If I don’t teach math, it’s unlikely I will be influencing my students with my lack of knowledge about it. However, since we all use English, I do feel it is important that math and science teachers use it correctly, so that they do not undo what is taught in English classes. If that offends people who post here, so be it. Let’s try to raise our standards and expectations, both of ourselves and our students, not lower them. Let’s leave lowering expectations to Bloomberg, Klein, and the State Regents Board.

And by the way I love the Union I truly cannot wait until I can be a member and get teach my own classroom in a NYC public school.

Alexys…the problem is that a substantial number of teachers are Jewish (not as many as in the past but still a substantial number). It would be senseless to open schools on these days as little education would go on and there might be safety issues involved. Sometimes, one has to be pragmatic.