GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• A teacher whose classroom was moved lost supplies but found a silver lining. (Inside Colocation 1, 2)
• A student-made food mag out of a Chicago public school has gotten food critics’ attention. (Reader)
• A new blog by an anonymous teacher cites problems with accounting and bed bugs. (Exasperated)
• Schools are increasingly choosing tablets over laptops for students’ use. (U.S. News)
• One report has Suri Cruise enrolling this fall at Avenues, the new for-profit private school. (Life & Style)
• Randi Weingarten says (again) that her union is ready to collaborate with reformers. (Reuters)
• Here’s another take on the emerging market for Common Core-aligned texts and products. (SchoolBook)

A letter from Stanley Teitel announcing his resignation as Stuyvesant High School's principal was posted on the school's website.

Just weeks after a cheating scandal erupted at Stuyvesant High School, the schools longtime principal has resigned.

Stanley Teitel delivered his letter of resignation to Chancellor Dennis Walcott at 3:30 p.m. today, according to the Department of Education.

Teitel and Stuyvesant were thrust under scrutiny in June after news broke that dozens of students at the ultra-competitive school had received answers in advance to a Spanish exam via one student’s cell phone.

Teitel sent a letter to parents June 20 alerting them to the cheating and informing them that students suspected of cheating would lose some privileges, such as the right to leave campus for lunch. But the city did not find out about the cheating allegations for nearly a week after that letter went home, and the penalties the school levied did not match those outlined in the city’s discipline code.

An initial phase of the cheating investigation concluded in early July, with the city requiring 69 students to retake the end-of-year Spanish exam they took in June.

When he announced the penalties, Walcott said the next phase would be to examine whether Teitel and his staff followed the appropriate protocol after learning about the cheating. (more…)

We’re always excited when our news stories prompt readers to share on-the-ground details about their schools. That’s what happened when we wrote about Fort Hamilton High School, where an investigation is underway into illicit payroll practices that seem to have allowed the principal to hire long-term substitutes instead of replacing teachers.

Some of the thoughtful and informed comments that our readers submitted in response to the article are our comments of the week.

Our readers said the payroll improprieties might have been egregious at Fort Hamilton, but they exist elsewhere. Rtzimm88 wrote that the scenario happened to him:

I think the DOE should look into more schools with high sub budgets. I thought my school was the only one who did this. I just completed my first year as a “long term substitute,” made 27,000 dollars, and completed a full time teaching position. I made a deal with the devil. I was able to teach, yet made half of what I should have been making (54,000).

“The grandmarist” wrote,

Ft. Hamilton wasn’t the only high school engaged in this kind of subterfuge. As any [member of the Absent Teacher Reserve] can tell you, there were numerous full-time positions being filled by substitutes who received no benefits throughout the city.

And a reader posting as “Former teacher” called the practice “the new normal”: (more…)

Teachers look at old books at the New-York Historical Society during a summer class.

GothamSchools spoke to several city public school teachers who sought out summer seminars, workshops, and classes to help them learn more about their fields.

On Thursday, we looked at what a handful of math and science teachers were doing. Today, we’re checking in with a few teachers who used the summer to bolster their history and humanities knowledge.

Did you learn something new this summer? Leave a comment to share your experience.

Ann McCormack, Brooklyn International High School

An educator and art performer for more than three decades, Ann McCormack still looks for creative ways to help her students, who are mostly recent immigrants without strong English-language skills. The theater teacher paid out of her pocket to attend a $1,200 workshop in Williamstown, Mass., where she learned how to build and use puppets.

“I’ve done puppetry with students in the past but it was all self-taught. I’ve never taken a workshop,” said McCormack, who works with a team of teachers to help Brooklyn International’s English language learners. “By using puppetry, acting, and filmmaking, students can explore the language in an interesting and creative way.”

“Some of my students are very shy about speaking English, so the idea of speaking to a puppet — so the focus is on the puppet and not on them — seems to free them,” she added. “They suddenly speak English. The puppetry provides them with an opportunity to loosen up.” (more…)

Niomi Plotkin, center, talks to John Harrison and other charter school leaders during the ELF orientation.

For the city’s charter sector, the task of building better leaders begins with self-reflection.

The project of understanding what makes a good leader — particularly for charter schools, which have some of the highest principal turnover rates — is what consumes the 20-odd educators who gathered at the New York City Charter School Center this week to kick off the sixth year of its leadership training program.

When they return to their schools later this month, the educators will face diverse challenges. One pair comes from a school that has nearly doubled in size faster than expected due to make up a budget shortfall. Another is from a rare standalone school serving kindergarten through 12th graders, which will be preparing its first cohort of students to graduate and apply to college next year.

But on a recent morning, all of the participants were focused on the same question as Heidi Brooks, a professor from the Yale University School of Management, talked them through a platitude-heavy presentation about identifying leadership qualities.

“How would you describe yourself as a leader? How do you describe a great leader?” Brooks asked the group, then began taking down their answers until ink filled a sheet of poster paper.

“Positive,” “self-aware,” and “systems-aware” topped the list of traits. (more…)

• The city will hold make-up ceremonies for 1,200 eighth-graders wrongly barred from graduation. (Post)
• Thursday was the last day of the city’s summer school program; school resumes Sept. 6. (NY1)
• A three-school Michigan district that’s short on funds is outsourcing itself to a charter operator. (WSJ)
• Ex-TV anchor Campbell Brown launched her sudden ed policy campaign last week. (GothamSchools)
• Florida has an interim education chief after its latest one resigned after just a year. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Teachers College’s former president says tests should become part of the learning process. (L.A. Times)
• D.C.’s teacher evaluation system will weight tests less but put more teachers at risk. (Washington Post)