Allow me to Link to an Amazing Speech

This is John Kuhn, a Texas educator, speaking about what teachers really do.

Another Day, Another Dollar

The "higher ups" told my boyfriend that he and the other English teachers at his school now must teach books that match the social studies curriculum. In a meeting, they announced that when students are studying the "New World" the English teachers should teach Latin American poetry. This all sounds pretty terrific on paper, but the school has not one book that it suggested the English department now teach. Not only that. In his school, despite the urging for student work to get more "rigorous," they turned off the air conditioning in the computer labs, because, supposedly, "air conditioning season is over," at the DOE. Students were sitting in a 90 degree classroom, barely able to work. This is particularly wasteful of taxpayer money, because everyone knows computer rooms are supposed to be maintained at a cool temperature in order to protect the equipment. We're so cheap that we can't air condition a computer lab, and teachers are supposed to invent new curriculum on the spot out of thin air? Another day, another dollar.

Web Censorship

Wow. Today the NYC Dept of Education decided to block Google Image Search. This means that my students cannot get the historical images that they need to complete their assignments on New York City history. I can't believe my 17, 18 and 19 year old students are not allowed to look at historical pictures. Thanks, DOE!!!

Dreaming about Unions

I'm dreaming about unions. I watched the Academy Awards and thought: that's a hall full of union members! Why don't we all stand up for each other? We should all strike: all of us, all the cops, firefighters, actors, teachers, musicians...

It's incredible to me that our huge crime is that we have decent wages and some hope of retiring some time in our lives so we don't have to work at Wallmart for minimum wage until we drop dead of old age. Is that REALLY what's killing our country, oh thou wise corporately-sponsored Republicans? Really? It's not your giving away the country and our rights to the corporations? It's not the huge bonuses CEO's get in the private sector that prevent their employees from getting a decent share? So what we should do is prevent ANYONE from having a decent standard of living, is that it? We should reduce this country's inhabitants to those of the third world, where the rich get richer and richer and the poor -- well, they stay poor? I just don't think that's what America is all about. I don't think we built this country so that the robber barons could rob unimpaired.

We keep trying to adapt the corporate model to the schools. We are trying to adapt a model that failed miserably in the business world? We want to emulate the places that steal money from their investors, hire third world labor and provide them sub-standard working conditions, and lie about the profits they do or don't make? They don't even function under the law. We've created a country where thieves are robbing us blind, and we treat them like kings. Bloomberg and others with corporate interests run the media, thus any true representation of what's going on has barely a chance to get through to the public.

I can't believe I was watching Channel 7 "Eyewitness" news last night and they put forth Bloomberg's propaganda about having to lay off teachers as if it was God's truth. They interviewed Michael Mulgrew for about 30 seconds, and in no way followed up on his statements. Did they investigate the verity of Bloomberg's claims that if we don't lay off teachers we'll have a huge budget gap? They did not. They don't question the powerful forces in this society any more, they simply report what they say as fact. That is, unless you're Black. Apparently, what the current President of the United States says is questionable on every point. So don't get into power and expect to do anything of significance, and don't forget to kowtow to corporate interests. Because if you don't know who your true masters are: the corporations, they'll try every trick in the media and funding book to tear you down.

Much support and love to all the workers out there on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin.

More and More Demands

Every day we seem to have a new directive: Make sure you do this! Make sure you do that! It inevitably involves paperwork -- a kind of accounting of what we teachers are doing minute - by - minute. You want to see how I teach? Sit in on a class. Ask my students. Take a look through my students' work.

For whom are we keeping these records? It's one thing to assess a student when you initially get them to get a sense of where they are. We use that data to inform our instructional design. It's one thing to assess student work: of COURSE we do that. What teacher doesn't do that? How can you teach without assessing your students' work? We do that all the time: quizzes, tests, papers, in-class discussions, individual conferences with students. It's another thing to invent assessment upon assessment to please administration. My assessments are created to assess my effectiveness as a teacher, the validity of my curriculum and the students' knowledge, but I could spend endless additional hours making more paperwork to put in a notebook that, if we're lucky, will get looked at once a year. Let me do my job. If you want all this extra paperwork, pay me for each additional hour I have to work above and beyond developing an effective curriculum and learning environment for my students.

1) Cathie Black's Rudeness at a "Hearing" Where Nobody is Listening 2)Testing Failure, and the Failure of Testing

Last night's so-called "hearings" made a mockery of the process. This is a long-standing strategy of the Bloomberg administration. They set up a "hearing," but don't listen. Many, many people spoke, and Cathie Black mocked the crowd, saying, "Awwwwww," in response to parent's complaints about the closing of ten schools. Joel Klein was not so imprudent as to mock the crowd, but he, too, made sure their concerns went unheeded. The Chancellors and the Mayor have made up their minds about what schools to close, and they really don't care what the public wants.

There is a fallacy at work here: that charter schools are the panacea for educational ills. Rather, they shift the burden of educational success/finance onto the private sector, at least in part. But private moneys dry up! This happened to Ted Sizer's "Coalition Schools" with Annenberg money. Great schools/programs were started, but when the grant ran out after ten years much of what made those schools unique could no longer be funded. How does that help education over the long term? Plus, to what kinds of standards are private institutions held? Where is their oversight? They will hype their own success with CEO's and publicity campaigns, but where's the beef? Further, charter schools select their students. "Regular" public schools do not have that option. So who doesn't get served? The neediest kids. It is always that way.

Mr. Bloomberg: You an make the schools "look good" by fudging numbers and passing the buck, but ultimately, time will show that you have not improved educational outcomes. The kids whose parents are involved in their education will continue to do well. The kids whose parents are too overwrought with the burdens of putting food on the table, or who have tremendous problems of their own, will still be unable to support their children's homework and other academic efforts. Drop out rates are not declining. You may pretend that test scores are improving, but this is false. Test scores are being manipulated like never before.

It is possible to pass the Math Regents while getting less than 40% right. English scores are manipulated when grading rubrics get easier and easier. Thus, on a score of one to six, with six as the highest, what was once graded as a "2" is now a "3," and what was once a "3" is now a "4". It is appalling how poorly a student can write and still pass the English Language Regents Exam. New York Times: TAKE NOTICE.

Welcome to Educating the President

Teachers, it's about time we had a way to speak up! Politicians, pundits and private consultants are making their voices heard. It's time for us to respond to their colossally flawed educational policy initiatives.

Here's my most recent letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President:
The result of your educational policy is that states and school districts make tests results look higher by skewing assessment measures, and your "Race to the Top" initiative results in states spending millions of taxpayer dollars on private contracts and consultants to qualify for Federal dollars. Your policies create a profoundly hostile environment for educators, and do not and will not result in improved educational outcomes. So long as Republican presidential hopefuls get kudos for slandering intellectualism, and the heroes of the young are the likes of Snooki and Paris Hilton, we are unlikely to significantly improve American education. Nor will hiring consultants and "raising standards" - a euphemism if I ever heard one - result in change. Changing our American cultural values and providing help for families so that kids are not "latchkey," could make a real difference. It might also help to align yourself with dedicated teachers who know the problems of the educational system intimately, rather than setting them up as "the enemy."