The DOE has empowered principals to hire who they please and even with the elimination of the useless and money sucking Children First Networks, Superintendents have so far failed to oversee school hiring to ensure that all students have a certified teacher in each subject area. The DOE policies like Fair Student Funding, tight school budgets, and the use of Danielson as a weapon against veteran teachers have resulted in many schools hiring "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their schools. The result is a lack ofr veteran mentors for this inexperienced staff..
In many schools, the teaching staff is composed of young and inexperienced teachers and there are few veteran teachers to mentor or guide these inexperienced teachers on the skills necessary to survive in the New York City classroom. When I started teaching, I was mentored by a senior Science teacher and in my first couple of years, as I struggled and ready to quit, many veteran teachers dropped in to provide advice and support. The teacher room was a godsend as I could ask the veteran teachers questions and get answers on classroom management skills, pedagogy, and tap their extensive knowledge of the different teaching techniques that worked for them and of course, the ones that did not. Having a veteran staff was invaluable to a "newbie" like me and helped me become a better teacher and stay in the profession.
By contrast, the lack of veteran teachers in the schools means that new teachers are thrown into the New York City classroom and told its "sink or swim". Well, without veteran teachers mentoring the "newbies" ,many sink. Meaning they leave the NYC classroom and maybe even the teaching profession.
While novice doctors and lawyers are mentored by a senior colleague and don't operate or appear in court without first, assisting the veteran for a year or more so as to gain the necessary experience and confidence to eventually learn their craft Nobody in their right mind would want a "newbie" doctor to operate on them or a "newbie" lawyer to defend them in court. Yet, in NYC far too many "newbie" teachers are thrown into the classroom without the proper tools and subject to a steep learning curve that makes guinea pigs out of our children. No wonder we have a low "college and career readiness" rate.
The bottom line, the NYC school system has too many inexperienced teachers and with fewer and fewer veteran teachers to mentor them. Therefore,too many of them sink and take student academic achievement with them because the lifeguard, in the form of the veteran teacher is no longer on duty to save them.
Our school has about 10 new teachers this year and 7 of them are first year teachers. Farina herself was quoted as saying something along the lines of, "Don't listen to the old teachers in the teachers lounge". The funny thing is this type of mentality simply does not happen in the suburbs. Out there experience is an asset that school districts want to attract. Here in NYC, veteran teachers are seen as a cost burden and are thought of as troublemakers because we know the contract and have tenure. It was not always like this. Seems to me when Bloomberg came around is when this type of attitude became prevalent.
ReplyDeleteAs an ATR 'veteran' teacher, in both sense of the words, my observation has been that in general the newbie teachers have the impression that they know it all and that our teaching skills, experience aside, is antiquated and thus useless to them. It amuses me that many class need 2 teachers to control and teach a class consisting of no more than 20 kids on a good day. I could go on....but we all know the deal...its a pity that parents, the kids and the public at large chooses to stick their heads in the sand while the DOE gives it to them in the ...
ReplyDeleteTo add insult to Injury... these Newbies are Hand Picked then Indoctrinated by administrators, with Danielson and all this other BS, after that these "Newbies are given a title,, or are made to feel superior or more important then they really are, they then get in front of a room of Seasoned experienced Teachers during PD and spew the Propaganda out that they were brainwashed with....The entire scenario is ridiculous and quite frankly an old story by now....with so many senior teachers retiring, and then the Newbies who will finally wake up one day and say... "I'm Not doing this shit anymore" after being ground up like chopped meat by the system and finally quit....what will be left????? They have to be devising all of this for the system to collapse....So Sad!
ReplyDeleteSystemic and illegal age discrimination is the norm.
ReplyDeleteSo where is the Class Action. I have my pen ready.
Deletemost of what is going on in the nyshitty school system is not because of the "socio-economics, newbies, danielson, fair student funding or even space people from mars" its because we as an education force refuse to stand together, we are in fear of the system and they know it. they now have us by the short and curlies and guide us around like puppets. until we all "grow a pair" the system will continue to take a huge steamy dump on all of us! we are getting what we deserve! p.s. we pay around 1100 a year for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteThe DOE is a poorly run organization we all know that. The fact that they are treating senior teachers or teachers with any kind of experience at all tells me that the problem is still rooted in the swamp. The swamp was never drained so we still have all these DOE goons sitting at their desks watching us. Unless we completely drain the swamp the madness will continue. HOpefully when our new chancellor comes aboard next year we will see the sanity come back to the current insanity in our schools.
ReplyDeleteEvery year the admins in my school pick an untenured teacher to make an example of and fire.
ReplyDeleteIt demoralizes the rest of us makes most younger teachers docile and compliant.
Fear is an effective tool of management, according to the Ordos and the DOE.
When I started teaching I had veteran and mid range teachers encouraging me and sharing teaching strategies, lesson planning, and survival skills 101!
ReplyDeleteThe schools had a great mix of teachers and strong departments. APs were master teachers in the discipline and observations were used as a way to look at strengths, weaknesses, and motivation to improve.
Collaboration and lively discussions were part of the daily department experience.
The job was and is tough but I felt the support back then. Fond memories!
In my school 2-3 year teachers are routinely chosen for this or that committee, department heads, team leaders, made up title leaders, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe arrogance many of them display is truly breathtaking to behold.
I'm not even that old (under 50) by retirement standards, and I am made to feel like an old, out-of-touch curmudgeon by them. The Admins are around my age, but they only seem to love the little darlins' and look at anyone over 35 as a relic to be abused or barely tolerated.
I only need this job for 6-7 more years, and you can believe I am doing everything in my power in this corrupt system to survive. Many posters talk of the coming meltdown when the older teachers retire en masse. I wonder if that will really have any effect. Newbies seem to grow on trees. Even Renewal schools (like mine) get tons of resumes from aspiring teachers.
Sure the quality is low and brainwashing is high, but the DOE cares not. I don't either, but as an old school American raised in a world where standards used to matter, it does make me feel a bit melancholy for times gone by.
In my citywide 75 school program, we're supposed to teach severely disabled and cognitively challenged children the common core curriculum: grade level math, science, English and history. What a joke! The newbies are unable to teach this population, because the administration is not offering any reality based teaching methodology-hence they're refusing to take on these assigned cases. Yet they (DOE)keeps shoving it down our throats constantly giving us more work and holding us accountable. We have more children that are physically, mentally handicapped because our program gets more federal funding. The emotionally disturbed kids are forgotten and sent back to school.
ReplyDeleteA newbie PE teacher approached me at the school that I work at and asks, "they asked me to teach two classes in the classroom, but was given no curriculum. " Told her welcome to the DOE, that means do whatever you like as long as the kids look busy if big bosses walk in. Sad!!!
ReplyDeleteIn my little hell hole, veteran teachers who have been successful for years are forced to do intervisitations with newbies because they are awesome and we suck.
ReplyDeleteThe Chancellor and the UFT continue to degrade education.
ReplyDeleteTo 12:24
ReplyDeleteThey do that in my school too. Here's my observations on that:
1) The newbies have 'energy' but little content knowledge.
2) So many newbies over the years have come up to me asking content questions that they should have known already. At least in generations past they would have known that.
3) The newbies talk a lot in class. They do so much 'teacher-centered' stuff, even as we veterans are basically told not to talk at all in class anymore. Admins let them get away with it because the newbies are generally good-looking (due to being 24 years old) and admins are mesmerized by youth.
4) The newbies have such little wisdom, which I know only comes with age, but their naive nature is more than I remember people having 10-20 years ago when I was their age.
5) The admins make us watch them to punish us. Strangely, we often have better regents passing rates than them!
My elementary school staff is pretty much a sorority house now. All young, cute girls right out of college. They will not be here in 5 years. They are all planning to do some time and then head to the suburbs.
ReplyDeleteThe best admin following principal around like the MOB Bahahahaha1
ReplyDeleteA bunch of brainwashed idiots!
330 I want to work in your school!
ReplyDelete