Over the last two decades, the sellouts, consisting of Presidents Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew, has traded time for money and our school day was lengthened from 6 hours and 20 minutes to 6 hours and 50 minutes, while receiving puny raises that barely kept pace with inflation. At first the union claimed that the extra time would be used as "office hours" like colleges do. However, the union lied to the members, and the extra time was used for teaching.
At first, the extra time was used to teach or tutor an extra class of up to ten students but some devious principals took advantage of the extra time and made an almost full class lumping together two teachers per classroom and treated it as a class with an attendance sheet and giving an academic credit, while observing the teacher for evaluation purposes. After numerous complaints by the members to this abuse, the union negotiated with the new De Blasio administration in 2014 to use the extra time for professional development. The exception was for multi-session and District 75 and 79 schools who were allowed to simply extend the extra thirty minutes in classroom periods to accommodate the extra time.
The problem was that few school administrators were collaborating with the staff on the professional development activities. Worse. the DOE imposed their own professional development activities that were a colossal waste of time. It was so bad that many teachers wished they were teaching an extra class that sit through this torture week after week, with no end in sight. In some schools the 80 minute Monday professional development lasted so long that teachers did not leave the school until it was already dark. Even the Tuesday 75 minute professional activities portion were simply another form of professional development.
By contrast, in the suburbs, most school districts have a six hour and 30 minute school day and the teacher is usually excused from the classroom for the day to attend professional development at the district office. Moreover, when the school does professional development in-house, students are either dismissed early (half a day) or its defined as a non attendance day with no students present.
In my many years of teaching, I have never, yes never, been to a school based professional development activity that made me a better teacher. Our union should renegotiate the contract to eliminate the school-based professional development activities and simply extend the classroom periods or go to "office hours" that were originally intended to be. Maybe, the union should follow the lead of the suburbs and do what they do when it comes to professional development. Then again, the union leadership does not have to suffer through relentless professional development.like we do
30 comments:
NO, NO, NO!!! I, and the entire staff at my school do NOT want to go back to teaching at the end of the day. As boring as the PD is, it is way better than having to teach elementary kids who are tired from a long day of being in school. The UFT getting us PD instead of teaching is one of the few wins they ever got us. However, if schools wan to do an SBO to decide to go back to teaching, that is fine. However, I bet that the majority of teachers citywide prefer the boring PD than to be stuck with kids for a longer day. What say the hive?
Our Own Union swindled us. I remember well when we were told the extra time was to be used for small group tutoring, office hours and or PD. The DOE and UFT conspired together with a bait and switch scheme. In my school the extra time was just simply added to each existing period where it has had zero impact on improving student outcomes. There was no opposition at all from the Union. New teachers have no idea what happened back then and think that 50 minute periods are the norm. I think the administration back then had no idea what they could do with the extra time because most of them are unimaginative bureaucrats. They think more time in classroom means better education. However, teenagers can only tolerate so much time in the classroom. That is why periods were on average only 40 minutes. Just long enough to do a lesson before everyone got restless.
BTW what does the contract say exactly about the 30 minutes..can we do an SBO vote to redirect the time?
@ chaz please stop whinning! you seem to have a complaint about everything, you ridiculed those who took the buyout most taking it BECAUSE of all the things you cry about. yet you choose to stay with arguably the worst run school system in the country. funny how that works!
Anon 8:46
Unity Hack. Please continue to get your news from the New York Teacher and delude yourself that our union keepd doing the right thing for its members.
Meanwhile, I will continue to point out the truth.
So sick and tired of the abuse. You, I and everyone who works in the schools know that teachers who are so overworked, underpaid and STRESSED OUT because of the demanding work that we do know that we are hanging on BY A THREAD!
So, the only logical thing to do is for the Uft to fight tooth and nails to ROLL BACK Mondays and Tuesdays. We should leave at 2:40 on those days too. Yes, and to all those who say well then we give back money or forgo the next raise, to you I say this: And no, no, no, there must be no givebacks for our time back. WE ARE ALREADY UNDERPAID.
Our Union is useless and corrupt.
The office hours/tutoring didn't work because there was no way to properly track what the teachers were doing. In PD, the teachers have to sign in and out, and are only dismissed when the AP says so. Also, the good thing about the PDs is that it makes more work for the Administrators and it's a way for the Principal and Superintendent to evaluate the APs. The biggest mistake they made in the Renewal program was spending so much money on consultants. The DOE should have used the extra money to make classes smaller which has been proven to have a positive effect on student success.
We need to erradicate corruption from our schools. If you are not helping then you are part of the problem.
Chaz, you keep posting and if 8:46AM does not want to read the blog it would be a blessing. Chaz highlights the system's imperfections and for that Chaz needs to be admired for. He puts his name to his blog which shows courage. Thank you Chaz for all you do. Everyone has their own reasons for staying so buzz off.
What should happen is we should continue with the PD hours, AND the hours should count towards the state requirement. It's so ridiculous that we have this large amount of time built in to the schedule every week, and yet we still have to get 100 hours in addition to it. Useless PD is one of the biggest cash cows for non-teaching bureaucrats to continue to milk the public coffers while pretending to add something to the field, but if we have to do it we might as well get credit for it.
@ 1:09 I will keep reading and laughing and reading. you will still work for peanuts and get abused by the system and students alike. you get what you deserve!! I took the buyout and retired and now work in the suburbs. so keep the complaints and tears flowing I can't get enough!!!
I agree and disagree with Chaz.
I agree on the fact that in 2 decades in the DOE that I have never been to one PD that has been practical. Some have been interesting and some have gotten me out of the building on Election Day which is worth it even though it was a pain to get to.
As an ATR, I disagree with Chaz on the Monday PDs. Yes, it sucks and it’s boring. However, when we as ATRs were rotated to elementary schools, nothing and I mean nothing sucked more than dealing with elementary kids for an extra 45-50 minutes after dealing with them for 6 45 minute periods or 5 50 minute periods.
In Jhs, extended day wasn’t bad. The kids would leave.
PD first started in 1983 in the South Bronx by a sicko principal who gave it to his teachers. PD quickly spread in NY City at a rampant pace where now all teachers and administrators are effected There is no cure unless you leave the system. Last week I overheard my P saying wait till I give him 3 hours of PD next week. End the disease. Contact your senators.
Monday afternoon PD equals nap time.
Sometimes the APs put on a movie and I go sleepy.
One time I fell asleep so hard that when I woke up everyone was gone.
In some ways, you have to love the DOE.
I’m making 120 k, have 750 k in my tda and the hardest part of my day is finding parking.
My advice is smile, smile, smile. Pass them all. Maybe try and learn the names of the kids(mostly I don’t know their names), tell the APs everything is great and enjoy the time off.
Where else can a person work like this?
Oh, and my kid knows that if she wants to be a teacher, then she doesn’t get a dime from college from me. I’d rather take that money and throw it down the toilet before I pay for my kid to be a doe teacher. My ex agrees.
I am not a fan of the pd but it is certainly better than trying to teach elementary students for another 50 minutes. At the elementary level it is pure babysitting. The school day in my opinion is long enough. Children need to have time to run, play and do other activities after school. Parents need to be parents and not look for teachers to be extended time babysitters.
Extended time should be removed honestly should never have existed in the first place. A better suggestion at the elementary level would be to add 10 min before and after school to the teachers schedule NOT the students schedule. This would help the teachers whose day ends at 2:20 pm but consistently have students who have not picked up and are expected to donate time for the good of the students to wait with them because the parents (who are late daily) have not arrived or made arrangements for someone to pick up their child on time. Or for teachers whose students parents want to have a conversation about their child without regard to a teacher's work schedule. We have families and responsibilities too and should not be expected to donate time for the good of the school. Other professions are PAID for extra time. SO NO PD and NO extended day with students especially at the elementary level. Thank you Chaz for all your posts on retirement. They are very helpful.
846,
You’re a Uft/doe shill.
I do not always feel Chaz’s opinions are correct, but the information I get from Chaz is 1000000 percent correct.
The Uft gives me nothing. If I email atrassignment with questions I get observed by a field supervisor.
I asked sill about atr rotations. He told me it’s ‘same as last year’.
Chaz,
What are rules on rotation this year?
@6:50am the way you write you probably are a teacher in nyshitty, definitely a graduate of the system and also one of those "meth-head" they always talk about!!!
Chaz, you should do a post on what being an ATR has done to many. Lucio Celli was a great teacher and kind person, and now I see him in the Post. Most people will go insane after 5 years of being an ATR in the Bronx, especially at the middle school or high school level. If it weren't for my magic gummies I never would have survived.
6:50,
Sill must be related to someone or the UFT worse than even I thought. He has no business being that position, as bad a Amy was, she did make an effort.
Everything we are told to do as teachers should be modeled in the PD sessions; planning, differentiation, grouping, student choice, checking in, accommodations, modifications, reteaching, centers for alternative learners, etc. Considering administrators don't do any of the above, I think that is enough evidence to show that everyone knows that PD is BS.
On Diane Ravitch's site she posted that she is off to LA to strike with the teachers of LA. Diane Ravitch will stand on the picket lines with the teachers of LA. Diane Ravitch is sort of like Chaz except she is more of a national stage person whereas Chaz is our man for local stuff.
In a day and age of immigrants invading our country and our schools, it is time to pay the piper...and that piper is us educators.....No sooner than LA goes on strike the teachers union in Chicago submits a list of demands to their city otherwise chicago is next to strike. Enough is enough and build the wall nancy.
They are all crooks, and corrupt.
To 2:02, on NPR today they were interviewing an LA schools official and he was stating that there was just no more money to do all the things the teacher union wants.
It's true what you wrote: you cannot pour millions of stone-age illegal immigrants in a country and have money forever to pay for all of them.
IN NYC our schools are bursting at the seams as the people of Asia and Latin America literally rain from the sky and transform the city into their own world.
Who can pay for all this? They don't.
One word. Janus.
Really, literally raining from the skies? Are we being invaded by paratroopers?
No illegals
I'd take the illegal kids any day over the American Bronx ghetto rats I'm forced to warehouse daily.
First of all the extra time for PD means the raise was NOT a raise. Getting paid more for extra time is not a raise. PD shows that the DOE does not give one iota about the kids. There has never been a useful PD. Ever. I would be happy to give a PD on direct instruction, uniforms and knowledge of content. PDs are a waste of time because this pedagogy does not work. Period. Direct instruction is the key!
It's just some kind of nightmare! How is that even possible? Do they think teachers have enough workload? And what about the preparation for classes, checking homework, drawing up plans, educational materials, assistance to lagging students is not taken into account? Or maybe it will be better if students start to pay to do homework, otherwise no option, right? After all, teachers spend the night at the meeting, instead of working out additionally with a lagging student or how about to pay attention to your own child? Or does the union think that teachers should not have families? Should they live in school? This is a real disgrace!
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