For me, it's new things. For the longest time I was locked away in the trailer, and I watched people work on PowerPoint presentations. I thought how lucky I was to be in the trailer with no technology and no need to worry about it. I also thought it was odd I felt that way because I'm drawn to computers pretty much all the time.

Three or four years ago I got a classroom, but the tech was broken. But I made it a point to hang my jacket on the broken smartboard. Whenever I got observed I would insist on getting credit for my innovative use of technology. Wouldn't you know my AP didn't see it that way? Not only that, but the following year, some diabolical force came in and put a functional computer and screen in the room.

So I sat with a young Chinese teacher and asked what she used in her class. She showed me PowerPoint presentations she made and I was impressed. I thought, "What if I do the same thing, except in ENGLISH?" Sometimes I'm brilliant like that. So I started using it a lot, particularly to introduce vocabulary. It turns out that the pictures I used to draw are really awful, and that the photos, cartoons, and GIFs on Google images are a whole lot better.

I started using Apple's Keynote and converting files to PowerPoint. Now I mostly use my own laptop and write everything in Keynote. I know a Spanish teacher who does incredible things with PowerPoint. Sadly, when she explains how she does them I have no idea what she's talking about. Also, all the advanced effects she does on PowerPoint seem unavailable on the Mac version.

The new thing I'm doing now is giving PD. I was trained last summer at UFT to offer CTLE PD. Two women from AFT came and we sat seven days in a row, eight hours a day, doing all sorts of things. One thing we did was eat lunch, so yes I'm a partial recipient of the 100K UFT spent on pizza and bagels last year. (Maybe over at the Post they all put on dark glasses and tin cups and beg for table scraps at lunch time. I'd love to see Rupert Murdoch doing that.)

Toward the end, we all had to give 20-minute presentations. It was pretty nerve racking. I had never, ever given a formal PD before. Even more nerve racking was expanding it to an hour and giving it in front of my staff in September. Actually, though, the only reason I went for the training was so I'd be able to offer the CTLE credit so many of my younger colleagues will desperately need.

Today, after school, I'm going to offer a two-hour version of this PD. It was kind of a long-term assignment to create a two hour version, and everyone in my summer group is supposed to complete writing it sometime around now. I'm always a little nervous when I try new things, but this seems to me the most nervous I've ever been. From years of masters-level classes and PDs, I can tell you that teachers are the toughest audience there is. I know well because I'm one of them.

Now the woman who runs it is asking me if I'll do it again. Maybe, but I'll have to see how it goes the first time.

Wish me luck, please. I'll surely need it.

6:02 PM—Howard Schoor welcomes us, wishes happy new year. Says there are no speakers. Crowd applauds.

Minutes—approved

President’s Report—Mulgrew is not here.

Staff Director—LeRoy Barr—Announces negotiation committee meeting. EB member automatically on. DA next week, Jan 17. February Black History Month film series, will be flyer.
Next EB Jan. 22.

Schoor—Report on class size

Keira from grievance department—UFT initiates class size grievances. Gets info 1st, 6th and 10th day. Day ten numbers are what demands are based on. Again in February. Last year were 526 demands. Many resolved, some went to hearings. for 17-8, were 437 demands. Will increase when HS reorganizes. Important chapter leaders tell when violations are resolved. 16-7—community districts 1320 schools reported oversize, HS 1148 oversized classes 2468 oversized total last year. This year so far CSD 1254 overages HS 1019 overages 2273 total. 200 fewer so far.

Some schools have extensive history. We keep track of schools with extensive history. We look very closely at about 19. These are discussed on labor management committee.  We work with DOE to come up with solutions. Susan Wagner on list, fewer than 10 this year. Had hundreds in past. Pathways resolved violations before hearing. Journalism resolved.. others resolved…we take some to get precedents in full blown arbitrations.

When grievance is sustained, school has five days to come into compliance. If they cannot, DOE has to come up with a “reasonable action plan in good faith.” There is no format. May be relief from C6. We have a compliance call. DOE presents its action plan. Only basis to object is if plan is unreasonable. Proposed a school aide provided relief—that was shot down. 250 resolved after hearing. Mulgrew concerned about class size cases being resolved after we have hearings. Position is we could get that done day before. 72 resolved prior to scheduling this year.

16-7 29 action plans 15 came into compliance.This year 5 completed action plans, 23 being scheduled.

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—How is C6 relief an action plan? When I have an oversized class, I need help right there in the classroom. Extra prep doesn’t help me.

Keira—Depending on history, I object to these things. Pushed for relief from more. Ultimately arbitrator decides what’s reasonable.

Mike Schirtzer—MORE—asks about Tottenville

Keira—Arbitrator ruled no more action plans

Jonathan Halabi—New Action--Who is pushing for DOE to waste our arbitration days?

Keira—I can’t say what DOE does. We maximize our days as best we can.

Schoor—I think they willfully try to violate contract. Welcomes new member of Executive Board

Mulgrew is here—6:22

President’s Report—

Comments on snow day, attendance on Friday—system around 50%.

February 26 oral arguments for Janus. Number one issue among members. Becoming more educated but we have more to do. We believe one on one conversations are very important. Training more door knockers. We have enough volunteers. We will start monitoring membership teams, training them. We don’t want this to be a big time drag. It means that teams will coordinate conversations. Our rights and benefits are in jeopardy.

You want a team that reps all titles in building.

State of State speech—Governor was educated and changed his mind. We give him credit for changing his path. He was trumpeting graduation rate and proud we invest more in education. This is important because federal tax plan could cripple our economy. Important to offset damages because of inability to deduct state and local taxes.  Township in NJ now have charitable contribution accounts. They are going after blue states, not hiding it. Doesn’t matter that we subsidize services for states who have no taxes. This is a middle finger to us. It’s an existential threat. Cuomo said he’d do something to protect unionized workers.

Not optimistic about getting cooperation from state Senate. They hate NYSUT and UFT.

City Council—we hope for cooperation. We hope they come through to help our school system and our city. We have six UFT members in City Council, several up for important jobs.

Searching for chancellor—told them we’re not giving names, but have issues with anyone who’s been through Broad Institute or anyone from certain think tanks. Many supes have been through programs—we want someone who believes in research, who’s been a teacher, and who believes in collaboration.

6;32—Mike Schirtzer--MORE asks about parental leave

Mulgrew—making progress but we have to kick it up a notch. We have a negotiating committee—They might be slowing this with us because of something happening elsewhere. Says it’s not about our next round of bargaining. Says we are making progress.

Schoor—many comments on our Facebook page about this—runs the gamut.

Questions

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—What’s our membership plan for weak chapters?

Paul Egan—There is a pilot program. Each borough sends chapter advocates to several schools. Hoping to find what works and doesn’t. We hope to address gaps and holes. Hope to have 100% by end of month.

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—I’m chapter leader of the largest school in Queens. A whole lot of schools like ours have been cut into little pieces and small themed schools, or charter schools. We managed to survive Bloomberg and thrive, which is a minor miracle.

A big factor in that miracle, for my money, is our JROTC, the largest in the country, and likely the most successful. These kids change the tone of our school very much for the better. And their teachers are some of the hardest-working people I’ve ever met. When I show up at 6:30 AM, they’re already there. When I go to PTA meetings in the evening, there’s always some JROTC teacher doing something or other with 200 kids.

But none of them have tenure. None of them can get it because there’s no such thing as a military science certification in NY State. There is one in New Jersey. I hate being behind new Jersey. To me, it’s borderline criminal that JROTC instructors don’t have the same rights and privileges I do.

What can we do to change that? How can we help them have what every UFT member should have?

Schoor—Janella Hinds will research this.

Report from districts—

?—Sent check for 21K for Operation Aqua. Please send more if possible.

Janella Hinds—ON Saturday a team of HS educators went to Chelsea Piers. Had bowling party for women in need. Nice to bring young people in temporary housing, on frigid day, to warm bowling alley. Got movie tickets and 50$ gift care.

Legislative Report—Paul Egan—Eagles did not play—Mulgrew gave much of my report. We will be having our committee of 100, and Lobby Day. Hopes for 1,000 people. People need permission from principal.

Schoor—6 teachers on City Council of 51. One is Danny Drumm. Leaving ed. committee, hope to put another teacher, Mark Trager, on that.

Resolution in support of CHP—9 million kids could lose medical coverage.

LeRoy Barr—Supports resolution. Program pays for health care for low income and middle class children, many served by UFT. Began in 1987, was bipartisan support. Demands that GOP stops playing politics and passes this program. Asks for support.

Schoor—If feds don’t pay, state will have to.

Passes unanimously.

We are adjourned 6:47

Chalkbeat, originator of teaching competitions it fancies reminiscent of Top Chef, lover of and advocate for all things reformy,  zeroes in on merit pay. Naturally, despite abundant failure, they find something good about it.

This is because there's some new government study favoring merit pay. Why? Because they say it raises test scores, which is of course the only factor worth considering in education.

It's not hard to find reason to question merit pay. For one thing, it's not remotely anything new. Diane Ravitch writes that it's been tried since the 1920s and has never worked. Nonetheless, the Trumpies, an entire stable of geniuses, declare that merit pay works better than class size reduction. Why get more attention for the students when you can give a few extra bucks to very few extra teachers and pretend you've done something?

Here's Diane:

The most rigorous trial of merit pay was conducted recently in Nashville by the National Center on Performance Incentives. It offered an extraordinary bonus of $15,000 to teachers if they could get higher scores from their students. Over a three-year period, there was no difference between the scores obtained by the treatment group or the control group. The bonus didn’t matter.

Roland Fryer of Harvard University just released his study of New York City’s much-touted school-wide merit-pay program. Fryer says it made no difference in terms of student outcomes and actually depressed performance in some schools and for some groups of students.

But hey, if numerous decades of studies don't produce the desired results, why not just keep repeating them until you find one that does? While I don't trust the Trumpies at all, Obama's education policy was almost as terrible, and of course there's a good chance this study was initiated while he was President. Sadly, I wouldn't trust any study sponsored by his people either.

Merit pay assumes that some teachers have merit while others don't. I'd argue that any teacher without merit ought not to be teaching. But if you want to prove merit pay works, you find a way to prove it. Test scores generally show little more than zip code. It's not generally a great challenge to get kids from, say, Roslyn NY, to pass more tests.

I wonder whether I've just been holding back all these years. Maybe if I could make an extra thousand bucks a year I'd be able to give this teaching stuff 100%. Maybe it would take 5,000. Maybe ten. Who knows what the magical number is that would make me do my job instead of phoning it in? I mean, we don't have merit pay, so that's what I must be doing.

There is an overabundance of dunces who wish to control education. Sometimes they're just stupid, but usually they also have a lot of money. The money thing leads them to think they must know everything and are therefore instant and final authorities. Oprah didn't feature Bill Gates just for his good looks.

In our school, as in all city schools, we have to figure out exactly which form of junk science is used to rate teachers. We choose, whenever possible, to have teachers rated by department or school wide measures. That's because we don't want kids coming to teachers for tutoring and being turned away. I mean, if I'm the sort of person who actually cares about ratings or merit pay, why the hell would I want to help one of your students? Why should I bother helping your kid when it would raise your rating, or your salary? I'm in this for me, so go screw yourself. That's the Merit Pay Way.

We kind of think, our administration and our chapter, that it's our job to help children. We kind of think that's why we wake up in the morning and do this job. Now I like money, and I wouldn't be surprised if our administrators like it too. I mean, they get paid more than us, but that's fine with me. I'd rather make less and keep the job I have. Nonetheless, we agree absolutely that it's an idiotic idea to put teachers in open competition with one another over test scores.

Of course, we haven't got the red hotline phone to Bill Gates, like Arne Duncan probably did.

Now even if money really is the root of all evil, I can always use a little more of it. I just got a new dog, and he has vet bills. He can chew through bones pretty quickly. Poopie bags don't grow on trees. In fact, I don't happen to live in a tree, and the choice not to has often proven costly. So yes, I would like more money. If I go to one of those 300-member committee thingies and Mulgrew asks me, "Would you like more money?" I'll say, "Yes I would, thank you very much."

But I'm a teacher. Like all teachers, I need a salary. If I wanted to work for tips, I'd be a waiter. And make no mistake, that's precisely the sort of job merit pay advocates would like ours to become.

Chalkbeat is running some kind of teaching contest, and comparing itself with Top Chef. I love Top Chef. I started watching it years ago, and watched it just last night. There's a Mexican-American woman named Claudette who I think is great, and she just won Last Chance Kitchen, fighting herself back into the competition. She was judged by Tom Colicchio, an expert chef who owns restaurants all over the country.

Chalkbeat performs some interesting services, like collecting the morning education headlines, and making extra sure to find the ones from The 74 or Breitbart. They take money from Bill Gates and the Walmart Family. They run a feature every time Eva Moskowitz sneezes sideways. They let us know just how the former teachers who run E4E are doing in their quest to get teachers more work for less pay. They write a whole lot about the perfidy of ATRs and don't bother actually talking to them until outlets like this one ridicule them repeatedly

I went to one of their galas and they heaped praise on Some Guy who wrote a Book About Teaching. They showed videos of children being marched from one room to another like little martinets and were Very Impressed by how quiet they were. They made a big deal of some guy who passed out papers very fast, so as to waste less time. This guy could pass out papers so fast that the kids lost only seconds of whatever Valuable Stuff he was doing. (I'm thinking test prep, but what he was actually doing was not stressed in this video.)

It was funny, because that semester I'd put together a booklet of printed material that I'd planned to use over 40 days. I made copies, stapled them, and handed them to my students. I did not have any magical way of distributing them in 8 seconds. What I think I did was count the number of students in each row and hand them to the first person. Now they may have been in a semicircle, in which case I handed out a bunch here, then a bunch there, and waited until everyone had one.

Unlike the expert teacher in the video, I didn't worry whether or not the kids spoke to one another. I'm a language teacher, and I have this quaint notion that it's positive when students engage in genuine and spontaneous conversation. So there I was, engaging in this totally inefficient, time-wasting activity, and failing to monitor whether or not I could hear a pin drop in the classroom.

The thing was, despite my lacking the genius inherent in anyone referenced in the Book About Teaching, I distributed the handout once. They guy in the video, or the book, or wherever the guy was had to do it 39 times more than me. Now sure, I hadn't quite mastered the Art of the Joyless Classroom, and I haven't even read the Book About Teaching. I'm way behind on whatever groovy techniques they came up with. For all I know, they've read yet another Book About Teaching, and the old Book About Teaching could be yesterday's news.

Here's what I do know--teaching is not a competition. It's not a reality show. If it were a reality show, it would be judged by experts like Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris. The thing is neither of them would deign to participate in an exercise like this one by reformy Chalkbeat. More likely it will be an exercise in determining who can best read the Moskowitz Academy Scripted Lesson Plan, or who can make the Most Kids Pass the Test, or some other reformy nonsense.

I'm personally offended that Chalkbeat deems itself worthy of judging teachers. I've been reading Chalkbeat since it started. I rate it biased, reformy, ineffective, and totally unqualified to understand our jobs, let alone judge our work. We do not cook meals. We do not just do test prep. We deal with real people, and they have many more layers than the artichokes they prepared three ways on Top Chef last week.

On CBS TV they tell me that there are 15 inches of snow where I live. I look out the window, though, and I see two feet of snow behind my car, and it stretches 20 feet behind. I have a little electric snowblower, but it's no match for this.
--
I bought the little electric snowblower last year after I read about a 45-year-old guy who dropped dead while shoveling his dad's walk. I thought, I don't want to be that guy. I didn't want to have a big, heavy gas snowblower. Of course today, I kind of wish I had gotten one.

It doesn't seem worth risking my life just to get out of my driveway--and that's not all. Even if I were able to clear the snow behind my car, there would be the little matter of getting to work. Everything I see on TV tells me that's hazardous. There are going to be a whole lot of accidents tomorrow and I'd rather not be in one.

Also, even if I get all the way to my school without incident, parking is going to be diabolical. All the cars on the street will be plowed in, and all the spaces will be full of snow. It's going to be hell to park tomorrow.

Still, if I could get my car out of the driveway, I'd go. I usually go on every terrible driving day. Maybe I'm crazy. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I do it out of extreme dedication to the kids. Honestly, I think a whole lot of them won't even be there. ESL students have better attendance than non-ESL students, but I wouldn't let my kid go to school on a day like this.

In one respect, it's good that Mayor de B. has kept the schools open for tomorrow. The fact is we only have two snow days before we start adding more days. There are few things people hate as much as giving up non-work days. When my daughter's Long Island school, which closed at the drop of a hat, opened Easter week days I told her to stay home.

There is a delayed opening protocol for schools. I don't remember when it was established, but I do remember it was only utilized once, during a transit strike. It's kind of amazing that none of the geniuses over in Tweed ever use it. Maybe they don't know about it. After all, with all that important information rattling around in their highly-compensated heads, you can't expect them to fret over details. 

Regardless, it looks like a long weekend for me.

It's always jarring coming back after a break. Everyone says, "Happy New Year," and asks, "How was your break?" I want to tell them, "You know, it was pretty good, but I woke up this morning and it was over." I'm always shocked when that happens. I don't feel too bad about going to work, but it's an adjustment thing.

The first thing I found when I got in was a broken elevator. My first classroom is on the third floor. This is because I am so extraordinarily classy administration has determined I need to be placed in the penthouse. It also has something to do with my morning class being so small it fits handily in one of the special ed. classrooms, but if I choose to delude myself with the former, who are you to stop me?

My morning kids were pretty good. Aside from one who wandered in late, they were all there. Not only that, but they were kind of awake and alert. One girl wandered in with so many layers she looked a little like a penguin, but after she waddled out of them she had the look of a normal human being. It's too bad we can't manage giving these kids lockers somehow. I'm sure there are reasons for that, but I feel bad for that girl dragging all those layers around with her all day.

I was lucky yesterday morning. For reasons I can't fathom, all the rooms on the east side of the hallway were freezing. My classroom, on the west side of the hallway, was toasty warm. It's a big change from the trailers, where it's somehow (and no, I cannot explain this) colder on the inside than it is on the outside. I think it's one of those quirks of reality, like Dr. Who's Tardis or something. You can't conceive of exactly how crappy a trailer is until you work in one for, oh, twelve years or so.

I have four periods free between my morning and PM classes, and they disappear in a blur. There are always union issues. I can't help everyone, but I can usually help someone, at least. Alas, I can't reveal private stuff here, unless it's about me. The problem is I didn't really do anything interesting enough all about me to record here. I'll work on that.

I'm working on translating my Gotham Gazette article about Part 154 into Spanish. I can speak and write in Spanish, but not nearly as precisely as English. My nephew is a lot better than me, and he translated the text over the week off. I sat with my friend, a Spanish teacher from Colombia, and he said he'd iron out the kinks for me.

For some reason, instead of quietly giving it to me at some private locale, he decided to walk into my classroom and hand it to me. This caught the attention of at least two Spanish speaking girls, who looked at the paper with all the corrections. They found it hilarious to see someone doing to me what I always do to them. There was poetic justice in seeing someone hand the teacher a paper with red marks all over it. Though it didn't carry a grade, they deemed it had too many mistakes and gave me a C minus. You know, when you're the teacher, and you have a big ego and stuff, and you're always lording it all over everyone how smart you fancy yourself, that's a tough break. I somehow managed to take it in stride nonetheless.

I continued my adventures of writing zeroes on pieces of paper and handing them out for no good reason. It took on a new dimension yesterday as every zero became a collaborative art project. One became some sort of space alien, another an insect of some sort, and the last one was kind of indescribable, for me at least. I should have taken pictures but I had to bring the class back to, you know, English and stuff. They pay me money to teach English and stuff. I try my best to maximize the English and minimize the stuff, but hey, stuff happens.

I hope some good stuff is happening to you. Anyone doing this job deserves nothing less.

This guy, the one on the left, somehow survived Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Animal Lighthouse Rescue found him there, on the street, and brought him to New York. There are a whole lot of strays in Puerto Rico these days, They call them satos and it's estimated there are over 250,000 of them. Many of their stories don't end well.

I'm very happy to be part of one that's going a little better, that of this guy here. ALR had named him Mario, but my wife didn't love that name. Before picking him up, I had only this photo. I sat and brainstormed after work with two girls who happened to be sitting in my department office. One wanted to call him Oreo. I can see how that fits, but I didn't think it was appropriate to name a dog after a cookie.

We were able to agree on Toby, both in school and at home, and
that's what he's called now. He was only Mario for a few weeks, so I think he's unlikely to have an identity crisis any time soon.

You can see he looks just a little different than he did when they found him. Sometimes a bath and a makeover can work wonders.

I'm really grateful for the rescue organizations around. At first, I was frustrated going through all sorts of applications and things, but once something works, it works.

We had another dog, but he moved out with my daughter back in June. (Fortunately, we have visitation rights.) When we got him, a friend of mine (who I later learned actually runs a rescue) screamed at me for not going to a rescue. I hadn't even thought about it. My daughter had been bothering us for a dog for years. I could've gone either way. But when my wife said yes, my daughter began haunting pet stores until she found one. I gave them money, and they gave us the dog. It was as simple as that.

To adopt a rescue is a little more difficult. I had to give references, people came to check out our home, and I gave a few people FaceTime tours. I'm not sure I'd ever even used FaceTime before that. (I usually figure I look like Toby before his haircut and don't bother with FaceTime.)

It was pretty tough for me to find a good pet. My daughter, who visits regularly, is allergic to many animals but tolerates dogs who don't shed. My wife is not allergic but very much appreciates dogs who don't shed. If you're curious, some breeds that don't shed are Maltese, Yorkie, Shih Tzu, Schnauzer, Havanese, and Poodle, or mixes of above. We know Toby is Shih Tzu and we think he might be mixed with Poodle. Although he looks like a Shih Tzu, he kind of acts like a Poodle.

It's possible, of course, that he's a Shih Tzu who thinks he's a Poodle. In my experience, Shih Tzus are more passive and Poodles are more active. Of course, I have very little experience and could be completely off base. In any case, I hope he isn't fooling himself, They tell me the cost of doggie psychiatrists is prohibitive, and my insurance surely doesn't cover it.

Toby is bilingual, of course. I knew this because he ignored commands not only in English, but also in Spanish. By now I've gotten him to do a pretty passable "sit," and I'm working on "stay." As a professional teacher, this is a point of pride with me. Naturally I've put him in school, and I have to admit that he's the first person in my family to attend private school. Beginning January 13th he'll be attending weekly classes at Petco in Baldwin. The trainer tells me there's another Puerto Rican dog in the group, so I'm happy Toby will finally be able to chill with one of his paisanos.

It really boggles my mind that he was a stray. He loves toys. He loves soft toys, hard toys, chew toys, and pretty much any toys he can get his paws on. He will play fetch forever, and love every minute of it. Fortunately, he doesn't care whether it's outdoors or indoors. While you were off vacationing in Hawaii, watching hula girls and drinking coconut milk, I was walking Toby and his sweater through the frigid cold and throwing a tennis ball back and forth in
my living room. (Believe it or don't, I was just as happy as you were.)

I don't know what image floats through your mind when you hear the phrase, "boys with toys," but the one I see is just to the right.  I'm really proud to have played some small part in helping this little guy. It's a win-win, because his happiness is mine too.

On another note, our winter break has come to a close. I'm sorry you have to go back to work today. I assure you that I do too. There are those times when a person has to make the supreme sacrifice and go to work.  Remember that you're there for the kids, and not for the crazy administrators demanding pointless redundant paperwork for no reason. I'm usually happy when I focus on the kids.

And by the way, if you're suffering from empty next syndrome, or if you need a kid to focus on when you're at home, consider adopting one. Works for me, at least.

I wish all readers of this blog a very happy and healthy 2018. Please stop saying this nation has gone to the dogs, because that's an insult to dogs. If dogs ran the country, we'd almost certainly be better off. They're smarter than you think.

 Like everyone, I'm all excited that I get to continue to deduct 250 bucks for school supplies. Boy, those GOP politicians may not be the bottom-feeding slugs everyone seems to think they are. On the other hand, we can't deduct union dues anymore, and at $1400 a year, that wipes out what I save from deducting school supplies several times over.

Make no mistake, Janus is all about the right to freeload, a right the GOP seems to think was carried down from Mt. Sinai along with the Ten Commandments. Even now, I have no respect whatsoever for anyone who wants to benefit from my paying union dues while he or she keeps the money and buys a new Whatever at Walmart.

Janus means collective bargaining is a political act, and if I believe in more work for less pay, I don't need no stinking unions gumming up the works. Of course I'll take whatever the union negotiates. Maybe I'll donate it to the More Work for Less Pay Institute, but more likely I'll buy a big screen TV, or a new iPhone, or something else made by veritable slave labor in China, which I evidently not only support, but also wish I were part of.

By this logic, I shouldn't have to pay taxes. I'm hard pressed to think of anything Donald Trump does that I support. I don't support his playing golf every weekend on my dime. I don't support his profiting from it. I don't support the tax bill. I don't support making it harder for defrauded students to have loans forgiven. I don't support the wall. I don't support coal companies pouring poison into streams. I don't support the destruction of labor union.  I could go on.

But Trump and the GOP are about pulling the beating heart out of things Trump doesn't support, like working Americans. I mean, as long as you're working to take millions of people off of health care, why not also make it difficult to impossible for them to organize in jobs that actually may provide it? Why not take away the dues deduction so as to further discourage even more people?

And if that isn't perplexing enough, I don't really support my union leadership either. They're profoundly undemocratic. They've rigged the elections so high schools get no voice in the AdCom that makes all the big decisions in the union. Even before they did that, high schools had no voice or vote in NYSUT or AFT. We now continue that grand tradition with no voice or vote in NEA either. It's a great honor to pay the same rate as everyone else, though.

Theoretically, the Delegate Assembly is the highest body, the Executive Board supports the DA, and AdCom supports the Executive Board. In our system, though, most voting members of the DA have signed a loyalty oath to support AdCom rather than rank and file.  The very first question I heard when our current substandard contract was being sold at the DA was, "Gee, Mike, what happens if we don't approve this contract?"

You see, if the contract were not such a stinker, there'd be no need to even ask such a question. The delegate I was with, a soft-spoken young woman, turned to me and said, "Arthur, an elementary school student could see how unfair this is." And there was the answer, a blatant appeal to fear, that we'll have to get in line behind 160 other unions and that retro was not a God-given right. Of course, as Howard Schoor reminds the Executive Board at meetings, it isn't actually retro. That's because anyone who resigned, was fired, or died (!) doesn't get the money they earned back in 2010. Too bad for them. After all, all they did was work for it.

And now leadership comes to me and demands that I put together a Janus committee, to get people to pay dues. Meanwhile, I'm an elected member of the UFT Executive Board, and when I remind them of the fact they vote as a bloc and shut us out, they call a point of order and don't even let me speak.

I will form a committee. But we will be discussing more than just Janus.

America has a long history of bilingual education and language education in general. Alas, we're the worst language learners in the world. There are good reasons for that, primary being the very large size of our mostly monolingual country. You can go anywhere, coast to coast, and if you speak English you're good 99% of the time.

Of course Spanish has defied the odds and held on in a major way. 20% of Americans speak Spanish. It's the second language I chose, and it's the one I'd generally recommend for an American kid. After all, you can go out and use it in lots of places with little effort. I was in a Peruvian restaurant last night and used Spanish. The servers recognized my accent and answered in English, but at least I tried.

We've had failures in teaching language. I know, because I was one of them. I was identified as having language ability in elementary school and selected to take Spanish early, in 7th grade. Imagine that--we know well that the younger you are, the better your language ability is, and my district thought 7th grade was early. I was placed in something called a language lab, where we used an audio-lingual approach and listened to tapes. We memorized dialogues like parrots and learned a song about the Puerto Rican flag. It was largely a waste of time, and I spent three years learning very little. (When I was older I spent time in Mexico and learned a little more.)

Then there's bilingual education. Bi suggests two, but I've been working in city schools since 1984, and I've noted many, many programs that taught in L1 only. In fact, my niece arrived from Colombia and was placed in a "bilingual" class. She was six years old. I would bring her to a playground in Jackson Heights and watch her struggle to communicate with English-speaking children. I asked her if they were teaching her English in school and she said no.

I went to her school with her mom, and was met by a very formidable school secretary. The secretary told me that it was better for her to stay in that class. She had a lot of experience, she said, and knew about these things. I told her, with all due respect, that I was not all that interested in her opinion. She said this was they way they'd always done it. I told her I was with the girl's mother, and that she had a legal obligation to respect her wishes. At that, the principal walked out of her office and accommodated our request.

My 6-year-old niece was moved into an ESL class, where she was with English learners who spoke multiple languages. The new class was conducted entirely in English and she acquired it quickly. She's now in her 20s and speaks perfect English. She'd have gotten there anyway, but placing her in a class where English was used made that happen a little more quickly. I don't oppose bilingual education, but that wasn't what my niece was getting.

Now there's something called dual-language education. I know a little bit about that. It's actually what bilingual education was supposed to be. You take half speakers of a foreign language, half of English, mix them all together and teach them 50/50. The desired effect is a win-win, in which all students acquire both languages.

We adopted our daughter from Colombia and watched her reject Spanish as she acquired English from Elmo and the Teletubbies. Though I spoke to her in English and my wife spoke Spanish, we made the egregious error of accepting English responses all the time. (I should have known better.) Thus, though my daughter had great passive understanding of Spanish, she spoke only English. In Freeport, where we live, there's a very good dual language program. We got her in for first grade and she recovered a whole lot of Spanish. It's a great thing to do if you have the population to support it.

Now it looks like certain areas have an issue, to wit, that the foreign speakers are moving out, leaving a bunch of monolingual white people to maintain dual language programs. I guess when rents go up and newcomers can't afford to stay, that's one side effect. Personally, I get the feeling that Trump and the GOP would like all of us to move out, maybe onto fishing boats, while only hedge fund managers, CEOs, and US Senators remain on the mainland.

Actually, our newcomers are a great resource. It's too bad that troglodytes like Trump and his followers see them as a threat. We can work with them and make this a win-win. Alternatively, we can leave our heads firmly parked in the sand and salute the flag while Trumpies screw us left and right. For people with open minds, real bilingual education works two ways and benefits all. As for Trump and his fellow autocrats, France used the guillotine to turn them around. This notwithstanding, even though Trump demanded the death penalty for innocent Americans, I don't believe in capital punishment.

I hope we can dump him and his ilk ASAP. Then we can embrace the diversity of our potentially great nation rather than deluding ourselves that we're somehow gonna turn it into a 1950s style black and white Donna Reed Show that's all white and no black.

Dispirit of the Season

by Fred Smith

‘Tis now Christmas day and my heart is wheezing,
Bundled up in my bed, coughing and sneezing.


Santa stayed home on the eve befogged by the flu,
And Rudolph this year couldn’t lead his sled through.


And so my darlings, there’s not much to say
After last night descended and became the next day.


And Eva goes high-speed on with her wild shopping spree,
Buying pols as she needs them to get schools for free;
While Betsy converts the uneducated classes,
Vouching for private ways to teach the masses,
With both of them preaching in the same certain voice
Salvation as it is written in the Gospel of Choice.


As ever-sure Andrew decides on how he should go,
But always taking the time to stick deBlasio.


And the same is true for mayoral control Bill,
A no-contest election behind him with four years to fill.
He must pick a chancellor who wears progressive attire.
But won’t do much to lower class size, lead or inspire.


One thing, however, suspends their personal feud.
Both courageously agree that Trump’s a bad dude.


And the IDC and other deceivers are calling the tune
While the UFT helps the dish run away with the spoon.


Now I must cut this short.  I have fever and chills.
Sniffling about so many societal ills.


And so my dear friends, have a pitcher of beer
As we brace ourselves for the same old new year.

~fred  :(

There may be exceptions, actually, but I really believe this in general. The main thing that stands in the way of that goal, though, is often administration. Of course not every student will cooperate, and of course not all students will pay attention, study, or do homework. Of course some will fail. For the most part, though, it doesn't mean they couldn't have passed.

Every teacher I know has heard about differentiated instruction. I know some supervisors have demanded multiple lesson plans for different students. Sometimes supervisors assume teachers have nothing to do and unlimited time. This is not a good approach. We have a lot to do, our work is important, and it's sad when we're burdened with wasteful nonsense.

Differentiation is a tough demand when you have 34 students in a class. Of course, class size tends to be overlooked by administration, and in fact when I go to grieve oversized classes, they fight to keep them that way. It's an ironic attitude from an organization that claims to put, "Children First, Always." Of course, the real meaning of that slogan is demoralizing and devaluing those of us who do the important work of teaching the children (the very children Moskowitz Academies would not accept on a bet).

I'd argue that differentiation is a fundamental human trait. Unless you are in possession of a remarkable lack of sensitivity, you treat people differently. I see, in my classroom, students who will challenge me. I'll let them do it, and I'll challenge them back. I have nothing to lose, really. If they manage to out-talk me, I must be doing a great job. I also see very sensitive and reserved students, students who need my understanding, students for whom a harsh word would be hurtful and damaging.

Then there is talk of assessment. I hear insane things from administrators about assessment. There is evaluative and non-evaluative (formative) assessment, evidently. Supervisors come into classes and trash teachers for failing to offer non-evaluative assessment. They write them up for it, failing to see the irony that they themselves have just failed to offer the formative assessment for which they advocate.
 
As for non-evaluative assessment, it too is often presented as a one-way street. The only way you can do it is if students have red and green cards. Green cards mean they understand, and red cards mean they don't. Or they use left and right hands. Left hand means they understand, and right means they don't. Or vice-versa. Who remembers?

I recently read a Danielson observation form criticizing a teacher for failing to use the left hand-right hand thing. Evidently this teacher was walking around looking at student work. The observer concluded there was no way the teacher could assess the quality of student work that way. I was amazed by this conclusion.

First of all, there is the underlying assumption that 15-year-old students will freely announce to their peers that they do not understand what is going on. There is the assumption that kids at that age are neither obsessed with nor concerned about the opinions of their peers. There are the further assumptions that students who do not know what is going on are aware of it, that they have not yet tuned out altogether, and that they are even listening when the teacher says raise this or that hand, or this color or that color card.

The very worst assumption, though, is that of the binary nature of understanding. You understand it or you don't. There are no degrees. There is no grey, only black and white. That's ridiculous. Once you understand that, you understand how absurd the criticism of looking at student work is. When I look at individual student work, I can offer individual advice. This sentence doesn't make sense. What were you trying to say? That's a good idea--please explain or build on it. This sentence doesn't belong in that paragraph. Eliminate it or start a new paragraph. This word doesn't need an apostrophe. Use a question mark here, please.

If everything is green and red, or left or right, your subject is pretty limited. I don't really want to be in your class if that's how you see things. And even so, if I'm the only student who doesn't get it, why do the other 33 students have to sit around and wait while you explain it to me?

You may as well give only true-false tests and hope for the best. If you're marginally more adventurous, you can give multiple choice tests. I was a pretty terrible high school student, but I loved multiple choice tests. I almost always passed them, whether or not I knew the answers. Now on an open-ended question I could spout a lot of wind, but I couldn't usually appear to know things I didn't. 

There is spectacular irony in the fact that our system demands that every one of our students take the same tests. I mean, if we're going to talk differentiation, how can it possibly exist when final assessment is exactly the same for everyone?

Every kid can learn, but not necessarily the same things in the same way. I'm glad to see that NY State has finally allowed some leeway for different students with different needs. It's a step in the right direction, but it isn't enough. Every kid can learn, but every kid can learn differently at different times. Some kids need more time than others. Some have learning disabilities. Some don't know English. A full 10% of our kids are homeless, and as long as we continue to ignore that, we won't be serving them no matter how often we give them the meaningless label of "college ready."

Learning is not binary, and it's not multiple choice either. It really is individual. The sooner administrators can understand that simple notion, the better we will serve our children.

Thank goodness President Trump is working on that. Now I can say, "Merry Christmas," instead of "Happy Holidays." And if you don't celebrate Christmas we'll deport your ass back to where you came from. In fact, if you do celebrate it we'll deport you back anyway, because that's how we Make America Great Again.

And while you're fixated on which greeting we use, we'll pass a law to deduct private jets instead of local taxes. We'll then go after Social Security, into which you've paid all your life, and Medicare. Let's face it, none of the people Trump represents are going to need Medicare anyway. If you lose your home and everything you've ever worked for because of a catastrophic medical emergency, it will have no bearing on GOP Senators who somehow make millions during their tenure.

But hey, we win the war on Christmas. Screw everyone who isn't a Christian, and if we screw the Christians too, well, at least the screwed ones aren't rich. Who wants Big Government dispensing welfare to poor people, like the 10% of NYC students who are literally homeless, when there are huge corporations who need their taxes cut by half?

It's funny to hear all the talk about making America great again. A lot of people see that phrase as moving back toward even more overt racism, and of course that's what it means. But back in the 50s, there was really more opportunity in certain ways. Jobs came with pensions. Unions were more popular. People could get factory jobs, have spouses who were homemakers, and buy homes instead of living in trees.

None of that is included in MAGA. People who want those things are ridiculed as far left. I guess I'm far left, because I think Americans ought to make a living wage. I don't think anyone with a full time job, or two full time jobs, ought to need food stamps or welfare. I've known people who've died because they had to decide between costly visits to the ER and chest pains and guessed incorrectly. I deem that an atrocity.

I've known people who served their country in the military, who've worked all their lives, just to end up on Medicaid because they couldn't pay for the final care they needed. And make no mistake, that could happen to any of us too. Our insurance doesn't cover that. The catastrophic insurance NYSUT offers, which I bought, doesn't remotely cover it either.

Why should American families have to take out second mortgages just to put their children through college? The answer, as far as I can tell, is that rich people are very sensitive. If anyone or anything touches them, they are so brittle they may shatter in a million pieces. That's why they need to have all the money, and all the privilege, and that's why we all need to give up whatever little we now have.

I can hardly think of anything more obscene than the current administration, and the nonsense spouted on Fox News. It boggles my mind that they snow so much of the American public. Sooner or later, someone will get around to blaming the teachers for that. After all, we're responsible for just about everything else.

On that note, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and if you don't celebrate, have a great week anyway. Let's all pray and work to Make America Sane, Again or Otherwise.

Ms. Fitz had had it with Boy Wonder. He would always come in 8th period on Friday when there was a school football game or something and write her up because there weren't enough students there. In fact, everyone had had it with Boy Wonder. The problem was, no one would say anything.

Boy Wonder decided one morning that history would now be taught by topic rather than chronologically. Every single teacher hated the idea, but no one knew what to do.

Chapter leader said file a Professional Conciliation Complaint under Article 24. He said he'd co-sign it if they wanted, but someone would have to sign it who taught the courses. This was a tough thing to do. After all, there is no wrath quite like the wrath of a wounded Boy Wonder. Anyone who signed it was going to be observed each and every day and rated ineffective in everything no matter what. There had to be a solution. But what was it?

Ms. Fitz had a bottle of Thorazine at home from when she'd cleaned out her uncle's old apartment. From what she'd read, it seemed just the thing to address Boy Wonder's issues. But how could she get him to take it? You couldn't just walk up to someone and say, "Hey, I think you're psychotic and maybe it would be a good idea for you to take these meds." Besides, Boy Wonder clearly believed he was smarter than anyone else. He said so to anyone who would listen pretty much all the time.

Ms. Lopez, the science teacher, would know what to do. After all, she had been a nurse. There had to be a way to do it.

"That's a tough problem," said Ms. Lopez. "You're gonna have to give it to him every day. What does he do every day?"

"We think he slips out to fast food places every day. He's always bringing back wrappers from Burger King and Popeye's. He acts like he doesn't know how they got there. But every day there are new ones."

"That won't work," said Ms. Lopez. "We can't follow him to his favorite fast food joints every day. We have to work. What about cyanide? You'd only have to use that once."

"We don't really want to kill him," answered Ms. Fitz. "Although I don't suppose anyone would miss him if we did." Ms. Fitz mused over that for a few moments.

"Just a thought," said Ms. Lopez. "Does he ever eat or drink anything in the office?"

"We think he eats the burgers while his blinds are pulled down."

"Are you sure?" asked Ms. Lopez.

"We're not," admitted Ms. Fitz. "No one wants to know what he does in there, because whatever it is, everyone thinks it's too gross to know about."

"Okay," said Ms. Lopez. "What about drinks? What does he drink?"

"He loves his Keurig machine. He is always drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee out of that World's Best Administrator cup. Can we pour something in the cup?"

"No," answered Ms. Lopez. "You can't be around the cup enough. We're gonna have to find a way to inject the Thorazine into the K-cups. Every one of them. And when he gets new ones, we'll have to do those too. Can we get into his office when he isn't there?"

"No one has a key. He doesn't trust anyone in there. No one is allowed to drink his Dunkin Donuts coffee except him and the principal, when she visits."

"We're gonna have to find someone with a master key." said Ms. Lopez. "Maybe we can cut it with Xanax. A lot of teachers have Xanax."

A lot of teachers have supervisors like Boy Wonder, thought Ms. Fitz. "When can we do this?" she asked.

"We'll plan over the break and do it when we get back," answered Ms. Lopez. "Happy holidays."

"I think we're gonna have a great New Year," said Ms. Fitz.

 I don't know what you see when you read those questions, but here's what I see:

1. Who loves you more--the teacher or your mother?

a. mother  b. mom  c. mama  d. madre

2. How much does this teacher suck?

a. a lot   b. a whole lot   c. an inconceivably high amount  d. even more than that

3. Does your teacher give a crap about you?

a. no  b. nyet  c. nein  d. negative

4. How mad will you be at this teacher for wasting your time three years from now?

a. a lot   b. a whole lot   c. a real lot  d. to infinity and beyond

5. How incompetent is this teacher?

a. the normal amount   b. the abnormal amount  c. completely  d. 110%

6. If a bad guy said to the teacher either you or his dog was going to be pushed off a cliff, who would the teacher save?

a. you    b. the dog   c. no one   d. the teacher hates us both

7. Why doesn't the teacher care about you?

a. because I'm tall   b. because I'm short   c. because I'm a man   d. because I'm a woman

8. Whose fault is it when you fail tests?

a. the teacher   b. the pedagogue   c. the instructor  d. myself---NOT!

9. How unfair are the class rules?

a. average   b. more than average   c. extremely unfair   d. supremely unfair

10. Why can't the teacher control the class?

a. teacher is stupid   b teacher is ugly  c. teacher is crazy   d. teacher sucks

11. Why isn't the teacher excited to be in class? Teacher is ________________.

a. drunk   b. on drugs   c. asleep  d. psychotic

12. Why aren't you excited to be in class? Teacher ______________.

a. sucks    b. REALLY sucks    c. bites the big one   d. has an ATTITUDE

13. When you aren't in class, how often do you complain about the teacher?

a. all the time   b. only when I'm awake  c. even in my dreams  d. 8 days a week

14. Why doesn't the teacher respect you? Teacher is _____________.

a. racist   b. bigoted   c. a jerk   d. all of the above

15. How come the teacher never helps you? Teacher is ______________.

a. cruel    b. indifferent   c. incompetent   d. all of the above

16. How often does the teacher mistreat you?

a. daily   b. twice daily   c. I am continually tortured by even the thought of my teacher. d. perpetually

17. Why are you unmotivated in this class? The teacher _______________.

a. sucks    b. really sucks   c. sucks the big one   d. sucks, sucks, sucks.

18. If your teacher didn't suck, how would you feel?

a. relieved   b. content   c. happy   d. ecstatic

19. How many times has this teacher disappointed you?

a. several times   b. many times   c. on a daily basis  d. to infinity and beyond

20. What do you like better, puppies or this teacher?

a. puppies  b. puppies   c. puppies  d. puppies

I complain a lot, and I complain about almost everything. Some things I don't complain about are my students, or what goes on in our classroom. I also don't write a whole lot of personal stuff on the blog, as I generally don't wish to bore people to death.

However, I lost my father last week. Some of my students heard about it and wrote me things, a few of which you will find below.  I've covered or folded over the names, and the last one is from a group.  They are all beginning students of English.

Notice the little bag in the picture, full of bars that say, "Don't sad." This is from a girl who was very shy, and who has recently learned to smile in my class. She now does it a lot.

In the second one, a student apologizes for her attitude, even though I never recall her having a negative attitude at all. She's certainly got a better attitude than I ever will.

There are some things that happen, and all you can do is say, "I'm sorry." My students are, thankfully, too young to know that, so they tried some other things. I've received cards, and I've received everyone's sympathy. I'm grateful to everyone who sent anything whatsoever.

I'm really touched by their thoughts and wishes. I wish them all the happiness they wish me, and I hope in some small way my teaching them English gets them a little closer to it.

by special guest Mike Schirtzer