Ariel Sacks and Awesome Matt Polazzo. Watch. Listen. Think. Learn.

It's funny how those without any experience in education, or an understanding of the issues continue to blabber about how to fix the DOE, or education in general. But once again, one of the official party newspapers of the Bloomberg Administration, The New York Times shows it lack of grasp of the issues, in this case reporter Jennifer Medina.

It's bad enough that the Times has shrunk and now costs two dollars during the week, and five dollars on Sundays. But to see the paper that ran the Pentagon Papers become a somewhat semi-official mouthpiece of Bloomberg-Klein just is sad. Medina just writes without delving into anything.

Facebook page Team Polazzo linked this, so let's comment on this.

"But many principals prefer new teachers."

Of course they do!! I have no disagreement with that. But why? Several reasons. One, the new teachers are cheaper. Two, you get a teacher that is you can mold, a teacher that doesn't ask why or question things, and a teacher that does not have family commitments. And three, a teacher that is not a threat knows more than the principal. In Joel Klein's DOE the administrator's have less and less experience as teachers. I have seen teacher's become AP's, or principals after only five years of teaching. Even less! Of course they would feel threatened.

I took abuse when I was untenured. I had no choice. I have a choice now. I refuse to be abused, and I refuse to do what is wrong by the students.

"So in an act of quiet defiance, they are allowing jobs to sit vacant."

Can this be construed as an act of insubordination? Would a teacher be allowed to refuse a directive? I have no problem giving the principals all the power in the world, but as we know absolute power corrupts absolutely.

"And principals are upset that after years of choosing their work force, their options are being drastically limited."

They can choose their workforce, but from a smaller pool than in the past. But as the Marines say, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome."

“The picture out there is not pretty,” said Jemina R. Bernard, who directs the New York office of Teach for America,'

Boo-hoo. I can't feel sorry for the TFA's. Yes, there are some darn good ones out there, but I see too many leave after the commitment is over, and many of them come to NYC to live that NYC lifestyle. Not saying all, just too many.

"But a number of schools may end up with larger classes or have to temporarily stop offering a subject."

Who is getting hurt the most here in the long run? Seems very unChildren First to me.

"As Chancellor Joel I. Klein moved aggressively to close poor-performing schools, more teachers found their positions eliminated. And principals tended to hire younger, newer teachers because they were cheaper and did not carry the stigma of having come from a failing school."

Poor performing? By who's estimation? The letter grades which are a joke? By state test scores in which tests have been dumbed down? Or by finding any school to close to make room for a charter?

"Mr. Klein has suggested that those who do not find jobs quickly are undesirable, or that they have stopped looking."

Is that a fact? Joel, you are so amazingly smart. You have this clairvoyance that is just beyond that of Darth Vader. You know it all.

"With the teachers’ contract up for renewal this fall, Mr. Klein said he would push for a limit on how long teachers could stay in the reserve pool before they could be laid off. But an arbitration board has rejected such a limit."

You caused this problem Joel, you fix it.

"Michael Mulgrew, the president of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, said that the Education Department had not made a great enough effort to place teachers and that Mr. Klein had unfairly maligned them."

Shut up doofball, who cares what you say? Put your money where your mouth is. We are in this mess because the UFT has no balls.

"Several principals — who did not want their names published for fear of angering the administration or the teachers’ union — said they were circumventing the restrictions by offering new teachers jobs as long-term substitutes or hiring them as specialized teachers but placing them in regular classrooms."

There must be some type of unfair labor practice or illegality here. But since Mike Mulgrew has no balls, we will never know will we?

"Valerie Hamilton-Roux, 45, who was a reading specialist at Public School 201 in Harlem until it was closed last year, said she had been little more than a “glorified sub” since then. In the last several months, she has attended job fairs and sent out more than a hundred résumés to schools, she said."

The only thing Valerie has going against her is her age.

“I want to work and be useful, not just a placeholder,” she said. “Whether I don’t say what the principals want to hear or whether they’re skeptical because I haven’t been in the classroom for a year, I don’t know. It’s getting harder to not have sleepless nights.”

Hey Ariel, what do you think?

Krystel Martinez, 27, also cannot find work. She left a job at Sony Music to enter the Teaching Fellows program, which recruits people without classroom experience to teach while earning a master’s degree in education.

“Why did they go ahead and bring us if there were no jobs for us to have?” Ms. Martinez said. “Some people are losing motivation, but we’re all concerned about having a roof over our heads.”

How do you think the ATR's feel Krystel? They have families, bills, roofs too!

Yes, more Ariel Sacks. Remember how last week in gothamschools.org she ripped ATR's a new one? But apparently she showed her hypocrisy, and an actual lack of caring about the students with this comment:

One of the ATR's is covering for a special education teachers who is on maternity leave. If no teacher is absent, I can count on her to be in my room while I have my CTT class. (When she's not there, I'm on my own...another story for another post.)

Why are you alone in a CTT class Ariel? Do you know that it is against state education law for a CTT class to be manned by only one teacher? Do you know that you are a designated reporter and by law are required to report this? According to the Special Commissioner of Investigation:

......Every officer and employee of the City School District of the City of NewYork, the Chancellor, the PEP and all other officers and employees of the City shall have the affirmative obligation to report, directly and without undue delay, to the Special Commissioner of Investigation, any and all information concerning conduct which they know or should reasonably know may involve corrupt or other criminal activity...

You know a law is being broken. You are under obligation to report this immediately. But you haven't. Why not? Shame on you Ariel.

We here at SBSB have decided to break down and retort Ariel Sacks blabbering blog that appeared yesterday in Gotham Schools. Next, and this will happen when he returns from Austria, Dr Hans von Schlaggel of the Institut für schweren psychiatrischen Erkrankungen will give us a psycho-analysis of Ariel Sacks, free of charge, or as they say in Vienna, "Es kostet Geld."

Ariel opens up her diatribe thusly: "Strange happenings... There are ATR's in the teacher's lounge of my school." Oh no! Bats in the belfry! Strange people, people who might be as wonderful as you think you are. Too bad.

Ariel goes on...."My principal interviewed 37 ATR's. That's right, 37. She said they were the most depressing interviews she has ever done, and that she "could not, in good conscience, hire any of them." Did you see these 37 ATR's? Or you just taking it on blind faith that your principal interviewed that many? Do you know what her good conscience involved? Were these teachers actually not qualified, or were they veteran teachers who when asked to do something ask "why?" unlike newbie teachers such as yourself when asked will sycophantically snap into line? Could it have been that your principal did not wish to pay the higher salaries? What positions was your principal attempting to fill? Did some of them just interview poorly? See Ariel, you need something called facts. You have none other than what your principal told you.

But yet you decide to make an assumption. "Why were the interviews so bad? Are these teachers really the dregs of the profession? Or is it that they've become all too comfortable being ATR's with no teaching position and do not want to go back to the classroom?" See above Ariel for other reasons.

"We received three from a high school that was shut down. These three teachers, all middle aged, have 10-15 years of experience and get paid much more than I do." Middle aged? If they have been teaching 10-15 years I doubt they are in their mid-fifties. As far as getting paid more than you do? Why need yo worry? Surely mummsy and dada take good care of you still.

"In the classroom, they behave like incompetent substitutes." Wow, nice. And you are a great teacher because.....???

"No order, no real planning, no real teaching." Have you seen the lesson plans? Are you authorized to review their lesson plans? No order? You get plopped into a new school after the school year starts, no matter how experienced and how good a teacher you are it takes time to build a rapport Ariel. It would happen to you Ariel if you were plopped in my school.

"One of the ATR's is covering for a special education teachers who is on maternity leave. If no teacher is absent, I can count on her to be in my room while I have my CTT class." Count on her to be there? Is she a puppy? Perhaps the reason you can count on her to be there is because she is scheduled to be there, so therefore she shows up. Duh!

"She asks me about the curriculum, and is trying to work more with the students. It's nice to see the shift, but honestly, I feel like I'm training her, while she gets paid twice my salary." You feel as if you are training her? Isn't teaching about collaboration with your colleagues? Now you say she is from a high school. So would it not make sense for her not to know middle school curriculum and to seek out assistance from God's gift to teaching, you?

"Another ATR as been assigned to teach an 8th grade advisory," It would help in your writing if you were able to explain what 8th grade advisory means and what the position entails then those reading can make a better judgement.

"However, this ATR just hands out whatever materials we give him, and sits in the room and reads a book." See above. I can't makean opinion without having all the facts. Can you Ariel. I think you think you can.

"However, given the turnover rates in high poverty schools, you know which schools had to take the ATR's instead of the usual TFA'ers (who can be just as inept, but are usually far more committed and faster learners)." Oh this only happens in high poverty schools? And what do you base this statement on? As far as the TFA'ers go, most of them have no families, no life, and come from elsewhere and want to keep living in the city, ***wink, wink*** Ariel, ***nod nod*** so of course can be more committed. But that don't make them better.

"But who is responsible for these ATR's apparent low ability to teach?" You have only mentioned two, what about the third. Again what is their low ability? Can you come across any more condescending and patronizing? Again please share your high ability.

"Look at the environment they must be coming from. Is it their fault they were teaching under horrible conditions and probably received no support?" Prove it, prove this statement!!!

"I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. Should I just "suck it up" and teach this woman what I know" Of course! She is a colleague!

Ariel, you are such a yutz,.

Teacher and noted sycophant Ariel Sacks of Brooklyn's School for Democracy and Leadership wrote a highly critical article yesterday in Gotham Schools critical of three ATR's (Absent Teacher Reserve) in her school in which she claimed her principal interviewed 37 ATR's and they all were useless, and she berated the three ATR's in her school as overpaid, ignorant, and generally past their prime as teachers.

Now I am sure that Ariel thinks she is pretty special because not only does she have a Bank Street degree, but in the 4 years she has been teaching has somehow made it to department chair. Wow, that is impressive. Seems that not only is Ariel a real go getter, but she is one of those dithering types that takes DOE regulations seriously.

So seriously, that she Tweets during school hours, as I posted here. But, there is something amiss. Yesterday on Accountable Talk blog I listed the dates as March 10, and March 27 2009. Ariel Sacks deleted those Tweets since yesterday. Ariel what are you hiding? I should have taken a screen capture, but failed to do so. Guess what Ariel? If anyone wanted to, the Tweets are still on the servers of the DOE and Twitter. Shame on you Ariel.