What Are the Techniques and Strategies for English Language Learners?

I hear a lot of talk about that, particularly from people who are trying to rationalize Part 154. In case I haven't explained it 500 times, CR Part 154 says that we no longer need to teach English to English Language Learners. So we take away 33-100% of their direct English instruction, and they just pick it up in the other classes, the ones they were taking anyway.

You see, they will train the subject teacher in the techniques and strategies for dealing with ELLs. Either that, or at least two days a week a certified ESL teacher will appear, and use the techniques and strategies. So if it takes a native English speaker 45 minutes to study Chapter Four of To Kill a Mockingbird, we can teach ELLs that same chapter in those same 45 minutes. We will do that by incorporating techniques and strategies.

Will it waste the time of the native English speakers if we use those techniques and strategies? After all, we hadn't used them before. Will they lose valuable Chapter Four time? The answer is no, they absolutely will not. I've been teaching ESL for about thirty years, and I'm going to let you in on the top techniques and strategies for teaching ELLs before you finish this blog.

You don't need to go to school and take the credits. I mean, it would be great if you'd learn about language acquisition. Clearly neither MaryEllen Elia nor any of the Regents have bothered to study that. If they had, they'd know that older learners pick up language more slowly than younger learners, and they'd know that a one-size-fits-all approach they use is baseless and without merit. In fact, they'd know that their revision of Part 154 actively precludes the most effective techniques and strategies for teaching ELLs.

What are they, you ask? Thank you for that question. They are:

1. Be kind, and
2. Give them time.

People from other countries can feel pretty lost here. We have customs with which they're unfamiliar, and we speak this funny language they don't understand. Our food is different from theirs. Our homes look different from theirs. A lot of my students have left family behind, grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, sometimes brothers, sisters, even parents. They're in shock. Lots of us lack patience.

They need a safe place. They need to feel more comfortable. Language learning is a lot about affect. A person who's angry about being here will not learn quickly, and perhaps will refuse to learn at all. It's on you, potential teacher of ELLs, to make that student feel welcomed. A good way to do that is to smile and be patient. One way to build on that is by offering them comprehensible input. Distinguished researcher Stephan Krashen says it's key to offer materials at or slightly above the learner's level. It's pretty gratifying for students to learn they can understand English at some level.

I'd think it was common sense that it takes time to learn a language. I'm horrified when I read this and that about ELLs not graduating in four years, and what's wrong with them and their teachers. You go to China, today, and graduate from their high school in four years. Students learn, and they learn at their own rate. Some learn much faster than others. That too is about affect. Students who love it here learn rapidly. There's no stopping them.

The thing is the geniuses in Albany took time away from them. They took their English classes away and replaced them with, well, nothing. Is there anyone who believes that an ESL teacher who sits in the room twice a week is going to pull the ELLs right up to the level of native English speakers in the same time it takes said native English speakers to do whatever the class is doing? Is there anyone who thinks giving a subject teacher the magical 12 credits in ESL will allow her to make up for a student who doesn't speak English?

There are a lot of classroom tricks I use. There are a lot of little things I say and do. But they won't make one bit of difference if I'm not kind to these kids. They would never listen to me. And if I don't have time to reach them, I will not reach them.

Finally, if you think that English teacher doing Chapter Four of To Kill a Mockingbird is gonna make ELLs understand it in the same time native English speakers do, I have a bridge in Brooklyn with your name on it.

Facing the Issue? Or More Musical Chairs?

I don't know what to say when I read articles like this one, saying we're told to favor students based on skin color. I must've missed the memo. I've been teaching for 35 years and no one has ever told me any such thing.

At work, I've never heard any such suggestion.

“If I had a poor white male student and I had a middle-class black boy, I would actually put my equitable strategies and interventions into that middle class black boy because over the course of his lifetime he will have less access and less opportunities than that poor white boy,” the consultant, Darnisa Amante, is quoted as saying by those in the room.
“That’s what racial equity is,” Amante explained.

Supposedly, this was said in one room. It's hard for me to go from that to the belief that it's part of some standardized PD that we're all getting. I didn't receive that PD, but I can tell you a million stories about outrageous behavior I've seen. I was once in the lunchroom (before I was chapter leader, and before we had a President who though there were fine people on both sides of nazi rallies) when a teacher stood up and started singing Deutchland Uber Alles. Perhaps I should've called the Post.

Had I done that, though, I'm not sure I'd have suggested it was systemic. It wasn't. It was this one single lunatic, now long retired, being a jerk. Was he a nazi jerk? Hard to say, but he certainly sickened me. He did not sicken a pretty substantial group of my colleagues sufficiently for them to boycott a retirement party at Peter Luger's. I didn't go. He can go to hell, I thought, and for all I know he may be there right now.

I have been to awareness sessions. A young woman stood in front of our room and told us to take steps back if negative things happened to us, and forward if they hadn't. At the end of the exercise, I was second from front of the room. This indicated, I take it, that my level of privilege was second only to my friend a few steps ahead of me. I found it odd because I'd experienced pretty virulent anti-Semitism as a child. That's why I hate racism and bigotry in all its forms (up to and including the big orange one that's ostensibly running our country these days).

I believe that someone said the quote above, and I believe the person who said it was sincere. I don't have the luxury of picking and choosing who I help, or deciding on it based on skin color either. I reach out to every kid I can, and I don't reach out nearly enough. I'm often constrained by a loudmouth or two who command a lot of my attention. If I didn't deal with them, nothing whatsoever could happen in my classroom. If I didn't need to do that, I still wouldn't have time to do enough reaching out.

I'm gonna say again that I don't believe for a moment Richard Carranza is racist, anti-white, or anti-anyone. I don't believe he sent people out to preach the above message. I can tell you that, if I wanted to help the children of New York City, if I wanted more of them to have "equitable strategies and intervention" I wouldn't send people out with a message to help people of this or that skin color, particularly at the expense of some other skin color.

If I wanted students to have more attention, and if I thought that would translate into access and opportunity, of course I'd continue to make sure teachers treated students fairly. I'd continue to educate teachers on the ill effects of racism and bigotry, and I'd work hard to attract people who weren't stupid enough to sing nazi songs in the lunchroom, or practice bigotry in classrooms.

However, if I really cared about students, if I really wanted to give them more attention, I'd do the one thing that Carranza's reps told me they didn't give a crap about at contract negotiations. I'd lower class sizes, even if it meant, you know, making those sensitive rich people pay taxes. I'd build decent school buildings instead of dumping kids into decrepit miserable trailers. I'd stop pretending there's no upper limit on school buildings. There would be a brand new public school across the street from Francis Lewis High School instead of two Marriotts.

We haven't lowered class sizes in over half a century. That hurts students of every disposition, gender and color. Of course, that would cost more than sending out people to lecture teachers on what they're doing wrong. If I were Carranza, I'd fire the guy who said he didn't give a crap about class size. I wouldn't ask about his skin color first, either.

Carranza Is Not Insane (and Not Racist Either)

I've got some issues with Chancellor Carranza. I'm not at all sure I'll like his discipline plan. My main issue is that he's left the Ghost of Michael Bloomberg to fester in Tweed. This makes my job as chapter leader tougher. There's that department called "legal" that tells principals to do any golly gosh darn thing they feel like. Contract, shmontract.

You want to put a letter in file for something that happened over three months ago? Go ahead. One of our stooges will rule at step two the incident was not an occurrence. Member asked for a letter to be removed from file? Just say you'll take it out, then put it back a week later. Who's gonna know? You want to give teachers with six periods a C6 assignment? Go ahead. No one really cares about stuff like that anyway. Chapter leader objects? Screw him.

This is problematic. The fact is, the city simply overrules virtually every single step two grievance. Thus the arbitrators are overloaded with crap. That's likely why they regularly make decisions even imbeciles would deem beneath them. If you are employed by the DOE and the UFT, you have to try and please both. So grey areas fall to the DOE. I'd argue that the arbitrators don't understand English, but it's more likely they understand exactly how they're gonna keep getting that 1400 bucks a day. I'd like to see Carranza take a new broom and sweep clean. I'd like him to utterly exorcise the Ghost of Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, there are four white people who think they're losing their jobs due to their skin color. I don't believe for one millisecond that Richard Carranza hires or fires based on skin color. He was very kind to me when I applied to be Deputy Chancellor, or whatever it was that Milady Baez used to do. He made sure I got an application even though I was totally unqualified. (I mean, sure I'd like to have a job sitting around a desk, doing whatever people who sit around desks do, but there was no way I was going to go to principal school to do that.) If I'm not mistaken Baez is Latina, so it isn't only white people getting bumped around.

I've seen Carranza speak several times. Once, I even got to ask him a question at UFT Executive Board. He's articulate and intelligent. He's got a great memory, dropping statistics into his speeches with neither notes nor references. I see no hint of hatred in him. He speaks well of teachers and teaching, and I love that he came to the UFT Spring Conference and led a mariachi band of NYC students. I was wary of him when he first came in, calling him the mariachi chancellor, but that was before I heard him speak.

I barely recall who was chancellor before Joel Klein. Carmen Fariña was great if you thought raging blizzards were beautiful days as long as Macy's was open. For my money, Carranza is the first chancellor in decades to whom I can award the coveted NYC Educator rating of Not Insane. Racists don't qualify.

I can't say the same for the DOE in general. I don't know whether or not it's racist, but it's certainly toxic. There's no way Bloomie's Looneys can fix teacher morale.

Q--What do you call four fired or demoted Bloomberg administrators?

A--A good start.

City AC Regs Are Idiotic and Inhumane

I'm in my fourth decade of teaching for NYC, and the more things change, the more they remain the same. It seems like yesterday we were using coal furnaces for heat, but maybe ten years ago we gave that up. Given that, we ought to continue this trend of acting like it's 2019.

In 2019, air-conditioning is ubiquitous. If you haven't got it in your house, you can buy a room AC and cool a room for less than a hundred bucks. I don't know what percentage of city kids have AC at home, but I'd wager it's pretty high. Kids who aren't accustomed to miserable sweltering conditions ought not to learn about them at school. In fact, no kids ought to equate sufferng with education. Yet the city's AC regulations look like something from the 1960s (if not the 1860s).

During the 2019 official air-conditioning season, which runs from Wednesday, May 29, to Tuesday, Sept. 24, school room temperatures should be no lower than 78 degrees. There is no regulation mandating an upper temperature limit, only comfort guidelines. 

Seriously? Why is the season regulated by date rather than temperature? Do they have psychics at Tweed who can predict the weather? Meteorologists can't yet do that accurately. Also, 78 seems a little high. If I have control over an air-conditioner, I usually set it to 70. In fact, I frequently reset the room AC when I'm teaching. For some reason, no one seems to know how thermostats work. I walk in mornings and find rooms freezing with AC set to 60 or lower, with desks covered with condensation. People think if they make the temp lower it will cool faster.

The city thinks that 78 should be the lowest temperature, and that no matter how high it gets, things are fine. I'm gonna go on record doubting that Tweed uses those temperature regulations in their own building, where the great thinkers "work." I'll go further and say if those regulations aren't good enough for Tweed, and if they aren't good enough for the Mayor, they aren't good enough for my students either. In fact Mayor Bloomberg rigged room air-conditioners in his SUV to keep his royal ass sufficiently cool in the summer. It's disgraceful that, while mayors so carefully take care of themselves, a million city kids should suffer from a ridiculous policy that subjects them to such an inferior standard.

My school is pretty good with AC. Most of our rooms have it. However, you never know when a unit will fail. The south side of our building can get excruciatingly hot. One day a few weeks ago, even though the outside temp wasn't so bad, a student passed out and the teacher had to call 911. This was probably because (and you may not believe this if you aren't a city teacher) the heat was on.

Here in Fun City, custodians get X dollars for heating, and if they fail to use X dollars, I hear they get less money the following year. Whether or not that's true, I can't count the times I've discovered heat on when it ought not to be. Custodians are kind of independent. Principals do not supervise them.

My school has been responsive when I file health and safety complaints, from the principal to the custodian. I don't think I've ever had to take a health and safety grievance beyond step one. As chapter leader I've worked with two principals, both of whom ruled grievances in our favor and worked to make conditions better. Our custodians too have worked to fix these things quickly.

I hear NYSUT has passed a resolution advocating for AC in all schools. Hopefully they'll lobby for a law that will overrule the DOE's ridiculous policy. In 2019, students shouldn't be sitting in unbearably hot classrooms.

The Commish and Me

Last Saturday I met NY State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia at the UFT Spring Conference. That's her on the left, UFT VP Evelyn de Jesus on the right, and Evelyn's ESL point person Katie K. looking very serious in the middle. I don't know who that tall guy is.

Whenever I get to meet education people from Albany, I talk Part 154, which has degraded education for ELLs and  frequently turned us, their teachers, into glorified school aides.

I told Elia we needed to fix it. She said yes, but we can't lower the standards. That was a pretty simple challenge. I told her I wanted to raise the standards. After all, Part 154, in conjunction with the outlandishly poor tests issued by the state, has lowered the standards so much they pretty much have to look up to see down.

I've written here and in the NY Daily News about the abysmal quality of state tests. Elia has to bear responsibility for this along with the Regents, who actually have the tests named after them. Of course they don't really write them. Instead, they pay thousands, hundreds of thousands, who knows how many dollars to have them written by "experts." You know, they call in a few teachers, but end up having them polished by psychometricians, who are much more qualified than we are. They're so qualified they write tests so crappy we couldn't even imagine them. Give me 90 minutes and I'll write a better test than either or both the NYSESLAT or the English Regents. 

The most recent iteration of Part 154 eliminates quite a bit of direct English instruction. At a minimum, it cuts 33% from beginners. For non-beginners, it can cut up to 100%. Elia told me that the state wanted all teachers familiar with strategies to reach ELLs. That's a great idea. I have no issue with that whatsoever. It's fine that the new CTLE requirements demand 15% of all PD relate to ELLs. It's not a bad idea to familiarize incoming teachers with language acquisition.

The issue I have is that, as far as I can tell, neither Elia nor the Regents have any familiarity with what language acquisition entails. One thing it requires, especially for older learners is time. Time is precisely what this iteration of Part 154 takes away from our students. This is because when we take 33% of direct English instruction from ELLs we replace it with nothing. When we take 100% of direct English instruction from ELLs, again, we replace it with nothing.

That's a matter of interpretation, of course. Here's mine--if you lose direct English instruction, it's replaced with a blended course, i.e., a social studies or English course taught by either a dually-certified teacher, or a subject teacher along with an ESL teacher. In theory, this class will combine subject matter and English instruction.

However, this class is given no more time than the class the ELL would have taken without the newer Part 154. So if it take 45 minutes to teach chapter 12 of To Kill a Mockingbird to native English speakers, it's supposed to take the same 45 minutes to teach it to ELLs. That's absurd, and you certainly don't need to be an expert to see why. There is no strategy to make English instantly comprehensible to people who don't yet understand it. There is no strategy to produce instant fluency.

When I teach ELLs, I spend a great deal of time on vocabulary. I have no idea how many PowerPoint and Keynote presentations I've written to introduce vocabulary. Here's something Albany doesn't know--it takes longer to teach vocabulary to people who know fewer words. I'd argue that's common sense, and I'd further argue that's something short supply in Albany. (Maybe something happens to you when you breathe in all those cement fumes.)

Let's go a little further. Not only do you need to learn the vocabulary, but you also need to learn how to use it. For example, you may be wearing a white shirt. In Spanish, though, you'd be wearing a shirt white, because they use adjectives differently than we do. In fact, they make adjectives plural. And then there are all those conventions. We usually tell stories in the past tense. There are all those irregular verbs. Does Albany expect us to teach them to integrated classes, wasting the time of students who already know them? Really?

Here's the thing--Albany is right that it's healthy to mix ELLs with native English speakers. They're right that kids will learn from their peers. But they are 100% wrong that the way to promote that is by killing direct English instruction. The fact is ELLs were already in those mixed classes before Albany allowed myopic, money-grubbing administrators to stop offering direct instruction. Albany has given ELLs absolutely nothing, and taken away their lifeline, sometimes the only classes they could actually follow and participate in.

In case you wonder why kids don't like school, it's frequently because they get the message school doesn't like them either. 

UFT Delegate Assembly May 22, 2019--Interesting Times

4:30 UFT President Michael Mulgrew welcomes us.

Asks for moment of silence for DR Marty Plotikin.

Asks us to support Puerto Rican teachers, by buying shirts.

Contract—Important we make words on page real. CLs have to make it work. Only way to push DOE is to utilize contract. We are doing better than in the past, but we want every school using their voice.

National—Besides President, we have 24 Dems and 1 Republican running. Passed resolution at AFT—All state and local affiliates should have conversations with all candidates. Later we will look at an endorsement. Spring Conference Gillebrand came. Tuesday, in Houston will be Joe Biden. Last week in Philly Elizabeth Warren. Will see where it goes. Politics gets touchy. This body may be more politically active than most. For us, it’s about our profession, community, and ability to take care of families. We see this as educational process.

We don’t like what’s going on in DC. Hasn’t heard anyone call DeVos a great leader. Major tools of those fighting us—Chaos, confusion, conflicts. This is what admin is doing in DC. AFT events all over will show us where to engage. Too early now, but we will have these discussions.

Tough issues facing SCOTUS. Janus ruling part of coordinated plan. Attacks on workers, education and women. 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Ed. and now we’re seeing them push defunding of ed. 100th anniversary of suffragette movement, and unprecedented attack on women. Not just about abortions, but limiting women’s health care options. Who thought we’d discuss this in 2019?

We have to be smart. We have to educate people, and members. Have to embrace diversity, but not let them use these tools against us. Need to prepare in terms of letting members know importance of union. Specifically targeting NY State so unions will lose membership and political influence. There are positive sides. It’s May. Holidays coming.

They don’t want us having benefits.

Jeff Sorkin—Welfare Fund—Union important, for example, health benefits. Covers 400K lives. Past fiscal year prescription drugs, provided 111 million dollars. Dental benefit—86 million in benefits. When you retire you take out optional rider, we offset cost with 47 million per year. May be surpassed by parental leave.

We cover drugs no one else does. Gives examples that are hard to spell. Fund saves a lot on member behalf. Members and dependents use these meds.

Parental leave—2837 members have utilized. 74% female, 26% male—paid out 29 million so far.

Most members have GHI or HIP, as do other city workers. We negotiate together. You may not have premium but someone is paying—NY City. GHI ind—9K Fam—21K by city. HIP 9K  Fam 23K. Would love to pass on costs. We won’t allow that.

2019 Express Scripts contract will expire. We want to save money and provide same quality benefits. Coming close to 90 day fill at local pharmacies.

Mulgrew—Asked Jeff to do this because we are always having these conversations. We have a commission to look at how we can work together to bring costs down. Difficult. We supply more drugs than any other union. Costs are mind-boggling. I hate pharma companies. I love research, but we don’t like anyone in health care. All about profits. We don’t want them just passing on costs to us.

Told you we would fight with hospitals. No more non-profit locals. Like five families. I was in Albany, pushing patient protection act. Law passed because ER non-network physicians gave huge bills. State stopped this. Physicians in hospitals can no longer do that. But hospitals can. If you go to out of network hospital costs skyrocket. Some really bad actors. Pushing to say enough is enough.

Insurance company has to make deal with hospital, make us pay out of network costs. Insurance companies and hospitals are problem. We want it to be about patients. Hospital negotiating for 20% increase they don’t need. Telling carrier they will drop them and charge 50% more. Money would come from us. Trying to push patient protection bill. Hospital and insurance lobbies against us. We want hospital to function, but not huge bonuses for CEOs.

Colleagues from around state are paying higher premiums every time they go to negotiating table. Small raises, and more health care costs. Working with state union, MLC, and the city.

Charter schools—Thought it would be quiet without GOP in charge. Charters pushing to raise cap. We all have kids waiting for schools, not only charters. Have to pay attention to this. Not all charters. We know those four chains and they aren’t our friends. Have decimated public ed in other states.

SED—We have a Regents on June 27 this year. You can’t have this. We have to be more diligent. They have reasons, but it’s not supposed to be about their bureaucracy. Should be about schools.

We have ideas about NYSUT RA, since it will be in Albany next five years.

Spring Conference—Great time, 2000 people, will have to start capping. Many elected officials. Had great conversation with three assemblywomen. Largest turnover of city council next election. Want UFT members elected. Amazing opportunity. Want to utilize all our assets and skills. Endorsed Farah Lewis in Brooklyn. Opponent said she supported charters, tax credits. Members were concerned. Lewis won, despite predictions otherwise. Happy we did things differently. We not only won, won by landslide.

City Council breakfast was here—almost all of them came.

Had to change name of Community schools to UCS.

Pushing Dial a Teacher, would like Teachers Choice permanent. DOE gets 32 billion and we still don’t get supplies. They get receipts, can audit. Speaker Corey Johnson agrees.

Lesson plan letter—available when someone tries to reinterpret. Went out to principals as well. Same exact letter word for word. Sick and tired of admin reinterpreting purpose of lesson plan. Trying to move observation and eval. should be at least able to clear this up.

They talk about how to improve instruction. Collecting lesson plans doesn’t do that. Just makes people mad and gives less time to write and change lessons. This will be part of training in September. DOE wants to talk about implementation of training. We asked about training itself. They brought out things they’ve been doing for years. Contract is about resetting culture. Why would we do things that we know don’t work? Danielson turned into weaponized nonsense.

We will not stop on this issue. Chancellor and Mulgrew told teams job is to come up with training.

New dean positions in new contract. Says shall be done by central posting, agreed upon. DOE wants principals to change however they wish. DOE sent this discussion to teachers by mistake. We will get a centrally agreed upon posting. If you have the budget, use it.

Calendar—December 23rd—Legal interpretation—we are strongly opposed—city has right to set calendar Tuesday after Labor Day to June 28. 23rd has never been used as report day. Very expensive to open a school for one day week. Makes no sense. Our issue is at state level. Regulation says a school needs to use minutes and not days. We did not agree, and don’t, because there is still a law that says there are days.

In NYC, there are some schools that don’t count some minutes. There is a reinterpretation. We are in midst of big fight right now. Calmer heads are saying this has to be straightened out, we think before school. We meet mandate under law is UFT position. We will have real conversation with Board of Regents, but they only meet once a month.

You need to pay attention to session time memo when it comes out on June 10th. You will see minimizing passing time, using homeroom as instructional, and maximizing instructional time. In original calendar, they weren’t even covering Passover. Believe with calmer heads we will get to a better agreement.

UFT has no official relationship with AFLEC. Don’t believe them when they say otherwise.

SBOs—Principal cannot tell you to do it. We will give you guidance. We can’t have an SBO to raise or lower hours. DOE would ask for money back. Clarity is important. Don’t hide it. Put it out.

Official ATR number 650, lowest in 15 years. For 30 years we had between 3 to 500 in excess. Went up to 2K. Down now. Please send consultation notes. Tracking number. Very happy to report 74% of schools now actively engaged in consultation. Makes huge difference. Principals have been told not to stop it.

Janus—Humbled and proud, but also glad election is over. It is my honor to be reelected. Didn't want to speak of this before.

Labor relations board in DC not very union-friendly lately. Didn’t do Janus prep because could be construed as electioneering. Non-membership 0.18%. That’s your work. We have to move a little faster to educate members.

Millions spent against us. Campaign active now. Strategy is to get people to fill out survey so they know how to get you to opt out.  They claim to be independent and objective, funded by Koch, Walton, DeVos. No independence whatsoever about these people. Door knocking upstate right now.

We want something to put on doors. We see union proud stickers everywhere. Had 3000 fee payers and 5300 new members. Now we are at 0.18%. That’s the work. They want us killed on health care, out of politics, but we don’t use union dues for that. We use COPE.

Love when they say union spent money. Don’t say they spent double, from wealthy donors. Trying to take our voice away. We won’t let them. They had a Janus event in NY and 7 people went.

Mindy Rosier stands for having picketed Betsy DeVos. There is video. DeVos didn’t have a good time walking in. We know what they’re up to. They put up fake unions with low dues. They use Julie Andrews in pic, who was a union member.

We will send out a lot of info. We have to be ready. We aren’t as prepared as last year, but will get there quickly. Must let them know what this is all about.

We will have access to new members. DOE supports us. Imagine if Bloomberg were mayor?

We have this challenge ahead. Members will be crazed, because it’s May and June. Will get you up to speed on Janus. Want 0.0% non membership.

LeRoy Barr—June 1, Pride lunch. Scholarship for Danny Drumm. Leslie Uggams will be there. Glen Scarpelli. Collecting money for scholarships. Extra copies of chancellor lesson plan letter. District 26 has 100% consultation notes. Next DA June 12.

Questions—

Q—December 23—seems like we may stay longer next year. How many snow days? If we get it, will they want something back for 23rd?

A—Officially we have four snow days. Anomaly year. Muslim holidays in summer, others on Saturdays. Will be many years with one or zero snow days. If they want us to give up something, we will have a discussion. My position is no. Hoping to fix it a different way. When minutes issue came up, was concern for small districts that needed flexibility. Good with that, but don’t want NYC hurt. We have June and July Regents meetings. Hope to resolve and move forward.

Q—NYSESLAT—Can UFT revise or reform this. Four part untimed test. Very difficult. Held against schools. Have Muslim students taking it while fasting. Can we do anything?

A—Working on waiver. Being raised at state level. Open to fixing. State never put in waiver. Other states have. Focusing on Part 154. Have ELL working group. Will get it done.

Q—Health care, driven by profit—Our union has a position for single payer. What’s our position on single payer in NY State, and in presidential race?

A—For state, not for it, needs to be fixed on national level. Hasn’t been brought up yet. Issue at state level is amount of money would blow hole in state budget. Would not have enough money to run schools. We would lose our own health care system, would have to go into whatever state provides, would cause 43% increase in state taxes. Love idea of national single payer. Do not have a model yet. This will be one of top, if not top issue in presidential race. Number one issue in US is lack of affordable health care. At state level not smart. NY State, talking 300 billion dollar cost. Will be no state budget. We should cover 5% not covered and then fight in DC.

Q—If member injured, can fill out LODI, must be within 24 hours. Teacher slipped on floor, tore hamstring, rehab for months, thought she could come back, but couldn’t. Fortunately filled out form and had medical pension. This week teacher filled incident report. Told him to LODI form Principal refused to sign. What is recourse?

A—Send it to us. We had similar problem earlier this year. Principals were saying we had to prove causality. No such provision. Like we blindfold each other and push ourselves down stairs. Ridiculous. We don’t have to prove causality. If they think we did something reckless, they can work on it. But they can’t say they don’t approve it.

Beth Norton—We discussed decisions that say you need to state injury happened in school in line of duty. They can investigate and prove if they think there was reckless behavior. Send unsigned forms to bnorton@uft.org.

Motions—

No hands. closed.

Resolutions—

Nicole Puglia—Endorse Michael McMann—public service 18 years, friend to schools and members. anti-bullying in schools, too good for drugs campaign, anti-date violence program in HS, supported attacked nurses, prosecuted attackers. Running unopposed.

Passes

Jeff Matt—Speaks in support of Melinda Katz—strong ally for school communities in Queens. pushed tech upgrades, eliminating trailers, supported Townsend Harris and Forest Hills.

Passes

PS 25 remaining open.

Rashad Brown—50th anniversary Stonewall Riots—LGBQ discriminated against, people got sick and tired of being sick and tired. Still have long way to go, we have marriage equality, scholarship, but this year is world pride. Want to stand in support. Promote inclusion and awareness. Reception June 20. Pride march Queens June 2 Brooklyn June 8.

?—Rises in support, important we stick together no matter what background, orientation or belief, Urges support.

Passes.

We are adjourned 6:02.

Why Is Ben Sherman Still Principal?

If you are a leader, and virtually no one has any confidence in you, it's unlikely you'll stay in that position long. I'm a teacher, and while I'm not perfect, the kids are not quite lining up in my AP's office to tell her just how awful I am. In fact, when kids complain about teachers in my building, they sometimes get called to meetings to explain themselves. I know because I'm called to every single one of those meetings.

Sometimes teachers get in trouble, but I can't ever recall 90% of a teacher's students filing a complaint. That would be extraordinary. Of course I'm not a principal. Mike Bloomberg decided that principals could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, however they wanted, and established a Leadership Academy to teach that principle (to principals). Evidently, Ben Sherman learned well.

I've been chapter leader under two principals. If a teacher were to expose himself to female colleagues while urinating, I'm trying to think how they'd react. What if that teacher made cracks to women about their appearance? Now imagine that the teacher slept in his car outside the school to stalk people coming in one morning. I'm pretty sure my first principal would move to have that teacher removed. My current principal, on the other hand, would also move to have that teacher removed. Truth be told, I'd be surprised to see any principal put up with that.

Now imagine the teacher allowed kids to smoke weed in the class, saying it's gonna be legal anyway, so what the hell. And then, of course, there are 90% of the students complaining about him. Though some might fear that teacher, no one respects him. I see 3020a in that teacher's future.

Of course, that teacher isn't a principal. Principals are above it all, somehow. You know, when you read that CPE 1 finally got rid of a vindictive small-minded principal you might think the principal would be shucking oysters somewhere. You'd be wrong. That principal is off working for the DOE, doing who knows what, and collecting more money than any working teacher in NY City for doing said who knows what. Some days I feel like doing who knows what, but instead I'm relegated to, you know, working.

In the case of Ben Sherman, though, they haven't even bothered to make him report to Tweed and do who knows what. Instead, they hired another principal, or superintendent, or someone to report to Forest Hills High School and supervise him or something. Hey, if I did all the things Sherman is accused of doing, there's no way they'd send someone to supervise me. They'd send me to a rubber room, or whatever they're calling those places these days, and I'd twiddle my thumbs while waiting for a hearing in which they'd try to fire me.

I don't know what it is that principals do, or what they have in their contracts that makes them bulletproof, but if your behavior is as bad as Sherman's is supposed to be, you ought not to be principal. You ought not to be a teacher. You ought to find a job more suited to your particular talent, like, say, a fascist dictator, or perhaps a bicycle seat.

Actually I don't know or care exactly where you place people who do things like that. I'd conjecture prisons are full of them. Nonetheless, I'd say a public school is about the last place someone like that ought to be working.

It's remarkable that the NYC DOE feels otherwise.

UFT Executive Board May 20, 2019--Why Are We Giving High-Stakes Tests to Fasting Students?

6 PM—Secretary Howard Schoor calls us to order.

Speakers

Speaker one—From Queens—Reads letter—Writing about Bronx Learning Center, out of desperation. All staff works together, but admin employs tactics to ensure division, toxic hostile environment. Some people barred from offices, relocated, causes discomfort. Some frightened to talk around admin. Discourages friendship. Says this place of work only. People working out of title, forced to test students, Students with low scores turned away. Long intake process, lasts over one day. Constantly tested before receiving adequate classroom instruction. Admin will merge ESL classes with basic ed. classes. Unlicensed, uncertified staff doing testing.

Speaker two—continues, imperative that people work in concert, Many documents must be shared, but work piles up and isn’t completed. Paras do same work as teachers and clerical staff. AP harasses rather than helps staff. No consideration of work or deadlines. Deadlines often impossible. Teachers untrained and unsupported. Revolving door for teachers. Staff members have to train and console one another. Formula for failure. We would like to do our jobs without constant fear of retaliation. Over 50 reservations. Inexperienced employees give bad instructions. Students must wait for assistance to generate EPI dollars. Students sign in and do not receive instruction, so that school can get EPI dollars.

Mulgrew is not here.

Minutes—approved.

LeRoy Barr—Staff director’s report—Great Spring Conference, chancellor spoke, sang, engaged with all. Better speech and hearing event 5/30. Support speech chapter. June 1 UFT Pride scholarship brunch, honoring Danny Drumm. DA May 22. EB, June 3.

Questions

Arthur Goldstein—Given the new testing law, I’m wondering how you envision our MOSL being calculated. I’m assuming that teachers who’ve previously been mandatorily linked to their own students’ Regents exams will no longer be so, but correct me if I’m wrong. I know that test scores work better in some schools than others. I’m wondering how choices will be made. Will they be systemwide, schoolwide, or will individuals be able to determine their own MOSL?

Jackie Bennett—Law passed. Next regs will be written in June. Regs will be consistent. We no longer need to use any state test. You can if you want, but don’t have to. UFT will have to negotiate. Have to see what regs say. MOSL committees will still decide same way. Exact menu, no more required or forbidden. Details need to be negotiated with DOE first. Don’t think it will be a large change.

Lamar Hughes—Congestion pricing plan—members want to know whether there’s been discussion on how members can be accommodated. People pay multiple fares.

Schoor—Won’t go into effect for two years. Legislature not sure what they’re doing or who will be exempted. Hope to be part of discussion. Will ask Mulgrew to address at DA.

Michael Friedman—If you stay on FDR not subject to congestion pricing.

Jonathan Halabi—ATR pool—How big is it?

Schoor—Below 1,000, will get Mike Sill to answer next time.

Halabi—Are there closings or reductions to push it up?

Schoor—Haven’t heard of any.

Halabi—Who is Mike Sill’s succesor?

Schoor—He’s not going anywhere. You get things added on. They don’t go away.

Halabi—CLs filing consultation online, How many?

Schoor—District 26 in Queens has 100%,

Debbie Poulos—71% as of Friday have reported at least one. Over 1K schools.

Schoor—We look at what schools bring.

Reports from Districts—

Nancy Miller—May 14 successful nurse lobby day. Joint coalition, 5 unions 1K nurses. Met assembly and Senate members. We need bills passed, nurse in every building, no mandatory overtime. Did not like buses.

Janella Hinds—Next Wednesday will be conference, middle schools, high schools, will give flyers. Students will have conversation about addiction.

Schoor—HS Scholarship Awards 176 grads.

Howard Sandell—4/30 nurse celebration 300 people. Great celebrationThanks all who stopped by to say hello.

Rashad Brown—June 1 is Pride brunch. Honoring Danny Drumm. 3 honorees.

Priscilla Castro—May 17 para celebration in Queens. Had principals, superintendent.

Dwayne ?—Was also celebration in Manhattan. June 21 will be boat ride. 15-20 seats left.

Tammy Miller—Family day care providers—May 11, 6 annual provider ceremony, great event, recognized 25 who offered extraordinary services. Anthony Harmon came.

Ellen Driesen—District 20 doing an event in MCU Park. Drinking Jr Highs together. Kids vaping in grades 2,3. Need awareness. Students will perform, Contest for signs and sayings. Tuesday June 28.

Rich Mantel—Had 5K last Saturday. Wasn’t freezing or raining. Nice turnout. Raised money for disaster relief.

Legislative Report—Schoor—Want to challenge hospital bills. Follow that. DOE pays 16K per person, 20K per family.

Liz Perez—Candidate we endorsed, Farah Lewis, won. June 25 will be primary to do all over. Please help June 25. They were very grateful to UFT.

UFT Election Report—Amy Arundell—Met May 8 to review certification of results. Will post document on UFT Website with minutes of our meeting. 197K ballots mailed. 47 received by deadline. 2500 didn’t make deadline. Election committee voted to accept and bring to EB for approval. One complaint filed, will be investigated by Howard Schoor.

Schoor—Dermot Myrie complained. Spoke with him. Complaint not specific enough. Met with him. Discussed his issues. Waiting for response. Tonight we will vote on accepting AAA certification. Will vote on complaint.

Halabi—What was overall % turnout?

Schoor—Election committee voted to accept.

Resolution to accept AAA Official Report.

Passes.

Arundell—Thanks election committee. Thanks school based folks who came downtown 6 times to support us. Big commitment. Thanks everyone else.

Jeff Sorkin—Welfare Fund—praises health benefits. Prescription drugs—111 million in 2018. Got rebates. Down from previous year. Second biggest dental 86 million. 3rd biggest—optional rider reimbursement—47 million. UFT covers many drugs others don’t, at great cost.

Parental leave—74% of claims for females, 29 million paid. Have been hiccups. Contact us with problems.

Express Scripts contract expires end of year. Will see if we can find additional cost savings. Only 3 providers that can help us. Want additional savings. Main focus 90 day maintenance fill at local pharmacy.

Resolution—Ramadam—Janella Hinds—Asks you support students observing Ramadam. Many educators called about students who had to take AP and NYSESLAT exams during Ramadam. Spoke with educators observing Ramadam. Drafted resolution for your consideration


Arthur Goldstein--Teenagers are perpetually hungry. It's ridiculous to ask them to take these tests while they're fasting.

Aqeel Williams—Happy to have put this together. I am fasting. When I was younger it was harder. Very important that we make sure kids have breakfast. Our children are not, they have pre-dawn meal, but that’s not good enough for children. Thanks Janella.

Passes

Opposes Alabama’s Illegal Abortion Law

LeRoy Barr—Woman will motivate on Wednesday. Not just Alabama. Other states too. For all who think voting wasn’t important, this is just one consequence. They promised to do this and they are delivering. Allows others to take a more conservative view, almost making them look reasonable, but they want to overturn Roe v. Wade. We need to organize, to support whatever activities that will follow. We are a union that is mostly women. People who are passing these laws are mostly men. How dare they try and tell a woman what to do with her own body? Asks for support.

Mary Atkinson—Amends 6th whereas—delete conservative from conservative misogynistic We have conservatives who are not misogynistic. 

Patricia Filomena—Worked for abortion underground long time ago. Never thought I’d have to do this again. 25 white men voted for this law. State after state will alter law. President objects to Alabama, but wants to do away with Roe.

Ellen Driesen—Not just about Roe. Also about health care. If they cared about life they’d support health care, education, food.

Resolution, revised.

Passes

We are adjourned 7:04

Blogger's Day Off...

...but don't miss my piece on just how abysmal Regents exams are in today's Daily News.

Betsy and Me

by special guest Mindy Rosier

A few weeks ago, a little birdy informed me that Ms. Betsy DeVos herself would be traveling to NYC. After looking into this tip, it turned out that she would be receiving an award from the dreadful Manhattan Institute on May 1st, May Day, at Cipriani’s on 42nd Street.

As a lifelong New Yorker & a veteran special education teacher, I felt that it was very important to give Ms. DeVos a big Bronx cheer!! It had been awhile since I was part of a good protest and I was totally up for it.

Two years ago during Teacher Appreciation week, then-Speaker Paul Ryan visited NYC. He was here, not to visit any public schools, but rather to visit my other favorite education villain, Eva Moskowitz. Of all the co-located buildings with Success Academy to visit, he choose mine. My school building is where Success Academy began and that in itself is another story.

I contacted every one of my connections from Grassroot Orgs to Elected Officials to my union, The United Federation of Teachers. I was on the news, in the papers, and online. I was everywhere. I mean, how dare you visit a public school building, during Teacher Appreciation Week, and NOT visit the public school located in THAT building? How dare you miss all the hard work we do? 

If that weren’t enough, my school is D75, which means all of my students have special needs and many, if not most of our families receive Social Security benefit assistance. At that time, Ryan had his own view of Social Security benefits. What he proposed would have affected my students and their families for sure. I wanted nothing more that day than for him to look at the faces of our students who would be affected by those cuts. Those were my messages of the day. Apparently, I did such a good job with my messaging, that hundreds upon hundreds of people shut down that 118th street corner in Harlem.

Not only that, (and this is is my favorite part,) two of Ryan’s secret servicemen spoke to my at the time principal, requesting that I be nowhere around as I was deemed a “national security threat.”  I wear that honor like a badge! Ryan did wind up visiting one of our classes for about a minute and I like to think that I shamed him into doing so. However, later that day he was quoted in an article praising Moskowitz and her school with no mention of slumming it in ours. Of course, I reminded him and updated the reporter of that article. Here is one of the articles from that day. But I digress…

So May 1st had arrived! I was excited all day with my dress and my stomping-the-pavement boots. My Report Card sign was good to go and I had shared information on this action far and wide on social media. I couldn’t wait to join up with Rise and Resist, Revolting Lesbians, Raging Grannies, my brothers and sisters from the UFT, and several other grassroots orgs to simply share our feelings, and we so did! Turnout was amazing.

The majority of our group was on the 42nd St side of Cipriani’s. A faction from Rise and Resist decided to go around back in case Ms. Betsy wasn’t brave enough to face all of us all in the front. For over two hours we picketed around the front of Cipriani’s, continually chanting, loud and proud with all of our hearts! As expected, DeVos tried to sneak around the back. Key word here is “tried.” That faction that headed around the corner was successful in giving her that Bronx Cheer she so richly deserved.

Overall, we made our points loud and clear. When you buy your position, have very little knowledge about education/special education, try to implement hurtful policies, and make sweeping budget cuts to public education, you’d better have a thick skin. Regardless, you will be called out, loudly, and publicly...just like we did AND we will do again and again. If you do not like the attention your position brings, take a new one or resign. We’d be good either way.

Where the Dogs Are

If you're looking for me, you'll find me out on the Freeport Nautical Mile almost every morning at 5:30 AM. That guy on the left is Toby, looking askance for some reason or other. He comes with me. Actually he looks like he might be asking me to take him out. I can't read his mind, so I just read his face as best I can.

If you're a teacher, you might know what stress is. If you're a chapter leader, especially of a large school, you might know even better. There are a lot of ways to deal with stress. Some people meditate. Some get a punching bag. Some write blogs on the internet, or join Facebook groups.

Actually, I've done a few of those things myself. The thing that really makes me lose my stress, though, is walking with this little creature a few times a day for around 30 minutes.

I watch him walk, and stop, and smell absolutely everything and I wonder what's on his mind. Usually I figure it's pretty straightforward. A tree. Let me smell it and determine whether or not it's pee-worthy. Let me turn around five times before I decide exactly the right leg to raise at precisely the perfect angle. This doesn't work. That doesn't work. But this is perfect.

Sometimes it's a social outing. There are dogs Toby really likes. If he sees one of them, he'll stop walking and bound toward their direction. He used to be friendly with every dog, but the idiots who live across the street from me let their pit bull out unsupervised and he tried to attack Toby. I picked him up and shouted at the dog until he ran away. Teacher voice can be a very intimidating thing. Now Toby is sometimes scared of big dogs and barks at them before they can bark at him. I've gotten him to stop doing that most of the time, by saying, "Good boy," first, and giving him a treat when he's quiet.

Toby lived on the streets of Puerto Rico before Animal Lighthouse Rescue found him, brought him here, and gave him to me, so maybe he knows something I don't. I have no idea how this little guy got through Hurricane Maria. I got through Sandy, but that was a relative walk in the park. He's generally friendly, but if you try to cut the hair on his paws he can get outright hostile. 

We walk by a bunch of bars on the Nautical Mile, and there are always people at the entrances, showing people in, or maybe charging admission. Every one of them is friends with Toby, who thinks God placed them there so that they could pet him. For all I know, he's right. He's a lot more social than I am, saying hello to absolutely everyone who will look at him. I meet a lot more people now that I travel with him.

If you have a stressful job, I suggest you get a dog. They require less care than children but more than cats. But they kind of make you see the world through their eyes, which is a good thing if it's hard to juggle everything in front of your own.

Boy Wonder and the School of Hard Knocks

No one was more influential in Boy Wonder's life than his father. He knew everything. He always knew what to say and do. And he took no guff from anyone. At this point in Boy Wonder's life, he admired no one more than his father.

"DID YOU LEARN IT YET?" Pow! The back of the hand.

"HOW ABOUT NOW?" Smack! Yet again.

"UNDERSTAND IT NOW?" Bam! That made the point.

Boy Wonder learned things the hard way, but he learned them well. Once you make a decision, everyone has to follow without question. There is no negotiation. There is no discussion. Now he was in charge, and when he made a decision that was it.

The whiners in his department, always complaining about this and that. Why do I have four classes in a row? Why do I have to spend my free period going to meetings and listening to you talk every day? Why is the PD just you complaining about everyone in the department?

Worst of all, everyone was complaining about his new decision. The history curriculum would be taught by topic, rather than chronologically. And all these losers were having a hard time with it. Oh, we can't do that. Oh it's never been done before. Oh, the kids will never understand this. The kids would understand what he told them to understand.

Just thinking about it made him hungry. And there was a special at Burger King today. They had extra bacon on the Whoppers and if you bought two of them you got a free drink or something. Plus there was a machine there, so he could refill his drink as much as he wanted. Gallons of Coca Cola. It was already 12 o' clock, a great time to skip out and pretend there was business.

But what was this? An email saying that the staff had demanded professional conciliation? Article 24 of the contract? He was supposed to explain why he wanted it this way? Because he said so! That's why! That should be good enough for anyone.

He would show those bastards. He would rate them all ineffective. Plus he would save time. From now on, he'd write the observations from Burger King. He'd make notes on his iPad while eating, and kill two birds with one stone. Then, when he was good and ready, he'd sit in the classrooms and fill out the dates. This would show those bastards who's boss.

But on the other hand, he'd been rating them all ineffective anyway. Would they even notice? Sure they would, when he started writing things that hadn't actually happened. Let them complain. It would be his word against theirs, and they were a bunch of losers who couldn't even figure how to duck out for a quick cheeseburger. Good thing for them, because anyone he caught stealing time from the school would get a letter in their frigging files.

Now all he had to do was check the names on the professional conciliation complaint and put letters in their frigging files. He couldn't wait to go and tell Dad about it. After a few smacks, maybe Dad would say he was proud. But probably not.

It didn't matter. This was the way to show those bastards the way, and bastards need to be shown the way.

NYC Should Run Its Own Schools

That's what David Bloomfield argues in the NY Daily News. Bloomfield says there ought not to be a state law determining how admissions are run in our specialized schools. He's absolutely right. Why on earth is the state making laws for New York City? The state's business is state business.

I haven't got a magic formula for working out the SHSAT mess. Bloomfield argues it ought to be phased in over time, and that third graders are now prepping for the SHSAT already. Maybe he's right, and maybe that's fair. I will say, though, that it's awful to make such young kids freak out over such a test. I hope there's some way we can make such things unnecessary.

Bloomfield's argument goes broader than just the SHSAT, if you ask me. I recall when our good friend John Flanagan pushed a bill to remove seniority protections for teachers in NYC. Not teachers in his district, mind you, because they could have voted against him, I suppose. The bill was only for city teachers. It's kind of beyond ridiculous that people who have no stake in our district can make decisions about it. While it's true that Bloomberg wanted this, he was clearly unable to get city legislators behind it. Of course, Bloomberg had all that money, so laws, rules and ethics don't apply to him.

More recently, there was a regulation passed the NYC would have to pay rent for charter schools it failed to approve. That's very tough for me to understand. For one thing, NYC had just elected a mayor who opposed charters. This would indicate that the people of NYC approved of that policy. Governor Cuomo, having taken various and sundry suitcases full of cash from charter enthusiasts, did not agree, Thus, the Senate and the Heavy Hearted Assembly voted to make NYC provide either space or rent for the likes of Eva Moskowitz.

This is how you overcome democracy. I'm a fan of democracy and I believe the voice of the people ought to be paramount. We've all seen what happened when the voice of the people is overridden. GW Bush becomes President. Donald Trump becomes President. Florida imposes what is in effect a poll tax on ex-convicts, as opposed to letting them vote, despite an overwhelming vote to allow them a voice. Closer to home, gazillionaire Michael Bloomberg bought himself a third term, despite voters not once but twice affirming term limits.

Still, democracy doesn't mean the people in Suffolk County get to select the representative who introduces bills that effect New York City. It ought to be the people who reside in New York City making those decisions. If the people in New York City want their children studying ways to get into Stuyvesant High School when they're only eight years old, let them have a referendum. If not, the city ought to figure out a way to admit its own kids to its own schools. The law is ridiculous, and if, as Bloomberg says, it's part of the mayoral control statute, let's look at that too. Why on earth is the state making statutes about mayoral control?

NY City has been around for a long time. It's old enough to make its own decisions, without the help of out-of-towners who presume to know what's best for us.

I'm Surprised I'm Surprised

It looks like, if you're Deputy Chancellor, you can send your kid to school anywhere you goshdarn please. While parents all over the city fret over where their kids are going, while there's a citywide brouhaha over the SHSAT, while scores that are supposedly under a moratorium may decide where your kid gets to go, some people don't have to follow any stinking rules.

Chancellor Richard Carranza’s top deputy has gotten her two youngest children into two of the city’s most selective and desirable middle schools — in one case, after the application period had ended, The Post has learned.

That's disappointing to me. Though I haven't seen the sort of changes I'd like to see in the DOE, I've seen Carranza speak several times, most recently last month at the UFT Team High School awards. This is a guy who's as smart as anyone, who speaks brilliantly, and who sincerely understands what it is to be a teacher. While he hasn't cleared the DOE of all the Bloomberg debris that clutters it, I'm surprised he'd put up with this. What I hear about him is he's a big picture guy, and that a lot of details elude him.

Of course, they didn't elude Sue Edelman at the Post, and while I don't work for the DOE, I could've told them this would happen. The timing is particularly bad as Carranza tries to fix the SHSAT. It's very much all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

In other news, here's a principal, already removed from his school, and more crap about him is coming out. The city's already on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars for sexual harassment, but when you're a scumbag principal, why restrict yourself to one area of scumbaggery? There are so many others to explore.

The new suit was filed by assistant principal Marc Einsohn, who said that in September 2017 he needed surgery for a stomach problem. Instead of accommodating Einsohn, Kwait assigned the assistant principal duties’ that required he remain on his feet for long periods of time, against doctor’s orders, according to the suit.

Kwait even went so far as to contact Einsohn’s doctor directly and demand his medical records, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

I worked for Mark Einsohn for a few years. I never had an issue with him. Of course, I never asked him to change student grades either, so I didn't hold a vendetta against him. One of the great things about being principal is no matter what outrages you commit, the DOE is always there with open arms.

In 2011 he had five substantiated claims noted in his file, including stealing food from the cafeteria and cursing at employees over the school’s handheld radio. He’s faced lawsuits dating back to 2008 alleging he discriminated against pregnant subordinates and sexually harassed a guidance counselor.

If you're caught doing things like these as a teacher, you'll be facing 3020a, and there's a good chance by this time next year you'll be working at Kinko's. But if you're a principal, they'll just bring you over to DOE, where you'll sit in a chair, shuffle papers, go to gala luncheons, or do whatever it is they do over there at Tweed.

Rules don't apply to Tweed employees or principals. The rules are for us, the little people, the teachers, the guidance counselors, the secretaries, the paraprofessionals...those of us in the trenches working with kids.

But isn't that the way of the world? Doesn't President Brokeahontus sit and tweet about how awful his enemies are, how their behavior can't be tolerated, and ignore absolutely everything he himself does? Doesn't he lie like the rest of us breathe?

It's tough to be a teacher. We're role models. We have to show kids there's a better way. When those above us are so obviously self-centered, self-important, and self-serving, they make our jobs that much harder. Do you wonder why teachers are so quick to question the decisions of administrators, particularly those when they're rating or disciplining us? Every teacher in the city can tell you stories like these that have yet to make the papers.

Wonder no more. Rules are for the little people.

Thank You, NYSED, for Your Standardized Test

So it's day six of NYSESLAT testing, supposedly to measure the English level of my students.  Once again there's no class for us. We just sit for yet another day and do the test. I'm stationed outside, perhaps to ensure no one escapes.

For the last decade, I've taught mostly beginners. A lot of my colleagues prefer teaching higher levels. I ask for lower ones and I generally get what I ask for. It's a win-win, in that I get what I want and my colleagues get what they want. At least it used to be.

As chapter leader of a large school, I teach four rather than five classes. For years I'd get two double-period classes of beginners. Last year, while I had one full section, my second section had only eight students. This year, I had only one section and taught an advanced class. This has proven educational, if nothing else.

Where had all my students gone? I found out this year. It turns out that most of the students in my advanced class don't belong there at all. I started the class out by giving them a novel called The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. It's a lovely book, utilizing simple language to express complex ideas and emotions. The last time I taught it, students loved it. This time it went over like a lead balloon.

I didn't really understand why at first. It was only when I started to focus more on their writing that I saw what was going on. Many of these students were unfamiliar with fundamental English conventions. There was no subject-verb agreement. There was no past tense. I understand a lot of people don't specifically teach these things, and that the idea is to teach it in context. I can deal with that, and I can do it. These kids had not done that, let alone much reading or writing.

If you look at the English Regents exam, there's a rubric. Using the conventions of standard English is right at the bottom of it, if I recall correctly. The important thing is the so-called close reading. That means, basically, you extract crap from one piece of writing and place it in your own words. On the bright side, you're supposed to explain what it means. However, changing the words of a sentence or two, to me at least, does not necessarily represent comprehension.

The NYSESLAT is like the little brother of the English Regents exam, and it seems to determine how Common Corey our students are. It most certainly does not determine how much English they know. Otherwise, my advanced class could've handled the novel, as my advanced classes in the past have. I would not have felt that more than half of my class was in dire need of taking my beginner's class. I do know that if these kids go to CUNY, they will get tested in English. They will fail and end up in remedial courses in community colleges. They will pay for the classes but receive no credit.

Why is this happening? The only conclusion I can come to is that NYSED wants to rid itself of the need for ESL teachers. After all, there''s been a shortage forever. By initiating Part 154, they've cut the need for us. All you need is a subject teacher with the magical 12  credits, and voila! We've met the requirements. And who cares what they actually know? I've seen students who write most awfully if at all, and they've gotten 80 or above on the English Regents exam. They're college and career ready, according to the rubric. Who cares if they're actually nothing of the sort?

There's a speaking test in which most speaking is done by the teacher. The students mostly read the text. If they can manage to change a word or two and reproduce the message, that's good enough for NY State to determine they can understand and produce verbal English. Whether or not they actually can is of no consequence whatsoever. 

The geniuses in Albany have rigged the game so as to make it convenient for themselves. I have seen no evidence that they give a golly gosh darn about my students, and forget about me and my colleagues. They are disgraceful, totally indifferent to the students I try to help. Now they wish to blame teachers for their outrageous misdeeds, and want us to take a few courses to make up for this. Evidently, because they know nothing about language acquisition, they've determined we must not either.

I can't believe these people are allowed to sit around cushy offices, make terrible baseless decisions, go to gala luncheons, and get away with this outrageous incompetence. Of course I'm just a lowly teacher sitting around administering tests. It's not my job to question them.

Too bad for them that I wasn't trained Common Core style. Too bad for them that I question what I see, as opposed to the paragraphs and lines to which their test may direct me. Too bad for them I see how utterly ineffective their methodology is. If they'd only take these shackles from my feet, I'd have a lot more time to show and encourage students how to do the same. That's not to mention I could easily teach them how to really write, and fundamental English skills, about which NY state couldn't care less.

Drat that NYSESLAT!

 (That's pronounced NIGH--suh--slat.)

I'm sitting outside the school auditorium. Things are pretty slow right now. Inside the auditorium a bazillion kids, many of them my students, are taking a test. I can hear a voice booming loudly talking about something or other. I'm trying to tune out because I have a blog to write.

This is the fifth day of classes I'm missing. You see, the geniuses in Albany don't just give any test. It's an extravaganza. I mean, there's the speaking test. Now that only takes twenty minutes, but each of us has to test maybe a million students. So it takes a long time. And it's pretty goshdarn tedious too, reading the same thing one million times.

Of course the students read it along with you. That's one reason why it's such a terrible test. Theoretically, you're testing their listening and speaking abilities. Actually, though, you need not listen at all. The entire script the teacher is reading is right there in front of you. And you know what? If you don't understand the question, all you need to do is read the script, change a word here and there, and then you've pretty much done it all.

And if that's not cool enough, there's often a second question that's almost identical to the first question. You can pretty much say the same thing and get the same result. Why? Well, it's hard to say what the geniuses in Albany were thinking when they decided to do that. Actually, they likely didn't make that decision at all. They just paid a bazillion dollars to some testing company to write this thing.

One of the really cool things about this test is, since the company got paid a mere bazillion dollars, they recycle half the test from year to year. So if you learned about Hammurabi's Code last year, you just have to talk about it again this year. Maybe you were really interested, so you checked it out on Wikepedia or something. More likely you weren't so you didn't. Nonetheless, I can only suppose NY State would've had to pay two bazillion dollars for an entirely new test, so therefore it's saving money.

I can't comment too much on what's going on right now because I lucked out. I'm sitting outside while several of my colleagues are in there listening to some tape or other. I have to tell students that the auditorium is closed. I have to tell colleagues no, I can't let you take your student out even if you have a Regents exam coming up. Would you let me pull the student from your Regents? No? Then I can't let you pull the student from the NYSESLAT either. It might be stupid, it might be poorly written, it might not determine anything of valdity, but it's required.

The kids not only have to listen to it, but they have to pay attention as well, Judging from what I'm hearing, it must be difficult. I'm sitting with a colleague and watching her eat corn. This, evidently, is a better use of my time than, you know, teaching. The truth is my dog could do a better job watching my colleague eat corn, and I'm pretty sure he'd take a keener interest.

Anyway, I have two more days of sitting out here, or in there, and doing something, or nothing, or whatever. Truth be told, I'd rather be teaching. 

MORE Alters Petition After People Signed It

Imagine signing a contract and having someone unilaterally change it. I mean, there's your signature, and they just go back and edit the contract so it fits their revised specs. A whole lot of people signed a petition asking for December 23rd to be replaced with a school day on June 27. MORE had not bothered to consult with a calendar, and thus failed to note that June 27th fell on a Saturday.

After I read their petition, I consulted a calendar. I noticed that June 27th fell on a Saturday, and that neither MORE nor Chalkbeat, which wrote a feature around this petition, had bothered to look this up. I wrote about this a few days ago. Evidently MORE got wind of the fact they were suggesting teachers and students come in on a Saturday.

Rather than withdraw the petition, which would be the honest thing to do, they simply changed the date on it. Simple, huh? However, that's a unilateral alteration of contract. Most people probably won't go back and notice that the thing they signed had been altered. I can't be sure, though, that people who agreed to come in the day after school was set to end would be willing to wait another weekend and come back just for a Monday.

After all, one of the stupidest things about us coming in on December 23rd is the creation of a one-day week. Anyone who teaches every day is acutely aware of the sort of attendance we can expect on December 23rd. That's why this day would be a waste of time. However, a whole lot of us come for one additional attendance day in June, and we all know how ridiculous that is. I teach ELLs, who attend at higher percentages than other groups, and I'll get three or four students in a class on that day.

After all, if I were a student, and I knew that I'd taken all my tests and the grades were in, it would be highly unlikely I'd bother to show my face in school again. I could go to the beach. I could see my friends. I could stay home and play Xbox. I could play with my phone all day without some crazy teacher screaming about how he was gonna confiscate my phone.

As for convenience, or lack thereof, I'm not persuaded that exchanging one wasted Monday for another is a net gain. It's hard to have confidence in people who fail to show due diligence, as MORE did when they wrote this petition. Chalkbeat didn't bother either. In fact, Chalkbeat's story still reflects the suggestion of extending the year to June 27th. Evidently MORE hasn't bothered to inform them of their unilateral decision to revise their already signed petition.

So now if you signed the petition, thinking you'd come in on a Thursday or something, or even approving of a Saturday, you've now offered to trade a frosty winter Monday for a sunny summer one.

 I've got a little experience with MORE. They tossed all my friends out, and called them "right-wingers" in an email that was sent to me. Maybe if you support Bernie over Jill Stein, you're a right-winger. I don't know.  But if you signed their petition, you're now asking the state to extend the school year into an extra week for another wasted day. If so, I hope that was what you signed up for.

Personally, I don't believe in wasted days at all. The day ought to be eliminated, full stop. As a parent, as a teacher, and as a unionist, I have better things to do. I sincerely hope you do as well.

UFT Executive Board May 6, 2019--Adult Ed.,Merry Christmas from Albany, and Pride

6:00 PM—Secretary Howard Schoor welcomes us.

Speaker—Fran Meyers—Adult ed—Nothing has changed—More U ratings, unjustified. Evaluation system rigged against older teachers. 20% U-rated all in Fed. anti-discrimination laws, in danger of losing CL on false charges. U-rated teachers barred from summer and after school. Former admin made statements about pressure to U-rate, acknowledge by Mulgrew. Mills still heavily involved.

In interests of chapter and students asking for investigation of corruption under Mills in evaluation. Asks for support.

Minutes—approved.

Mulgrew is not here.

LeRoy Barr—Concluded NYSUT RA, thanks for resolutions. All UFT reso approved. 5K run Saturday MCU Park 8:30 AM. That night, home day care providers awards at 52 Broadway 5 PM. Albert Shanker ceremony May 14 6 PM—scholarships. Spring Conference May 18. Please come out. EB May 20 DA May 22. UFT pride committee, D. Drumm brunch June 1st.

Questions

Arthur Goldstein—I know a lot of you were in Albany last weekend. I’m glad you all came back. I think there’s something in the water up there.

As you know, a few years back Albany declared us unfit to grade our own students’ state tests. That’s because they manipulate the cut scores year to year to achieve the results they want. Because they manipulate the scores to make them look however they wish, they assume we’ll do the same.

I’m spending last week and this week mostly outside the classroom administering a state test called the NYSESLAT, which has to be the worst test ever written. It places students who cannot compose a coherent sentence into advanced classes.

They’ve also virtually destroyed English instruction for newcomers via a revision of Part 154. Now, instead of people like me actually teach them English, they plant an ESL teacher in the back of a science classroom two days a week and hope for the best. Now, instead of fixing that, they want to make new teachers take a course in language acquisition.

Most recently, they’ve mandated that we come in on yet another day when few to no students will be in attendance. They now ask us to pretend to teach the students who won’t be there. So I have two questions.

First, can you give us an update on December 23rd? Second, can we form a rapid response team so as to preclude and/ or correct future fanciful innovations from the geniuses in Albany? Thank you in advance.

Schoor—still seeking alternatives to 12/23, but they didn’t violate contract. Looking at other ways to fix.

Jackie Bennet—Not as if there isn’t a process.. There is. We weigh in. People come up with things, NYSED presents them to Regents. There is a time period for input, questions. It’s a complicated state with varying opinions. We have a lot of relationships. When a regulation comes out we get it to as many people as we can and try to work with Regents to make things happen. Many other voices make it complicated.

Schoor—We have disagreements with state union sometimes. Even those in same union have differences. We are there though, thanks to Evelyn, who makes our voice heard.

Bennet—Everyone agrees on Part 154. Regs almost impossible to comply with. Much activity.

Jonathan Halabi—I know that you in Albany may not have seen, but charter resolution played well in class. 12/23—beginning to understand. If we can’t get passing time recounted will become a permanent problem. Are we looking to prevent this long term?

Schoor—Happened last year, we stopped it.  Minutes problem in middle and high schools. We have had discussions with state. Problem is with commissioner. We are in discussions. Some NYSUT people tried to count aidable days in August.

LeRoy Barr—Was a resolution. We spoke against it because we don’t want to open that door. Looking at passing time. Commissioner is pushing it. We are pushing back. Many people are ready to vote no confidence. We were close to that. NYSUT officers asked for time first. Based on time, broken tests, we may take this vote. Fight is not over. Will keep you posted. Awards given at NYSUT, Evelyn de Jesus, Joyce Magnus, others.

Halabi—I program high schools. Special ed. in small schools—rampant rewriting of IEPs causes issues, gives teachers 4 and 5 preps. Can we look to fix this?

Schoor—Issue has come up before. Posting for IEP teacher problematic. Changing of IEPs problematic. Will bring to Mary Jo Ginese.

Halabi—Should be committee with programmers too.

Schoor—State hired 300 new psychologists to aid compliance.

Report from Districts

Patricia Filomena—Pride committee having second annual scholarship lunch. Will award to student from each borough. Appreciate your support.

Legislative report—Schoor—Working on patient protection act, pushing bill. We have city council race 45th coming up May 14. Phone banks opened in Brooklyn office. COPE collections up over last year. Political action important to us. Last year gave 4 million to NYSUT of 10.5 we collected.

SI DA endorsement—Donna Kola—Mike McMann for DA, in public service 18 years, has endorsed him in past. Has no opponent. Has been in schools. Does a lot of work to educate on drugs. Epidemic in SI. Started program against opioids for schools and community. Introduced education program jointly with UFT. Has other programs against violence, and cruelty to animals. Recommends endorsement.

Schoor—Helped when we had nurse assaulted in hospital.

Kola—Has prosecuted people who commit these assaults.

Passes

Resolution in support of Melinda Katz in primary

Anthony Harmon—Has invested 55 million in public schools, removed trailers, helped Townsend Harris get new principal. Urges endorsement.

Passes

Resolution commemorating 50th anniversary Stonewall riots—Rashad Brown—Many years LGBT community discriminated against, on June 28, were sick and tired of being sick and tired and stood up. 50 years later a little has changed but we have a long way to go. This year world pride taking place here in West Village. UFT champion of civil rights. We ask we rededicate ourselves to this cause, and commemorate event with reception. Wants to bring it to boroughs as well. Asks you support this. Pride committee meeting to plan reception, pending passage. Will bring guests.

Pat Crispino—Asks you support resolution, and content by participating. Have experienced raids of gay bars. There was attitude from police, many of my friends were arrested. Many of use were not out. Please participate. This supports our students as well. Your presence makes a difference when we see your support. Hatred is back these days. Your presence matters. If people see you, they will appreciate your support. Highest rate of teen suicide still gay teens. Still very tough for them.

Passes

We are adjourned 6:39.