Edwize Post

Here's a comment I left on Edwize. They may regard it as a "personal attack" and delete it, so I thought I'd post it here as well:

We don’t need more competitive salaries. In this week’s New York Teacher, UFT President Randi Weingarten reveals that we’ve finally become comparable with the suburbs in terms of time and pay.

Oddly, I thought we worked 7 days more than they did, and were paid 10-20,000 per annum less. Doubtless I’m laboring under the outrageous misconception we are the very lowest paid and hardest working teachers in the area.

Or perhaps President Weingarten meant we’d caught up to where they were three or five years ago. Or maybe the extra days of training are regarded as “fun” days and don’t really count.

In any case, I strongly agree with (article writer) Mr. Halabi that when people use statistics to lie we must not look away, and that someone must tell the truth.

It's Nice to Know...

...there are some things you can absolutely rely on. For example, when the president calls himself a "uniter, not a divider," you can be sure that he's going to run the most hard-right, ideologically driven, secretive administration you've ever lived through.

When Randi says, "We've caught up with the suburbs," she means you've managed to keep making 10-20,000 less than they do.

When Mayor Bloomberg says "I'm building 13 billion dollars worth of new schools," he means he'll do it as long as NY State picks up 10 billion's worth of the tab. Mayor Bloomberg believes passionately in the CFE ruling as long as he does not have to contribute one red cent toward it. That, apparently, is what New Yorkers want in their mayor.

Randi says..

..in NY Teacher that we now measure up to the suburbs in terms of time and pay. Thanks to James Eterno for the heads-up on the ICE blog. It's less than encouraging that our president, after having negotiated the very worst contract I've seen in 22 years of service, appears ready to rest on her laurels. In terms of time, ICE cites several examples showing we work 7 days more than many suburban districts.

What about pay?

The following, according to NYSUT, as of January 05, were Nassau maximum salaries without a doctorate. Assume that by the time we reach the much-lauded 92K max, they will have gone up several points, as they do every year. Assume also that they will not be accompanied by the draconian givebacks our crack team of Unity negotiators were able to come up with. You may also assume they will be on time, and unaccompanied by years or months of zeroes, unlike those Unity relentlessly sells us.

Most require 60 credits beyond the Masters, which I believe I have, and I assume you would get if NYC paid. Some districts below have not yet cracked 100K, but unlike NYC, they’re on their way.

You can subtract a few thousand if you want to see MA + 30. Still, since we haven't even got the option of MA + 60, it's remarkable and outrageous that our president would say we're comparable. Furthermore, most of these districts offer several thousand more for a doctoral degree, yet another option we don't have.

And if I, a lowly teacher, can get this info, why on earth can't Randi?

Baldwin 105534
Bellmore 92957
Bellmore-Merrick 104123
Bethpage101840
Carle Place 98451
East Rockaway 100590
East Williston 105764
Elmont 97815
Farmingdale 102081
Franklin Square 98136
Freeport 97960
Garden City 108097
Glen Cove 104114
Great Neck 108280
Herricks 105498
Hewlett-Woodmere 110394
Hicksville 93959
Island Park 106004
Jericho 113789
Lawrence 112176
Levittown 102332
Locust Valley 107328
Lynbrook 102354
Malverne 100096
Massapequa 97537
Merrick 101530
Mineola 105758
New Hyde Park 87383
North Bellmore 102167
North Merrick 101445
Oceanside 107339
Oyster Bay-E. Norwich 110325
Plainedge 95961
Port Washington 106400
Rockville Centre 106136
Roosevelt 97916
Roslyn 111548
Seaford 91767
Syosset 107052
Wantagh 102611

Bumper Sticker

Things to Do Today:

1. Get up.

2. Survive.

3. Go back to bed.

It's Easy

One of the highlights, if you're crazy enough to drive to Florida from New York, is the trip back. You just hop in your car, and you're there in eighteen hours.

My Prius gets 52 mpg here in Florida, though. If they let me retire before I die, I might just relocate here.

Travel Broadens

An article in today's NY Times suggests international experience may be very valuable to job-seekers:

"When I went, I was hesitant because people looked at me and were surprised that I would graduate with a degree from Colgate and take time off to work and backpack around Australia," said Ms. DiCioccio, who picked grapes and was a short-order cook at a roadhouse in the outback. "So when I came back and had it on my résumé, I couldn't believe all of the interviews were about my time in Australia."

Once back in the United States, she said, she applied for 10 jobs, received 5 interviews and was offered 2 positions at the beginning of 2004. She became a program assistant at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, Calif.

This article hit home with me. I worked my way through college as a musician, and afterward, in a resolute effort to put off working as long as possible, spent a few years in Switzerland backing up singers. When I interviewed for the 2 colleges at which I've worked, that was the only thing the interviewers were interested in talking about.

I don't blame them, actually. If I ever became an administrator, God forbid, I wouldn't want to sit around discussing the latest articles in whatever educational journal my job required me to read. Discussing whatever trendy new teaching method was popular that week would probably be out as well, as I'd already be required to take that up at meetings.

I would, however, make the candidates teach demo lessons, something I was never asked to do. One of the college interviewers was very frank with me. He said "We'll observe you. If you do well, we'll all be happy. If not, you won't be asked back."

I proved to be very popular, as the other section's teacher opted to teach yoga in lieu of writing. Half his class transferred into mine. This demonstrates that you don't necessarily have to be good, as long as you outdo your competition.

Creative Problem Solving

Here's an interesting approach to a discipline issue from Three Standard Deviations to the Left, a blog I just stumbled across:

Today I had a girl eating an apple in class, so I told her to put it away. I go help some other students, and as I get back to this girl, I see that she's taken another couple of bites out of it, but it is sitting on her desk.

So, I pick the apple up and lick it from bottom to top and put it back down on the desk. She shrieked, and the other kids around her laughed so hard I thought they'd pee on the floor. She did stop eating the apple, though.

It's reminiscent of Frank McCourt's approach in his great new book Teacher Man. Much as I like this solution, I have a feeling some moronic administrator would charge me with corporal punishment if I tried it.

While the Prez Strummed Along...

NEA local chapters will now be permitted to affiliate themselves with the AFL-CIO. This is good news for the AFL-CIO, which has lost one third of its membership in recent years.

More powerful unions will have more money and influence, which can be crucial in the fight against the anti-labor, anti-middle class, union-busting Bush administration.

USA Today reports that average family income dropped 2.3% after adjustments for inflation. Unless you're making over 300,000 per annum, of course, in which case you benefited greatly from Bush's tax cuts. If that's you, congratulations.

In the face of exploding energy costs, it's more urgent than ever to rid ourselves of a congress and president that cares not a whit about the lives of ordinary people.

Testing the Testers

The barrage of testing endured by our children my go largely without criticism if FairTest is permitted to disappear. Michael Winerip writes in today's NY Times that if the independent watchdog loses its funding, testing companies won't need to worry so much about the minor errors that result in your kid being denied admission to college, or promotion to the next grade.

I have decidedly mixed feelings about testing. On the one hand, if testing is so vital, how on earth did those of us who predated the craze ever learn to read and write? On the other, how is it that so many incompetent readers and writers graduate from colleges?

Whatever you think about testing, if you've followed the professional test writing of the NY State Regents, or the incredibly inconsistent and completely unreliable testing of ESL students around the city and state, or even if you've just seen the film Stand and Deliver, you know that test writers are quite capable of human error.

It's vital to have independent organizations like FairTest around to keep their eyes on the test writers.

Thanks..

..to the American Federation of Teachers for showing the good sense, keen discernment and fine taste to add NYC Educator to the blogroll of NCLB-Let's Get it Right.

The Republican Strategy in 06

Things are not looking rosy in Bushworld. The deficit is ballooning, the unnecessary and apparently endless Iraq war is sucking billions, the dollar's value is steadily being degraded, and the "ethics-shmethics" philosophy of the neocons is finally beginning to get some traction in the timid and clumsy mainstream media. Sure, the vice-president went out and shot someone, but that's better than hearing that he authorized Scooter Libby to out a CIA agent. Maybe he's not such an inept hunter after all.

USA Today reports that there will be initiatives in 16 states to ban gay adoption. Forget about Iraq. Forget about all the money we owe China, and continue to borrow. Forget about health care costs, and forget about the Trojan horse of a Medicare prescription plan. Forget that the government is now frantically classifying documents and we're not even allowed to know which agencies are involved.

The thing you need to remember is that only Republicans can protect us from the evils of gay adoption. God forbid these people should care for children unfortunate enough to lack parents.

Though they can't get married or adopt children, they can still pay their full share of state, local, and federal taxes. That, apparently, is one of their remaining civil rights. What's next in the Republican war against homosexuality? Perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to vote. Look for that in '08.

Oddly enough, I'd venture to say that an overwhelming majority of these gay folks came from heterosexual parents. Perhaps we ought to ban heterosexual adoption too, just to make sure.

Death to Ronald MacDonald

I'm in a hotel in Orlando, Florida, where the obesity epidemic seems to have surpassed epidemic proportions. It doesn't seem to bother anyone, as buffets of all sorts are overflowing beyond capacity.

The hotel distributes USA Today, which ran a point/counterpoint about regulating the food industry. One writer argues that regulating advertising is useless, and points to the example of the tobacco industry. He conveniently forgets that tobacco advertising was ended on TV and radio many years ago.

I side with eliminating ads toward kids, as some European nations have done. MacDonald's is an evil empire, seducing children to eat its miserable products and drag their parents along, who doubtless need them even less. In Macdonaldland there's no obesity, no diabetes, no heart problems, and no discernable intelligence or discipline.

I had mixed feelings about the overweight teenagers who sued MacDonald's. Certainly their problem was of their own doing. But every parent who takes a kid to the supermarket is bombarded my a torrent of advertising--Jimmy Neutron and the Rugrats calling from junk-food
boxes to kids, who relentlessly seek cooperation from parents.

Let's end advertising to kids too young to discern between propoganda and reality, and make our country a better and healthier place to live.

Pants on Fire

Mayor Bloomberg is now very publicly moving away from his pledge to build new schools. He claims it's because he isn't receiving the funds promised in the CFE lawsuit.

Governor Pataki is now appealing the lawsuit. While I've mentioned this before, I must point out once again that the governor was willing to pay for most of the lawsuit. The judge specifically said that NYC could be compelled to pay a reasonable share. This is due to Sir Rudy's policy of reducing city aid by precisely whatever amount the state raised it. This shows exactly how much Rudy valued NYC schools.

How much does Mayor Mike value NYC schools? When the judge ruled, CFE suggested the city pay 25%. Governor Pataki suggested 40%. Mayor Blomberg's rep said the city would say "No thank you if compelled to contribute one dime.

It's highly disingenuous to blame the state when Governor Pataki is the only one of these three politicians who's shown a willingness to sacrifice anything whatsoever for NYC's 1.1 million schoolchildren.

A Humble Suggestion

Poor old Chancellor Klein sits around his luxuriously appointed office all day wondering why, oh why are all those teachers so awful. Could it be I don't pay them enough? Nah. My ads all say teaching is a calling, so it can't possibly be about money. Here I am, pulling out my last few hairs trying to figure how to make myself look successful without spending any money.

Well, a South Korean company has its employees wear pajamas to work once a month to stimulate creativity. While that probably won't increase productivity any more than any of his other initiatives, it could perhaps continue giving the impression that he cares.

I mean, why not? It couldn't hurt, right?

Notes from Brunswick, Georgia

Traveling down 95 last night, I saw a few interesting signs:

100% American owned and operated! Pets welcome.

You gotta wonder how many people are xenophobic enough to stay in a literal fleabag hotel just to make sure they don't run into any of those scary foreigners. Or this:

2400 American soldiers dead in Iraq.
11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Bring the soldiers home and have them protect our borders.

I find that remarkable. Even peaceniks are now xenophobes. Were they calling for the expulsion of white Protestants after Tim McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma?

One more:

20 ounce ribeye steak $9.99

I'm wondering how they sell a room like that for a price like that. Till I pass the place and see a big flashing sign that alternates the steak ad with the following:

Big tire sale--buy three get one free

I always wondered what those places did with the old tires. Now I know. They feed them to the xenophobes.

Oh, the Outrage!

A pot smoker complained to police about the poor quality product he'd been sold. Not only that, but his dealer refused to refund his money. The police, apparently, failed to act on this complaint and decided to arrest the pot-smoker instead.

Oh Boy! Where Do I Sign Up?

If you're one of the countless DOE employees smuggling your kids in from those abysmal suburban schools so they can get a first class NYC education, it's your lucky day. Here's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the same deal Lee McCaskill got.

Better hurry up. If you, like McCaskill, happen to appear regularly in the pages of the New York Times, there's the off chance you could get caught.

Is this a cynical ploy to give the appearance of fairness, or does the DOE actually expect to catch someone?

Improved Unacceptable Excuses

I grow weary of student excuses for lateness.

"The bus was late."

"The halls were too crowded."

"I was talking to my counselor. No, he didn't give me a pass."

I taught my ESL students some new things today.

"Boy, this place is hard to find."

"What, this period is English? I could've sworn I had bio this period."

"I must be getting senile."

They'll still be late, and they'll still have terrible excuses. But at least they'll be a bit more interesting.

Unitythink

I received the following anonymous comment from a Unity loyalist. Unfortunately for them, the topics here are not controlled by the autocratic Unity-UFT management. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see why they're unable to respond substantively on Edwize.

You are a bitter old curmudgeon that has nothing better to do than complain.

While name-calling may pass for argument on junior-high playgrounds, it's hardly a substitute for reasonable discourse.

We do live in a democracy. But that doesn't give you the right to yell fire in a movie theater just because you don’t like the movie.

This, apparently, is Unity's most powerful argument. I know this because I've seen it used repeatedly on Edwize. While they imply criticizing Unity is the same as yelling fire in a movie theater, this point boils down to "Shut up."

I will not.

Nor does it give you the right to defecate relentlessly, anytime or any place you feel like it, at least not without consequences.

That's interesting. Our commenter, no longer content with mere invective, has chosen to emphasize the point (shut up) by resorting to the scatological. While some may consider this juvenile approach colorful, it's hardly a substitute for argument.

What you advocate is not democracy, but anarchy.

It's interesting that Unity supporters, who've changed the UFT constitution specifically to preclude democratic election (so the high school teachers couldn't select a non-Unity VP) regard calls to elect new leadership "anarchy." This, again, is baseless name-calling.

Democracies have rule of law and order.

They do indeed. Too bad Unity won't allow high school teachers the right to choose their own leadership. Too bad Randi won't allow the CCs to select UFT workers anymore. It speaks volumes of Unity's interpretation of democracy.

And most importantly, a sense of decorum.

That's code, again, for "Shut up."

I think your biggest problem is that you aren’t on meds, and you need to be, desperately.

The highly prized "sense of decorum," seems to apply only to others, not this commenter. If that's the best retort they can dream up, it's no wonder the censors at Edwize need to work overtime.

You shouldn't be teaching children in that condition.

The commenter suggests criticizing Unity is tantamount to insanity. What on earth could this person be thinking?

Why, oh why would anyone criticize my cozy little double-pension patronage mill? They should enjoy working more hours for, effectively, less pay.

More interesting still is the commenter's implicit assumption that I treat my young students in the same manner as corrupt, ineffectual, self-serving adults.

One can only hope this poster does not treat kids with the same "decorum" shown here.

Teacher Morale

Jules at Mildly Melancholy, for my money, wrote one of the best critiques of the 37.5 minute class that the cowards from EdWize refuse to talk about.

I teach four periods in a row. I am doing instruction for the near-equivalent of four periods. I cannot leave my room between 12.38 and 2.57.This should be illegal.

Know why it's not?

The union, god bless their ignorance, still insists that this "small-group tutoring" is not instruction.

Jules is stuck there continually, without even the possibility of a bathroom break.

She insists she is actually teaching, and I don't doubt it. How ironic and horrible that she has no recourse as a result of the pig-headed stance her own union took while trying to ram the very worst contract I've ever seen down our collective throat. She's "tutoring" low-level math, not her specialty, to needy kids who don't even have books. She wishes "that this whole thing was just a bad dream and no one had to deal with this nonsense."

Unity is tired and decadent. Its propaganda blog, Edwize, refuses to address issues that directly affect teachers and now simply deletes comments that don't follow the party line. So much for free and spirited discussion.

Let's send them to the unemployment lines before they get a chance to do the same to us.

(That is not actually Jules in the picture above. Not yet, anyway.)