After the horror show of my last school, I was placed in a very nice neighborhood small school. The school was carved out of thier middle school and the vast majority of students come from the middle school. The school is out-of-the-way from most other areas of Queens and there appears to be some selective weeding of out of the neighborhood students who have discipline or academic issues.
The students are well behaved and have been trained in the middle school to not enter a classroom until the teacher gives them permission to do so. The halls are clear of wandering students and the hallway Dean looks bored to death. They are very respectful to the teachers and the school's Administration praises the teachers publicly for their efforts. The respectful nature of the students and supportive Administration is a breath of fresh air after surviving the previous school. Better yet, there is available parking near the school and the rooms are loaded with technology. What was most impressive was that the students never took out their cellphones or ipads during my week there. Furthermore, no hats, hoodies, or sagging pants. Wow!
There are some downsides to the school. The Principal, who really is a good person, has gently encouraged teachers to have at least a 90% passing percentage otherwise he might make more frequent visits to the teacher's class, not nice. Moreover, he just loves technology and some teachers are questioning whether too much technology is a crutch and not an aid to student learning. He also demands that the classes do a pretest before giving the actual test. Many teachers are uncomfortable with the pretest issue since it results in grade inflation and doesn't contribute to student learning as it substitutes more test preparation at the expense of student understanding of the subject.
Overall this is a good school and I would gladly work there. However, if you take mass transit, good luck getting there.
GRADE "B"
that is the reason why the school is nice and good.
ReplyDeletecan't wait until I start getting placed in schools that I can't get to via mass transit - so far so good but I know they are coming. I also know that I will not be waking up at 5AM to travel hours to sit and do nothing all day. I will get there when I get there. We do have those 3 hours of leeway time...they will come in handy. Had a funny conversation with some very sympathetic teachers at my school today - next stop - they will have the ATRs changing schools daily - and then finally period by period - looking forward to it and I wouldn't put it past these (expletive!)
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see you had a better week. Love the concept of this blog!
ReplyDeleteGood luck next week, and I'm very sorry you have to go through such nonsense.
Period to period is so funnnnyyyyyy Really! What do you mean 3 hours leeway?
ReplyDeleteI think Anon meant that teachers have a combined number of hours (3) before they can legally be written up for constantly being late. I may be wrong, but that's what I think it means.
ReplyDeleteThen again, if a school is really bad, I suppose you can use your 10 days absence leeway. Just have doctor's notes.
yes that is what I meant - We have 3 hours to leave early or be late before we have to start using our days. Good thing I banked a lot of them. Glad I gave you a laugh -we all laughed too!
ReplyDeleteI am saving my days for the worst schools and snowy days. Gonna be a looongggg winter!
ReplyDeleteCould you imagine all schools with students behaving in that manner, no disruption because electronic devices, technology up to the whazoo, parking space for everyone, administration being supportive?
ReplyDeleteBut, it's so sad that 90% passing rate is nothing else but social promotion and the high schools get hit the hardest.
It's good to know that you had a great week there. May all the ATRs experience the same joy.
It is the students who make a school disruptive and a failure. Take the students from Tottenville HS and put them in Boys and Girls HS and watch that school succeed as you turn Tottenville into a failure when the students of Boys and Girls take up residency! When the kids don't care and the parents don't care you need a magician to make the school succeed.....
ReplyDeleteYour idea of writing this blog is brilliant. As a regular sub (retired early childhood teacher), I can never believe what we see in our daily rounds! We are like "flies on the wall", as no-one really notices us, while we see everything... There are some really bad situations, as well as some resoundingly good ones. The lack of continuity and a consistent curriculum for the children is a disgrace this year, with so many vacancies and the lack of staff being hired to permanent positions. This will bring down an already fragile system. And only an ATR can really speak up!!!
ReplyDeleteParents need to stay tuned.
ReplyDeleteI want to do a class action for the ATR's as I did for those who passed through the RR. I would like a few more lead plaintiffs, one or two more who got there after being convicted at 3020-a's, a few who were excessed into ATRdom from an ongoing school, and a few who were excessed upon school reorganization. I would like to have a meeting of all those who would like to be lead plaintiffs (and become the only plaintiffs if the class is not certified). If you have ever been an ATR and feel it was unfair,contact me, if you know an ATR who feels this way, have them contact me. If you are a public official, reporter, or union official and would be able to assist me please publicize or prosecute or hold hearing on this, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU
JOY HOCHSTADT
Also have any tenured educators been laid off let me know if they have.
Please pass this along to ATRs and any laid off!
Joy
contact her at joy.hochstadt.pc.gmail.com
Love your blog. I became an ATR this July. Now that we travel on a weekly basis, it's good to have a forum where we can share experiences. It helps to know what others in my position go through. More power to you
ReplyDeleteAs entertaining as this blog is, I am envious that while I have to plan lessons, grade homework, do my data analysis, and all of that, all you do is whine about how far you will have to travel next week. I will trade you an hour of commute each day for all I have to do at any time.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding??????? Most of us would trade places with you in a heartbeat! I have just become an ATR in September and I hate it. I would love to have my own class again...if you hate your job so much why don't you call me and we can trade places???? How bout that????
ReplyDeleteand why are you reading this blog??? You really made me angry with your ridiculous post....
ReplyDeletei love being an ATR, really do! at first it bothered me, but to not have to be responsible for anything or to anyone is definitely worth it. while other 'real' teachers are doing ridiculous amounts of paper work, data analysis, goal setting, pretending to use smartboards, listen to administration rhetoric bs, doing report cards(aka passing everyone), staying for faculty conferences and parent teacher night, I am reading a book each week and have not had to raise my voice at all. I act as dumb as can be and get paid every 2 weeks. what a good life! this is better than when I was an ATR last year b/c last year, I got stuck doing leave replacements when a guy had jury duty, medical leave, maternity leave etc and that sucked. it wasn't my class from the get go and I had to hear about management issues. now, being moved from week to week, that will not occur!
ReplyDeleteI am bored to death! How much can I read? I hate having to check on Thursday to see my placement next week, I hate to have to "sub" and get no respect! I don't miss the bs though that comes with having to be accountable for kids who don't want to do the work but still want to pass...and the administration wants us to pass!
ReplyDeleteWhat are you talking about, anonymous? who cares about getting respect from the rest of the staff? i certainly do not. i find it easier to deal w/ the kids b/c you aren't trying to get them to do anything. where else can we make full salary as a babysitter? who cares how it looks? not our fault. they want me to teach full time, i'll teach. until then, i'll do as little as possible. i have had zero stress this year.
ReplyDeleteI can understand "Vet" teacher's comment--especially if this person has very little time left before retirement. A teacher at my former school who just became an ATR feels the same way--but she also told me they can only sub in her license area. I think she will soon find out, that is not the truth. And she has turned down positions because she has seen how crazy the workload has become. I am not sure I can fault her on that. But when I asked her if she would feel this way if she only had 15 years in the system, and had to do this for 15 more, she understood that it wouldn't be a breeze.
ReplyDeleteI for one hate that the UFT is in a way pitting teacher against teacher. Those with classrooms see this as unfair because ATRs are still getting paid for not doing any paperwork or having the responsibility to get a class to pass tests. And I believe the majority of ATRs would jump at the chance to change places.
The thing classroom teachers and Vet teacher doesn't understand is that this ATR issue will be a bone on contention in the next contract--especially under a Bloomberg contract. The UFT will claim they did all they could for the ATRs and then wave as they throw them under the bus. ATRs know this and its frightening. If you recall, the original negotiation called for the firing of an ATR if they didn't secure a position through the open market. When that didn't work, Klein ordered all principals not to hire ATRs and the union stood by silently. (You can check this fact out in the NYTimes archives).
So let's not come down hard on the classroom teacher who has daily pressures--because those pressures like yours are real. Understand her point and she/he will understand yours. The sad part is, as more schools close and more teachers are excessed, the ATR pool will grow and it really won't make sense to keep an ATR pool. Either the UFT will have to fight to bring back excessing rights, or as I said, throw you guys under the bus--and that's a pressure any classroom teacher would not like to have happen to them.