Why Substitute Teachers?

David Hedges

 LINK
I don't want to be accused of suggesting that I don't need a job, nor that I can be worth every penny the taxpayers spend on me as a teacher, but what really happens in a classroom when a substitute teacher assigned to it is very different from what the taxpayers have the right to expect for their hard earned money.

This is not to say that qualified personnel is needed, and is even in short supply in the school system.  There is an overabundance of inexperienced administrators and teachers who are making the kinds of decisions that they should not be allow make.  The DOE knows this, which is why they have retired principals mentoring and keeping a watchful eye on the young'uns.  Even principals from schools that were closed are coaching the new principals, so extreme the shortage of experienced professionals must be!

A recent experience will help to illustrate my point:

A highly experienced teacher had to be out for a few weeks for medical reasons.  The DOE elected to place a highly experienced ATR in that spot until the regular teacher returned.  The thing is, as soon as students perceive that someone is substituting for their regular teacher, the unwritten code is that that room, or whatever room that substitute teacher is covering, becomes the "free-for-all" room.  And, to boot, every student is given a "get out of jail free" card since no matter how many fights break out between students who either should or should not be in that classroom, no matter how many students pelt the teacher with chalk, rolled paper balls, or threatening verbiage, there won't be any disciplinary consequences or legal remedies.  The students know this because they have seen it in action.  For example, on the second day I was covering this class I asked a student to stop throwing paper balls across the room.  His response: "But I did this yesterday and you didn't say anything."  Had he?  Perhaps he had and I hadn't noticed, since I may have spent those moments asking students to remove themselves from other students' laps, or moving out of the way as students played shuffleboard with chairs and tables.

For several days before the regular teacher left, I observed her class.  I quietly walked around and asked students to write their names on a seating chart and noted their work habits.  By midweek I had learned every students names and seen that they all came to class prepared, had their notebooks open, copied assignments from the board, and in short, had developed the kind of routine one expects of students under the watchful eye of an experienced teacher.  That was true of them on Monday and on Tuesday.  But on Wednesday, when the regular teacher was out and I was there, their behavior changed radically.  The laws of physics don't lie. 

I emulated the regular teacher's style, from the seating arrangement to the way the Do Now was worded on the Smartboard.  The students went bananas.  I had to call in the principal, the dean of students, and both assistant principals.  I was very concerned by the chaos I was witnessing.  Each time an administrator came in I gave him or her then name of the student(s) who were rough housing, or throwing chalk at me, or who were playing shuffleboard with the furniture.  I know you hope that the administrators would have found a disciplinary remedy for the situation, but now, that is not what happened at all.  In fact, there aren't even any "referral" slips, so the infractions aren't even documented.  You see, at the end of the year the UFT Chapter Leader sits with the principal and they tally up the referrals.  If the number of referrals that the administration has is less than the number that had been submitted, there is a problem.  One way of averting any problem is simply to do away with referral slips, or to pretend the infraction never happened, which is pretty much what was going on each time I had to call for back-up.

Students don't take long to figure these things out.  The chaos spread.  Students take it as their right to arrive late, because they wanted to go downstairs and get some water or a soda.  "But you are losing valuable class time," I might say.  Their response: "What difference does it make whether I go before class or during class?"  Perhaps he was right.  Perhaps his last class was closer to the stairwell that takes him to the cafeteria and he saved himself a few minutes by doing it all in one trip.  Smart, right?  Except the collective behavior of a school now makes that the norm.  Even if the better, more efficient decision is right, it is wrong because it causes everyone to presume that it's okay to be late, or play shuffleboard with the classroom furniture, or with the personnel for that matter.

Dummy-down and ego-up is the way school policies are driven.  Where we, in my day, were scolded for social promotion and "enabling" students, now unacceptable behavior is brushed under the carpet so the Superintendent and the Chancellor never get wind of it. 

There are ways of managing classes when a teacher is absent, but the standard approach of the substitute isn't a successful model.  It never has and it never will be. 

There are alternatives: for example, break the class up and reassign the students to classes where other regular teachers are giving lessons.  Even if the student is placed in a trigonometry class when she expects Spanish, the benefits on the child's behavior offset the possible loss of LOTE time.  The help with the overflow, assign the ATR to work with students individually in the library or in the administrator's office.  Temporary rescheduling of a student's program is less harmful than sending them into the "free-for-all" room.  That tradition, the way students behave when a substitute teacher is in charge of the class, is not going to change.  What can change is to recognize the need for pedagogical continuity in the child's life and regroup the students so they won't panic because their teacher is out.

If, however, flexible programming is out of the question, then why not discipline students who act out, instead of making excuses for them and covering up their infractions so the big bosses don't find out?

David Hedges: Tough on Teachers, Soft on Disruptive Students

 

LINK

The current climate that prevails in the Brooklyn High Schools where I have been assigned on weekly rotations is that principals have an systemic incentive to be tough on teachers, but when it comes to handling students who prevent other students from learning, they are very lenient. 

Why would this be?  Well, the age of the weak principal has been ushered in by the data driven leadership.  It's about getting students to graduate.  Hear now: in olden times the students who couldn't cut it became factory workers, mechanics, or gave their lives to their country.  Then came social promotion.  Now, the students who can't behave themselves get every chance in the book (written, probably, by a well-meaning bleeding heart).  The least well behaved students know that they have the principal by the proverbial balls.  Such students now know that the principals are under pressure to kowtow to them.  "If you fail me you'll get fired," is the standard line I hear.  Another popular refrain is to spread rumors.  Teacher X is a racist.  Sorry to say it, but principals are especially likely to water down requirements, and become very worried about their six-digit salaries being a subject of student approval and review. 

With more teachers leaving than ever, even before their salaries make it worth their while to stick it out the real reason intelligent humans become teachers: summers off, of course.  You need a real purpose to get through 180 days of disrespectful treatment.  (Teachers are bookended daily by being belittled and micromanaged by their supervisors, who are, at least in my case, chronological subordinates).  The cult of disrespect must be very catching, for the students join in and presume to be in league with the administration.  Students who may not know enough to pass a Regents exam, but who sure know their way around litigious language and the finer nuances of blackmail. 

Principals are in a tough place: if they are tough on the disruptive ones, they risk losing their numbers (oh, I mean students), and that fancy salary they get.  They also risk being found out as Tweed-brown-nosers.  The nice-guy syndrome is about the only talent it seems to take to keep a job in management.  At every faculty meeting I attend, the unifying motif is how to increase, not improve, student learning.  A well paid administrator preaches to rookie teachers about how their job is on the line unless more kids pass.  Pavlov's dog has everyone by the collar.  Only on one occasion did I hear a very tough principal say that what he wanted to see in the classroom was more creativity in the lessons.  Data-schmaytta, he said, in so many words.  Data doesn't make you a better teacher: creative lessons are what we need, not more data-crap.  He even shunned Cathy Black when she made one of her ridiculous visits. 

Sadly, most of the teachers who aren't ATRs are so nervous about losing their jobs that they forget that teaching is supposed to be the marriage of duty and inclination.  We aren't circus seals trainers, flinching under the ring master's whip.  We are supposed to be the ones who model thinking beyond the Euclidian world and the carpentered horizon of the box.  Even logic is more beautiful than the kind of obedience and intimidation that passes for leadership in most schools nowadays.  With the loss of the older teacher, whether he or she was good or not, the system loses its conscience.  There is nobody left to contextualize the progress anymore.  Are students any brighter or more compassionate now, or are their test scores modified so they feel better about themselves?  I think the leadership academy may just have gone aground, rather than to a better land of learning.

Is it really worth the money?  (Actually, it's not such a fancy salary: if you work out the arithmetic, hourly wage, that is, their salary is just about what a teacher's is, who is getting top pay.  So why is the DOE paying top dollar for principals who don't have as much experience as their veteran teachers?  Why not ask the guy who runs the show, a member of the one-percent.  Gee, maybe there is a reason why principals are coddling the  disruptive ones- as long as they graduate kids whose maximum wage will be the prevailing minimum wage, there's more profit for the one-percenters, isn't there?

ATRs: Have You Been Scanned When You Report To Your Assignment?

DEC

7

 

David Hedges

 

LINK

Are you being scanned before being allowed to report to your assignment?

 

 

A number of ATRs (including me) have had the dehumanizing experience of being scanned and frisked by School Safety at the door of the schools where we are assigned on our weekly rotations.  That is not supposed to happen, ever.  According to the UFT-DOE ATR agreement (printed below), no ATR is ever supposed to be required to submit to scanning on the way to an assignment.

If this happens to you, drop me a line.

We are not supposed to be degraded this way.  It deprives our students of the unprejudiced view that we are professionals, not visitors or intruders.  The quality of their attention is compromised when we are treated differently as separate members of the educational community.  (Remember the "separate by equal" analysis of the Warren Court?  Separate is inherently unequal.)

A teacher who is being treated this way has good reason to feel degraded as if he or she is professionally unwelcome as an ATR. 

I hope this makes your day!

Posted 1 hour ago by David Hedges

David Hedges: UFT v DOE on Missed School Days Due To Sandy

UFT Joins NYSED in Custody Battle Over Our Children

David Hedges

LINK

The latest in the custody battle over our children between the State and the Family

If we can trust the polls, and Paul Volker[1] to quote them accurately, that “four out of five Americans don’t instinctively trust our own government to do the ‘right thing’ even half of the time,”[2] then perhaps we-the-people should question the government’s authority to rule our lives when their policy decision making power seems cross the line.  For example, how much power should the public sector assume it has the right to in determining the agenda of the private lives of the community?  Do families have rights to decide how to spend their free time, or is that up to the government too?  We have boundaries in place, yet the bureaucratic powers that be are bent on invading that domain with no greater rationale than “because I said so.”  People, not bureaucracies have inalienable rights, right?

Yet, in a joint decision between two bureaucratic giants, the United Federation of Teachers and the New York State Education Department, three days in February have been seized to force public schools to meet the mandated 180-day school year.  Those days were lost as a result of hurricane Sandy.[3]

The days that were seized were termed, “vacation” days, but in reality, they are days when the public sector does not impose its agenda on the private sector.  It is boundary, if you will, when the State permits families to spend time with each other, either by going away, or by staying home with each other.  The State takes it as it right to take that time away from the private sector, but the State does not impose this on private schools.  A vacation day, for a child who does not work for a living, is an invaluable part of that child’s development.  Depriving him or her of that private time is wrong in four significant ways: first, it teaches the child that the public sector has the right to seize the private rights of the individual, and second, it requires that a child submit to being co-opted and take the side against his or her parents in the custody battle that divides government and family.  Third, it is bad educational policy for it deprives the child of the time they need to reflect on what he or she has learned and to consider how to improve in ones learning, when school reconvenes.  Fourth, and most importantly, it deprives children of the time they need to socialize with friends and family.  Forcing children into the school building during their vacation deprives children of the time they need for both a healthier cognitive and social developments.  Surely there are better, less intrusive ways to repair the 180-day school year. 

In the wake of the trauma caused by Sandy, students need more, not less family time. During the week when there was no power, heat, and when students lost their homes, they did not run to school for emotional support- they stuck by their families.  They instinctively knew whom they could trust.  And it wasn't the government.  Imposing school-time at the time when family time is so important simply underscores how out of touch with the real lives of real people these bureaucracies, the UFT and NYSED, are. It also provides an insight into why so many people instinctively distrust the government to do the right thing.  Bureaucracies are, by definition, insulated from the consequences of the decisions they make.   They abuse their power and take it away from us because, like the psycho-pathology of the sadist, they cannot feel, so they use their control over others to compensate for what they lack, in an effort to fill the void they have in their own humanity. 

A more effective and balanced approach to restoring instructional time to students who lost it during Sandy would be to add time to the school day.  That would reduce wasted commuting time and reduce the time that students are on the roads, (especially at that time of the year when it is so cold and often snowy).  Roughly calculated, we are talking twenty-one hours of school-time, which applied over two weeks for two hours a day would meet the State’s mandate.  I would recommend using the two weeks just prior to the State’s Regents Exams for extra tutoring and other extra help classes, but it should be up to the schools to address the needs of their students.  I think holding extra classes at the end of the school day would help students achieve better scores on their exams, thus turning a loss into a gain for everyone concerned. 

That ‘s a plan that comes from a fundamental and balanced respect I have for both the private sector and its right to family time, and the mandates of the public school to provide effective and accountable instruction to public school children.  Seizing three days in February will not have any measurable effect on student learning.  As one parent commented, the canceled vacation days will just be baby-sitting days in school.  The impact that extra instructional time can have can be measured when it has a goal or a purpose.  Just adding days without a specific plan that can be verified only contributes to the dysfunctional culture that pervades the public school system, for those days would lack the kind accountability that could provide us, as citizens, with the data we need in order to hold them to the high standards we expect from them.

Here is the opportunity for government to do the right thing.  Frankly, I expect to be disappointed, but hey, you never know.  Comments, anyone?

---

[1] Paul Volker was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1979 to 1987 and the Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board under President Obama during 2009 and 2010.

[2] Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Oct. 9-10, 2003. N=1,004 adults nationwide. .

"Generally speaking, how often do you think you can trust the government to do what's right? Can you trust the government most of the time, only some of the time, hardly ever, or never?

Most of the time                                    27%

Some of the time                                   52%

Hardly ever                                            13%

Never                                                      6%

Unsure                                                    2%

[3] The New York Times: “Storm Prompts New York City’s Schools to Cancel 3 Days Off” by By JENNY ANDERSON Published: November 19, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/education/3-february-vacation-days-to-be-canceled-in-new-york-city-schools.html?_r=0

From David Hedges: ATR Without ADA Rights

Dedicated To All ATRs In NYC
LINK

David Hedges

As an ATR I reported to a high school in Brooklyn and was told that my program for the week required that I teach four consecutive periods with no time for a bathroom break.  I
am entitled to a bathroom break under the ADA and is enforced by the Medical office of the DOE.  The principal, Michael Alexander overruled those directives, claiming that a private arrangement he had made with a teacher on maternity leave preempted my rights under the OEO and trumped my rights under the UFT/DOE agreement.  Shame on you Michael Alexander!

Mr. Alexander,

After I alerted you to the fact that your private arrangement with a teacher in your school does not trump OEO and UFT requirements, you did not modify my program and comply with the Accommodation that I am entitled to under ADA law.  As a result of complying with your directive I became ill, since you saw to it that my entitlement to a bathroom break was ignored.  This was after we had presented the issue to the school's chapter leader!

Mr. Brewton from the OEO has responded to my complaint and has written that he will pursue the matter from his office.  You will hear from him.

As of the time of this writing I am unsure if my health will permit my appearance in your school tomorrow.  

I would be remiss if I did not add that whatever your private arrangements with your staff are, they are of absolutely no relevancy to me, nor to my rights under the ADA law and the DOE/UFT agreement.  Your ardent indifference is, in my view, an irresponsible abuse of your authority.

Sincerely,

David Hedges

A copy of this letter was sent to OEO, UFT, and now to you, my dear readers.

Absent Teacher Uniform Assignment Format

Reposted from a terrific blog, 

Dedicated to All ATRs in NYC by David Hedges

LINK

Whether or you have been in the ATR pool for a long time or you are new to us and this is your third school so far this year, I want to reassure you that being an ATR is not just a wonderful opportunity for your own professional development but also, that your unique placement in each school can make a real difference in the lives of the students and the other teachers you meet.

We are the itinerate ambassadors of a learning culture from the past that modeled and taught the ideal of self-renewal.  We are rapidly becoming archaic and have very little time left in which we can transmit a sense of urgent purpose that is not data driven, but grounded in Humanism.

Most of us in the ATR pool are veteran teachers.  For instance, we are experienced in guiding students toward serving their long-term self-interests without being confrontational and without resorting to the “because I said so” attitude.  We have a lot to offer the younger teachers who are under a lot of pressure to take responsibility for things that are beyond their control, such as test scores and family problems that spill over into the classroom. [1]

 Younger teachers entering the system do not have the advantages that we had.  They don’t spend the first few days of professional development hearing pep talks about education. They are given the Teachers’ Handbook, told to analyze data, instructed to think like a computer programmer or a statistician so they can use ARIS effectively, and then, if time allows, inspect the book room for ideas.

Data driven instruction, like market driven corporation puts balance sheets first, and attends to the human experience after all the numbers have had their say.  A Social Studies teacher at a very good school in Brooklyn who has the reputation with his students and colleagues of being able to tell stories from history that capture everyone’s imagination, told me that his gift at making history come alive is actually viewed as a defect to his teaching by his supervisor.  Teachers are leaving NYC because we don’t want to be instructional marketing specialists.  We want to share that feeling of aliveness that comes when you are part of a community of people who love what you love: education. 

I entered the teaching profession for a number of reasons, but the most significant one nowadays is that I wanted to inspire students to learn without tests or grades as a motivation.  Intrinsic values, rather than extrinsic ones were the currency in my classroom economy.  My feeling was that everyone could earn a high grade.   I was lucky to have had teachers who were more inspiring than the grades were.  They taught me about learning contracts and showed me that if I set my own goals, rather than teach myself to submit to those of others, and do my best to meet them, then would be no reason why I can’t earn the highest grade I want.  I was taught to confront one of the most challenging existential crises very early.  A different zeitgeist haunted our consciences during the 1960’s and 1970’s.  Silberman’s Crisis in the Classroom is still excellent reading.

Now, back to what I set out to talk about with you.  We, as ATRs, are a specialized department onto ourselves and we have no support but that which we provide for ourselves.  In fact, we have to do this job in an even more hostile working environment than our juniors.  We don’t even get to have real pre-observation conferences nor have we a UFT chapter leader who knows how to keep the administration on the leash.  No community, no support, and higher risks for unruly classes and U ratings.

What we might do is create a “Uniform Absent Teacher Lesson” for each subject and grade.  Schools should have a uniform sub-lesson format so that students can recognize it instantly and comply with it, knowing that they will be held accountable.  As it stands, the absent teacher lessons are the weakest link in the instructional chain.  Imagine, in contrast, if, when a teacher is absent, students are provided with a standard format- a booklet that states, in plain language, what the learning objectives are, enumerates each step of the procedures, and includes a rubric for student reflection that (a) helps them to identify their strengths and (b) suggests alternative paths that may lead them toward even better results in the future.

I am including a link to an excellent self-contained Earth Science lab that has all of the qualities that I think belong in a good substitute lesson activity:

http://learnearthscience.com/pages/For_Teachers/Labs/cyclicchangelab.pdf

The cover page of the document might emulate the New York State Regents Examination. (see below)

ABSENT TEACHER IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT

The New York City Department of Education Department of Curriculum Development MANDATORY IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT IN [Insert subject area here] For [Insert teacher’s name here] A separate answer sheet has been provided for you. Follow the instructions for completing the student information on your answer sheet. You must also fill in the heading on each page of your essay booklet that has a space for it, and write your name at the top of each sheet of scrap paper. If a Scantron is provided, be sure you answer all the questions in this assignment and write your name on the Scantron sheet in the appropriate place. Remember, stray markings scanned as wrong answers and will adversely affect your grade. This assignment tests your ability to work independently. Read all directions carefully.  Learning Objectives:  By the end of this assignment you will be able to [insert specific subject area’s objective here] Procedure: Rubric: Shows evidence of being able to read and follow directions

The ATR System is NOT Rational

The post below is from David Hedges, editor of the blog Dedicated To All ATRS in NYC

David Hedges

"My Way or the Highway"

 

A little homework, unless homework assignments are against the law...

Try this question out on people you know and on a few you don't:

"Do you think moving teachers from one school to a different school every week, for the whole year, is a wise way of running a school system?"

Psst: On the surface, it looks like a dumb question, but Bloomberg's DOE has been doing exactly that with its senior faculty members- the ones who were the most loyal to the profession, those who had stuck by the more challenging schools, even the schools were in serious academic trouble.  Teachers cannot wait for the DOE to help them.  The only "help" Bloomberg's DOE knows how to give is to close the schools and reassign the excessed teachers with degrading jobs as substitutes.  Is this the private sector's only contribution to public education?  Fire the teachers?  Turn the voters against the teachers?  Whisper sweet promises to the parents and use teachers as the scape-goat.  Scape-goating one part of the population while coddling the other, smacks of a dangerous precedent.  Perhaps the mayor isn't at fault: he's just encouraged by a group of grinning idiots?

After Bloomberg tires of blaming the teachers, might he go after the students, next, for spoiling his plans?  Grumpy Mike, stop blaming everybody else and look at your plan, from a civil, pragmatic point of view.  You wouldn't last an hour as an ATR.  I don't think you'd be making all kinds of political promises to Speaker Quinn to stay in the job as an ATR for an extra term, now would ya?

The people, the voters, the parents, and the students, need to get Bloomberg back on the collar.  His policies have run rabid.  He is far to insulated from the consequences of his decisions to be trusted as a decision maker for our future.  He's a boss, not an educator.  The essential question is, what have we learned about what politicians do when they get all the power they ask for?

Ask your friends.  Post their comments. 

Thank you.