Login to Change.org
Create an Account
NYC Educator
Recent Activity
-
NYC commented on the article |Forget about individual episodes. You have to see the complete thing from beginning to end, and you can rent or buy the complete series. The season on school is particularly of interest to teachers, but the entire series is incredible. It's really better than anything I've ever seen on TV.
-
NYC commented on the article |Unfortunately, the media gives far too little attention to serious voices like Ravitch, preferring to serve as a PR valve for billionaires like Bloomberg, Gates, Broad and the Waltons.
-
NYC commented on the article |Ms. Weingarten was instrumental in bringing the no-tenure, no-seniority rights Green Dot to NY. Though her minions claim its "just cause" provision is better than tenure, they've not been able to produce a single example of its being tested, let alone having protected a single teacher position. Also, when I ask about it on Edwize, the blog my union dues pay for, they will not print my comment.
Ms. Weingarten is most certainly a "reformer," and is regularly applauded by those who urge "reforms," most prominently ex-US Secretary of Education and falsifier of "Texas Miracle" Rod Paige. -
NYC commented on the article |Here's how reform should look.
1. Good teachers
2. Reasonable class sizes
3. Decent facilities
I know it's just a dream, but I'd also like to see people who run school districts patronize them. There's something off-putting about hearing Joel Klein and Mike Bloomberg constantly stating class size doesn't matter, taking hundreds of millions to reduce class size, failing utterly to do so, and sending their own kids to private schools with classes of 14, while city classes run to 34 and sometimes higher. -
NYC commented on the article |
"No one method is best for all but for all there is a best method."
I like that thought very much. It runs counter to the one-size-fits-all philosophies that I've heard at virtually every staff meeting I've attended in the 24 years I've been teaching. Every year there is some new revolutionary notion that precludes every old revolutionary notion, specifically including the ones they were pushing the previous year.
I'd say, in fact, that the best teachers I've seen and known, have their own styles and voices. There really is no one way to do things, and I find it amazing that so many people look for a magic bullet.
I loved Catch-22, but not everyone writes like Heller did. I love an awful lot of other writers of all different styles. I read Frank McCourt and can't help but imagine he was a brilliant teacher. To expect everyone to be like him, though, would be ridiculous. -
NYC commented on the article |
Should read, "Mr. Gates knows very little about what he's discussing." Sorry for the rough editing.
-
NYC commented on the article |
Thanks for the kind words. I like your stuff too, and just added you to my blogroll.
I'm afraid listening to Mr. Gates pontificate for 20 minutes is beyond the pale for me. I've skipped his ruminations on mosquitoes, and heard his thoughts on good teachers, though.
Mr. Gates knows very little idea what he's discussing. The situations regular public school teachers deal with are various, and the notion that experience plays no part in dealing with what comes up is preposterous. The notion that test scores are all we deal with is idiotic, as is the notion that just anyone can control 34 city kids at a time. The notion that public school teachers do not run around and engage kids is equally preposterous, as is the notion that such behavior is extraordinary. I do it every day.
It's telling that Mr. Gates speaks of public school teacher retention, but neglects utterly to examine KIPP in that respect. Interesting that the KIPP population, consisting 100% of kids with proactive parents, is compared directly to public school, which takes absolutely everyone. Interesting Mr. Gates failed to note the dropout rate at KIPP, or the fact that those who leave are not replaced.
Sorry, but it's a hell of a lot easier to control and maintain a class under a private school or KIPP environment, and I don't think for a minute Mr. Gates, self-styled expert, could handle my kids or my job.
It's nice to have billionaires, whose kids wouldn't attend public schools on a bet, running around stating what they think should be done about public education. Mr. Gates, of course, has no idea why the Nassau schools five minutes away from NYC do as well as KIPP without union-busting, or kids and teachers working preposterously long weeks. I could tell him, if he weren't already so in love with Jay Matthews.
I don't think folks like Gates or the Walmart heirs have our kids' interests at heart. I heard nothing new or surprising from Gates. I've watched his "reforms" in action, and aside from much-enhanced PR and larger-scale rigging of stats, there's not a whole lot to jump up and down about. -
NYC commented on the article |
Personally, I'm not awfully impressed with folks like Gates and Broad, who enable "reforms" with seed money and then dump the bulk of the costs onto the taxpayers. This is particularly egregious since Bill might later decide things like his small schools initiative don't actually work.
Here in NYC, a recipient of Gates' largesse, we have the highest class sizes in the state, "small schools" are actually sitting in the large schools Chancellor Klein has closed, albeit with 4 or 5 additional layers of legislation, and I teach in a trailer behind a building the Chancellor has seen fit to fill to 250% capacity. I suppose we can simply keep shoveling kids in until the school either fails or bursts, but overall I'm less than enthusiastic about the myopic nonsense that's done in Mr. Gates' name.
Impact
0 Actions
0 Recruits