Those were my sentiments exactly. The first time I voted, Klein was tied for D and F. I looked a day later and he was making straight A's.
If my students did that, they would be disqualified from the exam for cheating.
Maybe Klein has granted a no-bid contract to a chancellor-rating service in exchange for empty praise?
Just another fine example of how well the DOE knows Klein is doing his job. Bravo!
Last week, NY 1 interviewed Klein and aired the segment on Sunday, the fifth anniversary of Klein's chancellorship. Klein was asked about class size and he said (and this is almost a quote): "Any idiot can lower class size. The trick is to lower class size and raise teacher quality at the same time."
If any idiot can lower class size, how come he and Mayor Moneybags can't seem to do it, even when they get a bunch of extra money from the state?
Oh, wait - I know.
Because they don't want to lower class size. They'd rather add more standardized tests, continue hiring new teachers as they push the veteran ones out the door, and work with the UFT leadership to undercut work protections, increase the school day/year, manipulate the test scores so that they look better than they are and declare Mayor Moneybags' education reforms "Extraordinary successes!"
This is the first school year I am dreading going back. Not because of facing students or anything like that...
I think that this reorganization is going to be a sucker punch right in the guts of teachers. With this reorganization, Klein has shirked all responsibility. It is the principal who will be fired if test scores (I am so god-damned sick of all this testing! All we now do is teach towards the test and that is not real learning!!! It is joyless for the students and for me!). Thus, the principals are all going to be on the prowl to give "U's", cover their asses and attack teachers.
Staff development, which has always been serious joke (and the biggest joke is always the UFT Teacher center, anyway!), is going to be stressed even more. I really dread Thursday and Friday. It will be boring and a huge waste of time ... and it is going to ruin Labor Day weekend.
I'd give Mr. Klein an "A" only if it meant a**hole. Oh, and when are we going to get a pole from NY One about Randi Weingarten? How many years has she been in office?
Should there be term limits to her office? Even the presidency of the US has term limits.
Oops..I didn't mean a pole from NY one...
I obviously meant a "Poll".
Miss Randi is looking at becoming head of the AFT, I think, but there's probably someone even worse ready to take her place.
Is this contract over in a few months time????? What givebacks are coming down the road this time?
This contract is over in October 12, 2007, and then, of course, we have the contract that nobody knew was being negotiated that's up in October of 2009 (I think- I couldn't find the starting and ending dates).
My question is this- the big sell for this upcoming contract was that we wouldn't have to negotiate with Bloomberg again. What's stopping Randi "I blog with no comments" W from negotiating with him now? There was absolutely no reason to negotiate a contract with him when there was a full year remaining on the 2005 contract.
If the contract is over in October 2007, then why are we getting another contractual raise in May? Do raises from one contract period generally overlap with a new contract period?
The 2005 contract is over in October -the 2008 raise is from the contract negotiated last year (I think).
Can somebody clarify?
Never mind- I found it- the 2006 contract runs from October 13, 2007 through October 31, 2009.
The raises are now in October and again in May. Those are posted. Where's the rest of the next contract? Is it posted somewhere?
http://www.uft.org/member/contra.../moa/moa_nov06/
This is the extent of what was posted on the UFT website.
Then why does the contract book that was mailed to us say 2007?
btw you can comment on Randi's blog over at Edwize because it's reprinted there.
Randi now has 2 posts on Edwize with no one commenting yet. She's upset that teachers do not have a say or have smaller class sizes. Yet she is the one who took away our due process rights which would have given us a say and didn't make class size part of the contract. Her second post in about Green Dot charters because they give teachers a say. So rather than negotiate a contract that would ensure all NYC school teachers are respected, she has to turn to an outside source.
I'd go over to Edwize and thank her for stealing five days from my summer vacation, but they'd just delete my comment.
They need to change the name from Edwize to Edstupid (or perhaps Edstoopid since Randi and her sycophants love to misspell words).
Well I did post! and even though it says "no comments yet", my comment to Randi is still there.
Just looking for a place to pose this Q. Has anyone noticed the Aug 31 payment date on the summer checks. This means that we will be working two days into the new school year before we are fully compensated for the old year.
In the old days the Aug check would be kept until we returned. But I thought we had eliminated that unfair and inconvenient practice.
Leonie Haimson Comments on ATRs & Teaching Fellows surplus from Klein's Principals' Weekly. If you didn't see it email me and I'll forward you a copy: norscot@aol.com
Interesting section below on DOE plans for ATR teachers – those teachers who have been “excessed” out of their previous jobs but not been hired by other schools to fill openings. These teachers re still being funded at full pay by Inter and will now be assigned to schools to be used as “coverage” for absent teachers. The number of these teachers have probably reached 1000 or more – and the costs of this have risen to many millions. Before Klein et al., these teachers had to be hired if there were openings in schools, rather than brand-new teachers.
Before Klein had derided these experienced teachers as less qualified or somehow substandard – just because their schools may have been phased out. The fact that principals had not hired them elsewhere is not surprising – especially as the new funding system has created a financial incentive not to take them on, since starting this fall, their higher salaries will come out of the school’s budget. The administration may now be realizing the immense blunder and inefficiencies that their new system has created. See below:
“It is important that ATR teachers be used productively until they are hired for regular positions so that students benefit and so that ATR positions do not create extraordinary costs that could limit funding that would otherwise be available to schools for a variety of purposes. You should supervise ATR teachers at the same level you supervise teachers on your regular staff. Teachers who perform well in their ATR role may be good candidates for vacancies that arise during the school year.”
They may also have taken on too many Teaching fellows – see below: “
Teaching Fellows are now available for schools to screen and interview for fall vacancies. Most of these new Fellows are in high-need subject areas, including special education, math, ESL, English, Spanish, bilingual common branches, and bilingual special education….You can search for available Fellows in your borough online using “Fellow Finder” at www.nycteachingfellwww.nycteachingfwww. The website lets you view resumes, schedule interviews or open houses, and notify eligible Fellows of job opportunities. Fellows will also be attending upcoming job fairs on July 25 (. The schools) and August 7 (citywide).
Yet these dates are long past. This plus the section on ATR’s puts even more at doubt their claim that class sizes cannot be reduced – especially in certain subjects – because of a shortage of qualified applicants. How many qualified teaching fellows and/or ATR teachers are now still w/out jobs? While hundreds of thousands of kids will be sitting in classes of 30 or more this fall?
You’d probably have to do a FOIL request to get this info out of Tweed.
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