Vision. God, I'm going to go lie down now. And wasn't Castaneda all about jimson weed?
Ya know, I tried to read one of those books a long time ago, and couldn't. There was something about taking a dead lizard, waiting for it to turn to powder, placing it in a bag and burying it under a cactus somewhere in the desert.
Though I knew a lot of people who liked those books, I couldn't bring myself to read another page.
Great post! The only vision that this mayor has is more power for him, less power for the people, and more wealth for the wealthy.
I work in a horribly overcrowded school that is crumbling, leaking and in terrible shape. The school is rat infested and has very few working bathrooms for students or staff.
The mayor thinks that learning here in such decay is appropriate and that we all need to look away (have no vision) of our physical plant.
The schools have now become slums and the mayor is the slumlord. I think all the Tweedies need to move out of their wonderful building and work here.
Know what it's like to teach and then have a rat or two or three run across your classroom???
Great vision, Mayor Mike!
It's sad to see good, valuable ideas--such as having a vision and mission--perverted and turned into weapons. My first introduction to such a turn was when my wife's company embraced the 'Fish! Philosophy'. She was having some serious difficulties due to people leaving and their tasks simply being reassigned. Her supervisor's response? 'You're not making it fun.' (If you've not read or aren't familiar with the book(s), it can all be boiled down to 'smile while you eat %^&*'.)
The problem is that it becomes like 'educational research.' Each bad iteration becomes further proof that 'it won't work,' so pretty soon people are left believing nothing will work and there's no hope, so why bother anyway. Five years from now, people will say, 'We tried the vision thing and look where that got us.' But in reality, no one tried the vision thing, they just cynically adopted the language in an attempt to push through their agenda.
Sorry ... I should have reread before I hit 'publish.' I've overused the third person plural pronoun and confused the victims (teachers) and the victimizers (Mayor Mike and his cronies.)
Principal Suit told me that I did not share his vision and that I should think about transferring to another school. Needeless to say, iI and stayed where I.
Years ago it was the Mission Statement, now it's the vision.
And the principal decides on the "vision".
Teachers deserve what they get if they are not going to stand up to the UFT.
In my own "vision" I see Mayor Mike "Napoleon" Bloomberg changed into a junkyard dog and chained up next to a burning pile of tires. We all know what the burning tires represent. How's that for vision? What the heck is "vision" anyway? I definitely don't share Bloomberg's "vision" of privatizing New York City schools, for instance. I don't share his "vision" of using the NYC public school system as his family's and friends' contract mill and cash cow. I don't share his "vision" of disrespecting basic democratic ideas while instituting a surveillance program targetting teachers who are unaware of this unbelievable development. This is so 1984ish that the thought of it is making me physically ill. Where is the media except in the palm of his hand with all this going on?
"Know what it's like to teach and then have a rat or two or three run across your classroom???"
Don't you know you're supposed to test them.
Klein is holding a press briefing tomorrow at 11:30 at Tweed. Got any good questions for me to ask him? No cursing.
Norm,
Ask him if teaching in a rat and roach infested building should be factored in when assessing teacher performance?
And what is his administration doing to make sure all schools are a clean and healthy place for children to learn and teachers to teach.
Then ask him why he is using Joseph McCarthy tactics to review teachers.
Norm
Could you ask how they assess the validity of the NYS tests? I know the city doesn't write them, but the city obsessively uses them in a perverse fashion.
I am talking about the fact that a kid can take the same grade level test from different years and get vastly different scores.
1. Ask him if he has ever recommended an "A" rated NYC public school to any of his friends who have school-aged children.
2. Ask him what his favorite part of school was when he was younger. Was it testing?
Ask him if a child that normally tests well comes in sick the day of the test and blows the exam should count towards that teacher's "rating", because the kid was so damned scared to miss "the test" (insert ominous sounding music here).
"Mayor Mike "Napoleon" Bloomberg"
That's size-ist! Or height-ist! Or something like that ...
Heaven forbid our schools have visions! What will we do when there is actually some direction in the schools?
Of course, a vision statement is just a start, but high-performing organizations all have vision statements, and so should schools.
And heaven forbid you should actually read the article before commenting on it. The writer clearly suggested that truly substantive changes were prohibited from these visions.
The press briefing was all about the Principal Satisfaction survey and how much principals love what BloomKlein are doing so questions were limited to that.
I did find one area where 55% said they were dissatisfied with the amount of technology in their schools - as a tech person I've heard from my former colleagues that since Klein took over the state of computers has been a disaster in many schools and I tied the question to how can he expect teachers to check results of tests online during a limited school day when there's is such poor computer access and doesn't this mean they have to do it at home?
He responded that my info was based on urban legends. My next question would have been "Will you do a similar survey on teacher satisfaction" but he called on Art McFarland from ABC instead for the last question.
Klein claimed the Principal surveys were anon but one reporter told me they must be able to trace them - so even some of them are skeptical. In addition, every contact I have who talk to principals and even those above them - say they are very dissatisified with the BloomKlein changes - other than those corporate types they've brought in.
I got an email from someone who reads my Wave columns and urged me to keep up the vigilant work. Turns out that person actually works at Tweed in some titled position. So there's unhappiness in the belly of the beast.
On a social note, our old friend Redhog was at the press briefing for the NY Teacher.
One more thing:
Monday at 6pm there's a PEP meeting at Tweed. If you sign up a 5:30 you can get 2 minutes to say what you want to Klein. And also watch Patrick Sullivan raise some issues. TAGNYC will also be there to speak about rubber room/ATR stuff.
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