While I don't always agree with some things the UFT does I am certain that I support the right and need for its existence. I'm proud to be a teacher and proud to be a Union leader. I hope to share that pride with others through my new role and learn more about it in the near future.
As a teacher in New York City I am happy to be a part of the largest teacher's union in the country: The United Federation of Teachers. Last year I become one of the building representatives of my school (a role we officially call Chapter Leader) and started organizing for my staff. Today we hosted our first meeting of the year focusing on the new certification registration guidelines from the NY State Department of Education. The meeting had a variety of people in it - from teachers to paraprofessionals - who all wanted to know about new policies and procedures to make sure you are up-to-date with certification. I even learned that there is a workshop I need to take to get my professional certificate.
While I don't always agree with some things the UFT does I am certain that I support the right and need for its existence. I'm proud to be a teacher and proud to be a Union leader. I hope to share that pride with others through my new role and learn more about it in the near future.
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Each year I teach new students I try to make sure their thoughts are incorporated in the workings of daily class life. This year that meant a circle-based conversation in which we had students check in with each other, write down how they thought class should run, and then decide together on five norms that overlapped in such a way that they could all agree on them. While there were some concerns here and there overall students in my 8th period class said they would adhere or strive towards the norms written below.
I think norms are a powerful thing to discuss with students at the beginning of the year. If the conversation to craft them is truly open-minded and they feel their voice is heard then they can be powerful tools. While there are situations where teacher-crafted norms are received positively, I believe the process in crafting these is actually more useful in the long run. I'm glad to have crafted these with my students and will continue to refer to them as much as possible. Today was the first day of regular classes at Brooklyn Collaborative. At the beginning of my fourth year at the school and eighth year teaching overall I was still a bit nervous for the day to take shape. It was, perhaps, a good omen that at 9:50am no students were in the hallway - all having found out where their classes were supposed to be and getting there as soon as possible.
Of course, my eighth period class was more difficult - there are always jokesters in a class (I used to be one) and the last period of the day is when they are at their peak. But, I am confident we will be able to move past the issues and get down to work together well. On Friday we had our second All Crew Day to begin the year. Our students our seniors so a lot of the focus of Crew time will be college: researching, applying, questioning, and more. We spent a couple of hours making sure they all had lists of CUNY schools they will be applying to and putting them into a system called Naviance to coordinate their efforts with our college counselor and teachers providing recommendations. Additionally, we had a guest come in to talk about her experience with college applications and share more stories than we have told them already. It was a somewhat grueling day but very focused in the end and almost all students seem ready to really dig in!
Today was the first day of school for the 1 million + students in New York City. At our school we reserve the first two days of school as All Crew Days so that we can transition back to the regular grind and give students a chance to choose their elective classes. Our Crew students - seniors, now - decided to take an outing on the very first day of school.
This was one of the more annoying logistical days since the following happened: 1) Students didn't have their permission slips so we were scrambling to get input from parents. 2) We postponed leaving for our planned trip for the metro cards to be sorted (and then left before they were ready anyway). 3) We realized that the subway pass we had required something called a "Program ID card" which we did not have, so I went back to get it. In the end the day was actually pretty great: despite all the setbacks our Crew was empathetic to our plight and didn't give us a hard time about it. They waited patiently when there were issues and even made some good decisions. They opted to go to Brooklyn Bridge Park instead of the planned Governor's Island trip so we could spend time actually talking about summer and transitioning back to school. It was great. During our staff professional development (PD) time today we had some discussion and built our background knowledge on the mind of the teenager. Their brains are not completely developed (as we already knew) and, in fact, their emotions are actually heightened in sensitivity due to evolution getting our ancestors ready to leave their homes and make way on their own. For that reason it is really important not to take everything they say personally. At the same time, it is really difficult not to take everything they say personally.
It was a great PD and I look forward to learning more together. I remember my first year of teaching at West Philadelphia High School: it was a tough year because I was so new and also the School District of Philadelphia was going through some really tough budgetary stuff as well as a recent change in leadership. At some point I decided to take one photo every day of the sunrise because I got to school around 7:10am and simply faced east. Below is the first photo I took of that time. So this year I decided to do something similar: in my fourth year teaching at Brooklyn Collaborative I am going to take one photo each day of something important and post it here with some commentary. It may be extensive or it may not but it's going to be interesting to me and perhaps to readers of this blog. I hope you enjoy it.
Here is the first photo of this year. It is simply of a circle activity welcoming us back to school at staff crew (we are crew, not passengers) and reminding us of the core values we share and whatever else we need to be mindful of the activities in front of us. I found it rejuvenating and fun to remember that we do this. As I've posted before, it seems that each year I've been teaching in NYC the Teacher's Choice program has gotten a bit of a boost. In 2014-2015 the amount was $56 and in 2015-2016 it was $122. This year it has been increased to $148.
I am happy that this increase is taking place and hope that other schools also have access to a variety of materials from their school building so they don't have to go out and buy as many things for themselves. While $148 is not great, it is better than nothing and certainly on its way to where it should be. Once upon a time it was over $200 but still paled in comparison to the average $500 teachers spend out-of-pocket every year on supplies. Luckily I am still a part of the Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship so I have a budget from them and do not need to dig into my pockets for these costs. But not everyone has that opportunity. I hope we can expand this program and also supply schools with what they really need to do their jobs well. People who read this blog know that I am not a fan of the large charter school networks that exist in the US at the moment. As a resident of Brooklyn I hear about the local ones quite a bit: Success Academy, Uncommon Schools, Achievement First, and more. Probably one of the biggest reasons I dislike these networks is that they consistently get into legal trouble and often try to alternate between defining themselves as public schools with more freedom and private schools with lower tuitions (i.e. none). This battle may have become more decided than ever last Tuesday when the National Labor Relations Board decided that charter schools are not public schools but, in fact, private corporations.
This has been a strange definitions battle for years where opponents of charters have tried to label them as private entities and charter advocates keep emphasizing that they are public. It's particularly strange, however, when a charter organization lobbies for the label of private. In 2013 there was an amicus brief filed by the California Charter Schools Association stating that "nonprofit operators of charter schools are 'private' entities and not a public entity" (p. 9). It was apparently being used to allow certain policies to stay in place. The issue is: you can't have it both ways in accordance with the law. So, this most recent determination has short-term and long-term outcomes. Short-term it means that employees wishing to unionize will do so under the National Labor Relations Act instead of under state laws (as public employees would). Long-term, it might erode some of the standing that larger networks have when they try to label themselves incorrectly. I'm really curious to see where this will lead. |
AuthorI am a math teacher in the New York Department of Education. I infuse technology and real-world problems into my curriculum in order to prepare my students for the future. I would love for people across the country to recognize we teachers can't do it alone. If you don't believe me, come visit my classroom! Contact MeEmail UpdatesArchives
March 2022
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