tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post1541108122253357841..comments2024-03-29T04:34:05.185-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: Weingarten Explains WTH #TeachStrongPeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-92033970230580360932015-11-28T09:22:26.082-05:002015-11-28T09:22:26.082-05:00Thanks.Thanks.Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-64829852138003943582015-11-15T10:02:08.602-05:002015-11-15T10:02:08.602-05:00Here's the link to the survey.
http://www.af...Here's the link to the survey. <br />http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/worklifesurveyresults2015.pdf<br /><br />The Atlantic article was one of many that mentioned the survey, but in a particularly negative fashion.<br /><br />I am not certain what link you followed, but the above link from Google is for real.Wilphilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03975511459410512442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-19535645540412746392015-11-14T18:53:09.569-05:002015-11-14T18:53:09.569-05:00Thank you for all you do. You guys are the real wa...Thank you for all you do. You guys are the real warriors.<br /><br />I also thought it was strange and rather appalling that Randi's Quality of Work Life Survey link, which I thought would lead to the actual report or at least something substantive, leads to an article in The Atlantic that only talks about how teachers don't get bathroom breaks, and trivializes even that, suggesting teachers are crybaby wusses. It's inexplicable to me that Randi would link to that, and it makes me quite angry. Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-58256996242516628862015-11-14T04:27:43.159-05:002015-11-14T04:27:43.159-05:00Peter,
You left out one of Rocketship's and ...Peter, <br /><br />You left out one of Rocketship's and Danner's biggest pedagogical innovations ... <br /><br /> .... synchronized group line dancing ... <br /><br /> ... where the entire student body starts every day with a synchronized line dance with music blasting through their gym... every morning this is how they "launch" the day at Rocketship (often with sexually suggestive music and dance movements... hmmm... ):<br /><br />(8:00)<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyHMkIIZ2fA<br /><br />Notice how --- as with the drab uniforms, as with plunking kids down in from of a computer for hours at a time with identical lessons --- this synchronized, robotic routine nurtures each black and brown child's unique differences and individuality.<br /><br />Welcome to Jonestown!<br /><br />And all the teachers look aged 25 and under... hey, you don't want any o' those veteran teachers, with their "failed status quo" thinking and ways, let into your school to stifle your brilliant attempts at "innovation." <br /><br />And as a bonus, you don't have to pay the young staff that much ... as almost all of them them are totally lacking in prior education or state credentials n teaching. They're just "facilitators" who walk the kids to computers, and do nothing while the kids sit and absorb Danner's computerized innovations.<br /><br />Here's another Rocketship morning "launched" with line dancing:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IrsW7nlvcs<br /><br />or here ...<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spt14NgRtJU<br /><br />You'd think that this brilliant "line dancing" innovation would be snapped up by the kids at wealthy private schools forthwith...<br /><br />... for Michelle Rhee's kids at the expensive Harpeth Hall in Nashville<br /><br />... for the Obama's kids at Sidwell Friends in D.C.<br /><br />... for the Chicago Lab Schools, where the Obama's send their kids, pre-presidency, and where reformers Rahm Emanuel and... just recently... Arne Duncan send their kids...<br /><br />... or the Heschel School, where Campbell Brown sends her two kids.<br /><br />My brother's first child attended the Lab School (was a classmate of Malia Obama's) and his second child attends it now. I sent him these videos and asked him what he would do if he discovered that this is how they started the day at the Lab School.<br /><br />He said that he would blow a gasket. This would NEVER happen at the Lab School.<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911854468188214107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-77852631308984181152015-11-13T22:21:26.059-05:002015-11-13T22:21:26.059-05:00I worked on the ‘Quality of Work life’ survey from...I worked on the ‘Quality of Work life’ survey from the very beginning. I have the scars to prove my legitimacy. I was an original badass as I was told (because of my disability) to not go into teaching. I ignored the ‘advice’. After 21 successful years in elementary education, imagine my surprise reading my disability was regarded as ‘undesirable’ in a special education textbook. I wrote a rebuttal – and it went into the next edition. And before I had tenure in my new sped job, I had filed successful state and federal complaints. My employer now knows that both state and federal laws exist, for both kids and teachers with disabilities.<br />Back to the QWL survey … when people start committing suicide from unbearable conditions, THAT MEANS - DO SOMETHING!!! I had already gone through some deep retaliation from speaking out against an administrator who was a bully. Oh the *(&^)(! Things like – being ‘written up’ 2 weeks after speaking out (‘write up’ - one more successful complaint J is now evidence that proves teachers are intimidated in special ed), not being put on payroll, being terminated one month after state department of education found employer out of compliance re: ‘write up’ as intimidation, fighting the termination and getting new seniority date so I could be ‘laid off’ (didn’t work – 3 minutes with OAH judge and I won/they lost)… This is just the brief synopsis. Of just part of me.<br />Multiply this times 31,000 people who responded to the QWL survey. Ooooh the narratives are way beyond heartbreaking. Am I painting a dark enough picture of what is going on in education??? We are in the ‘ground zero’ with the survey.<br />Hands down, I am glad AFT worked with us (because I am NEA!). Randi listened to us, and she knows how real our individual stories are. Last June, when I wrote Arne Duncan, asking for time for us to share with USDOE the results of our survey – I never expected to hear back. I don’t have a blog. Haven’t written a book. Do win “pain in the ass for my employer” award, however.<br />At the USDOE, I shared the part on bullying. Shared how teachers with disabilities were harassed and bullied at higher rates than ANY other minority group. Shared the story of a teacher’s suicide. Story of Teacher of the Year Brett Bingham. The federal lawsuit against an urban district whose students and teachers deal with real life trauma.<br />The picture we painted was NOT found ANYWHERE in ‘teachstrong’. Nada. Zip.<br />So, while I genuinely appreciated the opportunity to fine tune my badass skills on this survey, I draw a line in the sand … the picture we painted via that survey was NOT THE ONE Randi spoke of in her essay.<br />Randi, it wasn’t!!!<br />It’s likened to institutional betrayal – where wrongdoings committed within the context of the institution, are ignored, denied …<br />Teachers and students are a ‘Package deal’. They can’t be “fixed” in isolation of one another. So ‘fixing’ us teachers (!!!) ignores the poverty, the poor facilities, the lack of supplies, the low wages, the long hours, the bullying by administrators if you’re a teacher with a disability, LGBT, Black, Hispanic, Asian, female, older; the forced tests that serve no purpose, the long hours, the … Pardon me, but LISTEN TO US… Randi – it doesn’t work to tell NIOSH to study the Quality of Work life, and then ignore it with this ‘alliance’.<br />It doesn’t.<br /> AnnOnyMousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18391900793064965163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-58628700281484809622015-11-13T21:53:26.815-05:002015-11-13T21:53:26.815-05:00Yeah, Randi's going to call them out. The way ...Yeah, Randi's going to call them out. The way Hillary says she called out the banksters in 2007.<br /><br />What I notice is that in the AFT resolution on teacher development and evaluation that her link about career pathways goes to, it talks about how "all stakeholders" have to work together. And who are "all stakeholders"? They're "union leaders, administrators, policymakers, parents and the broader community." Who's missing from this list of stakeholders? Teachers. Union leaders are not the same as teachers.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-17715268405860577212015-11-13T14:03:11.245-05:002015-11-13T14:03:11.245-05:00True, that she did. I cannot control what she say...True, that she did. I cannot control what she says, but I CAN set the record straight about our involvement and that the work we did that had nought to do with TeachStrong.<br /><br />It is my hope we would fashion some sort of response to her to not justify the AFT joining TeachStrong by mentioning our work. Frankly at this point I do not know what will happen with that; I am trying to be honest and aboveboard about how deeply our team feels and how hard we work so there would never be another teacher suicide or mental breakdown.<br /><br />Politics is a sleazy business and honest, hard-working, souls are often used in the process. We are not politicians, just classroom teachers. That does not mean we endorse this or even agree with it.Wilphilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03975511459410512442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-46017091611366446192015-11-13T13:49:47.347-05:002015-11-13T13:49:47.347-05:00Good to hear. And FWIW, I did not mean to suggest ...Good to hear. And FWIW, I did not mean to suggest that you guys had sold, but that Randi was now using the connection to your work to help sell the idea that TeachStrong is really swell and teacher friendly. I'm grateful for the time and effort that the BATs put into the research (and did my small part by filling out a survey), but Weingarten does in the above-linked piece use your work to say, "But hey, look! This came from the BATs, so you know TeachStrong is legit."Peter Greenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-55852798553578105162015-11-13T13:40:26.581-05:002015-11-13T13:40:26.581-05:00Dear Peter Greene,
I am one the Quality of Work ...Dear Peter Greene, <br /><br />I am one the Quality of Work Life Team members in BATs that you mentioned in the article above. The implication that our team has been co-opted by TeachStrong, or whomever they are, is simply not so.<br /><br />Our team was able to conduct the research on teacher Quality of Work Life, with the help of the AFT, but the work is our own and there was quite a lot of it and it continues. We have not given up or given over.<br /><br />We are a group of war-scarred, formerly bullied, and harassed teachers who had had enough. There were friends of ours who had committed suicide and who were suffering depression and burn-out and being harassed into retirement as well as most of the team itself.<br /><br />We took the chance to actually go to Washington and lay those issues on Sec. Duncan's table. In particular, I spoke about racism and systemic removal of teachers of color and I did not pull any punches. I will never forget the expressions on the faces of Duncan's Senior Staff after the presentation was finished.<br /><br />It was an opportunity that few people like me would ever have and I do not regret one moment of it; even if the AFT had to make it possible for me to get there. It was definitely not a schmooze fest, no political alliances were made and our team is still holding these parties feet to the fire.<br /><br />We presented our research, spoke from the belly of the beast as it were, for classroom teachers and what they are enduring under corporate education reform. Nothing more, nothing less.<br /><br />If this research is used to connect our team to TeachStrong, you can rest assured that the Quality of Work Life Team will have none of it and that we are just as astonished by this TeachStrong affiliation as you are.<br /><br />Too many hours have been spent at our own time and expense on behalf of teachers for us to allow our work be co-opted. During that time, we too were laboring in the classroom and our activism made us targets to be sure. It is too close to home for us to let this happen to our work.<br /><br />Thank you.Wilphilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03975511459410512442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-2865381054415564392015-11-13T12:20:50.550-05:002015-11-13T12:20:50.550-05:00Dear Commenters:
What a show! Isn't it amazin...Dear Commenters:<br /><br />What a show! Isn't it amazing? When Lilly or Randi speak, you can't see HER lips moving!<br /><br />Leilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02447044081130341196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-23787648247704743872015-11-13T10:48:48.274-05:002015-11-13T10:48:48.274-05:00Dienne - You are right on target. When Lily Eskels...Dienne - You are right on target. When Lily Eskelsen Garcia orchestrated the early endorsement of Hillary Clinton I said the exact same thing: She and Randi are so desperate for a seat at the table they do anything to be included. <br /><br />If the choice is between dining with Bill and Melinda Gates and Teach for America or going hungry , NEA and AFT should excuse themselves and go search elsewhere for a table where healthier fare is being served.Church on Mainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17853330048151135748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-14719640425535894632015-11-13T08:03:14.652-05:002015-11-13T08:03:14.652-05:00^^^ That. So very much THAT. ^^^
I want a Like bu...^^^ That. So very much THAT. ^^^<br /><br />I want a Like button for that.CrunchyMamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14434606158400653601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-46865196409361151022015-11-12T20:30:38.021-05:002015-11-12T20:30:38.021-05:00"...with an eye toward helping her set her ta..."...with an eye toward helping her set her table so that we can have a seat at it."<br /><br />The people who set the table are known as the help. They don't get to sit at the table they set.Diennehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04570040547158789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-90833611883789122142015-11-12T19:20:10.753-05:002015-11-12T19:20:10.753-05:00The tide is certainly turning for teachers in Buff...The tide is certainly turning for teachers in Buffalo, who will soon lose collective bargaining rights thanks to Weingroan's pal Cuomo. But don't worry--they'll still get robust professional development. sulliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18317906247512526498noreply@blogger.com