Does signing a card make you a UFT member?
Yes.
But not completely.
Most new teachers used to sign a card, give it to the Chapter Leader, and then think of the union as something apart from themselves. “What will the union do about X?” is a question we hear a lot of.
Today the UFT, acknowledging implicitly that we have problems with chapter organization, allows new teachers to sign up on line. It’s not a good thing not to meet your Chapter Leader.
The DoE runs a nasty campaign, trying to trick new teachers into thinking they don’t have to sign up at all. There’s likely hundreds of newer teachers who are not UFT members as a result.
But the biggest problem is that there are schools with no functioning chapter. What difference does signing a card make when you are joining something that only exists, for you, in Lower Manhattan? (answer: the right to vote in certain elections, many of which will not occur if your chapter is not functioning, and benefits through the Health and Welfare Fund, which are important. Certainly you should still join. Absolutely you should.)
Not every UFT member is going to be an activist. But even in schools with chapters, too many don’t hold chapter meetings, and in schools that do hold chapter meetings, too many teachers do not attend. There should be an obligation that comes with membership. Not just dues, but some minimal participation in the life of one’s chapter. Like coming to meetings once a month or every other month. Like participating in elections.
[Reworded, per comment, below: We need to build our chapters, to get regular functioning. And once we have that, there should be an expectation, not necessarily of activism, but something beyond dues: maybe coming to chapter meetings a few times each year, and voting in elections]
Signing a card should be a beginning, not the end of union involvement. And making it available on-line makes it too easy to bypass the chapter, or to ignore that the chapter does not exist.
Bad Math B Questions (2)
The June 2008 Math B exam is available as a PDF from JMAP.
I already posted three bad problems. (edit: There is ongoing math teacher discussion of individual questions at a Math A/B listserve run by the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State). Here are three more problems that bother me:
#25 (2 point, free response)
The accompanying diagram shows the peak of a roof that is in the shape of an isosceles triangle. A base angle of the triangle is 50° and each side of the roof is 20.4 feet. Determine to the nearest tenth of a square foot the area of this triangular region.
Consult the diagram in the link above. An isosceles triangle is drawn, sides are marked 20.4 and 20.4, and one base angle is marked 50 degrees.
Their intent was for kids to find the missing angles (50, 50, 80) and apply the formula (given in the text booklet): Area = (½)(ab)sinC where C=80 and a=b=20.4
But kids dropped altitudes, working slightly longer around, and ended up with a minor rounding error. New York says: 1 point. They did more work, good work, and only get 1 out of 2 points?
The question design is poor. It could have been anticipated that there were two, equally reasonable, but not equally easy, points of attack. It wasn’t. No way a two point question.
(more beneath the fold) Read more…
Which side are you on? (5)
Some student reactions to Math B (6/08)
In my school, fewer students than usual left early (almost none before 2 and a half hours had passed). More than usual worked up to the 3 hour mark.
Meanwhile, at Yahoo Answers, I found this student discussion of the difficulty level.
I also found this conversation about the language on the dilation question.
Bad Math B questions (1)
The June 2008 Math B exam is fairly typical – and that includes too many problematic questions.
Format: the exam is made up of 20 2-point multiple choice questions, 6 2-point free response questions, 6 4-point free response questions, and 2 6-point free response questions (yes, 88 points, scaled so that 46 this year is passing)
I chose several questions I think are bad: one multiple choice, 2 2-point free response, 3 4-point free response, and both 6-point free response.
#18 (multiple choice) A sprinkler system is set up to water the sector shown in the accompanying diagram, with angle ABC measuring 1 radian and radius AB = 20 feet. What is the length of arc AC, in feet?
Diagram (omitted) is normal. Whole question is normal. Except lawn care companies don’t measure angles in radians. And math-y folks measure angles in multiples of π radians. Look folks, artificial, contrived context is confusing and weighs problems down. Don’t do it.
(more below the fold) Read more…
NYS Regents – Math B, 2008
This is a transition year for math Regents in New York State. Math A had its last June administration. Integrated Algebra was given for the first time. But our worst exam, Math B, has two more years to go.
This year’s Math B was fairly typical. The Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State runs a listserve, and you can find discussion of the exam there. Old Math B exams (not the current one yet), are posted by New York State here.
Math B covers a wide variety of topics that might normally fall into a geometry, algebra II, trig, or precalculus course. There are circles, law of cosines, transformations, logs, compound interest, composition, summations, imaginary numbers, regression… And fractions, coordinate geometry, quadratics…
Math B places these topics into bizarre context, in order to claim “application of math” or “real world math.” A sprinkler covering an angle of one radian? Children keeping score with complex numbers?
In other words, hello grab bag. Mile wide, inch deep. Unpredictable. So, you can concentrate on the exam, and teach over one hundred topics, fairly superficially. Or you can take your chances.
In my school, we teach Algebra, Geometry, Trig, and deal with the misfit. We add units to the end of the trig course to cover the missing material. Many other schools use curricula specially devised to strip depth from all topics and to cover exactly the right group of topics over two years.
The irony is, publishers have taken old Algebra, Geometry, and Trig books, made new covers with titles Math A, Math A/B and Math B, and sold them just fine in New York State. With minimal changes – usually a bit of front material. Blecch.
Which side are you on? (4)
Organizing Teaching Fellows as teachers
Organizing teachers? Doesn’t sound so far-fetched. After all, we (the United Federation of Teachers, its Districts, Chapters, and members) are a union.
Reach out to new teachers. Involve them immediately in the life of their chapter. Make certain the chapter is well aware of the problems new teachers face. Provide them with both support and encouragement. Protect them as best as possible from administrators.
There are two goals that work in tandem:
- recruiting new teachers (including Fellows) to become pro-union (not just members), and
- providing new teachers with support to make it more likely they continue teaching for more than a few years.
These do go together. New teachers who are looking at teaching for 10 or 20 years will be more concerned with rights, pay, conditions… And teachers who take an interest in rights, conditions, etc are more likely to stick around.
This is the part of the response to AW who’s been anxious for answers in the comments to a previous post.
Notice, this is not about changing NYC Department of Education behavior; it is all about what the union and its members do. We expect, or we should expect, that the employer plays divide and conquer. That they try to make some Fellows into pets and de facto assistant administrators, and use them against more experienced teachers. That they play favorites. That they crucify some Fellows, expecting the rest of us to look away. This is how they operate. We should expect nothing less.
But we don’t systematically organize teachers today. We represent them. We do organize them to engage in political action. But we don’t regularly address chapter building (if you’ve been to a Delegate Assembly, you know it’s one topic that never comes up). Some chapters really do do a great job. Many more just get the cards signed, and far too many do nothing at all.
Next up: organizing vs signing a card
More: what issues to address, what new issues to address
More: organizing and Central, the Borough Offices, the Districts, and the Schools
More: Reaching Fellows
Which side are you on? (3)
Integrated Algebra – some scoring issues
This is a comment on the June 2008 New York State Integrated Algebra Regents Exam.
(I have stolen some of the best comments from other teachers)
(You’ll need a copy of the exam to follow along)
#31 – There are issues with kids not knowing the non-mathematical part. Evidence? An upstate district where the kids with snowmobiles could answer the mileage question, but the kids without could not. Ask for “lower” rather than “better” mileage, and most of that problem goes away.
#32 – just my problem. Why did so few of my kids leave their answers in terms of π? Why, if half the side of a square is 3, did they find an area of 81?
#34 – State says they lose two (of 3) points if they do not write 10 + 2d ≤ 75. But if they write 10 + 2d < 75, and equality is impossible? State says no. And if they wrote 10 + 2d = 75, solved, rounded to 33? Lose 2 of 3. I don’t agree.
#35 – State asked for the answer rounded to the nearest one hundredth of a percent (16.67%), but then why did they allow 
#36 – teachers are debating whether only -1 and 3 can be accepted, or if (0,-1) and (0,3) are okay (read them off the graph of a parabola). I don’t understand the need to penalize.
#37 – kids found perimeter instead of area, but, for example, on Long Island, bricks are placed around the edge of the driveway, not necessarily throughout. Word it better next time, folks.
#38 – OK, is the error significant or not? Answer, we don’t know enough context.
#39 – Find the mean, the median, and state which one is better. All Tuesday the State said if had to be the median. But today, just after we packed up, the State announced that the mean was okay, providing there was a strong justification. When we unpack the exams, we may be returning two of the four points here…
Integrated Algebra Regents, a little on procedure
It seems that a few people are interested in yesterday’s Integrated Algebra Regents. For those of you not from New York State, you might like to skip this post.
I will post a link to the exam and the answer key and the conversion chart when they go on line.
The conversion chart will be available the 25th (they said before) or the 26th (they say now) or the 27th (according to people who don’t trust the state)
The exams were done by noon Tuesday. They were graded Tuesday afternoon (but there were no answer materials in the boxes. The State put them on-line a bit after noon) and this (Wednesday) morning, and were sent to the vendor by UPS, today. The schools were supposed to call for UPS, but in many cases UPS showed up unannounced and early and demanded the tests immediately. The vendor was going to send the exams to Iowa, but, you know, FLOODS, they sent them to Texas instead.
The vendor is going to post-equate the exams (I think) and a committee will propose a scale, another will review the scale, and the State will release the scale. All in the next few days. And then the answer sheets will come back to your schools (I think), and the schools will convert the grades, and you know what? Might be too late to get them on this term’s report cards? Check the transcript in September…
Links:
- What I wrote yesterday
- Official NY State procedures
- What I’m writing next (score issues on some questions) (link tb added)
- Assoc of Math Teachers of NY State
- Math Teacher Listserve (exam discussions)
Which side are you on? (2)
NY State – Integrated Algebra
I will have a lot to say about this exam, but most will need to wait until after the Conversion Charts are published. I signed a confidentiality agreement…
Until then, you might like to follow the discussion on the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State (AMTNYS) listserve, here. Teachers and administrators from across the state are asking questions about wording and scoring, discussing problematic questions, asking advice and making suggestions, appealing rulings to NY State Education Department. and venting a little.
Which side are you on? (1)
Using Fellows for what they weren’t intended
So, the NYC Department of Education hires lots and lots of Teaching Fellows to support the nasty organization and ideas behind The Teaching Fellows, to use these (generally younger) teachers as temp workers, to sow disunity in the teaching force, to weaken the union, to play divide and conquer.
So, what should we (UFT, chapters, teachers) do about this?
Subvert it.
Get them to keep teaching past their commitment. Turn Fellows, as many as we can, pro-union. Get them involved. Help them teach. Help them survive the system. Help them stay.
How to do this is a big question (more posts coming). What issues? How do we address Fellows? How do we reach them? What will they listen to?
But here’s 3 things we shouldn’t do:
Don’t hate/shun/ignore Fellows, or hope they go away. That feeds disunity, hurts us all.
Don’t celebrate their newness like it was something fresh and wonderful. New teachers, generally, start out pretty bad. Lie to them, and eventually they will figure it out. And at the same time, such celebration rightfully pisses off good, experienced teachers who think they are being slighted.
Do defend their rights. But don’t do it with the expectation that this is a 2-year non-investment in a temp worker. If we do the minimum, everyone pretty much figures out that that’s what we are doing.
More posts. Ready to start getting specific.
Little Birdie
Teaching Fellows are new teachers
…with a few differences or twists.
They can be ‘fired’ by The Teaching Fellows (not really, but if TTF drops a Fellow, that Fellow loses certification).
They are more likely to come from the {out of state, white, young, degree from a better college, already looking for another career} demographic.
They are more likely to lack pro-union sentiment, and more likely to harbor anti-union animus than other teachers (except TFA).
And aside from this, new teachers. With all the problems that new teachers have, all the misconceptions. They make as many mistakes, maybe offend a few more people, have as much trouble adjusting, etc, etc. They become administrators pets; they become administrators targets. They do not know how to protect themselves. Do they stay as long as non-TF recruits? It’s probably close.
And this is my starting point. Because, right after “Math is Fun” the next theme of this blog is “We [teachers and our union] need to do a hell of a lot of adjustment in how we work with new teachers”
(Here’s a few posts about or directed towards new teachers:
- No more lesson plans
- Looking to transfer schools in NYC?
- UFT: Know your rights
- Failure to retain
- What does “pensionable” mean?
- In June Teachers Quit
- New Teacher Handbooks now available
- Goodbye too soon
- TFA
There’s a bunch more, mostly focused on retaining teachers)
Most of the above holds in relation to all new teachers, including Fellows. But there’s more we can do. (Next post: Summary for new teachers. Following post: specific ways to target Fellows)
Am I a Fellow?
No, but…
As I have been writing about recruitment and Teaching Fellows over the last few days
- Teaching Fellows or the Teaching Fellows?
- Some Teaching Fellows I know
- What to do about Teaching Fellows?
- Recruiting Teaching Fellows
- What Kind of Recruitment for NYC Public School Teachers?
I have been thinking about my own start teaching.
I came to teaching before the Fellows existed, but looking not all that different from today’s Fellows. I was young (looked young?), white, smug, know-it-all, from out of town.
On the other hand, I did not possess a fancy degree (not very impressive public college), I wasn’t really that young. I grew up around union organizing, I’d met old-timers and heard stories, first hand, about how hard people fought for their rights, fought for unity. I may not have seen teaching as my ultimate career, but I was giving it a chance (no other immediate options). My uncle, 30+ year teaching veteran, 3-term chapter leader in Brooklyn (not Unity, not New Action), urged me to give it a try.
I may have been too quick to dismiss some other teachers, but on the other hand I gained a support network of informal mentors, senior teachers, who kept me out of trouble, taught me some vital management skills, and taught me to make a good worksheet.
There were 8 people hired in my department in 1997. Me. Four out of teaching within a few terms (change of career, change of career, couldn’t pass LAST, quit before being U’ed). One administrator. One teaching in the suburbs. And one passed away.
How was I different? Pro-union. Informal mentoring from senior teachers. Wasn’t thinking about my next career.
How much of that can we get to the current Fellows?
More in the next post.
25 (caught up with reader, dropping the numbers)
Teacher-blogger get-together, Bronx
This Friday, June 13.
3:30 until…?
Rambling House, Katonah Avenue @ 236 St, the Bronx.
Might be just a few of us, but you know you could use it… Food (good stuff), drink, it’s Friday…
Teacher-bloggers, other teachers, curious readers, welcome.
(public transport: 4 to Woodlawn, then Bx34 bus north to 236 St, or Metro North to Woodlawn, walk up 233 to Katonah Avenue, turn right to 236 St.)
Teaching Fellows or the Teaching Fellows?
There’s a difference, of course. (Previous, related posts 1, 2, 3)
From the comments on a recent post:
I’d differentiate a stance towards the policy … from a stance towards the fellows themselves. Once they’re in the building, they’re colleagues and team members.
I’m a teaching fellow, but I see where you’re coming from…
The problem is not the teaching fellows–it is the way the administration treats some like gods.
The Teaching Fellows
The Teaching Fellows is a privately-run program that recruits new teachers in New York. It trades a reduced-cost masters degree for a short commitment to teach in the city. By intentionally recruiting candidates who are whiter and better educated than typical NYC teachers, usually with career aspirations outside teaching, less likely to have ties to New York City, The Teaching Fellows promotes 1) divisions between teachers and 2) rapid turnover.
The Teaching Fellows is an opponent, an obstacle to improving public education in NYC, and an agent of destructive change.
Teaching Fellows
Teaching Fellows are the people The Teaching Fellows recruits. They tend to be young, white, often with career aspirations outside of teaching, and not necessarily with much of a connection to New York. But they are teachers.
Teaching Fellows often are smug. Know-it-alls. AP’s pets. They are also pushed around by administrators. Don’t know their rights. Feel it is beneath them to exercise their rights.
Teaching Fellows are more likely than other teachers to harbor anti-union animus. But Teaching Fellows are also ATRs. Teaching Fellows get U’ed. Fellows get abused by administrators, and are afraid to complain. Fellows sometimes get to termination hearings, but more resign before it gets to that point.
The Fellows vs Fellows
Teaching Fellows also get abused by The Teaching Fellows. The program is badly run, makes arbitrary and capricious decisions, fails to provide complete or timely information. The program sets up impossible requirements and schedules. And, Teaching Fellows certification is contingent on remaining part of an alternate certification program (The Teaching Fellows), so they are uniquely vulnerable both to the mood of their Principal, but also to the arbitrary discipline of the program. If The Teaching Fellows drops a Teaching Fellow, that fellow loses certification.
And…?
Treating Fellows like any other new teachers, and not like pariahs is a beginning. But that’s not enough. More posts coming.
jd2718, who knows there are only two sides, and whoever’s not on one, is on the other.
Some Teaching Fellows I know
I’ve been writing about Fellows, and I will continue tomorrow. For now, this is a reprise of a post from last June: Math Camp. It adds some personal context to
- What Kind of Recruitment for NYC Public School Teachers?,
- Recruiting Teaching Fellows,
- and What to do about Teaching Fellows?
In the intervening year one Math Camper (my sorely missed colleague) moved to a system out of state, but is still teaching math. Two more are considering moving elsewhere in New York (one as a teacher, one as a teacher or an admin). Another is moving to a neighboring state, and is thinking about leaving teaching (but staying in education). Still, wrapping up Year 5, getting ready for Year 6, that’s 18 teaching math, at least 13 (maybe more) in New York City out of a group of 25.
Last year’s post:
You won’t catch me saying bad things about all Teaching Fellows. Yup, in many cases they don’t last in the system very long. Many come in with anti-union animus. Some of them treat their older colleagues with insufficient (no?) respect, or can be know-it-all-ish when they know very little.
25 started in 2003. 19 coming back for their fifth year; most in the Bronx
But there’s also Math Camp.
I met the 25 math campers four years ago, just before they started teaching. And yesterday I went to their fourth annual picnic, a few blocks from West Farms.
I don’t know that they did to make things work. They were young college grads, but also change of career-ers. And a few retirees from one career looking for a brand new one. More women than men, mostly white, but not 100% anything. Certainly not all from the same class, background, region or social group. But in that first summer of math camp, back in 2003, they must have bonded in some strange way.
(more, and stats, below the fold —>) Read more…
What to do about Teaching Fellows?
There are stereotypes about Teaching Fellows (see previous post):
- young
- white
- smug
- brimming with self-confidence; but not knowing how to teach
- dismissive of other teachers; disrespectful
- degrees from fancy colleges
- from the suburbs; or from other parts of the country
- clueless
- suck-ups to APs and Principals
- know-it-alls
- easy targets of nasty APs and Principals
There’s enough truth to each of these that none should be dismissed lightly.
How should we (teachers, teachers union) react to these teachers? I see a variety of options, all of which have been tried to one extent or another. None is perfect. But some are harmful.
(A few responses, below the fold) Read more…
Recruiting Teaching Fellows
Recruiting Teaching Fellows? Not into the program. The Teaching Fellows and the NYC Dept of Ed already have that down. Whiten the teaching force. Make it younger. Make it turn over faster. (Contrast here)
They recruit kids with degrees from good schools. They recruit visitors to New York. They recruit future doctors and lawyers and kids who just don’t know what they will do, but it’ll be something corporate, but who need a few years before they go back to school, or a program that let’s them stay in New York for a couple of years, some resume building, or maybe just the equivalent of some Peace Corps experience, without the vaccines.
Far too many (not all) come in thinking they will cure the system. It’s what the New Teacher Project teaches them. They look at us (teachers) as broken parts.
Far too many (not all) come in with anti-union animus. Some will have careers in management. Others resent collective action, chafing against their self-confidence. They come in willing to work hard (for 2, 3 years, not a career) and look down at teachers who protect their own rights. The union is, for many of them, another part of the broken system, and a part that does harm.
The DoE gets a more compliant workforce and overall lower salaries. The New Teachers Project reaps a $$ bonanza with their planned obsolescence, and an ideological bonanza with their pool of confirmed anti-union former-teachers.
But what is the response of the rest of the teachers, and of our union?
Some options, in the next post.
AFT acknowledges Clinton’s defeat
I got this just now from the UFT Communications Department (under Randi Weingarten’s signature). It’s awfully late. And what’s with “The AFT now will engage in a process to prepare to make an endorsement for this fall’s general election.”???
AFT President Edward J. McElroy’s statement on the Democratic primary:
Congratulations to Sen. Barack Obama on becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. He ran an effective, well-organized campaign to win a competitive primary race that included several excellent candidates. We look forward to meeting with him as soon as possible.
We also congratulate Sen. Hillary Clinton for her strong performance in the Democratic primaries. The AFT is proud to have supported her through our considerable member education and political mobilization program, and a grass-roots campaign that engaged members across the country. Our members’ votes and activism were crucial in many primary contests. Also, because of the extended primary season, we reached out to members in states that have rarely been in play in the presidential primaries. We will mobilize these members again in the fall, which means we will work even more effectively, and in more states, than in any previous election.
The AFT’s endorsement in the primaries came only after a deliberative process that included face-to-face meetings with candidates, conversations with members about the issues that matter most to them, and direct questions to members about which candidate they believed would best address their issues. The AFT now will engage in a process to prepare to make an endorsement for this fall’s general election.
The goal of the AFT in November, as in every election, is simple: to elect a candidate who will be a strong advocate for our members, their families and the communities where our members live and serve.
Shanker and Clinton
Last night I went to the Albert Shanker Scholarship awards at UFT headquarters downtown. Second time in two years. The United Federation of Teachers gives out a large number of $5000 college scholarships to kids from across the city.
Kids, parents, counselors, chapter leaders (!), and principals get fed. The guy who runs the fund, Jeffrey Huart, opens up. Randi Weingarten speaks. There is a guest speaker (this year, Lori Stokes from ABC), interludes from a couple of bands (the Latin jazz band (?) really caught the audience).
And then 200 winners come up, one at a time, announce name, high school, and college, and Randi and Jeffrey shake their hands. The kids get some sort of bag (gift? certificate?) on the way back to their seats.
Lots of SUNYs, some CUNYs. Lots of St. Johns and Fordham. A number of liberal arts colleges across the northeast. And a handful of ivies. Lots of good kids, proud, making parents smile. Long. Hours long. But pleasant.
So Randi’s not there when the time comes to shake hands. Where is she? They announce she’s with Senator Clinton. Wow, I wonder, is it the concession speech? Nope. No concession speech yesterday.
(continues below the fold –>) Read more…
JD2718 