Teaching longer, for less
When I started teaching we had the latest start around (Labor Day). Everyone else either started at Labor Day, or the week before.
When I started teaching, we had the latest end date around. Still do. June 27 or 28? Contract language says “except for the last two weekdays of June.” (little puzzle, what is the range of possible dates?)
When I started teaching we had by far the shortest workday in the area: 6 hours, 20 minutes.
Today, we have an average start, (Thursday before Labor Day), the latest end, and a 6 hour 50 minute day that is shorter than average, but in the pack.
And, oh yeah, we had the lowest salaries in the area, and we are still close to the bottom. You can find some suburban salaries on this blog, here, and I am trying to add more. (if you have access, send those links in!)
I’m glad we will no longer swap time for money. But we never should have started. I wish there were a way to undo this. There is not. We are past the era of shortening the workday, at least for now. And some in our union think doing away with contractually defined hours would be a good thing. But no. Defined hours allow us to plan our lives outside of work. We need to hold our ground with the hours and days we have, and seek, to the extent possible, to close the pay gap.
Recycled Trivia
Originally posted in June, this may have gone unanswered because it is uninteresting rather than a great stumper. All the same, I’ll run it once more…
?
What do Catalan numbers have to do with London Plane trees (official tree of the NYC Parks Department) and the Outerbridge Crossing (connecting Staten Island, NY, to some town in New Jersey)?
?
Singing CIA Agent in NY
This came in my mail. I wish I could attend (for Shrub; I don’t know the magazine), but I am likely out of town.
Friends, please note George Shrub’s (brief) appearance this coming Sunday at the Brecht Forum:
Sunday September 2 New York City – “Milk Shakes & Ice Cream Party III” – benefit for Left Turn Magazine – Brecht Forum – 451 West Street, bet Bank & Bethune – by the West Side Highway between 11th & 12th Sts – jumping off at 7pm; open bar w/ drinks&shakes all night! – performances start at 8 – * Mahina Movement * Spiritchild of Mental Notes * Singing CIA Agent George Shrub – $10 donation, $20 all you can drink & free milkshakes all night long
Satirical songster Dave Lippman puts on sunglasses and is instantly George Shrub, the singing agent from the Committee to Intervene Anywhere (CIA). Here’s his website. Here’s something I posted about him. And here’s 2 photos (as himself, and as Shrub) and some lyrics:
(The Times They Are A-Changin)
Come gather round people wherever you advertise
And admit that the sixties sells Chryslers and fries
And accept it that money don’t talk, it just lies
If your bottom line is worth savin
Then you better start skimmin all the anthems we’ve known
For the stocks, they are exchangin
So, yeah, if you have time, think about it. If memory serves me right, it should be a lot of fun. And I still my weasel may way out of my prior engagement…
Carnival of Education 134 – click the hat
Too late edit, September 6, 2007. Can’t justify keeping anti-union links.
Matthew K Tabor has been trying to explain why it is ok for non-teachers to write about education. But he needs no explanation for this: a truly first-rate Carnival of Education (#134). See, you’re being invited to take a ride. Click on the man’s hat and take a look around.
Tuesday Tuefor Klonsky
I made both Klonsky brother’s blogs today: Fred liked my post on retention, and Mike answered a question about what the ‘positive’ (as opposed to Bloomberg-top-down) small schools advocates are doing. I think that actually puts me in some pretty mixed company, but I’ll still use it to fluff up the resumé.
Teacher retention? Not an issue in NYC
The NY Times wrote With Turnover High, Schools Fight For Teachers. It got blogged by Leo Casey, and Fred Klonsky, and a whole mess of other people.
- I can’t stand the gee whiz NY Times voice when they notice “local” issues.
- Leo just notes the article. Fred mentions NCLB as a reason for turnover.
- The districts discussed are doing massive recruiting. But efforts at retention are much more limited.
- In NYC, there are housing incentives. But they really do more for recruitment, and the retention they promote is short-term.
I think there are, in New York City, two possible approaches to retention:
Bloomberg –
- retention is bad.
- Turnover is good.
- Open Market hiring off the street while excessed teachers don’t have positions.
- Lots of young non-union mindset and anti-union mindset teachers, leaving before they get too comfortable with their rights.
- The contract’s not a problem in schools where it is not enforced.
- Schools with no tenured teachers? Easier to control.
- The word I’m fishing for is “churning.”
- They are intentionally introducing instability into the system.
What would a good union response be, the other approach? We (the UFT) already do some of it.
- Distributing “Know Your Rights” was a big first step. But we need to see retention as a war issue. What do our District Reps and Chapter Leaders, our leaders in the field and trenches, do with this bulletin?
(continues below the fold —>) Read more…
That broom reminded me…
it’s time for some cleaning around here.
As well as “tags” work, I like to be able to find things in one place, look over similar things, and click what I choose. I assume a few of you like that, too. To that end, I have begun restructuring the pages (as opposed to posts) on this site.
If you look to the top of the page, there are a row of tabs that say “Home,” “JD2718 is …” “The New UFT Contract” etc. I have rearranged a bit, so that all the UFT stuff is now on one tab, and there are 2 new top pages:
Both are just collections of posts from this site, but they (are in process of being) organized for your ease of browsing.
Novaya metla…
metet po-novomu. or is it chisto metet? (Новая метла метёт по-новому or …чисто метёт) It’s one of the sayings I remember from Russian. A new broom sweeps in a new way, or a new broom sweeps clean. (My favorite is at the bottom*).
My school has a “new broom.” From the programmer’s point of view (mine), the new sweeping is noticeable. I worked in the Spring and part of the Summer without interference, got support where I needed it, got answers when I asked questions, and if that doesn’t sound special, well, it was. I provided updates, got feedback, but not of the micromanaging variety. By the end of last week, 97% of the students had complete schedules, no classes were oversized, and remaining equalization issues involved few classes. We mailed home tentative student schedules.
When teachers report this Thursday, they will have relatively stable class lists. There will not be odd mixtures of huge and tiny classes. There will be complaints. There always are. But the scale and quality will be different.
And students? No changes for our freshmen, who are new, vulnerable and easily upset. Relatively few for our older students. They never had tentative schedules at home before. In the past we started with balance issues and gaps in programs. And now, we should be resolved in 4 days rather than 3 weeks.
*That other saying in Russian? (unrelated, but really my favorite) Len’ rodilas’ ran’she menya. Лень родилась раньше меня. Laziness was born before me.
Fair Student Funding & 5 Bronx campuses
Let’s see what Fair Student Funding has in store for the schools that inherited the spaces that once were Morris, James Monroe, South Bronx, William Howard Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt high schools.
For analysis, look here. To see other charts, click FSF and Long Island City or FSF and the Rockaways.
| Name | Old $$M | FSF $$M | change $M | % change |
| Bronx HS for Medical Science | 4.15 | 2.71 | -1.445 | -35% |
| Bronx HS of Business | 4.31 | 2.88 | -1.424 | -33% |
| Jonathan Levin HS for Media and Communications | 4.45 | 2.88 | -1.566 | -35% |
| Bronx Expeditionary Learning HS | 1.89 | 2.28 | +0.389 | +21% |
| The Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship for Young Men | 1.74 | 2.01 | +0.269 | +15% |
| Dreamyard Preparatory School | 1.00 | 1.15 | +0.144 | +14% |
(Morris, South Bronx, Monroe, and Roosevelt are below the fold —> ) Read more…
Carneval of Mathametics Fiften and a kwiz
I guess the joke gets old fast, but there are always others to take its place. John, on A Mispelt Bog (watch that spelling) hosts the latest installment (#15) of the Carnival of Mathematics. This week, the tail end of summer, the links are few but the quality is high and the writing is entertaining, informative, engaging. There’s no reason not to work your way through all of them.
And he created a collage that relates to several of the topics. How many of these:
can you match to the correct post? I will write a suitable laudatory post for the first commenter to get all 7 (John himself excluded).
I ban FOIL
We should teach factoring. But we should also make certain that the stuff we teach before factoring supports the method(s) of factoring that we will teach. Today we’ll look at multiplication of terms with like bases, and at polynomial multiplication. The next post will address the first part of how I teach students to factor.
- they multiply the bases
- they multiply the exponents
There is nothing amazing in how I deal with this:
- emphasize ‘spreading out’ the multiplication, eg
. At a certain stage they will just know the rule, but there should be no rush to that stage.
- Every student learns that eight times four is thirty-two, not sixty-four. So forget your rules? Think about this:
(FOIL/NOFOIL below the fold —>) Read more…
Deskfree
For real. And maybe it will stay that way.
(I owe a link to a photo).
What used to be my classroom is now shared by me and another math teacher. I’m junior partner (since I teach less, er fewer classes). Anyway, we had some equipment we wanted to get rid of, and, long story short, the equipment went out, with the desk still attached.
So we have a lot more floor space than before. A low file cabinet. A lectern with storage. Maybe we’ll pick up another low cabinet or two. And I like how open it is. And the extra space. I brought in a little 2½’ x 1½’ table (no drawers, not a desk) to sit at and drop my books on. Freer to move around, to spread out the kids; freer for the kids to move around. I just like it.
We’ll see what the other teacher says when she arrives next Thursday, but odds on we’re teaching deskfree for at least one term.
Carnival Rules
Too late edit, September 6, 2007. Can’t justify keeping anti-union links.
Matthew K Tabor is hosting the next Carnival of Education, and he’s up front about some very reasonable rules. I’m up and down about contributing to the CoE, but next week, I think I will.
Speaking of which, I didn’t contribute to the current carnival, and normally wouldn’t link, but it is a good one. The Red Pencil is the host, and, for me, has links to a bunch of edblogs I haven’t worked through yet. I’ll have to check back when time isn’t so short. Also, look at the statistical bit he added at the end. Nice job.
Teacher Pay – Trenton, NJ
It’s a bit late in the day, but two months ago Ruth commented on this site and provided a link to the pay schedule in Trenton, NJ. They were negotiating for this year, and since the new schedule is not up, they may still be negotiating. Better ask Homeslice about that one.
Don’t need much background here. Trenton is the capital of New Jersey, about halfway between Philly and NYC, and not really part of North Jersey or South Jersey. It’s a small city, less than 100,000 people, and about half Black and a third white. Median family income is $37k, about two-thirds US average.
Notice how small the steps are for the first 8 years…
(The chart is below the fold —>) Read more…
Collecting teacher salaries
Last year I set out to collect teacher pay scales from New York City and surrounding districts. This is what I found:
Help collect more teacher pay scales so everyone can read them. If you have a link, send it in.
New York City – Darien, CT – Danbury, CT – Englewood Cliffs, NJ – Glen Rock, NJ – Las Vegas, NV – Norwalk, CT – Ridgewood, NJ – Sandy, UT – Stamford, CT – Teaneck, NJ – Westport, CT
[Update: Ruth provided the Trenton, NJ link two months ago, but I just now noticed it and put it up.]
That’s what I found, or got sent to me. The focus was on this (greater NY) area, but when correspondents sent in Sandy, Utah and Las Vegas, why not use them?
So here’s the deal. To the extent possible, I will be updating these 2006-07 scales to 2007-08 over the next few weeks. That’s part 1. Part 2 is expanding the number of districts. I will google around, and see pops up. But if you can send me links or actual pay schedules, that would really help. Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana are all good, but Long Island and Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey, they would be fantastic.
A little more Berlin, two stories
1. There were really cool safe sex ads in Berlin, on the streets and in the subway (U-bahn and S-bahn). The tag line was “gib AIDS keine chance” I think, I think, instead of “eine chance” (Give AIDS no chance, instead of Give AIDS a chance). And the illustrations were, well, vegetables. In condoms. One poster had slightly elongated potatoes. Protected. Here’s two others:
There goes this blog’s pure G rating (via Mingle quiz). But the ads were really prominent; they looked effective.
(story 2, also brief, below the fold —>) Read more…
Teaching Factoring – Should we?
There is a point of view that says that factoring is over-emphasized in algebra. I disagree strongly. Proponents of marginalizing or eliminating factoring make two major arguments.
1. Students don’t need factoring in order to do anything else. You know? Real-world wise, I buy it. But real-world wise, I can’t make a good argument for studying past per cents or making change. And I can’t make much of a real-world argument for most of what we teach, in most subject areas. But we expect knowledgeable adults, we expect young adults who can pursue studies in multiple areas, including those that are math-dependent, and we expect young adults who are conversant with a body of knowledge most of us share.
By deemphasizing and marginalizing factoring, we cheat our students.
2. The other argument is slick. Factoring, they put forward, is not necessary. The people who use this line agree that math is necessary, but usually focus on problems requiring numerical solutions: Set up the quadratic, use the formula or read approximate values from a graph. Let’s agree with them, but then ask, is factoring a useless skill? Of course not. Can it be avoided? Up to a point, perhaps, but you need to make a conscious effort to avoid it. Why not teach the skill?
(text continues below the fold —>) Read more…
A few Berlin photos
My stay in Berlin this July was brief and lazy. Some days I didn’t even wander or ride to the center. It was nice to stroll (but careful for bicycles! Every sidewalk had a bike path on it) and the weather in Berlin was nice, just when I was there. We walked, and visited a few museums, and hung out with my friend’s friends. Nice lazy time. There was a canal at the border of Neu Koln and Kreuzberg, with a bike path and willows and cafes that were little more than picnic benches with wonderful pilsener and wheat beer… No photos of that. Try these instead:
The man in the middle is an “Ampelmann” or fat man, telling us it’s ok to cross. (Ignore the fat man, risk a ticket). He was the standard crossing figure in the east, when there was a German Democratic Republic. After the fall of the wall, symbols of the east were quickly erased, including this cute guy. Ostalgie (Ost means east + nostalgia) brought him back, including to a few places where he never directed pedestrians, including this one, between Brandenburg Tor and Tiergarten (the plaza and the lovely park, below, left and right.
(More photos and text, below the fold —>) Read more…
Fair Student Funding – Rockaways
To understand the impact of FSF, we really should look at one school at a time. So that’s what we’re doing. I started with Astoria/Long Island City. And today I am putting all the Rockaway schools into a table.
Click there for more of my thoughts. I don’t know how these numbers will translate into lost and found jobs, but I am guessing that we lose more than we gain, even with the same overall money. And, the effect of churning staff, shunting large numbers of teachers from school to school, will be disruptive to the education process, to the union, and to individual teachers’ lives.
Old funding is the funding under the old formula. FSF funding is the projected funding under Fair Student Funding. If a school went down, the DoE is covering the difference for two years. If a school went up, they get a little more than half the eventual increase this year. The totals and percents make more sense read together.
The chart is below the fold –> Read more…
Puzzle: A little properties challenge
The rules: There are lots of answers. Find one or two interesting ones to share.
Find an operation that is commutative but not associative.
Who gets the credit for this one? I don’t know, I think it’s been around forever. But I use it every year in algebra, cute little challenge.
Before they start, the kiddies have done some work with both properties (and closure. Somehow they get to me with no sense of closure). We look at the four commonest: +,-,*,/, but we’ve also begun to look beyond those when the challenge is posed.
Numbers are commutative and associative under both + and ×, and under neither ÷ nor -. As a result, kids often conflate commutativity and associativity. So we work on making these properties distinct for the kidlets.
The immediate inspiration goes to Rolfe, with finder’s fee to Vlorbik.
Packing list
In response to Nan’s “Rick Steves” comments, I am publishing my packing list. First, Rick’s packing advice. He says one bag, but he says light, and he says mobile. I think my two messenger bags, as long as I can get on the plane with them, do the job better in spirit than one large backpack. Also, Rick warns about not marking yourself as a tourist. I think my bags were far less conspicuous than a monster pack would be, even if I have 2, not 1, bags.
Anyway, you can click Rick’s packing list, (that’s Rick, left, with breakfast and a guide book) or read mine:
Big Trip – 2 bags (on same sheet as my small list for DC. That was 1 bag)
- hat
- 6 socks
- 6 underwear
- 4 shirts: t, polo, button
1 pants- 2 shorts
sandals- swimsuit
(more below the fold –>) Read more…
Save Summer School
This is a bandwagon post (I hope). Following up on yesterday’s post,
A petition to Save Mathematical Summer School has been placed on-line in a dedicated blog. If you wish to add your name to the petition, then please e-mail the following address:
giving your title, full name, affiliation and email address. More information about the school and the current situation, can also be found at that blog. (Either click on the picture for the full address, or check the blog out.)
They tried to shut down math camp (not this one) for ‘education without permission‘ ! Don’t you want to speak up?
Fair Student Funding – 111xx
To understand the impact of FSF, we really should look at one school at a time. So that’s what we’ll do. I’ve chosen Astoria/Long Island City to start with as neither extremely poor nor extremely affluent, with something of a mix of types of schools.
How to read this stuff? If a school loses $60k, that could be a teacher. But schools will try to cut other things first. The bigger the overall budget, the easier it will be to absorb some cuts without excessing teachers. Don’t assume that a $300k cut in a budget of $3 million means five lost positions. But it would be harder to cut $120k from a $1.2 million budget without losing two teaching lines. I think. I am not so sure.
Conversely, things are ugly. A principal picks up $120k additional? There’s nothing that says that any positions have to be created. The principal would have to be stupid to spend it all on office furniture, but don’t think for a moment that that won’t happen in some school.
And then there’s reality. If a school has space problems, then extra money won’t address the problem. I don’t know these neighborhoods, these schools. Does each school that will receive substantially more money have the physical capacity to bring in additional staff? I don’t think that was part of ‘the formula.’
The chart is below the fold –> Read more…
Matematik Köyü
Matematik Köyü – that’s Turkish for Mathematics Village, which is a strange idea indeed, and has caused more furor than anything else in math in the last year or two or hundred…
Math summer school shut for “teaching without permission”???
What? It is a place in Turkey where students come to do extra math, because they want to. No grades, no credits, just math. Kooky, huh? I read about it on Alexandre Borovik’s Mathematics under the Microscope, and followed the links to what looks like the summer lecture schedule.
to oblige a university professor to ask for permission to teach his/her own specialty is against the academic freedom, apart from being insulting.
Who? This project appears to be the brainchild of Ali Nesin, son of famous Turkish author and comedian Aziz Nesin. His father’s work was satirical, and had an anti-clerical edge. After translating The Satanic Verses into Turkish, he may have been the target of a murderous arson in Sivas (central Anatolia) in 1983. Thirty-seven other people were killed.
There’s a petition. I signed it. You can probably sign it too.
(more beneath the fold —>) Read more…
Last night’s Delegate Assembly
[I seem to have written this June 23rd, and not published it. So here it is, almost two months late.]
Last night’s? Sure. Just not the UFT’s.
I belong to two AFT locals: AFT Local 2 (the United Federation of Teachers or UFT) and AFT Local 2334 (CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress or PSC). And last night I attended the PSC DA.
Now, for those of you with some first hand knowledge of the UFT DA, there are similarities, and there are difference. Both meetings are held on Broadway: the UFT at 52 B’way, the PSC at 61, (prime), across the street.
They both have food: the UFT puts out boxes of apples (green and red) oranges, sometimes bananas (yeah potassium!) or pears. The PSC had crudite with dip, fruit plates, cheeses and crackerses (hmm, crackers of different varieties), cookies, and there must have been some main dish as well. I got there late. Both have coffee, and neither one has very good coffee.
(more, and a comparison chart, below the fold —->) Read more…
JD2718 